South Africa’s parliament voted against starting impeachment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa over a report that says he held undeclared foreign currency at his farm in 2020.

The lawmakers voted 214 to 148 against the move to impeach Ramaphosa. The ruling African National Congress party, which holds a majority in the parliament, largely stood with Ramaphosa, preventing the motion from getting the two-thirds vote needed to proceed with impeachment.

Four ANC members of parliament, however, showed their opposition to Ramaphosa by voting in favor of impeachment and a few more did not show up for the vote.

The crucial vote came after a damning parliamentary report alleged that Ramaphosa illegally hid at least $580,000 in cash in a sofa at his Phala Phala game ranch. It said he did not report the theft of the money to the police in order to avoid questions over how he got the foreign currency and why he had not declared it to authorities.

The report has brought Ramaphosa’s opponents — opposition parties and even rivals within his ANC party — to call for him to step down.

At least four ANC lawmakers broke ranks with the party line and voted along with the opposition parties in favor of the impeachment process, including Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, currently a minister in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet and high-ranking ANC leader.

Dlamini-Zuma lost against Ramaphosa for the ANC presidency at its last national conference in 2017.

Other notable figures who voted in favor of Ramaphosa’s impeachment were Supra Mahumapelo and Mosebenzi Zwane, known rivals of Ramaphosa and allies of former president Jacob Zuma, indicating the extent of divisions within the ANC.

During the Tuesday seating. ANC lawmakers argued that the panel that drafted the report did not present enough evidence to warrant the impeachment of Ramaphosa. They said that other law enforcement agencies are still probing the matter.

They also cited Ramaphosa’s application for a judicial review of the report, saying parliament should await the outcome of that process before proceeding with any move against the president. 

The parliamentary vote comes in a week where Ramaphosa will also be fighting for his political life as he seeks to be re-elected the leader of the ANC at its national conference starting in Johannesburg on Friday.

The conference will also elect members of the party’s National Executive Committee, which is the party’s highest decision-making body.

Ramaphosa must be re-elected as the ANC leader in order to stand for re-election to a second term as South Africa’s president in 2024.
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Zimbabwe’s government has reacted following the addition of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s son

on a U.S. sanctions list for corruption and human rights abuses.

Officials in the southern African nation say the sanctions are hurting the country’s economy. The U.S. disagrees, saying corruption and wrong priorities are the problem.

In a statement, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said it added four Zimbabwean nationals and two Zimbabwean companies to the sanctions list. One of the individuals is Emmerson Mnangagwa Jr., the son of the Zimbabwean president.

Another 17 individuals were removed from the list.

The additions include two companies, Fossil Agro and Fossil Contracting, which the U.S. says were involved in opaque, multimillion dollar deals with Zimbabwe’s government.

George Charamba, spokesman for Zimbabwe’s presidency, said he was not surprised by the latest U.S. designations. 

“The intention was never to attack individuals, who do not matter anyway in terms of interstate relations,” he said. “The intention has always been to cripple the Zimbabwean economy and it’s not fortuitous that they have picked on suppliers of key inputs to a critical sector of our economy, namely agriculture. They did it before and I can assure you they will do it in future.”

Charamba said the U.S. is pushing for a “compliant” Zimbabwe, while Zimbabwe insists on “an independent national policy which is not influenced by foreigners.”

Gift Mugano, an economics professor at Durban University of Technology, said the sanctions are making it difficult for Zimbabwe to attract investors and get capital for essential projects such as power plants.

At the same time, he said, Zimbabwe has a problem with large-scale corruption. 

“When you are under sanctions, you must be more careful and prudent when using your resources. The case in point is the 35 million US dollars which is being given to members of parliament and ministers, the package which they have been given. But we do not have basics in the hospitals. Thirty-five million dollars for Zimbabwe can be a game changer,” Mugano said.

Not everyone agrees Zimbabwe is hurting its own economy. Gibson Nyikadzino, an independent analyst, said the sanctions are having a real impact on the economy.   

“Because there is failure to access foreign capital, capital markets, there is failure even to import critical equipment. So, the whole idea of sanctions, it is to ensure that the economy of Zimbabwe is to scream and that is the first essence on why the West imposed sanctions and even to today, the economy is being hurt,” Nyikadzino said. 

U.S., British and European Union officials have long rejected those accusations, saying that the sanctions target individuals and certain companies rather than state institutions.

Recently, James O’Brien, the U.S. State Department’s sanctions coordinator, said U.S. sanctions are not hurting Zimbabwe’s economy, as they do not affect banks.

A much bigger problem, he said, is the tax revenue lost from billions of dollars in black market, cross-border transactions that take place each year.

Piers Pigou, senior consultant for southern Africa human rights watchdog, International Crisis Group, said: “There is no doubt that the sanctions have an impact on aspects of the economy. In some instances directly as it relates to individual entities and individuals that are on the list. What is difficult is to calculate the extent of that impact. Particularly in a context where there are multiple other factors relating to delinquencies and governance.”

Zimbabwe held an Anti-Sanctions Day on October 25, asking regional bloc SADC (Southern African Development Community) and the African Union to support it in calling for removal of the sanctions, which were imposed in the early 2000s following alleged election rigging and human rights abuses.

Zimbabwe’s government is still being punished for its land reform program under the late President Robert Mugabe, in which white commercial farmers were pushed off their properties. 

 
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Fighting between the Democratic Republic of Congo’s military and rebels has since March displaced nearly 400,000 people, with most IDP camps in Nyiragongo territory, where health centers are struggling to cope. Ruth Omar Esther visited a medical center in Nyiragongo and has this report.
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With dozens of African leaders descending on Washington this week, the Biden administration is offering a not-so-subtle pitch in its economic competition with China on the continent: The U.S. offers a better option to African partners.

Ahead of Tuesday’s start of the three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, Deputy Commerce Secretary Don Graves acknowledged that the U.S. has fallen behind as China has surged past American foreign direct investment in Africa but argued that the U.S. remains the “partner of choice” in Africa.

“We took our eye off the ball so to speak, and U.S. investors and companies are having to play catch up,” Graves said at an event hosted by the news outlet Semafor. He added, “We’re bringing the best technologies and innovations, the highest standards…. The U.S. helps to build capacity in our partner countries as opposed to exploiting those countries.”

Heads of states from 49 African nations and the African Union have been invited to take part in the summit that has been billed as an opportunity for President Joe Biden’s administration to re-engage the continent’s leaders.

The continent, whose leaders often feel they’ve been given short shrift by leading economies, remains crucial to global powers because of its rapidly growing population, significant natural resources, and a sizable voting bloc in the United Nations. Africa remains of great strategic importance as the U.S. recalibrates its foreign policy with greater focus on China — what the Biden administration sees as the United States’ most significant economic and military adversary.

