Commercial bakers from eight West Africa countries are doing what they can to reduce their dependence on foreign wheat and strengthen their nations’ food security by forming a trade association. For VOA Allison Fernandes reports from Dakar, Senegal. Carol Guensburg narrates her report.
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A former prime minister of Senegal said in a televised address Monday that President Macky Sall’s ruling coalition has won 30 of the country’s 46 administrative departments in Sunday’s legislative elections. 

Aminata Toure said that that would give the West African country’s ruling coalition a slight majority. 

Dakar Mayor Barthelemy Dias, an opposition leader, took exception to Toure’s announcement and called for people to take to the streets Monday to protest. 

The final nationwide results of the election are not expected to be known until at least Friday.  Senegal’s hybrid election system also includes winners of the proportional representation vote and those who earn the most votes from Senegalese who live abroad. 

Senegal is considered one of the continent’s most stable democracies, but there is concern because Sall has not ruled out running for a third term in 2024, a move that would go against the country’s constitution.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was outraged after two people were killed and several others were injured when U.N. peacekeepers opened fire during an incident in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo on the Uganda border on Sunday.

The U.N. force, MONUSCO, admitted that some of its peacekeepers had opened fire “for unexplained reasons,” adding that arrests had been made.   

Guterres was “saddened and dismayed” to learn of the shooting, a U.N. statement said.

“The Secretary-General stresses in the strongest terms the need to establish accountability for these events,” it said.

“He welcomes the decision of his special representative in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to detain the MONUSCO personnel involved in the incident and to immediately open an investigation,” it added.

Video of the incident, shared on social media showed men, at least one in police uniform and another in army uniform, advancing toward the U.N. convoy stopped behind a closed barrier in Kasindi.  

The town is in eastern DR Congo’s Beni territory on the border with Uganda.  

After a verbal exchange, the peacekeepers appeared to open fire before opening the barrier and driving through while people scattered or hid.

“During this incident, soldiers from the intervention brigade of the MONUSCO force returning from leave opened fire at the border post for unexplained reasons and forced their way through,” the U.N. mission in Kasindi said in a statement earlier Sunday.

“This serious incident caused loss of life and serious injuries,” it said.

The Democratic Republic of Congo “strongly condemns and deplores this unfortunate incident in which two compatriots died and 15 others were injured according to a provisional roll,” government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said in a statement.

The government said it launched an investigation with MONUSCO to establish who was responsible, why the shooting took place and would ensure “severe penalties” are given.

The U.N. envoy in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Bintou Keita, said she was “deeply shocked and dismayed by this serious incident,” according to the mission’s statement.  

“In the face of this unspeakable and irresponsible behavior, the perpetrators of the shooting have been identified and arrested pending the conclusions of the investigation, which has already begun in collaboration with the Congolese authorities,” MONUSCO said.

The U.N. mission said the troops’ home countries had been contacted so legal action could begin promptly, with the involvement of witnesses and survivors, which could lead to exemplary penalties.  

Earlier Barthelemy Kambale Siva, the North Kivu governor’s representative in Kasindi, said that “eight people, including two policemen who were working at the barrier, were seriously injured” in the incident.

Kambale Siva, interviewed by AFP, did not say why the U.N. convoy had been prevented from crossing.

There are more than 120 militias operating in the DRC’s troubled east. The U.N. first deployed an observer mission to the region in 1999.  

In 2010, it became the peacekeeping mission MONUSCO — the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo — with a mandate to conduct offensive operations.

There have been 230 fatalities among the force, according to the U.N.

Last week, deadly demonstrations demanding the departure of the United Nations took place in several towns in eastern DRC.  

A total of 19 people, including three peacekeepers, were killed.

Anger has been fueled by perceptions that MONUSCO is failing to do enough to stop attacks by the armed groups.

U.N. under-secretary-general for peace operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix was in the central African country on Saturday to “talk to the Congolese authorities,” he said.

“(They would) examine ways in which we can both avoid a recurrence of these tragic incidents and, above all, work better together to achieve our objectives,” he said.

“We hope that the conditions will be met, in particular the return of state authority, so that MONUSCO can complete its mission as soon as possible. And to leave room for other forms of international support.”
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Thousands of protesters marching towards Sudan’s presidential palace were blocked by police firing tear gas, as an anti-military campaign entered its 10th month. 

