Three days of talks between Sudan’s military and civilian leaders continued Monday, with the aim of reaching a final deal on governing during a two-year transition to elections

Sudan’s ruling military has vowed the army will come under civilian authority as the two sides hammer out a final agreement.

The spokesman for the civilian side, Khalid Omer Yousif, addressed the media Monday at a press conference in Khartoum broadcast by the state-run Sudan News Agency.

He said this was an opportunity for all Sudanese to engage and cooperate with the regional and international community to achieve the high national interests of the country.

At a launch of the final phase of the political process Sunday, Sudan’s army chief General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan repeated the military’s vow to place itself under a civilian government.  

His speech was also broadcast by Sudan’s state news agency.  

He said it is the military’s conviction that soon there will be a true civilian government established in Sudan, one that will fulfill the aspirations and ambitions of the Sudanese people towards a free, just, and peaceful state.

The army chief gave no details on when the military would step aside but said it would keep its word to leave politics. He also applauded efforts by regional and international partners to help end Sudan’s political crisis.  

Al-Burhan overthrew a transitional, civilian government led by former Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok in October 2021, citing a lack of attention to alleged threats.  

The coup came just weeks before the military was to hand power to civilian authorities, sparking international condemnation and a withdrawal of foreign aid.

Sudan’s pro-democracy groups have staged near weekly protests ever since, demanding the military step down.

Security forces have frequently clashed with the protesters, leaving scores dead — almost all of them protesters.  

The African Union, Intergovernmental Authority on Development, and the U.N. — known as the “Trilateral” mechanism — have been mediating in Sudan with the aim of breaking the deadlock.

The talks are expected to include reforming Sudan’s security forces.
…

Cameroon’s second largest employer, the state-run Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC), is calling for thousands of plantation workers who fled the country’s separatist conflict to return to work. About half the company’s 20,000 workers left more than four years ago over unpaid wages and after deadly and brutal attacks. The company last week said it was safe to return, but workers are skeptical and say it should first rebuild homes destroyed or damaged in the conflict.

The CDC said it wants thousands of workers back at banana, palm oil, and rubber plantations in the restive Southwest region. Managers of the state-run giant on Monday visited towns and villages in the region to meet with workers who fled unrest in 2018 and ask them to return.  

Cameroon Agricultural and Allied Workers Trade Union President Gabriel Mbene Vefonge, who was part of the delegation, said the corporation has promised to pay back wages to those workers who return.  

“Most of them are doing mean (menial) jobs in many areas of this country, so we are calling them to come back,” he said. “Their security is being guaranteed by the state and we have seen in the last six months there is relative calm. For those who had wounds, we think that their wounds are healed, and the CDC management is taking care of them. Our members should come back to work.”

Cameroon’s military says it has chased the rebels from the plantations, which armed groups used for training camps.  

In 2018, the rebels ordered workers to leave the plantations and warned that those who refused would be attacked.  

Authorities say the armed groups chopped off fingers of scores of workers suspected of collaborating with the government and torched hundreds of homes, schools, and factories.

William Lekunja, a worker at a plantation in Meanja, said he escaped in 2018. He said he will only return if the company improves work and living conditions in villages damaged in the conflict.

“They cannot eat well because what they have is too meager,” he said. “Others who have gone there came back with testimonies. Their hospitals bills are paid by themselves, there is no good housing for them, no good water for them.”

Cameroon’s government says some of the company’s former workers are owed more than two years’ back pay. The company has vowed to pay back wages but says the conflict and exodus of workers led to a massive drop in production and sales.

The government says sales and revenue increased after about 2,000 workers returned in 2021 and 2022.

CDC general manager Franklin Ngoni Njie said if the remaining 8,000 workers return, the company’s sales will return to previous levels. 

He said they would then be able to afford paying back salaries and reconstructing destroyed buildings.

“The solution is getting back to work,” he said. “Working and making money, money to help pay wages.  To pay those who are working, just salaries alone, costs the corporation about 900 million francs.  It is difficult to get that amount of money, but that notwithstanding, we will try to do what must be done to continue to operate.”

Cameroon’s separatist conflict was sparked in 2016 when predominantly English-speaking western regions protested discrimination by the country’s French-speaking majority.

Cameroon’s military responded with a crackdown and rebels took up arms claiming to defend the English-speaking minority.

The U.N. says the conflict has since left 3,500 people dead and 750,000 displaced.
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The Suez Canal Authority said Monday that a cargo ship carrying corn that went aground in the Egyptian waterway was refloated and canal traffic was restored. 

Canal services firm Leth Agencies said the vessel, MV Glory, ran aground near the city of Qantara, in the Suez Canal province of Ismailia. The firm said three canal tugboats had been working to refloat the vessel. 

Officials had no details on what caused the ship to hit ground. Parts of Egypt, including its northern provinces, experienced a wave of bad weather Sunday. 

Satellite tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed the Glory in a single-lane stretch of the Suez Canal just south of Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea. 

Leth Agencies later posted a graphic that suggested the Glory was against the west bank of the canal, pointed south and not wedged across the channel. It identified the three tugs aiding the vessel as the Port Said, Svitzer Suez 1 and Ali Shalabi.  

It wasn’t the first vessel to run aground in the crucial waterway. The Panama-flagged Ever Given, a colossal container ship, crashed into a bank on a single-lane stretch of the canal in March 2021, blocking the waterway for six days. 

The Ever Given was freed in a giant salvage operation by a flotilla of tugboats. The blockage created a massive traffic jam that held up $9 billion a day in global trade and strained supply chains already burdened by the coronavirus pandemic. 

The Ever Given debacle prompted Egyptian authorities to begin widening and deepening the waterway’s southern part where the vessel hit ground. 

In August, the Singaporean-flagged Affinity V oil tanker ran aground in a single-lane stretch of the canal, blocking the waterway for five hours before it was freed. 

The Joint Coordination Center listed the Glory as carrying over 65,000 metric tons of corn from Ukraine bound for China. 

The Glory was inspected by the Joint Coordination Center off Istanbul on January 3. The center includes Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian and United Nations staffers. 

