Cameroon’s military says it has killed scores of armed separatists in clashes this month and at least 15 have surrendered. The rebels, who vowed to disrupt March senate elections in Cameroon’s western regions, claim to have killed scores of government troops.

Ndop district residents in Cameroon’s restive Northwest region say seven bodies were found in bushes Tuesday morning, following heavy fighting between separatist rebels and government troops.

Ndop businessman Anyam Edison Penn said the clashes halted trade in Ngoketunjia, where Ndop is located. He spoke to VOA from Ndop via a messaging app.

“For the past weeks fighting in Ngoketunjia has been very very intensive between the separatists and the defense forces, and this has been affecting so many lives, so many persons killed and it has been a burden on our side,” Penn said. “Thousands of people were like they were in a cage. I pray and hope that the crisis will be resolved so that we, the civilians, should not be suffering like this.”

Cameroon’s Anglophone separatists have vowed to disrupt the March 12 elections for Senate and last month killed two election officials.

Cameroon’s government said at least 15 rebel fighters were killed in ongoing clashes this month around Ndop while the military said it killed at least 30 rebels in other northwestern towns.

Cameroon’s highest-ranking official in the area, Handerson Quetong Kongeh, said military raids Monday night targeted at least five separatist camps.

Capo Daniel is a spokesman and self-proclaimed deputy defense chief for one rebel group, the Ambazonia Defense Forces. He said separatists and government troops sustained casualties in this month’s clashes.

“We have killed over 38 Cameroon military men since Paul Biya announced the election,” Daniel said. “We have authorized our forces to carry out attacks on critical infrastructure. Our recruitments are high, our spirits are high, and we will continue to attack the Cameroon military. We have called for appropriate punishment for those who violate this ban against the election.”

Cameroon’s military acknowledged it took casualties in the fighting but would not give any figures and has not responded to requests for comment.

Despite the threats and ongoing clashes, Cameroon officials say election preparations will continue.

The military said about 15 rebels surrendered and were handed to Cameroon’s centers for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR).

DDR country director Francis Fai Yengo said one of the rebels who surrendered was a self-proclaimed general.

Yengo spoke Monday to state broadcaster Cameroon Radio Television.

“We continue to call on those misguided youths that are still in the bush, that are still reluctant to come out to forget about the past and seize the opportunity President Paul Biya has offered to come out of the bushes and make sure that this adventure which they undertook never repeats itself again in our country,” he said.

Yengo said the DDR centers offer social and jobs skills training to help former rebel fighters reintegrate.

The separatist conflict broke out in 2016 when Anglophone Cameroonians protested discrimination by the Francophone majority.

Cameroon’s military responded with a crackdown and rebels took up arms with the aim of carving out an independent state they call Ambazonia.

The U.N. says fighting has since killed at least 3,500 people and displaced 750,000.

Canada, which is attempting to negotiate an end to the conflict, says more than 6,000 people have been killed and the unrest has deprived 600,000 children of education.
…

Decades of violence and humanitarian crises have left many Somali people traumatized, according to a health study by the U.N. and Somali organizations. Harun Maruf reported from Washington and Abdulkadir Zubeyr in Mogadishu spoke to mental health doctors and patients in the country. They have this report narrated by Salem Solomon. Camera: Abdulkadir Zubeyr. Video editor Betty Ayoub.
…

South Africa is under fire for hosting joint naval exercises with Russia during the one-year anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, with critics saying it will be a propaganda victory for Moscow. But what does the third participant in the drills, China, have to gain from the tripartite exercises taking place this week?

Some analysts told VOA that, in China’s case, Exercise Mosi II, off South Africa’s east coast, is less about a real exchange of military prowess and more about important political and diplomatic optics.

“China has a lot to gain from these exercises,” said Paul Nantulya, from the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington. “It is sending a very powerful signal to other African countries that in-person military training is now back on the table. … China and [its] People’s Liberation Army are basically back” after years of closed borders during the pandemic.

He said the drills were also sending a message to China’s competitors, namely the U.S., that Beijing has military clout in the region. The South Africa war games are taking place at almost the same time as the U.S. Army’s Exercise Justified Accord in Kenya and just after U.S.-led maritime exercises off the Gulf of Guinea.

They also take place amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing in the wake of the U.S. shooting down an alleged Chinese spy balloon and after Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that China is considering supplying Russia with weapons for its war against Ukraine.

Priyal Singh, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria, had a similar assessment.

“This assists Beijing in illustrating to the West [and the world in general] that it has a foothold in the South Indian Ocean through its strong relations with South Africa. I believe this may be important to China, given the geopolitical contestations being played out across the Indian Ocean region,” Singh said in an email to VOA.

“I believe that the decision to proceed with these exercises was primarily driven by political considerations. Navies play important diplomatic and symbolic roles,” Singh’s ISS colleague Denys Reva added.

Darren Olivier, director at the African Defense Review, pointed out this week’s naval exercises off South Africa are limited in nature and “focused mostly on basic maneuvers and light gunnery.”

“It’s important to note that South Africa has a NATO-oriented operational and tactical doctrine that’s dissimilar to that of Russia and China, which inherently limits what can be done jointly, and unsurprisingly as a result, the exercise as described will not feature in-depth exploration or testing of any serious combat capabilities or procedures,” he said.

Asked by VOA what China seeks to gain from the exercises, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in the U.S. said “the joint maritime exercise held by the navies of the three countries in the southern waters of Africa is of great significance.”