Even before the summit officially began, the White House announced Biden’s support for the African Union becoming a permanent member of the Group of 20 nations and that it had appointed Johnnie Carson, a well-regarded veteran diplomat, to serve as point person for implementing initiatives that come out of the summit.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday also said that the administration would commit to spending $55 billion in Africa over the next three years on “a wide range of sectors to tackle the core challenges of our time.”

“If you compare what the United States is committing over the next three years to what any other country is committing, I think we stack up extremely favorably,” Sullivan said.

And while the administration has tried to minimize concerns about China’s deepening presence on the continent as a driving force at this week’s talks, Beijing’s shadow over the biggest international gathering in Washington since the start of the pandemic nearly three years ago looms large.

Without direct mention of China, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo on Monday sounded the alarm about petering private investment in middle- and low-income countries, particularly in Africa. The infrastructure finance gap, or money needed for essential projects like lighting homes and businesses, responding to the COVID pandemic and to making communities resilient against extreme weather, sits at $68 billion to $108 billion per year, Adeyemo said.

At the same time, Adeyemo lamented that huge amounts of private capital among the wealthy nations around the globe remains untapped.

“There is a clear disconnect between the large amount of available private sector capital and the urgent need to fund critical infrastructure projects in Africa and elsewhere. The question for us is: how do we connect this massive supply of savings with high-quality infrastructure projects in Africa?” Adeyemo said at the U.S. Trade and Development Agency.

Trade between the U.S. and sub-Saharan Africa was $44.9 billion last year, a 22% increase from 2019. But foreign direct investment into the region fell by 5.3% to $30.31 billion in 2021. Trade between Africa and China last year surged to $254 billion last year, up about 35% as Chinese exports increased on the continent.

The Biden administration, as it addresses criticism that Africa has remained an afterthought in U.S. foreign policy, has taken veiled jabs at China.

During his visit to Nigeria last year, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that “too often, international infrastructure deals are opaque, coercive” and “burden countries with unmanageable debt.” The language — while tough — may have been more restrained than the Trump administration’s rhetoric; Vice President Mike Pence at the time accused Beijing of “debt diplomacy” in Africa and elsewhere.

China’s ambassador to the U.S., Qin Gang, pushed back on Monday against the Chinese debt trap notion and made the case that China has long been “sincere” in approaching Africa as the vibrant emerging market of the future.

“We are not interested in the views of any other countries on China’s role in Africa,” Qin said at the Semafor forum.

Asked whether Biden administration officials would directly approach U.S. concerns about Chinese involvement in Africa during this week’s meetings, officials bristled.

“It’s not going to be about China,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added. “It’s going to be about Africa.”

But the Pentagon has acknowledged that China’s increasing efforts to set up military bases in Africa and forge stronger economic ties across the continent fuel U.S. security concerns that will limit how much the America’s military can work with countries that have growing ties to Beijing.

Officials said in the run-up to the meetings that while America can’t and won’t tell African countries to turn away from China, the administration is making it clear that allowing Chinese bases on their soil and using Chinese telecom systems could hurt U.S. military relations with them.

“We have a particular type of security and military and defense relationship … with African partners, and that could be jeopardized if they were to have Chinese basing in their region just because of the type of exercises, the type of work, the type of collaboration and training that we do with them,” Chidi Blyden, the deputy assistant defense secretary for African affairs, told reporters last week.

Speaking at a defense forum put on by George Washington University’s Project for Media and National Security, Blyden said the use of China’s Huawei communications network “makes it hard for us to be able to work with African partners.” She said it impacts the ability of the U.S. to communicate on a “clear and secure channel.”

The comments underscore longstanding concerns among military commanders that the U.S. must not only keep pace militarily with China in the Indo-Pacific, but in other regions of the world also. Those include Africa, South America and the Middle East, where China is eyeing military and economic expansion.

U.S. officials have also expressed concerns that China is looking to establish a military base on the western coast of Africa.

“China’s Huawei network, which is very robust across the continent, makes it hard for us to be able to work with African partners who may adopt some of these systems,” she said.
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The United States will demonstrate its commitment to the African continent with $55 billion in pledges, national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Monday on the eve of a three-day summit of 50 high-level African delegations in Washington.

“The U.S. will commit $55 billion to Africa over the course of the next three years, across a wide range of sectors, to tackle the core challenges of our time,” Sullivan said. “These commitments build on the United States’ long-standing leadership and partnership in development, economic growth, health and security in Africa.”

“We will shower you with details about those deliverables” as the summit progresses, he said.

In response to a question from VOA, Sullivan stressed that this money is not conditional on African nations’ condemning Russia over its invasion of Ukraine. In March, shortly after the invasion started, 17 African nations abstained from a vote to condemn Russia at the United Nations.

“We’re not putting a gun to anyone’s head,” Sullivan responded, adding: “We will make the case with passion and persistence to every country in the world that they should speak out against these flagrant violations of the U.N. Charter. We’re not imposing conditionality from the point of view of this summit on decisions.”

But corruption watchdogs say these big-dollar commitments pale in comparison with the estimated $88 billion that leaks out of the continent annually in illicit financial flows — through real estate purchases, offshore investments or anonymous shell companies.

“If you look at recent figures, U.S. government aid to sub-Saharan Africa has fluctuated between $6.5 and $7.5 billion a year,” said Ian Gary, executive director of the Financial Accountability and Corporate Transparency Coalition.

“On the other hand, Africa is losing much more than that every year through illicit financial flows. So it’s important to recognize that if you want to support African development, if you want to support economic development, if you want Africa to be able to address the climate crisis and the debt crisis, we need to do our part as Americans to ensure that African governments have the resources to tackle those challenges,” Gary said.

Sullivan said that the summit, which runs through Thursday, will include a small multilateral meeting between President Joe Biden and a select group of African leaders, who have yet to be identified. The leaders would discuss, among other things, the elections happening on the continent in 2023, Sullivan said. Polls of note include presidential elections in Congo, Sudan and the world’s newest country, South Sudan.

And on Wednesday night, Sullivan added, the heads of each of the 50 delegations will be invited to dine with the Bidens at the White House.

The White House has been careful in its references to Washington’s biggest competition on the continent: Beijing. China has been a major player in lending and building infrastructure in Africa and has faced criticism for its loan practices — a charge that China’s top diplomat in Washington disputes.

“China’s investment and financing assistance to Africa is not a trap, it’s a benefit,” said Qin Gang, China’s ambassador to the U.S., during the Semafor Africa summit in Washington on Monday. “There is no such trap. It’s not a plot. It’s transparent, it’s sincere, it’s obvious.”

Regardless, said White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the U.S. is going to keep the focus narrow as the 50 delegations meet for three full days to discuss a range of issues — including development, governance, food security and more — that could determine the future of the world’s fastest-growing continent.