Opened in 1869, the Suez Canal provides a crucial link for oil, natural gas and cargo. It also remains one of Egypt’s top foreign currency earners. In 2015, the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi completed a major expansion of the canal, allowing it to accommodate the world’s largest vessels. 

The Glory is 225-meters (738-feet) long. 

Editor’s note: The story has been updated with additional details and some background information. 
…

Kenyan police have arrested more suspects over the killing of LGBTQ activist Edwin Chiloba, whose mutilated body was found on a roadside stuffed in a metal trunk, media reports said Sunday.    

Rights campaigners have issued calls for heightened efforts to protect members of the LGBTQ community after Chiloba’s violent death in the Rift Valley of western Kenya.    

Police on Friday said they had arrested a freelance photographer said to be a longtime friend of the 25-year-old victim, a leading activist in the LGBTQ community in Kenya as well as a model and fashion designer.    

On Saturday another three suspects were detained for their alleged role in disposing of his remains, media reports said, quoting police officials.     

Chiloba’s body was discovered about 40 kilometers (25 miles) outside the Rift Valley town of Eldoret after it was reportedly dumped from a moving car.    

The Star newspaper reported that a post-mortem would be carried out on Monday, while the family was preparing for a burial on Saturday.    

“He died a painful death,” an unidentified police officer based in Eldoret told the media last week. “They must have tortured him and then gouged out his eye. It appears he was strangled.”  

U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk said on Saturday he was “shaken” by Chiloba’s death.     

“Standing in solidarity with LGBTQ!+ activists around the world. Urgent need to redouble efforts for their protection,” he said on Twitter.    

His call was echoed by the African Union’s human rights commissioner Solomon Ayele Dersso who issued a statement Saturday condemning Chiloba’s killing and saying it appeared it was “a result of hate.”    

Dersso urged Kenya to initiate a “transparent, thorough, and prompt investigation” into the murder and bring those responsible to justice.     

He also called on Kenya and other AU members to take measures to ensure that “all vulnerable members of society, including those who are or are perceived to be different from the mainstream members of society including on account of their sexual or gender identity, are guaranteed to live a life free from the threat of violent attacks.”      

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said Chiloba’s death followed the unsolved murders of several other rights advocates for sexual minorities, Sheila Lumumba, Erica Chandra and Joash Mosoti.     

“The continued targeting of those perceived to be different is worrying,” the state-run but independent rights watchdog said.    

“The National Police Service should step up efforts to ensure Kenyans feel safe and are not arbitrarily attacked or targeted for their perceived beliefs or associations,” it added.     

Amnesty International called for “speedy investigations into (Chiloba’s) brutal murder,” saying “no human life is worth less than another’s.” 
…

Officials say at least 20 people died and 49 were injured in a bus crash in Kenya.

Authorities say the accident happened Saturday shortly after the bus crossed the Ugandan border into Lwakhakha, Kenya.

Rogers Taitika, a Ugandan regional spokesman, told Agence France Presse that “Preliminary findings point to a case of over speeding by the bus driver,” causing him to lose control of the vehicle.

The bus, headed for Nairobi, the Kenya capital, began its trip from the Ugandan city of Mbale.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
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Forty people were killed and 85 were injured when two buses crashed in a head-on collision overnight on an arterial road in Senegal’s central Kaffrine region, the government said on Sunday.

Images of the incident showed the completely mangled front end of a white bus, with blood-flecked seats, personal items and a shoe strewn around the tree-lined crash site.

Road accidents are common in Senegal, largely because of driver error, poor roads and decrepit vehicles, say experts, but the latest disaster has caused one of the heaviest losses of life from a single incident in recent years.

In a statement, the government announced three days of national mourning beginning Monday, with flags to be flown at half-mast throughout the country.

President Macky Sall will visit the crash site just outside of the village of Sikilo on Sunday, it said.

“In view of this tragedy, the head of state extends his deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wishes a speedy recovery to the injured,” the government said.

Public prosecutor, Cheikh Dieng, said in a statement that early investigations suggested a public passenger bus suffered a burst tire and swerved off course.

It then crashed “head-on with another bus coming in the opposite direction,” he said.

‘Tragic’

The statement said the incident happened around 0330 GMT.

It is “a tragic accident,” Kaffrine mayor Abdoulaye Saidu Sow, who is also the Minister of Urbanism, told AFP.

Speaking from Kaffrine, he said President Sall would be joined there by the prime minister and several other ministers on Sunday.

Opposition politician Ousmane Sonko announced on Twitter that he would postpone a scheduled fundraising program in light of the accident.

“We bow before the memory of the deceased, offer our very sincere condolences to their grieving loved ones and to all Senegalese and pray for the merciful rest of their souls as well as a speedy recovery for the injured,” he said.

Colonel Cheikh Fall, who heads operations for the National Fire Brigade, told AFP the victims were taken to a hospital and medical center in Kaffrine.

The wreckage has since been cleared and normal traffic has resumed on the road, he said.

The governor and local officials have visited the scene, he added.

In a tweet, President Sall said that after the period of national mourning finished, a government council will be held to “take firm measures on road safety.”

In October 2020, at least 16 people were killed and 15 more injured when a bus collided with a refrigerated lorry in western Senegal.

The bus, with a 60-seat capacity, was heading to Rosso near the border with Mauritania, the fire brigade said, adding that the number of people onboard was unknown.

Local media said at the time that the truck was hauling fish to Dakar.
…

Benin votes for a new parliament Sunday with opposition candidates authorized to stand in the legislative elections after four years of absence.

Sunday’s vote will be a key test for the West African nation, where President Patrice Talon’s supporters say he has ushered in political and economic development, but critics argue that his mandate has eroded democracy.

At the last parliamentary votes in 2019, the opposition was de facto barred from participating after a tightening of electoral regulations.

Only two political movements allied with Talon were authorized to participate then, leading to a parliament controlled by pro-government parties.

The 2019 legislative elections were also marred by violence, record abstention and an internet shutdown, rare events in a country once seen as a model of democracy in West Africa.