“It will help deepen the exchanges and cooperation among the navies, improve their ability to jointly respond to maritime security threats, demonstrate their determination to maintain regional maritime peace and stability and their good will and strong capabilities to actively promote the building of an ocean community with a shared future.”

China, Russia and South Africa are all members of the BRICS grouping of emerging economies, which also includes India and Brazil.

Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute at SOAS University of London, said that for the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) to join their Russian counterparts “in an exercise far away from China is highly beneficial,” as the Russian navy is more modernized.

Asked whether such exercises could act as preparation for an invasion of Taiwan, Tsang said they were too different, but added that “enhancing the capacity of the PLAN to operate long-distance will be beneficial in general terms to enhancing its capacity in a Taiwan Strait crisis in the future.”

The PLAN “need to train for long-distance deployments, particularly off Africa, where China is building up its interest,” he said. China has invested heavily in the continent through President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Infrastructure Initiative and is Africa’s biggest trade partner.

But there are more than economic reasons for China to join the exercises, according to Nantulya. They include having the ability to protect the many Chinese nationals working in Africa — the Chinese have been engaged in anti-piracy operations off Africa’s East coast for years — and maintain stability in countries that host Chinese peacekeepers or strategic investments.

Also, Nantulya said, it’s possible Beijing — which has only one military base in Africa, in Djibouti — is looking to establish additional bases on the continent in the next decade.

The U.S. has raised concerns about a possible Chinese base in Equatorial Guinea on the Atlantic coast.

“In terms of Russia, I think it’s quite obvious that what China has been doing is trying to provide Russia some form of platform to be able to continue conducting international relations despite the fact that it’s been heavily sanctioned,” Nantulya said. The war games that have been heavily criticized for taking place amid Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. State Department has told VOA by email, “We note with concern South Africa’s plan to hold joint naval exercises with Russia and the PRC. … We encourage South Africa to cooperate militarily with fellow democracies that share our mutual commitment to human rights and the rule of law.”

According to Chinese state media, China has sent a destroyer, a frigate and a defense ship to the exercises in South Africa, which run until February 27.
…

A new report in South Africa says basic literacy among young children has dropped since the start of COVID-19 pandemic. Despite government vows to improve reading, the report says more than 30%of South African children entering second grade do not know the alphabet, and the majority of fourth grade students struggle with basic reading comprehension. Some private schools are working hard to reverse the trend, as Jan Bornman reports from Johannesburg. Camera: Zaheer Cassim.
…

Botswana revealed on Monday that it suffered a huge spike in rhino poaching during five years through 2022, translating to about a third of its population of the endangered species. 

In all, 138 rhinos were slaughtered from 2018 to last year, Tourism minister Philda Kereng told parliament. 

This compares to two rhinos poached in the preceding five years from 2012 to 2017, according to official figures. 

Statistics that Kereng presented to parliament showed killings suddenly rose to seven in 2018, before spiking to 30 the following year. In 2020 the killings rose sharply again to 62, then halved to 33 in 2021 before dropping to six last year. 

She attributed the jump in killings to “increased demand for rhino horn in the international market, hence, poachers,” also “a displacement of international criminal syndicates from other southern African states.” 

Neighboring South Africa, the traditional rhino poaching hotspot, has in recent years seen a steady decline in numbers of animals killed due to increased patrols in national parks that have forced hunters seeking horns to look elsewhere. 

Poaching of rhinos is driven by demand from Asia, where horns are used in traditional medicine for their supposed therapeutic effect. 

Botswana does not publicly disclose its rhino population, but a document the government presented before the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Panama last year showed there were an estimated 285 white rhinos and 23 black rhinos across the country. 

In 2019, the country was home to just under 400 rhinos, according to Rhino Conservation Botswana, most of them roaming the grassy plains of the northern Okavango Delta. 

According to another government document, Botswana had in recent years started dehorning rhinos to reduce their appeal to poachers, but this has not had the desired effect, as the stump of horn left would still be valuable for the poachers. 

Rangers, law enforcement agencies and nongovernmental organizations have stepped up aerial and ground patrols to protect the rhinos. 
…

The death toll from a jihadi attack on a Burkina Faso army unit in the north of the country last week has risen to 51, military officials said Monday, after 43 new bodies were found.

The military unit was ambushed in the Sahel region’s Oudalan province, between the towns of Deou and Oursi, the Burkinabe military said Monday. Reinforcements have been sent to the area and an unspecified number of wounded have been taken to hospital.

The West African nation has been wracked for seven years by violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, which has killed thousands, displaced nearly 2 million people and caused a humanitarian crisis.

Successive governments’ failure to effectively address the problem led to two coups last year, with each military leader vowing to stem attacks and secure the country, albeit with little success.

Last week’s attack came while some 400 French special forces soldiers were leaving Burkina Faso, one month after the junta government ordered them out — following in the path of neighboring Mali, which is also ruled by a military dictatorship.

While the number of French troops in Burkina Faso was far smaller than in Mali, their departure adds to growing concerns that Islamic extremists are capitalizing on the political disarray and using it to expand their reach.

Analysts have questioned whether the countries’ militaries are capable of filling the void.

“The struggle for state forces to avoid deadly attacks, especially such an ambush against convoys, is a major concern since it comes at a time where the state is trying to assert its presence and chase jihadists out from areas they control,” said Rida Lyammouri, senior fellow at the Policy Center for the New South, a Moroccan-based think tank.

“If convoys are repeatedly targeted, recovering territories and providing protection for civilians is going to take a very long time and going to be deadly,” Lyammouri added.
…

The U.N. in Malawi has launched an urgent appeal for aid to deal with the impact of a record cholera outbreak that has so far killed nearly 1,450 people and infected 45,000.  

