The Carter Center said Tuesday that only 13 human cases of Guinea worm disease were reported worldwide last year.

After decades of progress, the eradication program’s director cautioned the end phase of the global effort to eradicate the parasitic disease will be “the most difficult.”

The Atlanta-based center, founded by former President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Eleanor Rosalynn Carter, said the remaining infections occurred in four countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Six human cases were reported in Chad, five in South Sudan, one in Ethiopia and one in the Central African Republic, which remains under investigation.

That’s a significant drop from when former President Carter began leading the global eradication effort in 1986, when the disease infected 3.5 million people.

The figures, which are provisional, are expected to be confirmed in the coming months.

“We are truly in the midst of that last mile and experiencing firsthand that it is going to be a very long and arduous last mile,” Adam Weiss, director of The Carter Center’s Guinea Worm Eradication Program, told The Associated Press. “Not so much as it taking more than the next seven years – five to seven years – but just knowing that it’s going to be a slow roll to get to zero.”

Guinea worm affects some of the world’s more vulnerable people and can be prevented by training people to filter and drink clean water.

People who drink unclean water can ingest parasites that can grow as long as 1 meter (3 feet). The worm incubates in people for up to a year before painfully emerging, often through the feet or other sensitive parts of the body.

Weiss said the populations where Guinea worm still exists are prone to local insecurity, including conflict, which can prevent staff and volunteers from going house to house to implement interventions or offer support.

“If we take our foot off of the gas in terms of trying to accelerate getting to zero and providing support to those communities, there’s no question that you’re going to see a surge in Guinea worm,” Weiss said. “We’re continuing to make progress, even if it is not as fast as we all want it to be, but that progress continues.”

Guinea worm is poised to be the second human disease to be eradicated after smallpox, according to The Carter Center.
…

Hundreds of people attended a memorial service in Lusaka on Tuesday for a Zambian student who died fighting for Russia in Ukraine as Tanzania confirmed the death of another student who was also recruited in a Russian jail.

Family members broke down as they filed past the coffin of Lemekani Nyirenda at Lusaka Baptist Church, where the 23-year-old was a regular worshipper before moving to Russia to study nuclear engineering.

Nyirenda was recruited by Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group last year while serving a nine-and-a-half year jail term for a drug offense and sent to fight in Ukraine.

His death in September sparked a diplomatic spat, with Zambia demanding an urgent explanation from the Kremlin.

Meanwhile, Tanzania on Tuesday confirmed that another student, Nemes Tarimo, had been killed after also being recruited in jail by Wagner.

“When Tarimo was serving jail, he was given an opportunity to join the Russian army group called Wagner for payment and the promise that he would be freed after the war,” Tanzanian Foreign Minister Stergomena Tax said.

“Tarimo agreed, and he was taken to Ukraine where he was killed on October 24.”

In recent months, men have been recruited from Russian prisons to fight on the front lines in Ukraine with the promise of reduced sentences and attractive fees.

Tarimo, who had been studying in Russia since 2020, was arrested in March 2022 and sentenced to a seven-year jail term for undisclosed reasons.

“It’s illegal for a Tanzanian national to join any foreign army,” added the foreign minister.

On Tuesday, Nyirenda’s father paid tribute to his son, saying he was a hard worker who helped set up a beehive business for the family.

Edwin Nyirenda told mourners his son had sought a part-time job and “started working as a courier” after posting an advertisement online when he got into trouble.

The two were last in touch at the end of August when Nyirenda told his father he would return home after going to fight in Ukraine.

Nyirenda’s body was repatriated in December and will be laid to rest in a private ceremony in Rufunsa, east of Lusaka, on Wednesday.

Funerals were delayed after some family members raised concerns that the remains might not belong to the student.

But doubts were dispelled by a DNA test, said family spokesman Ian Banda.

“There may be some parts missing but by and large, we have the remains of Lemekhani,” Banda told journalists after the service.
…

On the final day of her visit to Zambia, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen discussed climate-resilient food production and the global fallout from Russia’s war on Ukraine.

On her second day in Zambia, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said hunger and food insecurity are exerting a heavy toll on communities around the world.

Secretary Yellen said it is for this reason the United States is taking strong and immediate actions to alleviate hunger.

Yellen spoke Tuesday in Chongwe, east of the Zambian capital, Lusaka, where she met with several female farmers through the green climate fund, which the U.S. is supporting through the United Nations.

The project – Climate Resilience of Agricultural Livelihoods in Agro–Ecological Regions in Zambia – is aimed at helping small-scale farmers better manage the impacts of climate change and alleviate hunger.

“The number of people facing acute food insecurity has risen to 345 million across 80 countries. In Zambia, about 2 million people face acute food insecurity and nearly half the population is unable to meet the daily caloric intake,” she said.

Secretary Yellen also mentioned that Russia’s war on Ukraine has caused major food supply disruptions across the world.

She said the U.S. will work closely with African countries like Zambia to develop its infrastructure and logistics capabilities.

She underscored the African continent needs a robust capacity not only to grow food, but to ensure it can be cultivated, stored and efficiently transported.

“And this difficult situation has been exacerbated by Russia’s illegal war on Ukraine, which has further stressed fuel and fertilizer prices across the world,” she said.

Secretary Yellen was accompanied to Chongwe by Zambia‘s acting agricultural minister, Gary Nkombo, who expressed gratitude for the U.S. support to Zambia. Nkombo said about 150 families have benefited from the U.N.-led program in Chongwe, which focuses on conservation farming.

Last month, more than 40 African leaders met with members of the U.S. administration in Washington, which pledged to strengthen investments between Africa and the U.S.
…

The U.N. refugee agency, the UNHCR, is condemning escalating violence in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that has killed hundreds of civilians and forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in search of safety. 