On Sunday seven political parties, including three allied with the opposition, have been authorized to take part in the election.

But most of Talon’s main opponents are either in prison or in exile.

Reckya Madougou has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for “terrorism,” while Joel Aivo — an academic — was given 10 years in prison for “conspiracy against the authority of state” in December 2021.

Both were tried by a special court dealing with terrorism and economic crimes, known as the CRIET. Critics say the court, created by Talon’s government in 2016, has been used to crack down on his opponents.

Around 6.6 million voters are eligible to elect 109 deputies Sunday, including at least 24 women — at least one per constituency — according to a new electoral code.

Beyond the opposition’s drive to reclaim seats in parliament, Sunday’s election will impact the future of some of the other institutions in the small country, which sits between Nigeria and Togo.

The mandate of the Constitutional Court ends this year and, three years before the 2026 presidential ballot, the court’s composition is crucial as it oversees decisions on elections.

Four judges are appointed by lawmakers while the other three are chosen by the president. A wealthy businessman, Talon was elected in 2016 and reelected in 2021.
…

The Somali government and the al-Shabab militant group have each denied having peace talks.

The denial came Saturday after Abdulfatah Kasim Mohamud, a deputy defense minister and member of the parliament, said the militant group had requested talks with the government.

A senior government official later officially denied receiving a request from the militant group.

“We have not received any requests from the group,” National Security Adviser Hussein Sheikh Ali told Voice of America Somali. “The minister said he was misquoted.”

Ali said the Somali government’s position on al-Shabab has not changed.

“Our policy towards talks with Alshabab remains the same,” he wrote in a message via WhatsApp.

“We aren’t negotiating with them as a group. However, individuals who wish to leave the group will undergo a thorough process to defect and be eligible for government amnesty formally,” he added.

The militant group has also denied the existence of any talks with the Somali government. A website affiliated with al-Shabab said the deputy defense minister’s claim that the group requested talks is “baseless.”

“I can confirm that there aren’t and can be no talks between us,” a militant official told the website. The official was said to be from the group’s media department, but his name was not published.

The al-Shabab official further ruled out the possibility of talks with Villa Somalia, the seat of Somalia’s government.

In the past, the group has expressed distrust in opening dialogue with the Somali government.

In January 2018, the group’s official spokesperson, Ali Mohamud Rage, known as Ali Dhere, said dialogue is “more dangerous than the weapons of mass destruction.”

“We heard from the infidels and apostates repeatedly stating that they are open to talks with the mujahedeen,” he told al-Shabab’s radio Andalus. “This is how the infidels use dialogue, as an approach to misguide the Muslims and destroy Muslim causes.”

He said the aim was to divide (the Mujahedeen) into groups, “so that they can support the group they see as moderates.”

Saturday, the president of Somalia, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, appointed Abdullahi Mohamed Nor as a senior presidential adviser for preventing and countering violent extremism. Nor had served as the country’s Minister of Internal Security until August this year.
…

Somali president Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has called on young al-Shabab fighters he says are “brainwashed” to surrender to the government amid ongoing military offensives against the group.

Speaking at a mosque in the country’s capital Friday, Mohamud, who last year after his election for second term declared an “all-out war” against the Islamist insurgents, also called on the al-Shabab fighters to denounce the terrorist ideology before it is too late.

His remarks came after the militants carried out two attacks on government forces in Somalia’s central region in two days, killing more than 43 people including senior officers.

He said he wants to tell the boys to return from the wrong path they are taking. He urged them to return to their government, to their people and to their religion. He said every step they take from now on will only increase their guilt.

The president’s message comes as Somali forces, backed by locals, continue battling the group in the “total war” he declared on the militants.  Government forces have liberated large swathes of territory from the group, mainly in the south-central state of Hirshabelle.

Speaking to state-run television in Mogadishu, Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre said an investigation is underway into soldiers who were arrested on suspicion of facilitating the al-Shabab attack on the Villa Rays Hotel in Mogadishu in late November.  

Barre did not say how many soldiers were involved.

He says all the soldiers who were working that day have been arrested and an investigation is currently underway. He says he wants the ongoing investigation to be successful and impartial.

The hotel attack claimed by the militant group al-Shabab killed at least 13 people, including five al-Shabab attackers.

The popular Villa Rays hotel was located near the presidential palace in Mogadishu and was frequented by senior government and security officials.

The Somali government has been fighting al-Shabab for more than 15 years.  The Islamist group carries out deadly attacks in the Horn of Africa nation targeting government officials and African Union peacekeepers.
…

“I was able to come this year because there is peace,” says Asme Mamo as he joins crowds of worshippers celebrating Orthodox Christmas in the historic Ethiopian town of Lalibela.

Two months after a cease-fire deal between the Ethiopian government and Tigray rebels to end two years of devastating war, Africa’s largest Christian site is alive with excitement and religious fervor as the faithful flock to Lalibela for the festivities.

A white tide of tens of thousands of worshippers of all ages, draped in their immaculate “netela” [a shawl covering the head and shoulders], thronged the UNESCO World Heritage Site and its magnificent rock-hewn 12th and 13th century churches.  

In recent years, the crowds were much sparser in the Amhara town, one of Ethiopia’s holiest and most storied places.

Lalibela lies only 40 kilometers as the crow flies from Tigray, where the conflict erupted between government forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, in November 2020, spilling over periodically into neighboring regions.

The town itself was at the center of a fierce struggle between the warring sides, changing hands four times during the fighting, although the ancient churches appear to have been spared the scars of war.  

Seized by Tigray rebels in an offensive in mid-2021, it was recaptured by pro-government forces on December 1, 2021, before falling back into the hands of TPLF fighters 10 days later. The rebels finally left Lalibela at the end of December that year after they announced a withdrawal to their Tigray stronghold.  

A surprise peace deal was signed last November 2 in the South African capital Pretoria to silence the guns in northern Ethiopia and allow the gradual resumption of humanitarian aid and the restoration of basic services – communications, electricity, banking, transport – in Tigray, long cut off from the outside world.