Local health experts say if urgent action isn’t taken to scale up the response, the number of cases could double in the next few months.

The U.N. says the flash appeal seeks to raise $45.3 million to provide life-saving aid to thousands of people in Malawi devastated by the outbreak.

In a statement released Monday, the U.N. said the appeal aims to assist four million people in Malawi, including 56,000 refugees and asylum seekers who are at the highest risk in the outbreak.

The current outbreak started in March last year and has spread to all 29 districts of Malawi.

Rebecca Adda-Dontoh, the U.N. resident coordinator in Malawi, told reporters Monday that more assistance is needed to stop the outbreak.

“So much work has been done but a lot more needs to be done,” she said. “We have focused on health, we have focused on WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene). The two are very important but there are also other sectors like nutrition, protection and even logistics because we need to be able to move supplies from one point to the other.”

Adda-Dontoh said the needed assistance would complement what various donor partners have already contributed.

“The U.N. itself has mobilized already close to $10 million,” she said. “You heard the EU; you heard the U.K. here saying they had already contributed over 500,000 euros for the EU and also over 500,000 pounds for the U.K. Even the government of Malawi is on the ground and already contributed.”   

Local media have reported that Malawi needs an additional $40 million for its national plan on cholera response.

Cases of cholera in Malawi have increased since the beginning of January, worsening the country’s largest outbreak in the past two decades.

Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera said last week, when he launched a national anti-cholera campaign, that the country’s health facilities were recording between 500 to 600 cholera cases every day.

The U.N. said that health experts have warned that Malawi could record between 64,000 and 100,000 more cases of cholera within the next three months unless urgent action is taken to scale up the response.
…

The remains of Ghanaian football star Christian Atsu arrived home Sunday following his death in Turkey’s devastating earthquake. Atsu’s coffin, draped in Ghana’s flag, arrived by plane in Accra and was received by his family and with military honors.

The 31-year-old athlete was discovered dead on Saturday following the 7.8-magnitude quake that hit southern Turkey and Syria on February 6, killing more than 46,000 people in both countries.

It was a solemn moment Sunday evening as the Turkish Airlines carrying the body of the former Premier League footballer touched down at the Kotoka International Airport. To the sound of a lone trumpet, six military pallbearers hoisted the casket onto the tarmac, where a sizeable crowd of family members, football fans, diplomats and state officials watched with sadness and tears.

Ghana’s Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia led the government delegation.

“We anxiously and nervously prayed that our brother Christian Atsu will be found alive. We prayed and prayed, but alas when he was found he was no more,” Bawumia said. “We’ll sorely miss him. It’s a painful loss and I will like to say that the state will be fully involved with the family in providing him a befitting burial.”

After a brief religious ceremony to pray for the soul of the former Chelsea player, the body was moved for preservation at a military hospital morgue in the capital, Accra.

The Ghanaian winger spent four seasons at Chelsea, mostly out on loan, before a permanent transfer to Newcastle in 2017. He also played for various European clubs including FC Porto, Everton and Bournemouth.

Over the weekend, Premier League clubs observed minutes of silence in honor of Atsu. Chelsea issued a statement saying: “It is with enormous sadness that Chelsea Football Club receives the news that Christian Atsu is confirmed as one of the many victims of the dreadful earthquake in Turkey and Syria.”

Newcastle also described him as “a talented player and a special person,” adding that “he will always be fondly remembered by our players, staff and supporters.”

Off the pitch, Atsu was known for his generosity giving scholarships to poor school children in Ghana and also paying fines for prisoners to gain their freedom.

Abdul-Hayye Yartey, the owner of Cheetah FC in Ghana, first discovered Atsu and facilitated his maiden trip to Portugal for trials. He said Atsu’s life, although short, was well lived.

“Christian doesn’t like seeing people unhappy. I will describe Christian as an angel on earth. The way he does his things sometimes you won’t believe it. I think we need to remember Christian for his generosity, how humble he was and how determined he was,” Yartey said. “It saddens my heart that his last flight back to Ghana was one that I have to come and receive his body. But I am very proud of him.”

Atsu played 65 games at the national level for Ghana’s national team, the Black Stars, and won player of the tournament at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea where Ghana lost the final to Ivory Coast on penalties.

Atsu is survived by his wife Marie-Claire Rupio and three children.
…

The presidents of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia have vowed to resolve customs delays for trucks transporting copper from the two top producers in Africa. The growing demand for electric vehicles has fueled a race for the copper and cobalt used in their batteries, but truckloads of the key metals have been stuck at the border.

Angry truck drivers call for customs to speed up clearances at the border after a meeting this month among officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia.

Some of the drivers, from southern and eastern Africa, have been parked in a kilometers-long line at the border for weeks.

They’re waiting to deliver goods into the DRC or to take valuable metals out.

Driver Ediwn Kalaba is hauling copper to South Africa for export but has been stuck at the border for more than a week, sleeping in his truck.

He said it’s dangerous because thieves can break in or steal fuel or parts from their trucks.

“We are being robbed or attacked every now and then, more especially on the diesel issue and battery. Goods are not safe. No toilets; just a bush,” said Kalaba.

Peter Mumba is president of the United Truck Drivers and Allied Workers Union of Zambia.

He said the government needs to address the situation at the border urgently.

“The life of a truck driver, it has become so difficult … because just one journey or one trip from South Africa, even Tanzania, to go into DRC takes someone even maybe more than a month for him to return home,” said Mumba.