“It’s not going to be about China,” she said. “It’s going to be about Africa.”
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It’s a rare moment in the Middle East when the public’s voice roars louder than those of the governments. But Morocco’s surprise string of wins at the World Cup in Qatar have stirred a joy and pride among Arab fans that have, at least for a moment, eclipsed the region’s many political divisions.

Perhaps most striking is the love fest between Palestinians and the Moroccan team, despite the Moroccan government’s normalization of ties with Israel as part of the 2020 Abraham Accords.

The Moroccan team waved a Palestinian flag after its victory over Spain last week, thrilling Palestinians. Throughout the tournament, the Palestinian flag has been unfurled all over, carried by Arab fans and some non-Arabs — so much so that the running joke is that Palestine is the 33rd team at the World Cup.

Palestinians see it as a sign of Arab public support still runs strong for their cause even as they feel Arab governments have abandoned them, with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan also normalizing ties with Israel.

“I didn’t expect this. It’s spreading the word and showing that Palestine is not just a political issue, it’s a human issue,” said Ahmed Sabri, a young Palestinian in Doha after watching Morocco’s win over Portugal on Saturday. He had the Palestinian flag draped over his back.

His Egyptian friend, Yasmeen Hossam, wrapped in a Moroccan flag, said, “This is the first World Cup in the Middle East and the first one FOR the Middle East.”

Morocco is the first Arab and African team to make it this far in a World Cup, playing a semifinal Wednesday against France. Part of the Arab embrace of the team has come simply from having something to celebrate in a region where many countries are mired in economic crises, armed conflicts and political repression.

For some, it’s gratifying to see their culture displayed in a positive way on a massive international stage — whether it’s the Moroccan team doing a quick Muslim prayer during huddles or Morocco winger Soufiane Boufal dancing with his mother on the pitch after the quarterfinal victory over Portugal.

“We are all clinging to this Moroccan team as some sort of source of hope and happiness in a time where I think we all could really use some good news,” said Danny Hajjar, a Lebanese American music writer.

The excitement with each victory has crossed boundaries and political divisions.

Algerians joined in, even though their government cut ties with Morocco last year. The two countries have a long-running conflict over Western Sahara, which Morocco annexed in 1975 and where Algeria long supported Sahrawis in the Polisario Front seeking independence. Algeria was angered by the U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty in the territory in exchange for normalization with Israel.

At Morocco and Algeria’s often tense border, fans lined up on both sides and cheered to each other across no-man’s land, videos on social media showed. In the French city of Nice, diaspora Algerians and Tunisians joined Moroccans in cafes and in each other’s homes for the matches, setting off fireworks in celebration on the famed Mediterranean boardwalk Promenade des Anglais.

In contrast, Algerian state TV has not even reported on Morocco’s wins, leaving them out of daily World Cup reports.

For Palestinians, the games have been a breath of fresh air. The peace process with Israel has long moldered in a jar on the shelf; a far-right government in Israel is poised to take office; tensions have risen in recent months with several deadly Palestinian attacks in Israel, near daily Israeli raids in the West Bank and increasing harassment by Jewish settlers.

At the same time, many Palestinians feel they have been forgotten by Arab governments; besides the Abraham Accords, countries like Egypt and Jordan have largely gone silent on the Palestinians’ future while increasing cooperation with Israel.

World Cup host Qatar has been a vocal supporter of Palestinians and a major economic lifeline for the Gaza Strip, governed by the Hamas militant group and under Egyptian and Israeli closure for years.

Ahmed Abu Suleiman, a soccer coach from the Shati refugee camp in Gaza City, said he feels proud seeing the Palestinian flag so much among fans in Doha.

“Regimes change, but the people remain unchanged. They are thinking about the Palestinian issue, about the Palestinian wound,” he said.

Thousands of people packed a Gaza City sporting hall with a large screen donated by Qatar to watch the Morocco-Portugal match. Many held posters showing the Palestinian and Morocco flags and the slogan, “One People, One Country.”

“It’s an indescribable feeling. I swear it’s as if it’s Palestinians that were playing,” said one fan, Ibrahim al-Lilli. “All of us are Morocco.”

Scenes of jubilation also took place across the West Bank after the win. In east Jerusalem, two men stood atop the Old City’s Damascus gate holding a red Moroccan flag while hundreds below cheered and chanted, “God, Morocco, Jerusalem is Arab.”

The Moroccan victory also reverberated in Israel, home to hundreds of thousands of Jews of Moroccan descent. Many Israelis, including ones attending in Doha, were rooting for the team.

Avi Nachmani, a spokesman for the Israel-based World Federation of Moroccan Jewry, said many Israelis of Moroccan origin maintain a strong connection to their roots. “This flourishing of the team really adds to the affinity,” he said.

He said scenes of players celebrating with their mothers reminded him of the way Moroccan Jews honor their parents. “They don’t forget where they came from,” he said.

But some were dismayed by shows of the Palestinian flag. In Israel and east Jerusalem, police moved quickly to tear down any display of the flag, though it is not specifically banned.

Rudy Rochman, an Israeli of Moroccan descent, said he felt a connection to the Moroccan team. But he called the unfurling of the Palestinian flag “intentionally offensive to Israel.”

On social media, some said Arab enthusiasm for Morocco erases the large ethnic Berber population that is equally if not more a part of the country’s identity. Other voices said Morocco’s hold on Western Sahara and discrimination felt by many Sahrawis were lost in the cheers.

Lebanon may be the most complicated, as sectarian divisions seep into soccer loyalties. While Lebanese are overwhelmingly Brazil or Germany fans, many have adopted Morocco and rejoiced in the streets after the win over Portugal.

The semifinal with France is more divisive. Much of the Arab world sees a chance for a former colony to give its one-time colonizer its comeuppance. But some in Lebanon feel cultural affinity with France, particularly Christians.

After the Portugal game, scuffles broke out in Beirut after a group of Morocco fans from a Muslim-majority neighborhood rode through a Christian area on motorcycles, some hoisting Palestinian flags and chanting “God is the greatest.” They were accosted by a group of men from the area who saw the convoy as a sectarian provocation.

Given the history of divisions and the 15-year civil war, the music writer Hajjar said he wouldn’t be surprised if there was more street friction around the semifinal. But, he said, he was “hoping that we can all just enjoy the match for what it will be.”
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Environmental groups say Chinese boats are decimating West Africa’s fish stocks and fishing communities in the Gulf of Guinea. Gulf of Guinea nations this year banded together to crack down on illegal fishing. Henry Wilkins reports from Grand Popo, Benin.
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Police officials in southeast Nigeria say operatives killed three armed men on Monday when a gang attacked the office of the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC — one of several attacks on the commission’s offices ahead of Nigeria’s polls in February. INEC officials have said attacks on facilities will not deter the commission from conducting the elections, but political observers say the attacks are already having an impact on the process.