‘So many people’

“I wanted to come last year but I couldn’t because of the war,” says Asme, who traveled from Wolkait in western Tigray, a disputed area claimed by both the Amhara and Tigrayan ethnic groups.  

“I didn’t expect so many people to be here,” says the 30-year-old science teacher of Amhara origin.  

The Pretoria agreement has allowed traffic to resume in northern Ethiopia, so Asme came to Lalibela by bus with fellow pilgrims from his home village.  

Others arrived on foot from surrounding villages, by car, or by plane from the capital Addis Ababa and abroad from countries such as Britain, German and the United States.

Asme described the atmosphere of the festival as “special.”

“Even the greetings among each other are unique because people have missed each other. Everybody is excited about peace.”

Lalibela’s high priest Kengeta Belay said he was “overwhelmed” by the numbers joining the celebrations.

“This is the benefit of peace. People are coming from all four directions to worship freely without fear of anything… My joy is boundless.”

“I have been attending the festivities for over 40 years. I was born and raised here and became a priest. This year’s celebration is the biggest crowd of pilgrims I’ve ever seen,” smiled the 55-year-old clergyman, just minutes before the start of a night of candlelit ceremonies.

‘Prayers for freedom’  

Massed in and around Lalibela’s unique complex of churches – but also on surrounding hills and even in trees, the faithful sang, prayed, ate, slept or enjoyed long discussions with their fellow pilgrims.

Songs, psalms and ululations rang out from Saint Mary’s church, the oldest of the 11 stone houses of worship and the heart of celebrations for Genna (Christmas in Amharic).

With her eyes closed and her head bent over a prayer stick, Bethlehem said she was savoring the “peaceful and joyful atmosphere” of the festivities.  

“Our country was unstable in the past few years, there was war. Thanks to God, all that has passed,” said the young banker from Addis Ababa, who did not want to give her family name or age.

“Today, I witnessed that peace is worth more than anything. My prayer and my wish is that God grants freedom for my country, for myself, and for all of us.”
…

Mali’s junta leader Friday pardoned all 49 Ivorian soldiers whose arrest in July triggered a bitter diplomatic row, a government spokesperson said, just a week after the courts sentenced them.

“Colonel Assimi Goita… granted a pardon with full remission of sentences to the 49 Ivorians convicted by the Malian justice system,” said a statement from government spokesperson Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, the minister for territorial administration and decentralization.

On Dec. 30, 46 soldiers were sentenced to 20 years in prison, while three women among the original 49, who had already been freed in early September, received death sentences in absentia.

They were convicted of an “attack and conspiracy against the government” and of seeking to undermine state security, public prosecutor Ladji Sara said in a statement at the time.

The trial opened in the capital Bamako on Dec. 29 and concluded the following day.

The court proceedings came in the run-up to a Sunday deadline set by leaders from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for Mali to release the soldiers or face sanctions.

Mali’s junta had branded the troops — who were detained after arriving at Bamako airport July 10 — as mercenaries.

Ivory Coast and the United Nations say the soldiers were flown in to provide routine backup security for the German contingent of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali.

Escalation

Relations between ECOWAS and Mali had already been strained before the arrests, since President Ibrahim Boubar Keita was toppled in August 2020 by officers angered at failures to roll back a jihadi insurgency.

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara is considered one of the most intransigent West African leaders toward Mali’s putschists.

The junta has so far resisted West African pressure and sanctions and remained in power, pledging to step down in February 2024.

It indicted the 49 soldiers in mid-August and has released no information about their health or well-being since.

Junta leader Goita had said he was open to talks “in the strict respect of the sovereignty of Mali,” according to a joint statement from the foreign ministers of Togo and Ivory Coast in July.

After the soldiers were arrested, the U.N. had acknowledged some procedural “dysfunctions” in a note addressed to the Malian government and admitted that “certain measures have not been followed.”

The Ivorian presidency had also acknowledged in September “shortcomings and misunderstandings,” after Mali had demanded an apology.

But the row escalated in September, when diplomatic sources in the region said Mali wanted Ivory Coast to acknowledge its responsibility and express regret for deploying the soldiers.

Bamako also wanted Ivory Coast to hand over people who had been on its territory since 2013 but who are wanted in Mali, they said.

Ivory Coast rejected both demands and was prepared for extended negotiations to free the men, the sources said.

“This hostage-taking will not be without consequences,” the Ivorian president said at the time.

That led Maiga, who was then interim prime minister, to denounce a “synchronization of actions” against Mali at the U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 24.

He denounced U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for having declared that the Ivorian soldiers were not mercenaries.

He also criticized ECOWAS leader Umaro Sissoco Embalo as well as the heads of state of Ivory Coast and Niger.

Friendship and brotherhood

An Ivorian delegation traveled to Mali for talks on the crisis before the trial opened, and the Ivorian defense ministry said it was “on the way to being resolved.”

An agreement reached between Mali and Ivory Coast had left the possibility open of a presidential pardon by Goita.

“The measure of pardon taken by the president of the transition thus reinforces the momentum created following the signing … of the Memorandum of Understanding on the promotion of peace and the strengthening of relations of friendship, brotherhood and good neighborliness between the Republic of Mali and the Republic of Ivory Coast,” Maiga said in the statement Friday.

The Malian government thanked Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe — who has been mediating in the row and had paid a “friendly working visit” to Bamako on Wednesday — “for his tireless efforts and constant commitment to dialogue and peace in the region.”

But it denounced the “aggressive position” of ECOWAS leader Embalo.
…

Kenyan police said Friday that they had arrested a suspect in the killing of an LGBTQ rights campaigner whose body was discovered stuffed in a metal trunk, a grisly crime that has sparked national outrage.

Edwin Chiloba, a 25-year-old fashion designer and model, was found dead by the roadside earlier this week about 40 kilometers (25 miles) outside the Rift Valley town of Eldoret, media reports said.

“We have a suspect in custody, and we are investigating his role in this murder,” said Peter Kimulwo, head of investigations at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations office in Eldoret.

“We are holding him as a prime suspect because there are leads pointing to him and others, but all these are subject to conclusive investigations,” he told reporters.