More than 130 armed groups operating in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are creating havoc and terrorizing the population with their brutal, frequent attacks. Whole communities have become uprooted. Millions of displaced people have been consigned to a life of destitution and dependence on international aid.

The latest deadly attack occurred in Ituri province on January 19 at the Plaine Savo site for internally displaced people. U.N. refugee agency spokeswoman Eujin Byun says armed men stormed the site and killed two adults and five children.

“Many shelters were looted and burned down to the ground. As many as 17,000 people fled to the greater security of the nearby town of Bule. They are now staying in schools, churches, and poorly covered outdoor markets without sufficient food and water,” she said.

The UNHCR says more than 200 civilians have been killed in a series of attacks in Ituri in the last six weeks, causing tens of thousands to flee for safety.

It says deadly and destructive attacks by armed men also are occurring in neighboring North Kivu province. Since March, it says, more than half-a-million people have been forced to flee for their lives, increasing the number of displaced people in the province to more than two million.

Byun says the many displaced are unable to provide for themselves and depend upon aid for survival from humanitarian agencies.

“Amid the volatility, the UNHCR and partners continue to deliver life-saving assistance to displaced populations. The violence and instability in the region also mean that the UNHCR and partners are delivering life-saving shelter, site management and protection services, despite risks to the safety of humanitarian personnel,” she said.

Besides a lack of security and a lack of access to volatile areas, Byun says the UNHCR lacks the money to support the many and growing needs of the displaced. She notes only 46% of the agency’s appeal last year was covered. She says the UNHCR hopes this year’s call for $233 million will emit a more generous response.

More than 5.6 million people are internally displaced in the DRC, making it the largest displacement crisis on the African continent.
…

Cameroon has denied an announcement that Canada will mediate the African country’s separatist conflict, saying such a role was never mandated. Canada’s foreign ministry last week announced that Cameroon and some separatist factions had agreed to a peace process, with Ottawa assigned to help.

Cameroonian government spokesman René Emmanuel Sadi said Yaoundé has never entrusted any country with the role of facilitator or mediator with separatists in its western regions.

In a statement Monday, Sadi said it was up to Cameroon’s people, institutions, and leaders to seek appropriate ways of solving problems facing their state.

It was a response to Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly on Friday announcing that Cameroon and some separatist factions had agreed to a peace process.

Her statement said Ottawa had accepted a mandate to act as facilitator and called the agreement a critical first step toward peace.

The Cameroonian government’s denial of Canada’s mediation deflated hopes for talks to end seven years of fighting that has left thousands of people dead, and hundreds of thousands displaced.

Esther Njomo Omam is the executive director of the aid group Reach Out Cameroon.

“People have been suffering, people have been in pain, and they believed that this Canada-led process for dialogue was a glimmer of hope that could lead to a lasting solution for peace,” she said. “The general opinion was that of relief and a sign of hope. When the communique from the minister of communication came out, we sampled opinion, and it was that of frustration.”

Canada responded to Cameroon’s denial Monday saying it was in touch with both sides in the conflict and that Ottawa’s statement still stands.

Canada had said the parties to the agreement last week included at least six separatist groups: the Ambazonia Governing Council, the Ambazonia Defense Forces, the African People’s Liberation Movement, the Southern Cameroon’s Defense Force, the Ambazonia Interim Government, and the Ambazonia Coalition.

A spokesman for the Ambazonia Defense Forces, Capo Daniel, says Yaoundé’s backing out of the agreement shows it does not want peace.

He says separatist groups will meet in the coming days to decide how to proceed.

“The Ambazonia Governing Council and all the other Ambazonia movements who formed the leading block that represents Ambazonia in the Ambazonia, Cameroon, Canada negotiation process have taken note of this document from Sadi. That is our only response. We have taken note,” he said.

Some rebel groups like the Ambazonia Interim Government and the self-declared Republic of Ambazonia have rejected Canada-led talks.

The groups have on social media said only armed conflict would free the people of Ambazonia, an English-speaking state they are fighting to carve out from French-speaking majority Cameroon.

Cameroon’s government says it is already implementing efforts for peace agreed to during a 2019 national dialogue on the separatist conflict.

Several rebel groups, including those with leaders based in Europe and the United States, did not take part in that dialogue for fear of arrest.

They asked Yaoundé to organize talks outside Cameroon with foreign mediators.

Switzerland has also made attempts to mediate the conflict, but with little progress.

Canada says the conflict has killed more than 6,000 people since 2017, displaced 800,000, and deprived 600,000 children of access to education.
…

Armed men opened fire on a bus station in southern Sudan Monday, officials said, killing at least four people and prompting authorities to declare a monthlong state of emergency.

Officials in South Kordofan province said the attack in the provincial capital of Kadugli wounded at least four others.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, which took place as the victims were heading to areas controlled by a rebel group, known as the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, local media reported.

Mousa Gaber Mahmoud, South Kordofan’s acting provincial governor, called the attack “unfortunate,” pledging that local authorities “will spare no effort to regain security and stability” in the province.

He said a state of emergency took effect Monday across the southern province on the border with South Sudan.

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, led by Abdel Aziz al-Hilu, controls large swaths of the province, including the Nuba mountains. It has been fighting the government in Sudan’s capital of Khartoum for decades.

A cease-fire was established between the military and the group following the removal of longtime strongman Omar al-Bashir in April 2019 amid a popular uprising against his three decades of repressive rule.

There were tensions between the two sides after a military coup removed a transitional government in October 2021, plunging the entire country into further chaos.
…

The old maxim that “the pen is mightier than the sword” couldn’t be more appropriate when it comes to Somali journalist Abdalle Ahmed Mumin.

As a child, Abdalle lost his arm in a militia attack. Determined to still write, he had to teach himself to do so with his left hand.