Imo State police spokesman Michael Abbatam told journalists Monday that officers repelled an early morning assault on an INEC facility in Owerri, the state capital, killing three of the attackers and arresting two others.

He said the police also recovered firearms, improvised explosive devices and some vehicles.

The attackers threw explosives into the facility, destroying part of the building and some vehicles before the officers halted the attack.

This was the third attack on INEC facilities in Imo state in the past two weeks, following similar attacks on a facility in nearby Orlu district last week and another one on the local office in Oru West at the start of December.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks but authorities have in recent past blamed an outlawed separatist group, the Indigenous People of Biafra or IPOB, for increased restiveness in the southeast. IPOB has denied involvement.

“Between 2019 and now there have been over 53 attacks and the attackers are becoming more daring. We’re concerned about how this would impact on citizens’ confidence, even on the part of INEC. We have seen the devastating impact on this in the elections in 2019 that INEC even had to delay elections in some quarters,” said Paul James, election program coordinator at the Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement, a non-profit group that monitors elections in Nigeria.

Imo state is one of the strong bases for the Biafra separatist movement and attempts by authorities to crackdown on separatists have led to an increase in violence there.

INEC facilities in Ebonyi, Osun and Ogun states have also been recently targeted and attacked.

“Why these attacks are increasing is the fact that INEC is insistent on trying to improve the processes of the elections. The INEC chair has mentioned that they’re going to deploy technology for the election. This is just an attempt to distract INEC. This election is going to be competitive. if these coordinated attacks continue it will affect their confidence to even induce the process in those states that are affected,” said James.

INEC spokesman Festus Okoye said in a statement that no critical election materials were destroyed in Monday’s attack.

The commission on Monday officially started the distribution of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and the process will run through January.

However, Godbless Otubure, leader of another pro-democracy group, the Ready to Lead Africa Initiative, says the attacks are affecting voter confidence ahead of next year’s polls.

“People are calling us saying they don’t want to go get their PVCs anymore. They just don’t want to die. Our responsibility is to engage Nigerians on the need to vote and participate. We don’t control the security apparatus. I cannot guarantee any Nigerian right now that I can call the military to respond to anything because I’m not in authority,” said Otubure.

Nigerians go to the polls on February 25 to elect a leader that will succeed Muhammadu Buhari, who’s exiting after two terms office.

INEC says it will be relying on technology to electronically transmit results and assured Nigerians that the attacks on facilities will not affect the 2023 general polls.
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Nelly Cheboi is CNN’s 2022 Hero of the Year, honored for her efforts in providing computer training for rural Kenya schoolchildren through her non-profit TechLit Africa.

Cheboi grew up in grinding poverty in rural Kenya. “I never forgot what it was like with my stomach churning because of hunger at night,” even though her mother “worked really hard to educate us,” she said on CNN Sunday.

Online voters selected Cheboi as the top winner from a field of 10 heroes.

On a full scholarship at Augustana College in Illinois, she “fell in love” with computer science and knew she had found her career path.

It wasn’t until she began working in the software industry, however, that she realized that companies just throw away computers when it’s time for an update.

She said she knew there were children in Kenya who had no idea what a computer was and so TechLit Africa was born.

TechLit Africa currently serves 10 schools and Cheboi hopes to be in 100 more within a year.

Her students attend daily classes in a variety of computer skills, including coding, and they also have the opportunity to engage in remote learning. “They can go from doing a remote class with NASA on education to music production,” Cheboi said.

“My hope is that when the first TechLit kids graduate high school, they’re able to get a job online because they will know how to code, they will know how to do graphic design, they will know how to do marketing,” Cheboi said. “The world is your oyster when you are educated.”
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Zambian police Sunday found the bodies of 27 men, believed to be migrants from Ethiopia, dumped in a farming area on the outskirts of the capital after they died from suspected hunger and exhaustion, authorities said.

A sole survivor was found alive in the early hours of Sunday morning and rushed to a Lusaka hospital for treatment, while the dead were transported to the mortuary for identification and postmortems to determine the exact cause of death, police said.

Preliminary police investigations showed the victims were all males aged between 20 and 38 and had been dumped along a road by unknown people.

“Police and other security wings have since instituted investigations into the matter,” Danny Mwale, police spokesman, said in a statement after police were alerted to the gruesome scene by members of the public.

Ethiopian migrants often use Zambia when traveling to countries such as South Africa, though reports of deaths in transit there are rare. 
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The body of a 23-year-old Zambian student who died while fighting for the Russian army in the war in Ukraine has been returned home.

The body of Lemekani Nyirenda, who was studying nuclear engineering in Russia before joining the military, arrived at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport in Lusaka on Sunday.

Although he had been a student, Lemekani was convicted of drug trafficking in April 2020 and sentenced to 9 years in prison.

He was later pardoned through a special amnesty on condition that he participate in the war and he was killed while fighting in Ukraine.

Zambia’s government has requested that Russian authorities give details of Lemekani’s demise, the foreign affairs minister, Stanley Kakubo, said.

“We were told that on August 23 he was conditionally pardoned and was allowed to participate in a special military operation in which he was killed in September,” said Kakubo in a statement. “We then demanded that officials provide details, not just of his recruitment.”

He said that DNA tests to confirm his identity have been conducted and Russian compensation will be given to his family.

Zambia will work to ensure that nothing like this happens again to a Zambian studying in Russia and that there are no other Zambians in Russian prisons, said Kakubo.

Zambians have expressed sadness that a young student was pressed into the Russian military to fight their war in Ukraine.

“The pain of losing a loved one in unclear circumstances is unbearable. How can Russia start recruiting our citizens studying on scholarship to fight their war? It’s definitely not right and our government should ensure they protect the lives of our citizens in Russia,” said Catherine Mwenya, a Lusaka resident.

Another Zambian urged the government to condemn Russia for the death.

“This death requires government to strongly censure Russia and tell them to stop sacrificing our young people studying there to fight this unwanted war with Ukraine. I just hope they do that and draw a clear line for what can be tolerated or not,” Kendricks Phiri said.

Family spokesperson Ian Banda said the body will be taken to the mortuary at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka where the doctors will conduct forensic pathology on the body starting Monday. 

Banda said the burial program will only be announced after the pathology results have been established.

 
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Morocco’s World Cup heroics have won it support from across Africa and the Arab world, but in its neighbor and geopolitical rival Algeria, things are a little more complicated.

The Atlas Lions have become the first African or Arab team to reach a World Cup semifinal after knocking out a procession of higher-ranked European teams, winning accolades from Dakar to Dubai.

Many ordinary Algerians have also cheered their neighbor’s success, whether in a genuine spirit of North African solidarity or from the universal instinct of soccer fans around the world to seek a share in sporting glory.