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema and DRC President Felix Tshisekedi discussed the border problem Saturday on the sidelines of an African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Zambian media quote Hichilema saying Tshisekedi agreed to deal with the issue.

Zambia’s transport and logistics minister, Frank Tayali, told VOA they will not tolerate any further delays. He blamed poor customs services on both sides.

“This impacts directly on government ‘s ability to collect revenue, which is so needed for the many things that we’ve lined up as a government to try and put this economy back on track. We are giving officers here six days to bring the situation back to normal before heads start to roll,” he said.

Zambia in 2021 became the first African country in the COVID era to default on its debt and has since been negotiating with creditors.

The DRC is also suffering from the border congestion, says its vice consul, Nkulu Ndala, in Ndola, Zambia.

He estimates both Zambia and the DRC are losing more than half a million dollars per month from the border delays.

“Our economy goes down in Congo. It is a serious issue that needs to be resolved very soon between Zambia and Congo through our bilateral relations,” he said.

Ndala said the DRC produced 2.2 million metric tons of copper last year.

Zambia’s Chamber of Mines says the country produced a little more than one-third of that amount.

Zambia and the DRC produce 80 percent of the world’s copper and two-thirds of its cobalt – vital components of electric vehicles that are seeing a jump in global demand.

Mining expert John Musonda from Zambia’s Copperbelt University said developing the railway system could ease the problem.

“The railway systems which were created to get copper to the coast are dilapidated with trains moving at less than 35 kilometers an hour. This has seen bulk cargo spilling over on to the roads, we have seen more investment in the road sector, but these roads are not lasting they get damaged day in, day out despite billions of dollars being spent on these roads because bulk cargo is not designed to be moved on these fragile roads.”

The DRC and Zambia last year agreed to open the border posts 24 hours a day to allow for faster processing.

But drivers say, so far, customs officers are only working 10 hours a day.
…

Mauritius grounded flights and shut its stock exchange as tropical cyclone Freddy approached the island across the Indian Ocean on Monday, while emergency teams braced for heavy rains, floods and landslides in four regions on Madagascar.

The cyclone, packing gusts of up to 120 km per hour (75 miles per hour), posed a “direct threat” to Mauritius, its weather service said.

“As Freddy approaches … [a] storm surge is likely to cause coastal inundation in risk areas. It is, therefore, strictly advised not to go at sea,” the service’s bulletin said.

The cyclone could pass as close as 120 km (75 miles) to the north-northwest of the island late in the afternoon, the service said.

Authorities on the island of Madagascar – about 1,130 km west of Mauritius towards the coast of Africa — said they were expecting a direct hit by Tuesday evening, between Mahanoro in the east and Manakara in south east.

“Torrential rains… very high to enormous seas… and a significant risk of coastal flooding are particularly to be feared in the localities around the point of impact,” Madagascar’s weather service said.

The government’s disaster management office was sending tents, ropes and chainsaws and other supplies to four districts most likely to be affected, officials added.

The Indian Ocean islands and Mozambique on Africa’s coast have been hit by a string of deadly storms and cyclones that have forced thousands to flee, destroyed buildings and ruined crops.

In January, tropical storm Cheneso killed 33 people in Madagascar.

 
…

France and Burkina Faso have officially marked the end of French military operations in the West African nation, the Burkinabe armed forces said Sunday, after a flag-lowering ceremony at the French special forces’ camp a day earlier.

In January, Burkina Faso gave France one month to withdraw its troops as it ended a military accord that allowed French troops to fight insurgents on its territory, citing a wish for the country to defend itself.

Their departure marks a new chapter in Burkina’s battle with Islamist groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State, which have taken over large swathes of land and displaced millions of people in the wider Sahel region, just south of the Sahara.

In a statement, the General Staff of the Burkinabe Armed Forces said it had participated with the leadership of France’s Sabre special forces in “a solemn flag-lowering ceremony marking the official end of the Task Force’s operations on Burkinabe soil.”

The French armed forces ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

The departure of about 400 French special forces from Burkina Faso follows a sharp deterioration in relations that included Ouagadougou asking France to recall its ambassador.  

Last year, protests by opponents of the French military presence increased sharply, partly due to perceptions that France had not done enough to curb the insurgency.

Over the past week, a small group of anti-French protesters has met each evening in Ouagadougou to watch out for signs of French withdrawal.

“We don’t want the smallest second added to the scheduled date (of departure). Let them leave and leave our Faso to us,” said Amade Maiga, who was among those decked out in Burkinabe flags and waving a French tricolor with a red cross through it.

Some of the group also held Russian flags – a sign of the complicated political undercurrents shaping the region.

Both Burkina Faso and neighboring Mali are ruled by military juntas which seized power by force in the last two years, promising to improve security and look beyond their traditional allies for support.

France withdrew its forces from Mali last year after the junta there started working with Russian military contractors. Ghana has accused Burkina Faso of hiring mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group, prompting Burkina’s interim president to deny such forces were in the country.

French President Emmanuel Macron has described Russia’s influence in troubled African countries as “predatory” as France has seen its own clout in former colonies diminish.

“Walking with Russia is not a sin … Russia is the solution,” said 58-year-old protester Amade Compaore.
…

President Kais Saied of Tunisia ordered Europe’s top trade union official to leave the North African country after she addressed protesters at a demonstration organized by an influential labor union.

Authorities accused Esther Lynch, the Irish general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, of making statements that “interfered with Tunisian internal affairs” during a Saturday protest against Saied in the port city of Sfax.

Tunisia’s General Labor Union, or UGTT, organized the demonstration to protest a crackdown on the increasingly authoritarian president’s political opponents and his critics in the media, judiciary, business community and trade unions.