The clan fighting that maimed Abdalle killed his 11-year-old brother as the siblings walked home together from school.

At that time, the family were living in a refugee camp in Mogadishu, and the daily human rights violations and unfairness that Abdalle witnessed there set him on his career path as a journalist.

“Whenever there was food distribution the militia would come and loot that food and my mind was always asking me, when I grow up what can I do?” Abdalle told VOA. “Every day I used to buy a newspaper. I said, the best way to fight injustices is to become a journalist.”

But now the 37-year-old, whose work has appeared in international outlets including the The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal, is in his own fight for justice.

He is accused of publicly disobeying a government directive and holding a press conference that criticized the directive.

The Ministry of Information in a statement in October denied the charges are related to Abdalle’s work as journalist. But press freedom groups say the charges are spurious

Country in conflict

The case against Abdalle is linked with Somalia’s long battle with militancy.

Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist militant group al-Shabab has been waging a brutal insurgency for about 15 years. The militant group sees journalists who work for Western media as spies and often targets them.

In 2015, Abdalle survived an assassination attempt when militants shot at his car. He took his family and fled to neighboring Kenya, where they lived for several years.

Ultimately though, Abdalle couldn’t keep away from what he felt was his calling. He returned and helped form the Somali Journalists Syndicate (SJS).

Set up to defend the rights of working journalists, the independent trade union provides support and training, and is vocal in its defense of media rights.

Which is why it went into action in October last year when Somalia’s Ministry of Information published a directive that “prohibited dissemination of extremism ideology messages, both from official media broadcasts and social media.”

The ministry ban covered messages sent “intentionally or unintentionally, directly or indirectly and consciously or unconsciously.” Officials later told journalists to refer to al-Shabab as “khawarij,” which means “a deviation from Islam.”

The government said the directive was intended to stop the spread of al-Shabab propaganda, as U.S.-backed Somali forces battle the group, which regularly launches deadly attacks that kill hundreds of civilians every year.

While it is in the government’s remit to try to curb terrorist messaging, for the SJS and other media advocates, the vague wording raised concerns that the directive could be used to stifle independent reporting.

Somali Minister of Information Daud Aweis however believes journalists misunderstood the order.

“The journalists are free to do their job according to the law. What we only asked them is not to fall into the trap of al-Shabab, of spreading the hate and incitement propaganda of the terrorist group,” he told VOA via a messaging app.

When asked what role the government believes media could play in the fight, Daud — a former journalist who worked for outlets including VOA and the BBC — said,  “Very simple, report objectively on these matters. That’s all what we need. Don’t be used as a tool of propaganda by the terrorists who are shedding the blood of Somali people, including the journalists themselves.”

Despite claims by the government that Somalia supports a free press, Abdalle says that in reality authorities want only military successes reported and nothing negative, like extra-judicial killings.

So, as secretary-general of the SJS, he called a press conference on October 10 and read a statement outlining concerns about the rules. After that, Abdalle says, his office was raided and he received a call from government asking that he retract the statement.

He refused.

The following day, Abdalle was arrested and taken to the National Intelligence Agency’s underground jail.

There, he says, he was interrogated without access to a lawyer. From his one-meter long cell he said he “could hear other inmates screaming.” He was later transferred to police custody and on October 16, a court released Abdalle on condition that he didn’t leave the country and didn’t speak to the media.

“But a journalist always speaks,” he said, adding that he refused a request by officials in the Ministry of Information to quit journalism and issue an apology in exchange for the case going away. Officials at the time denied to VOA such an offer was made.

Pressure from all sides

Somalia has long been a challenging place for journalists to work. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) considers the country one of the most dangerous in Africa for journalists, Muthoki Mumo, the group’s sub-Saharan Africa representative, told VOA.

“At least 73 journalists have been killed in connection to their work since 1992 and justice remains elusive in the majority of these cases,” she said.

Al-Shabab is responsible for many of these deaths, but Mumo said, “Government officials and security personnel whose responsibility it is to guarantee the safety of journalists, including by investigating attacks, also pose a threat.”

Journalists are frequently detained arbitrarily and intimidated by officials, she said. “Eight months into the presidency of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, his government seems intent on using the fight against the al-Shabab as pretext to muzzle independent reporting and critical commentary.”

Mumo said the CPJ has heard that some journalists are avoiding reporting on certain stories because of the directive.

Somalia’s media for years have faced harassment, attack and persecution. Mohamed Odowa, a freelance journalist working for international press outlets in Mogadishu, says the environment has deteriorated over the past eight months.

Some journalists have “opted to leave the country for exile while others decided to remain home and keep in silent for fear of being harmed by the warring sides,” he told VOA. He said those who refuse bribes to write positive stories, face threats and harassment.

“The current government is trying to use independent media houses and journalists to cover the news related to the military operations in its favor,” he said.

Information Minister Daud rejects with such assessments on Somalia’s media environment, telling VOA, “We don’t want to see freedom of speech being violated at any cost.”

When asked about Abdalle’s case, he told VOA, “I would like to remind you that it’s not wise to comment on a case that’s before the court. Let’s allow the judiciary to do their job.”

Abdalle is due back in court Thursday. The case has shaken him.

Despite years of living in a war zone he said, this is the first time that he’s truly afraid: “I’m fearing for my life and I’m fearing for the lives of my colleagues, other journalists.”
…

Burkina Faso has decided to end a military accord that allowed French troops to fight insurgents on its territory because the government wants the country to defend itself, the government said Monday.  

The West African country is facing an Islamist insurgency by 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.  

The national television station reported on Saturday that the government had suspended a 2018 military accord with Paris on January 18, giving France one month to pull its troops out.  

French president Emmanuel Macron on Sunday said he was awaiting clarifications from Burkina Faso’s transitional president Ibrahim Traore about the decision. 