Protests have continued weekly since an Oct. 25 military takeover that halted a transition to democracy and plunged the country into turmoil. 

Police on Sunday blocked protesters from reaching the kilometer-long road that leads to the presidential palace and chased them into nearby side streets, Reuters journalists said. 

Military leaders have said they are prepared to step aside if civilian groups can agree on a new government but political parties have been skeptical. 

However, former Sovereign Council member Mohamed al-Faki Suleiman said in an interview with local media outlet Sudan Tribune on Saturday that new constitutional arrangements were being discussed between the former ruling Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC) coalition and other “revolutionary forces.” 

Sunday’s protests were the latest in a series of demonstrations since multi-day sit-ins in Sudan’s capital prior to the Eid holiday. Last week, a protest called for by the FFC was attacked by unidentified assailants. 

At least 116 people have been killed in the protests, and thousands injured, many by gunfire, according to medics. 

Protesters assume they will be arrested, injured, or killed, said an injured protester, who asked to be referred to by his nickname Karika. 

“We don’t think we’ll make it back home, and so we have only one message: the military should go to the barricades and the Rapid Support Forces should be dissolved,” he said, referencing the country’s powerful paramilitary group. 
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The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, this week reported that global crises have combined to raise levels of acute malnutrition in dozens of refugee sites surveyed, most of them in Africa. UNHCR’s 2021 Annual Public Health Global Review was released Friday.

UNHCR officials say they are concerned by their findings, which show a significant deterioration in the nutritional condition of refugees. Monitoring refugees’ nutritional status resumed last year after stopping in 2020 because of COVID-19 restrictions.

The officials say a third of the 93 sites surveyed in 12 African countries and in Bangladesh showed serious levels of global acute malnutrition, a measurement of a population’s nutritional status, and 14% of locations recorded life-threatening levels of malnutrition.

UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo tells VOA the rates of malnutrition are particularly troubling as they were recorded before the war in Ukraine sent food and commodity prices rising.

“This is a key concern because nutritional intake is really key to building healthy and resilient communities,” she said. “The leading causes of illness for refugees remain upper respiratory tract infections and malaria and lower respiratory tract infections. And we had noncommunicable diseases also accounting for about 5% of consultations as well as mental health services.”

These concerns are playing out at a particularly difficult time marked by the COVID-19 pandemic and record levels of people being forcibly displaced by conflict, violence, and natural disasters.

Despite these problems, the UNHCR says gains were made in the inclusion of refugees into national health policies. A survey of 46 countries found 76% included refugees in their national health plans and practically all refugees were able to use primary health facilities.

In another promising result, by the end of last year, the report says 162 countries had included refugees and asylum-seekers in national COVID-19 vaccination plans.
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Somali-based militant group al-Shabab has executed seven men in Somalia’s southwestern region of Bay Six of them were accused of spying for the U.S and Somali government.

The execution that was conducted publicly took place in the vicinity of Buula-Fulay in Somalia’s Bay region late Saturday.

Six of the executed men were accused of spying for the Somali government and the U.S.

Three of them were also accused of providing intelligence that led to the killing of senior al-Shabab leaders, Yusuf Jiis and Abdulkadir Commandos, who were targeted in U.S. airstrikes in 2020.

An al-Shabab judge told local spectators that the six men have confessed, without providing evidence. Al-Shabab courts don’t allow lawyers who can defend the accused.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia’s Somali state president Mustafe Omar said that the region’s special forces operations against al-Shabab militants inflicted the group heavy casualties.

He said they believe that the troops killed 600 al-Shabab fighters during their operations against the militant group who a week ago infiltrated Ethiopia, sparking new confrontations near the Ethiopian border with Somalia.

 
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The new U.S. envoy for the Horn of Africa called Saturday for progress in holding Ethiopian peace talks and for unrestricted aid deliveries to stricken areas of the country.

Mike Hammer, who arrived in Addis Ababa Friday, held talks with Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen, the U.S. embassy said.

They discussed the “need for continued progress on ensuring unfettered humanitarian assistance delivery, human rights accountability & political talks to end the conflict & achieve a lasting peace”, the embassy said on Twitter.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government and the rival Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) have both raised the prospect of peace talks to end the brutal conflict that erupted in November 2020.