Kimulwo said the suspect was believed to have been a longtime friend of the victim, adding that police were also looking for people seen loading a metal container into a car at Chiloba’s home.

“He died a painful death,” an unidentified police officer based in Eldoret told the media, describing torture and adding that it appeared Chiloba was strangled.

The Kenya Human Rights Commission urged police “to conduct swift investigations and ensure the killers are apprehended and prosecuted.”

“It is truly worrisome that we continue to witness escalation in violence targeting LGBTQ+ Kenyans,” it said in a statement.

“Every day, the human rights of LGBTQ+ persons are being violated with little consequence for perpetrators.”

Members of the LGBTQ community often face harassment and physical attacks in the predominantly conservative Christian nation.

Homosexuality is taboo in Kenya and across much of Africa, and gays often face discrimination or persecution.

Attempts to overturn British colonial-era laws banning homosexuality in Kenya have proved unsuccessful, and gay sex remains a crime with penalties that include imprisonment of up to 14 years.

“Our sincere condolences to the family and friends of prominent Kenyan LGBTQI+ community member Edwin Chiloba,” U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price said on Twitter.

“We call for full accountability for his death.”

The Kenya LGBTQ Feminist Forum in western Kenya, where Chiloba lived, said he had used “fashion to deconstruct gender and advocate for the rights of the marginalized group.”

“We want to know as a community, as Kenyans, what happened to Edwin, why he was murdered and who dropped his body at the scene,” the group’s programs director Becky Mududa said.

Chiloba’s death comes after another LGBTQ activist was found slain in April last year.
…

Security forces in Somalia’s breakaway republic of Somaliland on Thursday withdrew from the contested border town of Las Anod after days of deadly protests.  The town is claimed by Somalia’s Puntland State but run by Somaliland, which broke from Somalia in 1991.  Anti-government protests erupted there last week after a politician was shot dead, leading to clashes with police in which at least eight other people were killed.

Las Anod Mayor Abdirahim Ali told VOA calm returned to the town Thursday after traditional leaders called on all sides to maintain peace as Somaliland withdrew troops.

He says the troops stationed in the town were instructed by their commanders to withdraw and return to their previous stations. Ali says elders, the business community, and everyone who supports security and peace in Las Anod have agreed to work together to restore the peace that once existed in this town.

Somaliland deployed troops to the disputed border town after deadly clashes broke out last week between anti-government protesters and police.

The protests were sparked by the shooting death of a local politician and escalated Wednesday when a shopkeeper was shot dead.

Medical sources in Las Anod told VOA at least 15 people were killed in the fighting over the past week but Dr. Abdirahim Warfa, who works in the town’s main public hospital, recorded only eight deaths.

Somalia’s Puntland State claims Las Anod, which is controlled by Somaliland, a northern territory that broke away from Somalia in 1991.

Somaliland is self-governed and more stable than Somalia, but not recognized internationally as a country.

Hassan Sheikh, a political analyst at Somali National University, said people in La Anod identify more with Somalia than Somaliland.

Political grievances are a major part of the Las Anod violence, he said, because people lack representatives in the bodies of government that correspond to their social, economic, and territorial groups.

Abdiwahab Sheikh Abdisamad, director of the Nairobi-based HORN International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Somaliland has failed to convince Las Anod’s population to support its breaking away from Somalia. 

He said in the fifteen years since Somaliland’s administration was established in Las Anod aren’t convinced that Somaliland’s project to split them from the rest of Somalia is viable, since the population does not favor it.  Abdisamad said to persuade them, Somaliland tried to use force, which is impossible.

Somaliland army commanders said they withdrew from the town to avoid further escalation but said they would prevent further instability.

Sheikh said the uprising that occurred in Las Anod could lead to others and spread from town to town.  He said that could negatively impact Somaliland’s political goal, which is to secede from Somalia.

Somaliland President Muse Bihi on Wednesday dismissed concerns about the deadly unrest, calling it an “incidental clash between the police and the people.”

Bihi promised an investigation into the violence but also declared a readiness to defend the territory if neighboring Puntland declared war.

Somaliland and Puntland have a history of disputes over their border areas that occasionally turn violent.

While Somaliland is relatively stable, it has seen protests in recent months that turned violent and raised international concerns.

In August, clashes between police and opposition supporters over delayed elections saw at least five people killed and scores injured.
…

Rights groups are welcoming Kenyan President William Ruto’s order for investigations into extra judicial killings carried out by police.  Ruto told Kenyan media Wednesday one police station had a shipping container where “people were being slaughtered.” But critics note Ruto said little about the issue as vice president and say police reforms are key to ending the practice.

Ruth Mumbi recounts the day in 2017 when she says her brother was murdered on the road by a policeman.  Mumbi says her brother’s killer shot him dead in broad daylight for a reason the family has yet to know.

She says he had gotten off a motorbike to ease himself when police approached him and ordered him to kneel. Then they shot him dead. She says a friend he was with came to inform us that he had been killed.

Mumbi’s family is among those hoping to find answers about the deaths of their kin following President Ruto’s order for investigations into police killings.

In a meeting with reporters this week, Ruto said he has tasked Kenya’s Independent Policing Oversight Authority to probe extrajudicial killings, among them a September incident where dozens of bodies were found in a river. 

Rights groups say his directive is a step in the right direction. Irungu Haughton is the executive director of Amnesty International Kenya.

”It is important that he made these remarks, particularly as we have a number of high-profile cases coming up of commanding officers and individual officers that have been accused of misuse of their offices and essentially murder, and in many ways it will be important to see whether these cases proceed in line with his broad policy directive that extra judicial killings and forced disappearances are unacceptable,” Irungu said.

Human Rights Watch senior researcher Otsieno Nyamwaya told VOA that although Ruto’s public stand on extrajudicial murders is significant, concrete steps that address a long-term solution to the practice are crucial.

”Part of what is needed is the government to restart police reforms as initially envisaged under the 2010 constitution, including the vetting of police officers. The police officers who had been found unfit to serve under the vetting process have since been returned to the force,” said Otsieno.