“At the current stage, we don’t see how to be more clear than this,” said government spokesman Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, speaking on national television.

He said the decision was not linked to any particular event, but that it was the “normal order of things” for France to hand over responsibility to Burkina Faso for its own defense. The one-month deadline is part of the military agreement, he added.

“This is not the end of diplomatic relations between Burkina Faso and France,” said Ouedraogo, adding that his country still wanted support in the form of military equipment.

French authorities did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

French troops pulled out of neighboring Mali last year, ending a decade-long fight against insurgents, after relations deteriorated between the two countries.

Both Burkina Faso and Mali are ruled by military juntas that seized power by force in the last two years, promising to improve security and burning bridges with their traditional allies.

Macron has accused Russia of a “predatory” influence in troubled African countries as France has seen its own influence on its former colonies diminish.

The French army’s departure from Mali coincided with the junta’s decision to hire Russian mercenaries to help it fight insurgents, a move Western countries strongly condemned.

Burkina Faso has neither confirmed nor denied recent reports that it has also decided to hire Russia’s Wagner group. 

 
…

South Africa has defended its warm relations and joint military drills with Russia as it hosts Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on his first visit since the invasion of Ukraine.

Lavrov said he appreciated South Africa’s neutral stance since the war started one year ago and placed the blame for the continuing conflict squarely on the Ukraine and the West.

“It is well known that we supported the proposal of the Ukrainian side to negotiate early in the special military operation… it is well known that our American and British and some of our European colleagues told Ukraine that it is too early to deal,” he said.

Russia has repeatedly rejected Ukrainian and Western demands that it withdraw completely from Ukraine as a condition for any negotiations.

Lavrov also denied Moscow is targeting civilians, despite numerous attacks on residential buildings in Ukraine that experts say likely add up to war crimes.

South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Naledi Pandor, reiterated Pretoria would like to see a diplomatic solution through dialogue.

“As South Africa, our sincere wish that the conflict in Ukraine will soon be brought to a peaceful end through diplomacy and negotiation,” she said.

However, she defended South Africa’s right to maintain bilateral relations with whichever countries it wants and not be dictated to by the West.

South Africa is hosting the Russian and Chinese navies for February exercises off Durban.

Pandor noted all countries conduct military exercises “with friends.”

Defense Ministry spokesman Cornelius Monama said Monday that the drills would “strengthen the strong bonds between the countries.”

“Contrary to the assertions by our critics, South Africa is not abandoning its neutral position on the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” he said.

The main opposition Democratic Alliance has called for the drills to be called off and Ukraine’s ambassador to South Africa, Liubov Abravitova, told VOA recently that she didn’t understand why South Africa was conducting exercises with, quote, “the army of rapists and murders.”

Steven Gruzd, a Russia expert at the South African Institute for International Affairs, said Lavrov had “clearly found some sympathy” from Pandor and he expects to see greater cooperation between the two BRICS allies going forward.

“I think it’s interesting to read the body language between minsters Lavrov and Pandor, the Russian and South Africa foreign ministers, I think it was quite warm from the press conference and there is a genuine meeting of minds between the countries,” he said.

But Gruzd said South Africa’s hosting naval exercises with Russia could affect its standing on the international stage.

He added that it will be interesting to see the chemistry between Pandor and U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who arrives in South Africa late Tuesday for a visit.

Despite pressure from the U.S., Pretoria has refused join Washington in condemning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

South Africa also invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to visit later this year for the summit of the BRICS group of emerging economies, though it’s not yet clear if he will attend.

The BRICS group is Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa.
…

Pope Francis’s visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo will remind the world not to ignore decades-long conflicts that have beset the mineral-rich nation and wrecked the lives of millions, the Vatican’s envoy to Kinshasa said.

Francis is expected to visit Congo from Jan. 31 to Feb. 3, the first visit of a pope since 1985. Major preparations have been underway in the vast country, home to the largest Roman Catholic community in Africa.

“The Congo which receives the Pope today is not the same as the one which welcomed Pope John Paul II 38 years ago,” Ettore Balestrero, the Vatican’s envoy to Kinshasa, told Reuters.

“Unfortunately, there have been wars and conflicts that continue. He comes to console the people; he comes to heal wounds that are still bleeding.”

He said the mineral-rich central African nation has 45 million Catholics. The country has struggled with instability and conflicts since the 1990s that have killed millions and given rise to dozens of militias, some of which remain active.

The pope had planned to visit the eastern city of Goma when the trip was officially announced, but that leg of the trip has been canceled following the resurgence of fighting between the army and the M23 rebel group.

“Congo is a moral emergency that cannot be ignored,” Balestrero said.

The pope is expected to meet victims from the east of the country on Feb. 1 and leaders of Catholic charities, according to the program of his visit shared by the Vatican.

The Catholic Church plays an important role in the Congo. It manages around 40% of the country’s health structure. About six million students are taught in nursery, primary and secondary schools run by the church, Balestrero said.

It also runs one of the biggest and most trusted election observation missions.

“Historically, the Church in this country has accompanied the consolidation of democratic consciousness and has often been the spokesperson for the most urgent needs of the population,” Balestrero added.
…

Nigerian authorities say search teams are going after armed men holding four students out of six kidnapped from their school Friday, one of many violent incidents reported in Nigeria in the past week as the country gears up for elections next month.

Nassarawa state’s police commissioner, Maiyaki Mohammed Baba, told VOA Sunday that the teams, including the military, police and civil defense and locals, searched a nearby forest in the state for a second day for the remaining students.

Armed men on Friday attacked the Local Education Authority Primary School, Alwaza, in the Doma district while the children were reporting to school and kidnapped six pupils. Schools are often targets for ransom-driven armed gangs with a reputation for notoriety in central and northwest Nigeria.