But major obstacles have emerged, not least over who should mediate any negotiations.

Abiy wants the African Union, which is based in Addis Ababa, to broker any talks, while the TPLF is insisting that the negotiations are led by neighboring Kenya.

Abiy’s national security adviser Redwan Hussein said on Twitter this week that the government was ready to talk “anytime anywhere” and that negotiations should begin “without preconditions.”

Meanwhile, TPLF-linked Tigrai TV quoted the rebels’ leader Debretsion Gebremichael warning that basic services would have to be restored in Tigray before negotiations could begin.

Fighting has eased in northern Ethiopia since a humanitarian truce was declared at the end of March, allowing the resumption of desperately needed aid convoys.

Malnutrition and food insecurity

Untold numbers of people were killed in the war and the UN says more than 13 million people need food aid across Tigray and the neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara, with high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition.

Tigray itself is lacking in food, fuel and essential services such as electricity, communications and banking, with hundreds of thousands living in dire conditions because of what the United Nations has described as a de facto blockade.

The UN’s humanitarian response agency OCHA said that since the resumption of humanitarian convoys on April 1, 4,308 trucks had arrived in Tigray’s capital Mekele as of July 19.

In Addis, Hammer also “reviewed” the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), the large-scale hydroelectric project on the Blue Nile, the embassy said.

On Friday, Egypt said it had protested to the U.N. Security Council against Ethiopian plans to fill the reservoir of the controversial dam for a third year without agreement from downstream countries.

The multi-billion-dollar GERD is set to be the largest hydroelectric scheme in Africa but has been at the center of a dispute with Egypt and Sudan ever since work began in 2011.

“We are actively engaged in supporting a diplomatic way forward under the African Union’s auspices that arrives at an agreement that provides for the long-term needs of every citizen along the Nile,” Hammer said on a visit to Egypt this week.

Addis Ababa deems the GERD essential for the electrification and development of Africa’s second most populous country.

But Cairo and Khartoum fear it could threaten their access to vital Nile waters.
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Off the coast of West Africa, the Trondheim is a familiar sight: a soccer field-sized ship, plying the waters from Nigeria to Mauritania as it pulls in tons of mackerel and sardines — and flying the red, yellow and green flag of Cameroon.

But aside from the flag, there is almost nothing about the Trondheim that is Cameroonian.

Once, it operated under the name of the King Fisher and sailed under the flag of the Caribbean nation St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Then it switched to Georgia, the former Soviet republic. It was only in 2019 that it began flying the banner of Cameroon.

The Trondheim is one of several vessels reflagged under Cameroon’s growing fishing fleet that have changed names and been accused of illicit activities at sea. Currently, an investigation by The Associated Press found, 14 of these vessels are owned or managed by companies based in European Union member states: Belgium, Malta, Latvia and Cyprus.

The AP examined over 80 ship profiles on MarineTraffic, a maritime analytics provider, and matched them with company records through IHS Maritime & Trade and the International Maritime Organization or IMO.

“They’re interested in the flag. They’re not interested in Cameroon,” said Beatrice Gorez, coordinator for the Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements, a group of organizations highlighting the impacts of EU-African fisheries arrangements that identified the recent connection between companies in EU member states and the Cameroon fleet.

Each of the vessels changed flags to Cameroon between 2019 and 2021, though they had no obvious link to the country and did not fish in its waters. The Trondheim and at least five others have a history of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing, according to a report by the environmental group Greenpeace. Both the vessels and their owners conceal what they catch, where it goes and who is financially benefiting from it, maritime and company records show.

In recent years, Cameroon has emerged as one of several go-to countries for the widely criticized “flags of convenience” system, under which companies can — for a fee — register their ships in a foreign country even though there is no link between the vessel and the nation whose flag it flies.

The ships are supposed to abide by that nation’s fishing agreements with other countries. But experts say weak oversight and enforcement of fishing fleets by countries with open registries like Cameroon offer shipping companies a veil of secrecy that allows them to mask their operations.