In an address to the protesters, Lynch demanded the release of union leader Anis Kaabi, who was arrested by security forces last month.

She called on the Tunisian government to negotiate with the UGTT leadership and to improve the economy, which has teetered on the brink of bankruptcy amid political instability that deepened after a parliamentary election last month in which only 11% of voters cast ballots.

“By orders of the president, Tunisian authorities ordered Esther Lynch to leave the country within 24 hours, following statements made during the UGTT-led demonstration that interfered with Tunisian internal affairs,” said a statement by the Tunisian presidency that was posted on Twitter late Saturday.

The European Trade Union Confederation confirmed that Lynch left Tunisia on Sunday.

Saied won the presidency in a 2019 landslide on a promise to improve the country’s economy. Instead, the president appears determined to upend the country’s political system, threatening a democracy once seen as a model for the Arab world and sending the economy toward a tailspin.

In December, the International Monetary Fund froze an agreement on a $1.9 billion loan for Tunisia. The deeply indebted government needs the funds to pay UGTT-represented public sector salaries and to fill budget gaps aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In recent months, Tunisians have been hit with soaring food prices and shortages of fuel and basic staples like sugar and vegetable oil.
…

West African leaders have maintained sanctions imposed on three military-ruled countries in the volatile Sahel region and dented hopes of a return to the regional bloc, according to a statement seen by AFP on Sunday.

Junta-led Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso are suspended from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) after undergoing military coups since 2020.

ECOWAS leaders met on the sidelines of the African Union summit in Addis Ababa to review the sanctions and discuss the progress in restoring civilian rule in the three countries.

“The Authority of Heads of State and Governments decided to maintain the existing sanctions on all three countries,” the bloc said in a statement signed on Saturday but shared on Sunday.

ECOWAS has also decided to impose travel bans on government officials and senior leaders in those countries, it added.

Fearing contagion in a region notorious for military takeovers, ECOWAS imposed tough trade and economic sanctions against Mali, but lesser punishments against Guinea and Burkina Faso.

The sanctions have badly hit poor and landlocked Mali, whose economy is already under severe strain from a decade-long jihadist insurgency.

The three countries agreed in February to work together to push for the lifting of their suspensions from ECOWAS as well as the African Union.

Juntas have seized power in Mali and Burkina Faso amid anger at the military over the toll from a jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and forced millions from their homes.

The coup in Guinea had different causes, being rooted in public anger against then president Alpha Conde, over a lurch towards authoritarianism.

All three countries are under pressure by ECOWAS to return swiftly to civilian rule by 2024 for Mali and Burkina and a year later for Guinea.

AU Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat said on Friday the body’s peace and security council would meet at an unspecified date to decide whether to readmit the three countries, as well as Sudan.

In an address to the AU summit on Saturday, Faki said the pan-African bloc needed to look at new strategies to counter the backsliding of democracy.

“Sanctions imposed on member states following unconstitutional changes of government… do not seem to produce the expected results,” he said.

“It seems necessary to reconsider the system of resistance to the unconstitutional changes in order to make it more effective.”
…

The head of Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces, a paramilitary group accused of widespread human rights abuses, said on Sunday he was committed to intergrating the force into a reformed national armed forces.

RSF commander General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, joined Sudan’s leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, in a coup in 2021 that ended a ruling partnership between the military and pro-democracy groups and plunged the country into political and economic turmoil.

The RSF is Sudan’s largest paramilitary group. It emerged from the “janjaweed” militias accused of atrocities during the early 2000s conflict in Darfur.

They are also accused by human rights groups of killing scores of protesters since the military overthrow of Omar al-Bashir in 2019. Dagalo, who is known as Hemedti, has denied most of these claims, blaming infiltrators, while allowing the prosecution of some soldiers.

Pro-democracy groups and army leaders have called for the RSF to be integrated into the main military and for the formation of a single army.

The military leadership has reached an initial agreement with political groups, with discussions going on to formalise a new political settlement and create a new government.

But in a speech on Thursday, Burhan said the army would only support the deal as long as it provided for the integration of the RSF.

On Sunday, Dagalo defended the RSF’s legitimacy.

“We are committed to the principle of a single military formed according to agreed upon timelines, and we are sincerely committed to being involved in security and military reform,” he said in a speech.

The framework agreement, signed in December, recognises the RSF as a force alongside the military, police, and general intelligence. It assigns the head of state as its highest commander and also calls for its integration.

“The Sudanese military is a historic institution, and it will not be captured by any party,” Dagalo said. “We are part of it and we will not spare any effort to defend it from anyone who abuses or belittles it.”

He also warned against any interference by Islamists who lost control of the country in 2019 with the overthrow of Bashir.

 
…

The front-runners in Nigeria’s presidential race hit the campaign trail Saturday in a major push to persuade voters a week before the polls.

More than 90 million people are registered to vote in Nigeria, where President Muhammadu Buhari is stepping down after his two terms allowed by the constitution.

From the top of an open-air double-decker bus, Bola Tinubu, the candidate of the ruling party, All Progressives Congress, paraded through the streets of Maiduguri in northeast Borno state.

Tinubu was expected to stage a final rally in Lagos on Tuesday.

In nearby Adamawa state, the main opposition’s candidate Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party also made an entrance in the city of Yola on a double-decker bus.

Thousands of people attended both rallies, waving flags and shouting party slogans while loudspeakers blasted music.

Outsider candidate Peter Obi was not seen on the campaign trail but took to social media to call on his supporters, “the Obidients,” to rally in several cities across the country.