Baba said state authorities have also fortified schools to prevent a repeat of the incident.

Security forces on Saturday rescued two girls who were abducted and reunited them with their families after a medical examination. 

“So far, we’re putting on intensive efforts to ensure that we rescue the remaining ones. They’re all in the bush now in trail of the suspects. We provided guards in all our schools to ensure that such thing does not repeat itself again,” said Baba, speaking to VOA by phone. 

The United Nations estimates more than 1,500 school students have been kidnapped, mostly in northern Nigeria, since late 2020. Most of them have been freed through negotiations but some are still being held.

Farmers and herders also frequently clash over land and scarce resources in Nassarawa state.

Nigerian authorities have been struggling to stem a wave of violence just weeks ahead of elections scheduled for February 25. Security has been a major topic among campaigners.
…

Explosions and gunfire have been heard in downtown Mogadishu Sunday.

Witnesses in the Somali capital said they heard a large explosion and saw a plume of smoke near Mogadishu’s municipality headquarters around noon local time. The building is the office of Mogadishu Mayor Yusuf Hussein Jimale.

Witnesses in the capital said they heard two more explosions after the first.

The al-Shabab militant group claimed via Telegram its fighters carried out a complex attack on the mayor’s headquarters. Al-Shabab’s complex attacks usually involve an initial explosion followed by armed suicide infantry storming the target.

The Somali government has not yet commented on the attack.

The Mogadishu Mayor’s office was attacked by al-Shabab on July 24, 2019, when a female suicide bomber fatally wounded then Mayor Abdirahman Omar Osman.
…

A U.S. military strike has killed approximately 30 Islamist al-Shabab militants near the central Somali town of Galcad, where Somalia’s military was engaged in heavy fighting, U.S. Africa Command said in a statement.  

The operation, which the U.S. military described as a “collective self-defense strike,” occurred Friday about 162 miles (260 km) north of the capital Mogadishu, where Somali national forces were under attack by more than 100 al-Shabab fighters, the statement said.  

U.S. Africa Command, the military arm of the American government’s presence on the continent, said no civilians were injured or killed in the strike. It said three vehicles were destroyed. 

Al-Shabab fighters had stormed a Somali military base in Galcad Friday and killed at least seven soldiers, according to the Somali government and the militant group. The fighters exploded car bombs and fired weapons but were eventually repelled. 

Somalia’s Information Ministry said in a statement that in addition to al-Shabab killing seven soldiers, their soldiers had killed 100 of the group’s fighters and destroyed five gun-mounted pickup vehicles known as ‘technicals’. 

Al-Shabab has been fighting since 2006 to topple the country’s central government and install its own rule, based on a strict interpretation of Islam. 

Friday’s attack underscored the formidable threat that al-Shabab poses for Somalia’s military, despite government successes against the al-Qaida-allied militants last year.  
…

Plainclothes security officers in Tunisia detained a prominent critic of President Kais Saied in the early hours of Saturday after a military court ruling, his lawyer told Agence France-Presse.

Seifeddine Makhlouf had been found guilty of insulting police during a standoff at Tunis airport in March 2021.

Makhlouf, head of Islamist nationalist party Al-Karama, shouted “down with the coup” and “long live Tunisia” before being bundled into a car, according to a Facebook video posted by the lawyer.

Rights groups say military trials of civilians have become increasingly common in Tunisia since a power grab by Saied.

Tunis military appeals court on Friday sentenced Makhlouf to 14 months in prison with immediate effect, his lawyer Ines Harrath told AFP.

A court had initially sentenced him to five months’ jail.

“Around 25 officers in plainclothes surrounded his house at 11 p.m.,” Harrath said.

After a two-hour standoff, “they came into the house and he left with them.”

Makhlouf has been a prominent critic of Saied, who in July 2021 froze parliament and seized far-reaching executive powers in what critics have called a “coup” and an attack on the only democracy to have emerged from the Arab Spring uprisings more than a decade ago.

Saied later took control of the judiciary and pushed through a new constitution giving his office almost unlimited powers.

Makhlouf in March 2021 led a group of Al-Karama MPs to Tunis airport in a bid to force authorities to lift a travel ban against a woman barred from boarding her flight, sparking a standoff that was widely shared online.

The court on Friday also sentenced several other Al-Karama members and a lawyer to shorter prison sentences, but they were not immediately detained.

The head of the National Salvation Front opposition alliance told journalists on Saturday that the rulings reflected “a mentality of vengeance.”

“We’re seeing the killing of freedoms and the destruction of democracy,” Ahmed Nejib Chebbi said. “There’s a desire to decapitate the leadership of the civilian and political opposition.”

A statement on the presidency’s Facebook late on Friday called for efforts to “tackle all the corrupt and those who believe they are above the law.”

Makhlouf also received a year-long suspended prison sentence last February for “attacking the dignity of the army” after losing his parliamentary immunity following Saied’s power grab.

He was also banned from working as a lawyer for five years.

A military court upheld the one-year prison sentence in June but his lawyer in that case said he would appeal.

“Putting civilians on trial in military courts is an attack on freedoms,” Harrath said. “This case is related to the defendants’ positions on Kais Saied.”
…

Large numbers of Eritrean troops have left the town of Shire in Ethiopia’s Tigray Region, where they fought in support of government forces during a two-year civil war, a resident and two humanitarian workers told Reuters Saturday.

The Eritrean forces’ continuing presence in Tigray despite a November cease-fire agreement between Ethiopia’s government and Tigray regional forces that requires the withdrawal of foreign soldiers is seen as a key obstacle to a lasting peace.

The Tigray war is believed to have resulted in tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of deaths and forced millions to flee their homes.