That secrecy, the experts say, also undermines global attempts to sustainably manage fisheries and threatens the livelihoods of millions of people in regions like West Africa. Cameroonian officials say all the ships that fly its flag are legally registered and abide by all of its laws. But regulators in Europe recently warned the country that its inability to provide oversight of its fishing fleet could lead to a ban on fish from the country.

Cameroon’s flagged fishing fleet is minuscule compared to countries such as Liberia, Panama or the Marshall Islands. But the rapid adoption of the country’s flag by some shipping companies accused of illegal fishing is raising alarm.

“This is a big issue,” said Aristide Takoukam, a biologist and founder of the African Marine Mammal Conservation Organization, a non-profit based in Cameroon that monitors illegal fishing. “I don’t think Cameroon is able to monitor these vessels that are flying Cameroon flags outside its waters.”

A history of lax oversight

Cameroon has long been criticized for lax oversight of its fishing fleet. A study published last year in the journal African Security documented deep-rooted corruption in the ministries that oversee the fishing industry. In that same year, the European Commission issued a “yellow card” to the country, warning it to step up its actions against illegal fishing.

The commission identified a series of shortcomings, including that the country had registered several fishing vessels — some of them accused of illegal fishing — under its flag in the past few years, raising concerns about the nation’s ability to control and monitor the activities of its fleet.

If Cameroon does not comply after its initial warning, the commission can issue a “red card,” effectively listing them as a non-cooperating country. And it can ban their fish products from entering EU markets.

The commission’s report named a dozen fishing vessels registered between 2019 and 2020 whose names were not provided to them by Cameroonian authorities. At least eight of the 12 identified vessels are managed or owned by European companies. The AP found six more vessels not included in the EU report.

The European Commission did not respond to the AP’s requests for comment.

Data from two maritime intelligence companies, Windward and Lloyd’s List Intelligence, reveals an accelerated growth in the number of vessels that sail under the Cameroonian flag in the past four years, from 14 vessels in 2018 to more than 129 in 2022. According to the Environmental Justice Foundation, Cameroon’s fishing capacity is now nine times larger than it was before 2018.

While the number of flagged ships has grown, the resources to monitor them have not kept pace, a review of budget documents show. The documents show that the budget for the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries’ control and supervision of fisheries declined 32% from 2019 to last year.

While countries have a right to allow vessels to adopt their nationality and fly their flag, Article 91 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea requires a “genuine link” to be established between a vessel and its flag state.

Despite this, foreign vessels in countries with open registries often have little to no relationship with their flag states. The responsibility falls on the flagged country to control operations of the vessels in their fleet, including any illegal activity caused in other nations’ waters or on the high seas.

“The very point of flags of convenience is that it’s easy, it’s cheap, you can do it quickly, and they are not necessarily looking at your history of compliance,” said Julien Daudu, senior campaigner at the Environmental Justice Foundation, a British NGO focusing on environmental and human rights issues.

Paul Nkesi, a representative of the agency that oversees fisheries, the Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries, says that although the government recognizes the need to step up its surveillance of industrial trawlers, all vessels are registered lawfully in Cameroon.

All of the 14 EU-linked vessels registered to Cameroon are massive trawler ships at least 100 meters long; none operate in Cameroonian waters. Tracking data show the ships journeying between ports in Mauritania, Angola, South Africa, and Namibia.

Still, for the local fishermen who already compete with the Chinese-owned vessels in their waters, the pressure of a growing fleet is creating concerns that Cameroon will be completely overpowered by foreign-owned vessels.

“Their business is only fishing; they can fish more than 1,000 local boats. If those bigger [international] vessels enter here, we’ll be really affected,” said Simeon Oviri, a local fisherman in Youpwe, a coastal area near Douala, Cameroon’s largest city.

Maurice Beseng, a research associate at the University of Sheffield’s Institute for Sustainable Development and visiting fellow in maritime security at Coventry University, said ships operating the flags of convenience appear to be using the system to circumvent the limits on fishing imposed by the European Union.

Differing sets of rules

The EU has fishing agreements with numerous countries, and EU-flagged vessels are subject to stricter fishing restrictions around the world, including in West Africa. But ships flagged to other countries outside the union are not subject to the same fishing limits.