In the capital, Abuja, several hundred Obi supporters marched from the center to the city gate, chanting and blowing vuvuzelas.

Campaigning is taking place as the nation faces widespread insecurity and tensions over a currency crisis.

On Saturday morning, gunmen attacked a police station in the Ogidi area of southeastern Anambra state.

“The hoodlums started shooting sporadically on approaching the area command and threw improvised explosive devices and petrol bombs, gaining entrance (into the station),” police spokesman Ikenga Tochukwu said in a statement.

“Three police operatives paid the supreme price,” Tochukwu added.

Unrest in the southeast is just one of the challenges facing security forces, who are also fighting a 14-year jihadi insurgency in the northeast and kidnapping gangs in the northwest.

Nigerians have been struggling with a shortage of cash since the central bank introduced newly designed notes in December and banned old ones.

But in its effort to promote cashless payments and reduce the volume of money outside the banking system, the central bank printed a much smaller number of notes than were previously in circulation.

The lack of cash has triggered protests in major cities this week, with customers attacking banks and barricading roads just days before elections.

Tensions have also emerged inside the ruling APC party, with accusations that the cash crisis could frustrate Tinubu’s election bid. 
…

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Saturday that African countries are being denied needed debt relief, noting that because of a lack of financial support, the African continent is facing a very difficult situation.

Speaking at a news conference held at African Union headquarters after the opening of the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Guterres said in order to draw on the continent’s potential, a series of challenges must first be overcome.

“A dysfunctional and unfair global financial system that denies many African countries the debt relief and concessional financing they need,” he said. “Systems and structures, from health and education to social protections, job-creation and gender equality are starved of investment for lack of support.”

Guterres mentioned the impact that debt has on the continent’s economy in his remarks earlier in the day at the opening ceremony of the AU Summit. He emphasized that developing African countries are often left out when global investment lenders create their financial plans.

“African countries cannot invest in these critical areas and climb the development ladder with one had tied between their backs … behind their backs.”

Guterres pointed out that Africa is dramatically underrepresented at the United Nations Security Council and at Bretton Woods Institutions.

“We need a new debt architecture that provides debt relief and re-structuring to vulnerable countries, including middle-income countries, while providing immediate debt suspension and write-downs to countries in need,” he said.

AU Commission Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat made opening remarks to kick off the AU Summit and was followed by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

The opening ceremony included the handover of the AU chairmanship from Senegalese President Macky Sall to Comoros President Azali Assoumani.

The theme of this year’s AU assembly is Year of AfCFTA: Acceleration of the African Continental Free Trade Area.
…

Ghanaian footballer Christian Atsu has been found dead under the building where he lived in southern Turkey after last week’s massive earthquake, the ex-Chelsea winger’s Turkish agent said.

“Atsu’s lifeless body was found under the rubble,” Murat Uzunmehmet told reporters in Hatay, where the athlete’s body was found. “Currently, more items are still being taken out. His phone was also found.”

Atsu had been scheduled to fly out of southern Turkey hours before the quake, but Hatayspor’s manager said on Friday the Ghanaian opted to stay with the club after scoring the game-winning goal in a Feb. 5 Super Lig match.
…

A protest over water shortages in the southern Ethiopian town of Welkite turned deadly when, witnesses say, security forces opened fire on protesters, killing at least two people.

The protest was started early Thursday morning by a group of elderly women holding jerry cans for carrying water and, according to one witness, gradually swelled to thousands of people. 

Adane Kifle, a Welkite resident who was at the protest, told VOA Friday that security forces started telling people to sit down after talking with some protesters.

“When we sat down, we couldn’t really make out what was being said and they were not sharing any information with us. It is in this situation, as I was in the front, that they tear gassed us,” Adane said. “We tried to save ourselves and people started throwing rocks. After then they started shooting. After that people dispersed in different directions.”

Dr. Behailu Dego, a surgeon at Welkite University Referral Hospital, said that two protesters were shot and died on arrival at the hospital.

“All of the injuries were from bullet wounds. The sad part is that we don’t have any blood banks in the area,” Dego said. “There were another 4 or 5 people who have had bullets wounds in their arms and legs.”

In a report Friday, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission put the death toll at three and said at least 30 people had sustained injuries due to bullet wounds.

Officials in the area say the violence was sparked by protesters throwing rocks at the local water bureau building and blocking roads, according to the report.

Welkite, a town of about 70,000, and the capital of the Gurage zone, has been plagued by water shortages for months amid the ongoing drought in the Horn of Africa. 

A resident said there was a water drilling project that local authorities promised would solve the problem. But nothing came of it. 

Calls to the mayor of Welkite as well as the zonal peace and security chief went unanswered.

 
…

A Kenyan government operation to disarm warring parties in the troubled Rift Valley region is off to a slow start.  Media reports say a three-day amnesty period for people to hand in illegal weapons resulted in the handover of just three guns. Kenyan police did arrest a local lawmaker for allegedly funding bandits and cattle rustlers, who have wreaked havoc in the region. 

Kenyan government forces launched an operation this week to crack down on chronic violence in the Rift Valley. Most of the fighting is between communities over grazing land and livestock made worse by the ongoing severe drought.   

The first step – a three-day amnesty for people to hand over illegal weapons – resulted in just three guns being turned in by Thursday evening. 

Police and regional officials declined to respond to VOA requests for comment.  

Kenyan security analyst George Musamali says the communities in the North Rift Valley region cannot give up their guns easily after decades of insecurity in the region.