It was not immediately clear if the troops’ movements out of Shire, one of Tigray’s largest towns, was part of an Eritrean withdrawal from the region or merely a redeployment.

Witnesses and an Ethiopian official reported last month that Eritrean soldiers were leaving Shire and two other major towns, but many ended up staying behind.  

Eritrean Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel did not immediately respond to requests for comment.  

A Shire resident said the Eritrean convoys were seen leaving the town early in the morning until about 5 p.m. Friday.

“I have counted 300 cars,” said the resident, who asked not to be identified for safety reasons. “They left with their heavy weapons too.”

A humanitarian worker in Shire, who also requested anonymity, told Reuters he had seen hundreds of cars packed with soldiers headed north toward the border. All Eritrean troops in the town seemed to have left by Friday evening, he said.

A second aid worker said hundreds of Eritrean vehicles had left Shire but that some soldiers remained in the town.

Redwan Hussien, the Ethiopian prime minister’s national security advisor and a member of the government’s negotiating team, did not respond to a request by Reuters for comment.

Neither did Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) spokesman Getachew Reda.

During the war, Eritrean troops were accused by residents and human rights groups of various abuses, including the killing of hundreds of civilians in the town of Axum during a 24-hour period in November 2020. Eritrea rejected the accusations.

Eritrea considers the TPLF, which leads Tigrayan forces, its enemy. Eritrea and Ethiopia fought a border war between 1998 and 2000, when the TPLF dominated the federal government.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Saturday helped kick off a new rural electrification project in Senegal that will bring reliable power to 350,000 people, while supporting some 500 jobs in 14 U.S. states.

Yellen traveled to the site of the project, led by Illinois-based engineering firm Weldy Lamont, as part of a three-country trip to Africa that aims to expand U.S.-African ties and address challenges such as climate change, food security and debt.

The new project received technical assistance from the U.S. Power Africa initiative, capacity building through the U.S.

Agency for Trade and Development, and a $91 million loan guarantee from the Export-Import Bank, Yellen said.  

“Our goal is to further deepen our economic relationship and to invest in expanding energy access in a way that uses renewable resources spread across the continent,” she said.

Senegal has among the highest rates of electrification across Sub-Saharan Africa – between 70% and 80% – but access to electricity remains far more limited in rural areas.

Such disparities can hinder opportunities for households and businesses in areas otherwise ripe for economic development, Yellen said. The project includes an important renewable energy element with a solar grid to power 70 villages.

“This groundbreaking will create a higher quality of life in many communities, and it will help Senegal’s economy grow and prosper. It will also help Senegal get one step closer to its goal of universal electricity access by 2025,” she said.

Yellen, who met women and youth entrepreneurs Friday in Dakar, said the electrification project would allow Senegal to rely on energy sources that are within its borders, cost effective and not prone to the kind of volatility in energy prices sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

She said the U.S. Power Africa project has helped connect 165 million people to reliable electricity across Africa. Its goal is to add at least 30,000 megawatts of cleaner and more reliable electricity generation capacity and 60 million new home and business connections by 2030.
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Tanzania’s main opposition party held Saturday its first mass rally since the lifting of a ban imposed in 2016, raising hopes the government is committed to increased political freedom in the East African nation.

“It was not easy after those seven years of banning political meetings,” the director for communications and foreign affairs for the Chadema party, Jon Mrema, told cheering supporters.  

Thousands of Chadema supporters gathered at the Furahisha grounds in the lakeside city of Mwanza, draped in the party’s blue, red and white colors.  

“We have been silent for almost seven years but finally, our right is restored, and we are ready to move ahead,” Mwanza resident and party supporter Mary Dismas said.  

President Samia Suluhu Hassan this month lifted the ban introduced by her hardline predecessor John Magufuli, who was nicknamed “Bulldozer” for his uncompromising leadership style.

The government’s change of heart comes as Hassan, in power for 22 months, seeks to break with some of Magufuli’s policies.

The move was cautiously welcomed as a gain for democracy by rights groups and the country’s opposition parties.  

Magufuli had banned political rallies early in his tenure, saying it was time for work, not politics.

But critics said the ban applied only to opposition groups, with the ruling party free to assemble, and rival gatherings were violently broken up by police and their officials jailed.

‘Opening new page’ 

There was early optimism when Hassan, the first woman elected as the country’s president, reached out to rivals, reopened banned media outlets and reversed some of Magufuli’s most controversial policies.

But her presidency fell under a shadow when Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe, along with a number of other senior party officials, were arrested in July 2021 just hours before they were to hold a public forum urging constitutional reforms.

Mbowe, who spent seven months in prison on terrorism charges, is attending the Saturday rally, organized in the port city where they were arrested.

“We are now going to strongly campaign for a new constitution and an independent electoral commission,” Dismas told AFP.  

Chadema officials said a series of grassroots rallies had been lined up.  

“We will organize as many rallies as possible to reach all wards and villages in the country,” said Sharifa Suleiman, acting chairperson of the Chadema women’s wing.  

“This is our time to build the grounds for 2025 elections,” she said.

Another official, Hashim Juma Issa, said the party was “opening up a new page” as it celebrated its 30th anniversary.
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The government of Cameroon and some separatist factions in the English-speaking regions of the country have agreed to begin a process aimed at resolving a conflict that has killed over 6,000 people, Canada’s foreign ministry said.

“Canada welcomes the agreement by the parties to enter a process to reach a comprehensive, peaceful and political resolution of the conflict,” foreign minister M Mélanie Joly, said in a statement on Friday.

The statement said Canada had accepted a mandate to facilitate the process and the parties have agreed to form technical committees to begin work on confidence-building measures.

The armed conflict, which began in 2017, stems from a perceived marginalization of Cameroon’s English-speaking community by the French-speaking majority in the central African state.