“I feel like I must support Morocco — neighbors, brothers and Muslims,” said Mehdi Belkassam, 25, a kebab seller in Algiers.

But after years of icy relations and a long, difficult history marked by recriminations, Algeria’s government has ignored Morocco’s soccer exploits this winter, with television channels even censoring some of the team’s victories.

As other Arab and African countries have offered formal congratulations, Algeria’s government, which broke off ties with Rabat in 2021 after years of worsening relations, has been notably silent.

The two countries differ most bitterly over the disputed territory of Western Sahara, seen by Morocco as its own but where Algeria backs an armed independence movement.

There have been other disputes too, including over Morocco’s normalization of ties with Israel and allegations of spying. This year there were even arguments over the design of an Algerian soccer shirt.

One people

“If we focus on politics, Morocco is an enemy after choosing Israel as its friend. But soccer is not about politics. That’s why I’ve supported Morocco this World Cup,” said Miloud Mohamed, a taxi driver in Algiers.

With Morocco now due to play France, the former colonial power that ruled both countries and is home to hundreds of thousands of people claiming North African heritage, the stakes for North African soccer fans have risen once more.

For the kebab seller Belkassam, the Algerian heritage of several leading French players did create a dilemma for his choice of support, he said. “But I will support Moroccans against France,” he added.

For Abdallah Shikh, 65, the colonial history meant the choice was clearer. “We are all with Morocco,” he said.

Among the many Algerians and Moroccans who have spent time in France, sharing an experience of life in a foreign land where they are sometimes exposed to racism, there was camaraderie in the idea of a semifinal against “Les Bleus.”

“You can’t find a difference between Moroccans and Algerians in Paris because it’s a city that mixes Casablanca and Algiers, a city of at least a million people from the Maghreb region,” said Rachid Oufkir, from Morocco, who had lived there for 12 years.

In Rabat, where ecstatic Moroccans have been basking in the triumph of their team and the congratulations of fellow fans across Africa and the Middle East, people were glad to think that soccer might bring them and Algerians closer together.

“This win and the spontaneous celebrations that followed are strengthening Moroccan-Algerian brotherliness,” said Oumar Id Tnain, a museum employee.

“For us, Algerians and Moroccans are one people,” he said.
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A plan announced by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in October to grant temporary protected status to Ethiopians temporarily inside the United States because of the war in their homeland is set to go into effect beginning Monday.

“The United States recognizes the ongoing armed conflict and the extraordinary and temporary conditions engulfing Ethiopia, and DHS is committed to providing temporary protection to those in need,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas when the plan was announced.

Temporary protected status, or TPS, is often granted to people visiting the United States temporarily, including students, business officials and tourists, who fear returning home to countries struck by conflict or natural disasters.

They can remain in the United States, even with expired visas, as long as the TPS order is in place.

Mayorkas’ order permits Ethiopians without permanent residence or citizenship to remain in the United States up to 18 months. TPS status can be renewed, depending on the circumstances of the home country.

To be eligible for TPS under Ethiopia’s designation, individuals must demonstrate their continuous residence in the United States since Oct. 20, 2022, and continuous physical presence in the United States since Dec. 12, 2022, according to the DHS. Individuals arriving in the United States after Oct. 20, 2022, are not eligible for TPS under this designation.

DHS said about 26,700 Ethiopians in the United States are eligible to file applications for TPS.

According to the U.S. Census, about 272,000 people in the United States came from Ethiopia.

The TPS plan is poised to go into effect even as basic services like electricity and telecoms have been restored to key parts of Ethiopia’s Tigray region following the signing of a cease-fire deal a month ago, halting hostilities in nearly two years of war but most areas are still cut off from the world.

Information for this story came from the Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
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A Mauritanian man who received a death penalty in Mali for involvement in attacks that killed dozens, including an American, in 2015 was extradited to the United States to face a six-count indictment related to the same crime, the U.S. Justice Department said Saturday.

Fawaz Ould Ahmed was taken into custody by the United States and brought to New York Friday, the Justice Department said in a statement. Ahmed received a death penalty in Mali after pleading guilty to planning and executing the deadly attacks targeting Westerners.

Ahmed, 44, faces charges including the murder of U.S. citizen Anita Ashok Datar and conspiracy to provide support to U.S.-designated terrorist organizations al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb and al-Mourabitoun, according to the Justice Department.

U.S. Magistrate Judge James R. Cho ordered that Ahmed be detained pending trial.

Ahmed “now faces justice in a U.S. courtroom for the carnage that was carried out allegedly at his direction,” said U.S. Attorney Breon Peace in a statement.

Ahmed told a Malian court in 2020 he carried out an attack on La Terrace restaurant that killed five and that he was also involved in planning a raid at Hotel Byblos in the town of Sevare and another at Bamako’s Radisson Blu hotel.

The Justice Department said a total of 38 people had died in the three incidents.

“The defendant’s alleged actions — inhumanely plotting and carrying out ruthless terrorist attacks — were not forgotten and will not be forgiven,” said FBI assistant director-in-charge Michael Driscoll.

The attacks in 2015, just months after Islamist militants in Paris stormed the offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and shot dead 12 people, marked a brazen new phase in jihadi operations across West Africa. The campaign hit top hotels and destinations frequented by Western tourists, aid workers and diplomats.

Ahmed told the Malian court he did not regret the attacks and that he had been seeking revenge for cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad printed in Charlie Hebdo.

He was captured in Bamako in 2016 as he was preparing to carry out another attack armed with grenades and a suitcase filled with weapons on behalf of al-Mourabitoun, Reuters has reported, citing local authorities.
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Hundreds of Tunisians protested on Saturday against President Kais Saied a week before elections to a new parliament created by his constitutional changes, accusing him of an undemocratic coup.

Saied shut down the previous parliament last year and ruled by decree before rewriting the constitution this year to give the presidency more powers, moves rejected by most political parties.

“Saied get out!” chanted protesters marching in the center of Tunis.

Saied has said his actions were legal and necessary in order to save Tunisia from years of crisis and has repeatedly said he will not become a dictator.

Tunisians had grown increasingly frustrated over recent years at economic stagnation and political paralysis, with a divided parliament and unstable government.

Elections will be held on Dec. 17 for a new, less powerful parliament created by Saied’s constitution, which was passed through a referendum in July with low turnout.

Speakers at the protest including senior politicians from parties opposing Saied said the election was illegitimate and urged a boycott.

“All the opposition is agreed on one position which is rejecting a coup and calling for a return to democracy,” said Samira Chaouachi, who was deputy speaker in the elected parliament that Saied dissolved.
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China has constructed numerous ports, bridges and other coastal projects throughout the developing world in recent years in what’s been dubbed by Beijing the “21st Century Maritime Silk Road” – part of President Xi Jinping’s greater Belt and Road Initiative to build infrastructure.