For example, data from Global Fishing Watch, which uses satellite data and machine learning to monitor activity at sea, shows most of the EU-affiliated, Cameroonian-flagged trawlers appear to be fishing in Mauritania, a country that has one of the most robust fishing agreements with the EU.

Under this agreement, trawlers fishing with an EU flag have a total fishing capacity of 225,000 tons for a maximum of 19 vessels. Once that quota is met, all fishing activity has to stop.

But foreign vessels not under any agreement can fish in Mauritania under a free license. For the Cameroon-flagged trawlers, this means they can go above the EU limit without having to land their catches in Mauritania.

The same goes for Gambia, where industrial fishing vessels flagged to Cameroon may fish for any species outside the 7-mile nautical limit. However, if the vessel is flagged to an EU member state, the vessel can only fish for tuna and hake, according to current sustainable fisheries partnership agreements between the small West African country and the EU.

“They are able to use that as a loophole to go beyond the agreements,” said Charles Kilgour, director of fisheries analysis for Global Fishing Watch.

The trawler vessels catch small fish species, including horse mackerel, sardinella and anchovy, which recent stock assessments have shown are overfished along the Atlantic coast of West Africa.

These species are a lucrative and vital food source across the region, with an estimated 6.7 million people dependent directly on them. Sardinella in particular are locally consumed in the region as an affordable source of protein and nutrients. Currently, the Food and Agriculture Organization lists most of the targeted species as either fully exploited or overexploited.

Although it’s unclear where the fish goes after being unloaded in ports, Beseng notes that the fish targeted by these vessels commonly enter EU markets to be used as fish meal and fish oil.

“Their impact is huge. These are species that the local population depend on,” Beseng said. “The increase in catch has increased food security challenges for coastal communities.”

While environmental and maritime security experts applauded the EU for issuing the yellow card to Cameroon for the lax oversight of its fishing fleet, they say not enough is being done to target the EU-based companies that are the culprits.

“If you have European companies that are working under this flag,” Daudu said, “you should also demonstrate exemplary behavior by going after your own nationals.”

But just finding the trail can be a daunting — and sometimes insurmountable — challenge. “It’s really like an ink bottle. You can get so far, and then at some point it becomes completely opaque,” Gorez said. “It makes it really difficult to find information on who owns these vessels.”

The companies

The AP tracked the 14 vessels ultimately to four active companies: Ocean Whale Co. Ltd in Malta, INOK NV in Belgium, Sundborn Management Ltd in Cyprus and Baltreids SIA in Latvia.

Ocean Whale operates several former Soviet trawlers, including a ship formerly known as the Coral that has changed the flag under which it operates seven times since 2005. Recently, it switched to the Cameroon flag after two months under the Russian flag.

Other ships in the company’s fleet were involved in a 2010-12 fishing license scandal in Senegal. Under an agreement that was neither allowed by law nor publicly disclosed, the fisheries ministry granted several of its vessels licenses to catch small fish that were in danger of being overfished. The company and the minister denied wrongdoing.

The company did not respond to the AP’s requests for comment.

On its website, the Ocean Whale Co. said it catches fish in Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Namibia, and that “the company is only engaged in legal fishing activities under the licenses issued by the coastal States and strictly adheres to all applicable environmental regulations.”

Another group of ships registered to EU companies and recently flagged to Cameroon were also named in the Senegalese fishing scandal. Data from the IMO, the Maritime & Trade database and the Russian maritime register of shipping identifies the fleet’s owners as various companies in Cyprus and Belgium, with each ultimately managed by Sundborn Management Ltd, a company registered in Cyprus and INOK NV, a company registered in Belgium.

Both INOK and Sundborn Management offer vessel registration services. Among them: choosing a “flag of convenience and a ship register for a vessel,” in Malta, Cyprus, Panama, Belize and other countries.

Neither company responded to requests for comments from the AP.

Belgium’s Department of Agriculture and Fisheries said it has been contacted by the European Commission about vessels managed by INOK that have reflagged to Cameroon between 2019 and 2020 but said it couldn’t comment on ongoing investigations.

Baltreids Ltd, a Latvian fishing company established in 1998, manages five Cameroon-flagged vessels. The company structure includes two other holdings listed as official owners of the vessels in 2021, Limmat Inter SA, based in the Seychelles, and Oceanic Fisheries NB Ltd, based in Canada.