Since then, factions of secessionist militias have been battling government troops in the two English-speaking regions in an attempt to form a breakaway state called Ambazonia.

A 2019 national dialogue that granted special status to the two Anglophone regions failed to resolve the conflict which has escalated. Nearly 800,000 people have been displaced, and 600,000 children do not have full access to education, Canada said.

“The parties to this agreement are the Republic of Cameroon, the Ambazonia Governing Council and the Ambazonia Defence Force, the African People’s Liberation Movement and the Southern Cameroons Defence Force, the Interim Government, and the Ambazonia Coalition Team. The parties further express the hope that other groups will join the process,” the statement said.

A spokesman for government did not immediately reply to a request for comment on Saturday. Spokespersons for the separatist factions could not be reached for comments.

 
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Soldiers rescued a group of 62 women and four babies abducted by suspected jihadis last week in northern Burkina Faso, state television and a security source said Friday. 

The news came just hours after security sources said a series of attacks on Thursday had left around 30 people dead in the volatile West African nation that has been battling an insurgency since 2015. 

The abduction of the women and babies last week prompted alarm from the United Nations, while the country’s military junta warned of a rise in jihadi attacks on civilians.  

In its main evening news bulletin, Burkina Faso’s RTB channel, referring to an army operation, showed images of the women freed on Friday and brought to the capital, Ouagadougou. 

Several security sources confirmed the news to AFP. 

The women and babies were abducted last week on Thursday and Friday near Arbinda, in the northern Sahel region, as they foraged for food outside their village. 

Security sources said they were found in the Tougouri region, 200 kilometers further south. Helicopters flew them to Ouagadougou, where they were met by senior army officers.  

“Their debriefing will allow us to know more about their abductors, their detention and their convoy,” one security source said. 

The authorities had mobilized search teams on the ground and in the air to trace the women. 

Parts of Burkina Faso, including the Sahel region, have for months been under a blockade by jihadi groups in the region, making it increasingly difficult to supply the communities there. 

The resulting shortages forced local people to leave the safety of their villages to search for food. 

News of the women’s return came as security sources reported four attacks by suspected jihadist attacks Thursday, killing 30 people, including 16 members of a civilian auxiliary supporting the army. 
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The family of a Tanzanian student who was in prison in Russia says it has confirmation that he was killed fighting for Russia’s Wagner Group of mercenaries in Ukraine.

Tanzanian media reported that Nemes Tarimo, 33, had been arrested on drug-related charges in Russia and was told he’d be released if he fought in Ukraine.

Tarimo’s relatives said that in late December, they received information about his death from some of his friends in Russia. They later got confirmation of his death from the Tanzanian Embassy in Moscow. They said there were reports that Tarimo was killed in the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, a site of heavy fighting in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Those reports have not been confirmed.

No one in Tarimo’s family has seen his body yet. A video circulating on social media shows men in military fatigues holding candles around a casket. In the video, a picture of Tarimo, two medals and a certificate are placed on the casket, which is draped with a Wagner flag.

Rehema Kigobe, Tarimo’s sister, said the family does not fully understand what happened to him. She said his relatives were hurt because they had seen news circulating that showed he’d been killed fighting for Russia, something they were not aware he was doing. She said he’d received a master’s scholarship to study in Russia.

No military training

Some family members, like Alphone John, Tarimo’s grandfather, were shocked by the news that he’d been on the battlefield.

“We wonder how he managed to go to the war, because he has never undergone any military training, even at the primary level when he left here,” John said through a translator.

Tarimo’s mother, Luoida Sambulika, said her son was polite, God-fearing and supportive.

“Nemes grew up to be a very handsome young man,” she said through a translator. “He has been very respectful, calm and kind. He used to come out of school, and often you’ll find him at his computer, doing his work. He was not a person who prefers bad groups.”

Last year, a Zambian national who had also been arrested on drug charges and convicted in Russia died in Ukraine while fighting for Wagner. Like Tarimo, Lemekhani Nyirenda was promised his freedom if he worked as a mercenary.

Several other Africans who immigrated to Russia reportedly were recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Tarimo’s body apparently remains in Russia. The Tanzanian Embassy originally said it would be brought back to Tanzania by January 10. The embassy remains in touch with the family members and says it will notify them when Tarimo makes his last journey home.
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Four suspected jihadi attacks have left about 30 people dead in Burkina Faso, including 16 volunteers backing up the army, security sources said Friday.

The attacks, which happened on Thursday, were the latest to hit a civilian auxiliary force supporting the military in their seven-year fight against jihadis in the volatile West African nation.

Since 2015, Burkina Faso has been grappling with an insurgency led by jihadis affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group that has killed tens of thousands and displaced around 2 million people.

The “first attack targeted an advance party of Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP) in Rakoegtenga,” a town in the northern province of Bam, a VDP official said on condition of anonymity.

Six auxiliaries and a woman died in the attack, he said.

Around 10 people were wounded, some seriously, and were “evacuated to Ouagadougou for appropriate care,” the VDP official said.

He said the second attack killed about 10 auxiliaries and a person in Nayala province in the northwest “in the afternoon when a convoy escorted by auxiliaries and soldiers was ambushed.”

Security sources confirmed two attacks but gave no death toll, referring only to “a number of losses.”

The VDP, set up in December 2019, is made up of civilian volunteers who are given two weeks of military training and then work alongside the army, typically carrying out surveillance, information-gathering or escort duties.

Two other incidents linked to armed jihadi groups were recorded on Thursday, according to other security sources. In the north-central province of Sanmatenga, a joint military and VDP team was targeted in Zincko, one of them said.

“About 10 terrorists were neutralized [killed]. Unfortunately, four civilians were also killed,” the source said.

Later in the evening, gunmen raided the town of Sanaba in Banwa province, killing eight civilians.