“It went in with threats and if you look at these communities, these are communities that have been taking care of their own security. They don’t see the government there,” said Musamali. “They would rather keep the guns until the operation is over. Then when the security forces leave the area then, they can continue living the way they are used to because the government is not offering any solutions to the perennial security problems in those areas.”

A security operation aimed at disarming the communities began Friday after the end of the amnesty period.

On Thursday, officers from Kenya’s Department of Investigation unit arrested a Pokot South member of parliament, David Pkosing, for allegedly financing the banditry in West Pokot County.

The legislator was later released and denied the claims of supporting the bandits.

Danstan Omari is a lawyer representing Pkosing. He says his client will appear at the offices of the criminal investigation unit to respond to more questions about his source of wealth.

“We agreed that we would take him there at 4 PM today so that he can respond to those allegations because we were told they have expanded the allegations,” said Omari. “Now they want us to respond to the allegations that the member of parliament is involved in money laundering and that the helicopter he has they will want to take a photo of the helicopter and lastly, they want to see how he has benefited from banditry, the commercial aspect of banditry.”

Pkosing told VOA some politicians from rival communities closer to the government were inciting authorities against him and his community.

He says the government needs to create a program where the warring communities can feed and move their animals freely in the region.

“We want the government to approach it in a structural manner. Let us allow the Turkanas, the Samburus, the Pokots, and the Marakwets,” said Pkosing. “The entire of this place where there is distress, let us bring order in terms of access to grass and water. If there is order, there is no conflict at all, but for now, there is no government.”

The communities in Baringo, West Pokot, Elgeyo Marakwet, Samburu, Laikipia and Turkana have been stealing animals from each other, leading to communal tensions and conflict.

Experts are urging the government to change its approach to dealing with the banditry threat and begin improving the lives of the communities by constructing roads, schools, and water points, as well as encouraging the community to start farming as another source of income.
…

A multinational force of troops from Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, and Nigeria, on Thursday handed five children rescued from Boko Haram over to Cameroon. The Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin Commission says scores of children were rescued last year in operations against the militant group. Cameroonian authorities are working to locate the children’s parents.

The Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin, or MNJTF, that is fighting the jihadist group, says the five children it handed to Cameroonian authorities on Thursday were rescued by Chadian troops.

The children were handed over to government officials in Mora, a town in Cameroon’s Far North region on the border with Chad and Nigeria.

The task force said Chadian troops found the five boys in the volatile Lake Chad basin, looking unkempt, tired, hungry and sick.

The task force commander, Nigerian Major General Abdul Kalifa Ibrahim, said the teenage children spent several months in Boko Haram captivity. He spoke on Cameroon’s state broadcaster CRTV.

“They were unfortunate to be abducted by Boko Haram, but they were able to escape,” said Ibrahim. “Chadian soldiers found out they are Cameroonian children. We are going to carry out more operations. Our hope is for the Boko Harams themselves to come out and say this is enough.”

Cameroon says 25 out of the 60 children transferred to the country by the joint forces in the past three weeks were either saved by the military during operations or escaped from Boko Haram camps and surrendered to troops from Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria fighting the jihadists.

The task force says scores of the children were rescued last year in a military operation that killed 800 militants in lake Chad basin. The children were kept in Chad about 8 months for psychological care and to determine where they were from.

The government says the children range in age from 9 to 17 years old.

The governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, Midjiyawa Bakari, says Cameroonian President Paul Biya has ordered that the children be provided with food, medical care and an education while their parents are being found. He spoke to VOA via a messaging app from Maroua, capital of Cameroon’s Far North region.

Bakari says Cameroon has well-constructed centers for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, or DDR, in Meri and Mora, northern towns on the border with Chad and Nigeria. He says the children will be enrolled in a school at the DDR center in Mora. Bakari says Cameroons medical staff members are at DDR centers ready to attend to the health needs of the children.

Bakari said in 2021, Cameroon successfully hosted more than 2,000 former Boko Haram militants including 950 Nigerians and about a hundred Chadians who defected from the jihdist group.

In June 2022, the Multinational Joint Task Force said 3,000 troops killed 800 jihadis on Lake Chad’s islands and neighboring areas between March 28 and June 4 in an operation called Lake Sanity.

Officials of the force said they were investigating the countries of origins of several hundred children who were rescued in the operations.

The troops say parents of some of the children may have been killed in battles with jihadist groups or have remained in Boko Haram camps as militants or captives.

The Lake Chad basin stretches across the borders of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad.

The multinational force with troops from Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon and Chad says although attacks have been drastically reduced, Boko Haram and another group, the Islamic State West Africa Province, have established bases in the vast Lake Chad basin.

According to the U.N., 36,000 people have been killed and 3 million have fled their homes in Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad since 2009 when the fighting deteriorated into an armed conflict with Nigerian government troops.
…

Joint naval exercises including South Africa, Russia, and China get underway in waters off South Africa’s east coast Friday, despite U.S. concerns and Ukrainian condemnation. Critics say the 10-day military drills will do little to benefit South Africa and act as a propaganda boost for Moscow on the one-year anniversary of its ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

While the West is upping its arms shipments to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion, South Africa begins wargames today with Russian warships that proudly support the offensive.  

Russia’s “Admiral Gorshkov,” which arrived in Cape Town this week, is marked with the Kremlin’s pro-war symbol, the letter ‘Z.’   

Critics say the optics of South African servicemen aboard the frigate near the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion would be a coup for Moscow and a shame to the country of freedom fighter Nelson Mandela.

Ukrainian Ambassador to South Africa Liubov Abravitova told VOA she condemns the drills.