But while some projects help developing economies increase their capacity for trade, there are environmental downsides to China’s coastal infrastructure, according to an academic study published this week in the journal One Earth, with Africa among the most negatively affected regions and Caribbean Island nations also facing high risk to marine habitats.

The study, by researchers from Boston University Global Development Policy Center, University of California Santa Barbara, Colorado State University and the University of Queensland, looked at the risks from 114 Chinese-funded coastal development projects over a 10-year period until 2019. The projects studied were funded by either the China Development Bank or Export-Import Bank of China and totaled some $65 billion in financing. China is the biggest bilateral funder of coastal infrastructure overseas, surpassing Japan and multilateral institutions like the Asian Development Bank.

“‘The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road’ has enormous potential to propel economic prosperity … but there are growing concerns regarding the potential deleterious impacts of this initiative on the environment and local and indigenous communities,” the study said.

Study findings

For example, in “Angola and Mozambique, more than 2,000 [square kilometers] of marine habitats face high impact risks,” the research found. However, just a few months ago, Chinese upgrades to a port in Angola were lauded by Chinese state media the Global Times, which said the project is designed to benefit the community in several ways including meeting “local demand for import and export of goods.”

While infrastructure such as bridges and power plants can also threaten the environment, it is port developments that represent the greatest risks to marine systems, researchers found.

“Ports rank as the highest-risk sector for coastal construction, because of the many possible avenues for environmental and social impacts: beyond the noise, light, and habitat disruption from the construction itself, they also bring the potential for significant changes in local ecosystems through the introduction of invasive species who ‘hitchhike’ on incoming ships and the depletion of local fish stocks from new fishing fleets who may come to use the port,” Rebecca Ray, senior researcher in global development policy at Boston University, told VOA.

African ports, such as those in Mauritania, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Angola, Mozambique and Djibouti, are prominent regional risk hotspots. The study found that as well as affecting marine life and biodiversity, such projects can negatively impact indigenous coastal communities.

This was particularly stark in West Africa, it said, where “seas surrounding coastal indigenous communities in Western and central Africa are disproportionately at risk, which could result in negative effects in seafood consumption and local livelihoods.”

Ivory Coast, for example, has some of the greatest risks to their seas and also has some of the highest levels of seafood consumption.

Balancing environment with development

In Mauritania’s capital, a Chinese-built port brought with it a fishing deal with a Chinese fleet, which then outdid local fishermen, Ray told VOA.

“In the case of the Nouakchott Friendship Port, small-scale fishers claim that over-fishing from Chinese fishing boats has not only damaged the local ecosystem but also their own ability to continue to make a living by fishing at small, sustainable scales,” she said.

In recent years, China has been balancing its environmental commitments with its economic goals.

“We need to care for the ocean as we treasure our lives,” Chinese President Xi Jinping said last year, state news agency Xinhua reported.

“Efforts will be made to develop ‘blue partnerships’ and expand cooperation with coastal countries in terms of marine environment protection, scientific research and maritime rescue,” the article stated.

Xinhua also talked about China’s vision for more maritime connectivity and trade, mentioning the Mauritanian port as an example of China’s economic vision, saying China’s aid “improved the handling capacity and alleviated cargo congestion and delays in the port, making it an important logistics node along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.”

In Southern Africa, researchers found that the renovation and expansion of the Beira Fishing Port in Mozambique by a Chinese engineering company presented one of the greatest risks within 10 kilometers of marine habitats of all the projects examined in the study.

“The impact of potential overfishing is why the Beira fishing port is ranked so high in risk among projects: it is the only port in the dataset developed explicitly for fishing purposes,” Ray explained.

During the inauguration ceremony of the renovated port last year, then-Chinese Ambassador Su Jian as well Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, said the port project would help with economic development, reported Xinhua.

“We believe that over the coming months we will continue to open more Chinese-funded projects,” Nyusi said.

However, not all African leaders are so welcoming of Chinese ports. In Tanzania, late President John Magufuli pulled the plug on a Chinese-planned port in 2019, saying the Chinese demands surrounding the development had been “exploitative.”

China’s green BRI initiatives

The study in One Earth recommends that China mitigate marine risks in its BRI developments.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not reply to VOA’s request for comment on this story. However, Beijing has become more environmentally conscious when handling infrastructure projects, including banning new coal-powered projects abroad.

In 2021, China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued guidance for its Belt and Road Initiative partners to “[foster] economic, social, and environmental development in a balanced and integrated manner.” The guidance also mentioned promoting “environment-friendly and resilient infrastructure through, inter alia, enhancing climate and environmental risk assessment on projects.”

Early this year, Beijing announced new green finance guidelines for its banks to manage risks, including environmental concerns.
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The U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit kicks off Tuesday in Washington, where President Joe Biden will host about 50 African leaders, their delegations and Africans in the private sector and diaspora communities in the United States. VOA Correspondent Mariama Diallo sat down with the dean of the African Diplomatic Corps in Washington.
Camera:  Hakim Shammo and Rob Purcell  
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A protection site for internally displaced persons in South Sudan is facing severe overcrowding following an influx of new arrivals. The site, which is protected by U.N. peacekeepers and designed to host 12,000 people, now has more than 37,000 occupants as thousands more continue to be uprooted by violence in Upper Nile state.

The fighting that sparked the influx is between two armed groups in Upper Nile state, in northeastern South Sudan.

The violence around villages in Kodok and Fashoda counties has raged for months and has claimed the lives of more than 4,000 people. Another 20,000 have been displaced.

Paul Awan, the relief and rehabilitation coordinator in Upper Nile state, describes the situation as a massacre, which is unfolding amid floods.

“… There is a lot of death, seeing children die in water is also happening, and when people are killed, its takes time to collect the bodies,” he said. “Now bodies are in the water, in the bush and the worst part is that the bush is being burned.”

Caught up in the fighting are defenseless civilians like Lucia Oluok. Oluok said she and her eight children had to trek for seven days to reach safety.

Others were not able to escape. Weda Jerim, for example, left behind her injured husband.

She said she ran to the bush without knowing where she was going, to an area without food or water. She said there’s no place for sleeping, and she and others sit under trees. They’ve been in the bush for five months, she said.

The swelling number of civilians escaping the violence is now straining resources at the U.N. Protection of Civilians Site in the town of Malakal.

The protection camp in Malakal, which was designed to hold 12,000 people, is now at three times its capacity. Those who cannot be accommodated here are being forced to cross to neighboring Sudan, a country already grappling with high number of refugees.

Charlotte Hallqvist, UNHCR external relations officer in South Sudan, said a thousand people have arrived at the camp in the last week. The new arrivals are occupying schools in the camp, but she said these are now full.