Critics observe that Ruto barely talked about extra judicial killings during his term as deputy president under President Uhuru Kenyatta. 

Nyamwaya believes the alleged police killing of two Indian IT experts who were part of Ruto’s election team last year has stirred up his drive against such killings.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights says at least 94 people were killed extra judicially by police in 2022.
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Somali officials say a pre-dawn attack by militants on an army base was repelled but left at least seven soldiers dead. The attack took place in a part of southern Somalia recaptured from the militant group al-Shabab last week.

The attack took place early Friday in the village of Hilowle Gaab, on the outskirts of the recently liberated town of Runirgod in the Middle Shabelle region.

The army said Runirgod, 240 kilometers north of Mogadishu, was the last al-Shabab stronghold in the region.

Daaud Haji Irro, the spokesman for Hirshabelle state, told VOA via WhatsApp that the attack began with five explosions and was followed by a heavy gunbattle.

He said seven soldiers were killed, including a military colonel and two other officers, and that a number of attackers were also killed.

He said the “khawarijs” have this morning attacked forces in Hilowle Gaab, and  troops inflicted heavy casualties on the group, leaving their bodies are scattered on the battlefield. He said the militants fled into a forest in the Galgadud region.

Khawarijs is a derogatory term used by Somali government officials to describe al-Shabab.

Locals who spoke with VOA over the phone after the deadly attack said several civilians were also killed in the fighting.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack and said it killed 31 soldiers, including five senior commanders. It also said it had seized 8 military vehicles.

VOA could not independently verify the group’s claims.

The attack comes a day after a twin suicide car bombing in the country’s central town of Mahas killed more than 30 people and wounded more than 40 others.

Al-Shabab also claimed responsibility for that attack, the deadliest in the Horn of Africa nation since the start of the year.

Last year, Somalia’s president, Hassan Sheikh Mahamud, declared an “all-out war” against the militant group. Since then, Somali government forces backed by clan militias have succeeded in recapturing towns and villages in central Somalia that the group had controlled for years.
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The body of a Kenyan gay rights activist was found in a metal box discarded along a road in Kenya’s Uasin Gishu county, in the western region of the country.

The Associated Press reports that a motorcycle taxi driver alerted police that a vehicle without license plates had dumped a box on a road.

Police found the remains of Edwin Chiloba in the container. The cause of death and motive for the killing are unknown.

“Kenya criminalizes same-sex sexual activities between men. Sentences include a maximum penalty of fourteen years imprisonment,” according to Human Dignity Trust, an international organization that defends the human rights of LGBT people.

In Kenya, the trust said, “There have been consistent reports of discrimination and violence being committed against LGBT people in recent years, with high-profile attacks against LGBT refugees in Kakuma Refugee Camp.”
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Some of the more than 70,000 Ethiopians who fled to Sudan during the two-year war in the Tigray region are hoping to return home soon, as a November peace deal between Ethiopian federal forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front appears to be holding.

However, many of those refugees are skeptical the peace will last.

Tigrayan Tesfai Gabriel-Mariam, who is 61, fled Ethiopia’s civil war to Sudan’s Um Rakuba refugee camp two years ago after his wife was killed in the fighting. He has since lived with his two grandchildren in a makeshift shelter.

The peace deal has raised hopes they may be able to return home soon, but Tesfai says he worries about their safety amid reports that people are still being killed.

Rights groups say hundreds of thousands of Tigrayans were pushed out of their homes in what amounts to ethnic cleansing — a notion that Ethiopian authorities reject.

Even if their safety was guaranteed, it’s not clear what Tigrayan refugees like Tesfai would have left if they returned home. Tesfai worked as a grocer in Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, but says his shop was looted during the war.

His story and fears are echoed by other Tigrayans living in Um Rakuba.

Muluk Garsihar, a 58-year-old mother of four, also arrived at the camp two years ago. She says life as a refugee has been difficult, and she wants to return to Tigray if there is peace. However, she doesn’t know how to be sure the agreement will be implemented.

The peace deal stated that foreign forces would withdraw from Ethiopia, the TPLF would disarm, and key services would be restored to Tigray.

In December, Ethiopia restored some telecommunications, power and flights to Tigray, and allowed more humanitarian aid to enter the region.

Witnesses in the Tigray region towns of Axum and Shire last week said Eritrean troops fighting on the side of Ethiopia’s federal forces withdrew — though it was not clear if the Eritrean fighters had left Tigray completely.

But 61-year-old Tigrayan refugee Birhan Hairo still fears the peace deal will not hold.

She says services in Um Rakuba camp have worsened in recent months, but she still prefers staying in Sudan rather than returning home to risk being killed.

Birhan says she and her family lost many relatives during the war, so they will only feel safe going back when Ethiopia has a new prime minister.

The United Nations in October estimated half a million Ethiopians have died from conflict, hunger, disease, and lack of medical care during the war.

The U.N.’s refugee agency in Sudan was not immediately available for comment on when it would be safe for Tigrayans to return to Ethiopia. The Sudanese Humanitarian Commission, which is responsible for the country’s refugee issues, did not respond to requests for comment.
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Mali’s security ministry says armed men attacked a civil defense post in a rare attack near the capital Monday, killing five people

Mali’s security ministry said unidentified armed individuals attacked the defense post Monday night in the small southwest town of Markacoungo, about 80 kilometers from the capital, Bamako. 

In a statement Tuesday, the ministry said two members of the civil defense force and three civilians were killed in the attack. 

It said Mali’s security forces were taking all measures to identify and arrest the attackers and called on the public to collaborate with security forces. So far, no group has claimed responsibility for the Monday attack. 

Markacoungo lies on the main road northeast of Bamako, an area that rarely sees such attacks. 

Violence in Mali’s decade-long conflict with Islamist militants has been mostly in the north and center of the country, though attacks in the south are increasing.

Six people were killed in a July attack on a checkpoint 70 kilometers from Bamako followed by an attack one week later on Mali’s main military camp, just 15 kilometers from the capital. 

One soldier was killed in the attack, which Al-Qaida’s affiliate in Mali called a response to the military government’s working with Russian mercenaries and claimed responsibility for the attack. 