Some commentators worry that the poorly trained volunteers are easy targets for jihadis and may dangerously inflame ethnic friction without proper controls.

Late last year, authorities launched a drive to recruit 50,000 VDP — 90,000 signed up — but hundreds of volunteers have died, especially in ambushes or roadside bomb attacks.

Violence targeting security forces and civilians has increased in recent months, especially in northern and eastern regions bordering jihadi-hit Mali and Niger.

The escalating toll unleashed two military coups last year, launched by officers angered at failures to stem the bloodshed.
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Security officials in Kenya say they have killed 10 suspected al-Shabab militants in Kenya’s northeast, just a week after militants there killed four engineers near a regional development project. 

Security officials say the operation targeted an al-Shabab hideout in Kenya’s Garissa County, the scene of many al-Shabab attacks in the past. 

“The operation took place in the wee hours of Wednesday morning and our multi-agency security team managed to neutralize 10 militants in the Bon, Galamagala division of Bura East sub-county,” said Thomas Bett, deputy county commissioner.

Bett told the Reuters news agency that agents recovered rocket-propelled grenades and improvised explosive devices during the operation. 

He told VOA that security agencies have heightened their operations in Garissa and said they will flush out the al-Shabab elements from the area.

“The operation was an intelligence led and we are saying we will sustain the operation to get rid of these al-Shabab elements, who have become a menace,” Bett said.

The incident comes barely a week after the Islamist group killed four engineers at a Chinese construction site for the Lapsset transportation project. 

Bett urged the public to give information to authorities and report anything suspicious.

“As a government we continue asking the people to share any crucial information, let them have confidence in the government, and that the government is going to protect them under whatever means,” he said.

Somalia-based al-Shabab has been active in Kenya since 2011, when Kenya first contributed troops to the African Union-led peacekeeping mission in Somalia.

The Islamist militant group killed nearly 150 people at Garissa University College in 2015.  

 
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U.S. officials say food insecurity in Africa will worsen this year because of climate change, conflict, and market disruptions caused partly by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Speaking online to journalists Thursday from Malawi, Cary Fowler, special envoy for Global Food Security, said looking for solutions is key.

“As much as I wish I could bring the hopeful message that the food crisis will be over this year, we have to recognize that the chief drivers of the food crisis are still with us,” Fowler said. “And it behooves us, therefore, to be looking at solutions for all of those, or adaptive measures. That’s the situation as I see it today.”

According to the 2022 Global Food Crisis Report, one in every five Africans goes to bed hungry, and at least 140 million people on the continent face acute food insecurity.

African farmers continue to practice traditional farming methods, but the weather has been unpredictable in recent years, causing farmers to produce less food. Farmers complain about high seed and fertilizer prices and a failure to produce enough food for the population.

Drought also has contributed to food insecurity in some parts of the continent, particularly the Horn of Africa, destroying livestock and crops and forcing people to rely on humanitarian assistance for food and medicine.

In 2022, the U.S. government invested $11 billion in humanitarian assistance in 55 countries, including some from Africa.

Dina Esposito, the USAID Global Food Crisis Coordinator, said her government is also supporting African farmers in producing their own food to overcome hunger and food insecurity.

“We have also got a global hunger initiative that is exactly focused on what are the right systems and approaches to advancing agriculture, taking that very localized context in mind, advancing drip irrigation and other forms of water-saving measures where it makes sense, helping farmers adapt to a changing climate in other ways, fundamentally always looking – we see our role really as helping these farmers shift from subsistence farming to more intensified and sustainable production,” she said.

Esposito also said the U.S. government is committed to partnering with leaders to advance global food insecurity and solve global hunger.

Koech Oscar teaches land, resource management and agricultural technology at the University of Nairobi. He said no single African country can solve the food crisis alone, and there is a need for a regional approach to deal with growing hunger on the continent.

“We need our nations to work together because of our connectedness. We are one ecosystem at the end of the day, our animals are in Uganda. Some of them are going to Tanzania and others are coming in, so we need to have regional strategists to support our communities because these are regional problems and we need to see significant investment in this production, especially in agriculture,” he said. “You look at the national budgets of these African countries, how much goes into agriculture because we cannot have a peaceful nation, we cannot have a prosperous nation, development, without people producing food for themselves and enough food for themselves.”

Last October, African ministers of agriculture meeting in Ethiopia pledged to support sustainable food security, transform food systems, and build a viable commercial agricultural ecosystem on the continent.
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Investigators now believe that last week’s raid by suspected jihadis in Burkina Faso led to the abduction of around 60 women, girls and babies, a regional prosecutor said Thursday. 

Earlier reports had suggested that around 50 women had been taken, said a statement from the prosecutor for the northern Djibo region, Issouf Ouedraogo. 

But police now think that girls and newborns were among those abducted, he added, announcing the opening of a new investigation. 

On Wednesday, the Burkinabe Movement for Human Rights said it had drawn up a “non-exhaustive” list of 61 women it said had been abducted, which included at least 26 who were younger than 18. 

The organization called on the authorities to do more to protect people living in the threatened regions, including ensuring access to humanitarian aid. 

The victims of the abductions were seized while out gathering wild fruit and other food, the prosecutor’s statement added. 

Jihadis regularly prey upon the town of Arbinda, near where the women and children were taken. It was the increasingly scarce deliveries of supplies to the town that drove the women to venture out to forage. 

On Monday, Rodolphe Sorgho, the lieutenant governor of the Sahel region, said search teams were operating on the ground and in the air to try to trace the group. 

Jihadis from both the Islamic State group and al-Qaida have been raiding Burkina Faso, particularly the northern half of the country, since 2015. 

During that period, their attacks have killed thousands and driven at least 2 million others to flee their homes. 
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