The camps, said said, lack many things. Inaccessible roads and armed conflict have slowed humanitarian aid. Desperate people are seeking refuge in villages along the rivers, she said. Flooding makes it difficult to leave those areas, and people seeking to flee need canoes to reach safety, she said.

The humanitarian community in South Sudan has strongly condemned the ongoing violence in Upper Nile State, saying the insecurity is hindering partners from saving those displaced by the fighting. 
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Chinese boats are decimating West Africa’s fish stocks and fishing communities in the Gulf of Guinea, say environmental groups.

The Institute for Security Studies, a South African think tank, said the communities could be losing more than $2 billion each year to illegal fishing, mainly from Chinese-owned boats.

Beninese fisherman Geoffroy Gbedevi said it’s getting harder to feed his daughter and pregnant wife. He said the community is suffering and the number of fish being caught is much lower than it used to be.

“Nothing is going the way it used to,” he said.

Yaya Toshu Koma Benoit is a community leader in Grand Popo, a small fishing town in Benin close to the border with Togo, where houses are empty as community members have been forced to leave to find work elsewhere.

He blamed the problem in part on techniques that catch fish before the fish are fully developed.

“That’s why there are no more fish,” he said. “If we can ban this practice, that’s good. There are lots of fishermen who use smaller mesh nets, so there are not many fish left.”

The Environmental Justice Foundation said illegal fishing boats in Ghana use Ghanaian flags, but 90 percent were traced to Chinese owners.

Steven Trent of the Environmental Justice Foundation called for “basic measures to introduce transparency.”

“Cars have a number plate as an identifier,” he said. “Put very simply, give each of these vessels what we call a unique vessel identifier to get rid of all these people who in many instances are simply stealing fish from some of the poorest people on our planet.”

China has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, with one article in the state-affiliated Global Times newspaper last year rejecting what it called “Western media rumors” of China’s illegal fishing and saying Beijing had tightened oversight of deep-sea fishing boats.

Gulf of Guinea nations this year banded together to crack down on illegal fishing. Benin, Ghana and Togo agreed to joint patrols and information-sharing with support from the European Fisheries Control Agency through a center in Accra, Ghana.

But the agency’s executive director, Susan Steele, said more efforts are needed.

“Legislation, operations, training and cooperation,” she said. “One of the key things you want to be looking for is to make sure there are consequences for the people doing illegal fishing.”

Some fishermen VOA spoke to in Benin said the joint patrols seemed to be helping, and fish stocks are showing signs of improvement.

Gbedevi just wants to feed his family. He said he lives in hope that things will get better.
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The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, reports it is stepping up critical aid to thousands of refugees and internally displaced people in conflict-ridden northern Ethiopia.

Aid agencies report they now have unhindered access to Ethiopia’s northern Tigray, Afar and Amhara regions. They say the November 2 peace agreement signed between the Ethiopian government and the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front is holding.

Millions of people, especially in Tigray, have been largely deprived of food, medicine, and other essentials throughout the two-year conflict. Since the peace treaty was signed, UNHCR representative in Ethiopia, Mamadou Dian Balde said his agency and partners have been able to increase the level of assistance and protection within the region.

Speaking from the capital Addis Ababa, he said as of this week, the UNHCR has been able to send in 61 trucks loaded with much needed relief supplies into Tigray.

“This is a game changer,” Balde said. “It is an opportunity for us. Will it last or not? I do not have the capabilities to predict that. … Things remain always fragile. But all steps taken by both parties are very important.”

Balde said UNHCR has relocated 16,000 Eritrean refugees to the recently established Alemwach site in the Amhara region. It also has assisted more than 7,000 Eritreans who had been stranded in two other camps in western Tigray so they can rebuild their lives and stand on their own.

He said a week ago he met a recently relocated refugee, who told him how relieved he was that his children could finally go back to school after more than two years.

“The fact that they were resuming education, that was indeed heartbreaking to hear,” Balde said. “That during all this time, they could not have it and they were relieved we are able to help refugees, children resume education and start normal life.”

Balde said the UNHCR also is working closely with local authorities in northern Ethiopia to support Ethiopians displaced by the conflict.

Between January and October, he said the agency has provided various protection services, shelter, household items and other services to more than 2 million internally displaced people.
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A team set up by the Pakistani government to probe the killing of a well-known Pakistani journalist in Nairobi said it found several contradictions in the version given by Kenyan authorities, and believes it was a case of pre-meditated murder.

TV journalist Arshad Sharif, who had fled Pakistan citing threats to his life, was shot dead in Nairobi in October. Kenyan officials said it was a case of mistaken identity and police hunting car thieves opened fire on his vehicle as it drove through a roadblock without stopping. 

A two-member fact-finding team from Pakistan that traveled to Kenya and conducted a number of interviews, examined and reconstructed the crime scene, and examined the deceased’s phones and computers, said in a 600-page report that Sharif’s killing was a pre-planned murder.

“Both the members of the [fact-finding team] have a considered understanding that it is a case of planned targeted assassination with transnational characters rather than a case of mistaken identity,” said the report, copies of which were submitted to Pakistan’s Supreme Court. 

“It is more probable that the firing was done, after taking proper aim, at a stationary vehicle,” it said.

Kenyan authorities declined comment on the specifics of the report.

“The investigation into the matter is still ongoing, so there is not much I can tell,” said Resila Onyango, spokesperson for the Kenya National Police Service.

A multi-agency team is conducting the investigation, she said, adding that the team will apprise authorities when they are done with the probe.

The chairperson of the Kenyan police watchdog Independent Police Oversight Authority, Anne Makori, also told Reuters investigations were still ongoing.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah had said before the release of the report that Sharif’s body had bruises and torture marks, suggesting it was a targeted killing.

The fact-finding team highlighted one wound in particular on Sharif’s back, saying it appeared to have been inflicted from relatively close range.

The report noted there was no corresponding penetration mark of a bullet on the seat on which Sharif was sitting when the shooting purportedly took place, calling it a “ballistic impossibility.”

“The injury had to have been caused either before the journalist got into the vehicle, or the shot was fired from a relatively close range, possibly from inside the vehicle, and almost certainly not a moving vehicle,” the report said.

Case of treason 

Sharif had fled Pakistan citing threats to his life after the government registered several treason cases against him.

One of the treason cases stemmed from reporting Sharif did that led to an accusation he had spread a call from an official in a previous government, led by former cricket star Imran Khan, for members of the armed forces to mutiny.

Both Sharif and the official in the previous government denied inciting mutiny.

Former Prime Minister Khan said Sharif had been murdered for his journalistic work. He and his successor Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, not related to the journalist, had called for a judicial investigation.

The fact-finding team’s report also pointed out apparent contradictions in the autopsy reports in Kenya and Pakistan.

The post-mortem report in Pakistan identified 12 injuries on Sharif’s body whereas the Kenyan report identified just two injuries pertaining to gunshot wounds.