Mali has been under military rule since a coup in August 2020. 

Mali’s military government has denied working with the Wagner Group, a private Russian military company with links to the Kremlin, saying it works only with official Russian instructors.

French troops, which were helping fight Islamist militants in northern Mali since 2013, withdrew last year over concerns about Mali’s work with the Wagner Group.

U.N. experts have accused the mercenaries of gross rights abuses in countries where they operate, such as the Central African Republic, Libya, Sudan, Syria, and Ukraine. 

The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, has also been in the country since 2013 but has faced difficulties since the military government came to power.

Several participating countries have suspended their involvement in the mission, including Britain and Ivory Coast.

Mali in July detained 46 Ivorian troops and accused them of being mercenaries. Ivory Coast says they were working under the peacekeeping mission.  

A Malian court on Friday sentenced the soldiers to 20 years in prison over an alleged coup attempt. Three women Ivorian peacekeepers initially arrested along with the rest of the troops when they arrived at Bamako airport on July 10, were later released.  

West African leaders set a January 1 deadline for Mali to release the Ivorian troops or face sanctions. 
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Police in Somalia say two suicide car bombers killed at least 10 people early Wednesday when they targeted a military facility in a region at the heart of the government’s offensive against al-Shabab extremists. 

The attack occurred in the Mahaas district of Hiran region after the dawn prayer. “It was loud and heard all across the town,” resident Osman Abdullahi told The Associated Press. “I have rescued several people wounded in the attack, including soldiers and journalists who were embedded with soldiers.” 

Police official Mahad Abdulle told the AP the vehicles exploded in a neighborhood full of civilians and that at least 10 people were killed. 

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack. 

Mahaas is at the center of the ongoing government offensive against al-Shabab, the al-Qaida-linked group of thousands of fighters that has controlled parts of central and southern Somalia for years. The government has vowed to defeat it this year. 

The Somali army, together with local militias, recently opened a key supply route to Mahaas after it had long been under siege. 
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Ecuador, Japan, Malta, Mozambique and Switzerland got a formal welcome into the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, taking the two-year seats they won unopposed in June. 

In a tradition that Kazakhstan started in 2018, the five countries’ ambassadors installed their national flags Tuesday alongside those of other members outside the council chambers. 

Mozambican Ambassador Pedro Comissário Afonso of Mozambique called it “a historic date” and Swiss Ambassador Pascale Baeriswyl said she felt “a deep sense of humility and responsibility” as their countries marked their first-ever terms on U.N.’s most powerful body. Malta joined for a second time, Ecuador a fourth and Japan a record 12th. 

China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States are permanent, veto-wielding members of the group. Its 10 other members are elected by the 193-nation General Assembly for staggered, two-year terms. They’re allocated by global regions. 

To many countries, winning a council seat is considered a signature diplomatic accomplishment that can raise a nation’s global profile and afford small countries a bigger voice than they might otherwise have in the major international peace and security issues of the day. 

The council deploys peacekeeping missions, can approve sanctions and speaks out — sometimes — on conflicts and flashpoints, while also surveying such thematic issues as terrorism and arms control. While many matters are perennials on the agenda, council members also can use the platform to spotlight emerging concerns or topics of particular interest to them. 

Countries often campaign for the council for years. Some 60 nations have never had a seat since the group’s formation in 1946. 

The five latest members are replacing India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico and Norway. Their terms ended December 31. 

The other current two-year members are Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and United Arab Emirates. 
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Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, in his New Year’s Day speech Sunday, declared the country will eliminate al-Shabab Islamist militants this year.

Mohamud’s all-out war against the group, declared last year, has succeeded in pushing the militants out of some areas under their control. The president also said Somalia would also take over security operations from African Union peacekeepers in Somalia by the end of 2024.

The Somali National Army’s recent success against al-Shabab, achieved with the help of allied local militia in central Somalia, has attracted regional and international attention due to its homegrown approach in fighting terrorism.

Mohamud has been trying to rally Somalis behind the government, and in his speech he referred to al-Shabab as Khawaarji, a term referring to a person who deviates from the path of Islam.

Mohamud said that Somalis have taken a stand against Khawaarij regardless of where they live, and that this battle is in progress and is nearing completion. He said it was his hope that Somalia will be prosperous and peaceful in 2023.

Ahmed Abdisalam, former deputy prime minister and current director of HornCenter, a Somali-based research and policy center, applauded the president’s promise for the government to take over all security duties from African Union peacekeepers.

Abdisalam said the president’s annual address should be welcomed, as security is the country’s greatest concern. He said it was great for the president to provide a timeline for when he will take responsibility for security.

However, Abdullahi Gafow, a Mogadishu based political analyst, is skeptical about Mohamud’s pledges.

Gafow said that, after listening to the speech given by the president, he found there was no difference between this speech and the previous speeches that had been given by previous presidents, in that they all stated they would plan to assume responsibility for security from the African Union. He said that therefore, nothing has changed.”

Gafow added that the withdrawal of African Union forces is complicated by the fact that Somalia is still under a U.N. arms embargo, an obstacle that limits the capacity of Somalia’s security forces.

AU peacekeeping forces have been serving in Somalia since 2007 and have been crucial in protecting government strongholds.
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Twenty-eight bodies were found in northwest Burkina Faso over the weekend, the government said, and rights activists blamed a volunteer militia created to support the army’s battle against jihadis.

Attacks targeting the security forces and civilians have increased in recent months, especially in northern and eastern regions bordering Mali and Niger.

“The government was informed of an incident at Nouna … during the night of December 30-31,” a government statement said late Monday.

Preliminary reports “indicate 28 people killed,” it said, adding that an investigation had been opened and urged calm.

But a rights group called the Collective of Communities against Impunity and Stigmatizations (CISC) pointed the finger at the Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP), a civilian auxiliary force that supports the military in its 7-year-old fight against jihadis.

The public prosecutor in Nouna, Armel Sama, said in a statement that “most of the victims, all of them males, were shot dead.”

The landlocked West African country is one of the poorest and most volatile nations in the world. 