“It is very disturbing that South Africa will be hosting the military exercise with the country, aggressor, invader, that is using its military force against peaceful country, bringing destruction and trying to eliminate Ukrainian nation,” Abravitova said.

South Africa has repeatedly defended its neutral stance on the conflict in Ukraine and its right to relations with Russia, a fellow member of the BRICS trade bloc with Brazil, India, and China.  

South Africa’s foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, last month welcomed her visiting Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov and said Pretoria wouldn’t be bullied into choosing sides.  

The opposition Democratic Alliance  though, says Pretoria’s hosting the drills shows it has dropped any pretense at neutrality.  

Democratic Alliance shadow defense minister Kobus Marais adds the drills, called Mosi II, won’t benefit South Africa’s depleted navy and the funds would be better spent elsewhere.

“Given our very limited naval capabilities, resources and other higher priorities, we can gain little or no value from Exercise Mosi II, especially from the presence and possible launch of the hypersonic missile,” Marais said.

The Gorshkov is equipped with hypersonic Zircon missiles, which Russian state media report could be fired in a training launch during the drills. 

South African officials have denied the missile launch will be part of the 10 days of exercises, which also include China’s navy.  

South Africa’s Defense Department said this is not the first war game with Russia and that it previously joined military drills with its Western allies as well. 

However, South Africa this year declined an invitation to join U.S.-led multinational maritime drills in the Gulf of Guinea.

South African Institute of International Affairs Russia expert Steven Gruzd says Pretoria is trying to straddle both sides.

“South Africa does see a future in which Russia and China are both very, very important partners, but it’s still also trying to balance its relations with Western states,” said Gruzd. “There may be some fallout, we’re not sure of what kind, but the U.S. is certainly not happy at all that South Africa is taking part in these exercises.”

Asked to comment on the drills, the U.S. State Department told VOA by email it noted them with concern “even as Moscow continues its brutal and unlawful invasion of Ukraine.”

The statement went on to say, “We encourage South Africa to cooperate militarily with fellow democracies that share our mutual commitment to human rights and the rule of law.”  

Since Russia’s invasion last February, U.S. officials estimate tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed along with as many as a hundred thousand troops or more on each side.  

The Russian Embassy in South Africa and South Africa’s Defense Ministry did not reply to requests for comment.
…

The Millennium Challenge Corporation, a U.S. foreign aid agency, recently crafted a new type of grant to promote cross-border economic integration and trade between two African nations, Niger and Benin. VOA Senior Correspondent Mariama Diallo reports. Cameras:  Philip Datcher and wires.
…

Kenya aims to plant billions of trees in coming years to fight climate change and is enlisting mobile technology to help make it happen. The application JazaMiti, which means “fill with trees” in Swahili, tells users which trees to plant in specific areas, in hopes of increasing the tree survival rate. Juma Majanga reports from Nairobi, Kenya. Camera: Jimmy Makhulo.
…

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has extended by 60 days the deadline for older currency notes to remain legal tender following violent protests over a shortage of cash.

During a nationally televised address early Thursday, Buhari said the 200-naira note would be allowed back into circulation until April 10. The deadline was not extended for the old 500- and 1,000-naira notes.

Buhari said the decision followed consideration of the impact of the currency transition on citizens.

“I’m addressing you to identify with you and express my sympathy over the difficulties being experienced as we continue the implementation of new monetary policies,” he said. “I’m not unaware of the obstacles placed on the path of innocent Nigerians by unscrupulous officials in the banking industry. I sincerely sympathize with you all over these unintended outcomes.”

Buhari also pledged a crackdown on anyone trying to sabotage the process.

Nigeria’s central bank introduced a new currency late last year but only gave citizens a few weeks to exchange old bills for the new, sparking outrage.

Buhari maintained that the introduction of the new currency would strengthen the economy, fight insecurity and stifle illicit financial flows and money laundering.

Buhari said more than 80 percent of the $6 billion worth of the old bills formerly in circulation have been recalled so far.

Buhari also said the transition would hinder politicians trying to influence voters with cash gifts before and during the February 25 elections.

‘Half bread is better than none’

Abuja resident Abubakar Ismail said he had hoped for better news from the president.

“They should’ve extended 1,000- and 500-, naira and leave the 200,” he said. “Me, personally, I don’t think this is a development, but half bread is better than none. The current situation, struggling, trying to get cash, people are not used to it. I don’t think it’s going to help with the current situation that we’re facing now.”

Nigeria began circulating the new 1000-, 500- and 200- naira bills in mid-December. The cash shortages have coincided with a shortage of fuel just ahead of the polls, causing heightened tensions.

On Wednesday, protests over the cash squeeze hit four Nigerian states including Edo, Kwara, Delta and Ibadan.

Angry protesters barricaded roads and attacked banks, burning and looting them.

Edo State Police spokesman Chidi Nwabuzor told VOA via phone that the police shot and killed people who were believed to have hijacked the protests.

“The protests had been hijacked by hoodlums,” Nwabuzor. “They took to the banks and destroyed the ATMs, even the building, shattered all the glasses and engaged the security forces in a gun duel. In order to repel the attack, unfortunately, two of the hoodlums were hit by bullets.”

Nwabuzor said police have restored calm in the affected areas.

Currency concerns reach courts

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Supreme Court Wednesday adjourned by one week a case filed by three state governors to allow the old bills to remain in circulation longer.

During his speech, the president did not mention a court ruling last week in which authorities were asked to temporarily suspend their policies on the new currency.

Recently, the International Monetary Fund urged Nigerian authorities to extend the currency swap deadline.
…