The fact-finding team report said doctors believed the injures may be the result of torture or a struggle, but it could not be established until verified by the doctor who conducted the post mortem in Kenya. 

 
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Ahead of World Human Rights Day this Saturday (12/10), Cameroonian rights groups are protesting what they call dehumanizing treatment of women and children displaced by the separatist crisis in two western provinces. The rights groups say displaced women and girls are forced into physical and sexual abuse and domestic work without pay.

These are the voices of several hundred women and girls singing in streets in, Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.

Civilians should denounce human rights abusers, they say. Anyone fearing reprisal for doing so should discreetly tell female associations when anyone abuses the rights of women and girls. 

The protests in the capital and in Cameroon’s economic hub, Doula, were organized by the Association for the Fight Against Violence on Women and Young Girls. 

Human rights activist Jeanette Ebale, the association coordinator, calls it very disheartening that so many women and girls fleeing the separatist war in Cameroon’s English-speaking western regions do not find peace, love and comfort in French-speaking towns.

Ebale says her strong message on Human Rights Day is that civilians should denounce those who physically and sexually abuse women and girls displaced by Cameroon’s separatist crisis. She says 130 of the roughly 370 displaced females who rushed to her association for help after they were raped or forced into prostitution in the past two months were diagnosed with gonorrhea, chlamydia and or syphilis.

Eighteen-year old Immaculate Efossi escaped from Mamfe, an English-speaking southwestern town, in February after armed men torched a girls’ school dormitory. She says she spent two months living in the courtyard of the Roman Catholic church cathedral in French-speaking Douala.

Efossi says a man who promised her a domestic worker job instead abused her.

“I did every work, cleaning the house, cleaning the children and dresses and then cooking, yet I had only one meal each day,” said Efossi. “He kept on promising to pay my salary which he never paid for seven months. Honestly I could not leave his house despite the abuse because I had nowhere to go.”

Efossi said she was directed by a friend who left Mamfe and was abused sexually for a year to Women’s Rights, a female activist group. Women’s Rights says the man who abused Efossi and 11 other displaced girls and women is now facing charges in Douala. 

Cameroon’s government says children in the troubled western regions face violence, kidnapping, rape, being forced out of schools and into early marriage, and recruitment by armed groups. 

When they escape to French-speaking towns for safety, many become homeless, lack an education and are forced into prostitution and hard labor in plantations. Some are raped, arbitrarily arrested, detained and tortured.

Rights groups say it is difficult to know the number of women and girls whose rights are violated because most victims stay quiet for fear of reprisal. 

Marie Theres Abena Ondoua is Cameroon’s minister of women’s empowerment and the family. She says victims should denounce perpetrators of human rights abuses. She says the state will make the accused appear before the courts.

“Our society should banish he numerous manifestations of incivility, such as violence against women,” said Ondoua. “The government has made this a major concern through the promotion of the human rights of all citizens. It is extremely important for us to have peace and the promotion of the rule of law.”

The U.N. says the separatist crisis in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions that degenerated into an armed conflict in 2017 has claimed 3,500 lives and displaced 750,000 people.

Human Rights Day is celebrated every December 10, the day on which, in 1948, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
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A court in Mozambique sentenced 11 people, including two former intelligence chiefs, to up to 12 years in prison for their involvement in a corruption scandal that secretly added $2.2 billion to the African country’s debt.

At Maputo City Court on Wednesday, Judge Efigenio Baptista read out the verdicts for two former Mozambican intelligence chiefs involved in the scandal.

The two intelligence officials, Antonio Carlos do Rosario and Gregorio Leao, were sentenced to 12 years in prison. Angela Leao, Gregorio’s wife, was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Rosário and Leao were both found guilty of embezzlement, money laundering and other crimes.

Ndambi Guebuza, son of former Mozambican President Armando Guebuza, was also sentenced to 12 years in prison. The court considered it proven that the son of the former president accepted bribes to influence his father to approve a coastal protection project, used to raise the money that fed the hidden debts.

The judge said those convicted must return the $2.2 billion. The court said the deadline for filing an appeal is 20 days.

Jurist Paulino Cossa said the verdict shows that no one is above the law in Mozambique.

“Indeed,” he said in Portuguese, “this shows that in our country, whatever it could be, there are no untouchables.”

The judge said that he did not find “sufficient evidence” to convict eight of the 19 defendants charged in connection with the scandal. However, during the trial, which lasted for three months, sitting President Filipe Nyusi was implicated in several testimonies.

The debt scandal was discovered in 2014 when Nyusi was minister of defense. Three Mozambican state-owned companies secretly borrowed $2 billion from international banks to finance purchases of fishing vessels and military patrol boats.

In 2016, the scandal was discovered because the loans were contracted without parliamentary approval and behind the backs of the creditors of a country that is among the 10 poorest in the world and dependent on international aid.

Cooperation partners, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, withdrew aid to Mozambique and plunged the country into an unprecedented financial crisis and defaulted.

To date, some of the money has not been found. According to an independent audit, $500 million disappeared.
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Aid workers in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo warned Thursday of a possible “health disaster” because of an alarming surge in cholera cases in makeshift camps for displaced people. 

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said that between November 26 and December 7, 256 patients had been admitted to its cholera treatment center in Munigi, near the eastern city of Goma. 

A third of them were children under five, the aid agency added. 

“In just 10 days, the number of people suspected of having cholera has increased alarmingly,” MSF said in a statement. 

More than 177,000 people were “now trapped in dire conditions” in the Nyiragongo area north of the city, having fled the advance of the M23 rebel group in recent weeks. 

And as heavy showers fell during the rainy season, these displaced people were forced to live in shelters made from nothing more than branches and tarpaulin. 

“We have neither showers nor toilets,” Nyira Safari, the mother of an eight-year-old girl with cholera symptoms, told MSF. 

She took her daughter, who was “very weak and could barely stand,” to an MSF-supported health center for treatment. 

Aid response inadequate 

Tens of thousands of people are living packed together with no access to sanitation. 

“Given the lack of food, shelter, latrines and showers, all the ingredients are there for a health disaster,” said Simplice Ngar-One, head of MSF’s cholera response in Goma. 

“Despite our repeated calls, the current humanitarian response is far from adequate,” Ngar-One said. “That is just not understandable, as these people are only a few kilometers from Goma, home to many humanitarian organizations.” 

The M23, a mostly Congolese Tutsi group, resumed fighting in late 2021 after lying dormant for years, and has seized swathes of territory north of Goma. 

Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of providing the M23 with support — something that U.N. experts and U.S. officials have also pointed to in recent months.  

But Kigali has accused the DRC of collusion with the FDLR, a former Rwandan Hutu rebel group established in the DRC after the genocide of the Tutsi community in 1994 in Rwanda.  

 
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