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

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.

Experts have long worried that the poorly trained volunteers are easy targets for the jihadis and may also dangerously inflame ethnic friction without proper controls.

The CISC said the weekend events in Nouna had begun with a reported “terrorist attack” on a local VDP headquarters.

Armed men then carried out “deadly attacks in reprisal,” it said. Victims said the assailants were VDP who were members of a traditional hunting community called the Dozo, according to the CISC.

CISC Secretary Daouda Diallo called on the authorities to pay “special attention” to the situation.

“Armed terrorist groups exploit these kinds of transgression to attract recruits among the public,” Diallo warned.

Three incidents of abduction and extrajudicial killings allegedly involving Dozo or VDP had occurred in the runup to the events at the weekend, CISC said.

Government spokesman Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo said the weekend killings “unfolded at a time when Burkina Faso has launched an operation to mobilize the entire population in a united action in the fight against terrorism.”

In November, the authorities, backed by a patriotic campaign, launched a drive to recruit 50,000 VDP, and 90,000 signed up.

The government is “fundamentally opposed to all forms of abuse or violations of human rights for whatever reasons,” the statement said.

The VDP has taken the brunt of losses suffered by the security forces in the face of the jihadi campaign.

Hundreds of volunteers have died, especially in ambushes or explosions caused by improvised explosive devices (IEDs) planted along roadsides.

The escalating toll among the army, police and VDP unleashed two military coups last year, launched by officers angered at failures to stem the bloodshed. 
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Advocates for education and health care in Malawi are criticizing the government’s decision to close schools in two cities to try to contain a cholera outbreak. 

The Presidential Taskforce on Coronavirus and Cholera said in a statement Monday that the suspension is applied to all primary and secondary schools in the capital, Lilongwe, and commercial hub, Blantyre.

Khumbize Kandodo Chiponda, co-chairperson of the taskforce and Malawi’s minister of health, told a press conference Tuesday the decision is a result of the continuing increase in the number of cholera cases in the two cities.

As of Monday, the bacterial disease, spread by dirty water, had killed more than 620 people out of 18,222 cases since the outbreak began in March. 

Chiponda expressed fear for the safety of students and others if the schools remain open, adding that in just seven days, Blantyre recorded 792 cases with 36 deaths, and Lilongwe recorded 536 cases with 36 deaths.

But Malawian education and health rights campaigners say the timing of the suspension was wrong.

Hastings Moloko, trustee of the Private Schools Association of Malawi, told a press conference Monday that there is no logic in suspending learning in only two out of the 28 affected districts. 

“The playing field is not leveled,” he said. “It is schools in Blantyre and Lilongwe that have been affected. While other students are not learning, students everywhere else in the country are learning. And yet these students will sit for exactly the same exams, exactly at the same time. So, Blantyre and Lilongwe students will be disadvantaged in terms of time to cover their syllabuses.”

Moloko said there is also no scientific evidence that cholera spreads more in schools than in homes.

Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by ingesting food or water contaminated with bacteria. The disease affects both children and adults, and if untreated, can kill within hours.

Agnes Nyalonje, minister of education in Malawi, said the move is to protect the lives of the learners in these two cholera hotspot districts. 

“The issue is a balance between protection of life and continuity of learning,” she said. “We have information that shows that currently across all schools, we are short of 1,262 boreholes or water supply in schools that need water supply. And we are saying personal hygiene and school hygiene have to go hand in hand.”

Nyalonje said her ministry has put measures in place that allow students in the closed schools to take lessons through distance learning, as was the case when the schools shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic. 

 
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Somalia’s President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced Sunday the country will hire a record 3,000 new teachers to try to bridge a wide education gap.  The move follows a four-fold increase in the Somali ministry of education’s budget for 2023.  But critics note funding for education is still poor, and that insecurity and poverty have pushed the majority of Somali children out of school. 

The New Year’s Day budget announcement by President Mohamud marked one of Somalia’s most ambitious education campaigns in years.     

Mohamud said Somalia this year will hire 3,000 more teachers to address a shortage that has hindered learning.  

In an interview with VOA, Somalia’s Ministry of Education Director General Mohamed Hassan says the teachers are sorely needed.

He says one thousand teachers are on the government payroll in Mogadishu and all the regional states combined for the past five years. Hassan says the ministry’s latest report shows only a quarter of school-age children have access to education.  

Hassan says the new teachers will be recruited with priority given to areas of Somalia that have little access to education. 

He says special opportunities will be given to districts where there are very few school students and also to areas where the Khawarij were dislodged.  

Khawarij, which loosely translates as “those who deviate from the Islamic faith,” is the term Somali authorities use to refer to the Islamist militant group al-Shabab.   

Mohamud last year declared all-out war on the Islamists and federal troops and their backers have since made gains in taking back territory under that was under the group’s control.   

Al-Shabab-run areas of Somalia are locked out of Somalia’s formal education system, as the group imposes a curriculum based on a harsh interpretation of Islam.  

President Mohamud in his New Year’s Day speech vowed to eliminate the militants in 2023.  

The president last week quadrupled Somalia’s education budget this year to $34 million. 

While it is the highest education budget in years, critics say it’s still far from the funding needed to instruct the country’s youth.  

Suad Abdulle is the founder of the Somali Institute of Special Educational Needs and Disability.  She tells VOA that poor funding is the main reason why most Somali children are failing to attend school.

Abdulle says close to 70% of children are not in school because of several factors.  The first one is the lack of funding, she says, as a large percentage of Somalis are living on less than a dollar per day while most schools in the country are private.

Mohamed Osman Ali is a teacher at Faruq Primary and Secondary School in Mogadishu.  

He says the increased funding, while much less than to other ministries, will still help boost education. 

Ali says education in Somalia has suffered underfunding for the longest time.  He says ministries such as defense and security get more than ten times what we get in the education sector.  Ali says he is happy the government is now increasing funding to enable Somali children to go to school.

Access to education in Somalia remains among the lowest in the world. The U.N. Children’s Fund, UNICEF, says three million Somali children are out of school.  
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