Baltreids has been accused of a number of suspicious activities, including insurance fraud and illegal fishing in the Atlantic Ocean. A 2020 Canadian Broadcasting Corp. investigation found that Oceanic Fisheries N.B., was flagged by global banks for more than $31 million in suspicious money transfers, according to documents shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other news organizations as part of the FinCEN Files.

When trying to track down a physical presence of the company in Canada, the CBC hit a dead end.

The Latvian IUU Single Liaison Office, the team that works with the EU Commission to regulate IUU fishing in Latvia, told the AP that the Marshal Vasilevskiy was excluded from the Latvian Ship Register in November 2019, when the ship reflagged to Cameroon, and the Kaptian Rusak was never registered under the Latvian flag. Instead, the vessel is listed as owned by Fishing Company SA, a company based in the British Virgin Islands.

IMO data lists ownership of the five Cameroon-flagged vessels owned by either Baltreids Ltd, Limmat Inter SA or Oceanic Fisheries NB Ltd, effective between 2019 and 2021. The New Brunswick corporate register indicates that Oceanic Fisheries N.B. has been inactive since October 2021.

Baltreids denied ever having links to Oceanic Fisheries N.B. or to engaging in any illegal fishing or money laundering to the CBC. In response to the AP, the company said it presently owns two vessels registered in Latvia.

Upping the accountability

According to Gorez, the timing of the ships’ reflagging to Cameroon in recent years seem to correspond with the 2017 adoption of the Sustainable Management of External Fishing Fleets , a regulation adopted by the European Parliament aimed to monitor EU vessels that operate outside EU waters.

The regulation requires fishing vessels to provide information regarding their operations’ sustainability and legality before their EU member state can issue them an authorization to fish in the waters of third countries.

“This regulation is really trying to catch these guys, but as soon as it becomes too complicated, then the easy way out is to change the flag,” Gorez said. “It’s like when you try to catch soap with your hands. It slips and goes somewhere else.”

Since 2010, the EU has incorporated other provisions to make its nationals more accountable for fisheries operations, regardless of country or vessel flags — most notably by penalizing EU nationals who engage in or support illegal or unregulated fishing anywhere in the world, under any flag.

But it’s up to the member states to address the issue. Gorez says the states involved in this matter — Latvia, Malta, Belgium and Cyprus — have so far shown little interest.

“We can see the duplicity of the EU in terms of their effort to fight IUU fishing. They’ve come up with good regulations, but when you go deep into how this is implemented in practice, you see that there are a lot of loopholes,” Beseng said.

Part of the SMEFF regulation is to maintain a database including information on the beneficial owners of operations by vessels flagged in an EU member state. As of now, the information remains confidential.

“How can you expect an official in a remote country that sees a vessel coming to be able to easily retrace the whole history of the vessel by himself if the former flag state does not put that information online?” said Daudu. “It would cost a lot of time. It would take a lot of verification. Sometimes it’s so well concealed that you can’t even find information.”

This story was supported by funding from the Walton Family Foundation and the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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Zambia’s creditors pledged to negotiate a restructuring of the country’s debts on Saturday, a move International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva welcomed as “clearing the way” for a $1.4 billion IMF program. 

The creditor committee, co-chaired by China and France, said in a statement released by G-20 chair Indonesia that it supported Zambia’s “envisaged IMF upper credit tranche program and its swift adoption by the IMF Executive Board.” 

In 2020, Zambia became the first African country in the pandemic era to default. The restructuring of its external debt, which amounted to more than $17 billion at the end of 2021, is seen by many analysts as a test case. 

“Very pleased the Official Creditor Committee for Zambia has provided its financial assurances clearing the way for a Fund program,” IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva said in a tweet.  

“The delivery of these financing assurances will enable the IMF Executive Board to consider approval of a Fund-supported program for Zambia and unlock much needed financing from Zambia’s development partners,” Georgieva said in a statement released by the IMF after her tweet. 

Zambia reached a staff-level agreement with the IMF on a $1.4 billion, three-year extended credit facility in December, conditional upon its ability to reduce debt to levels the IMF deems sustainable. 

Zambia’s government welcomed the creditors’ pledge and its unlocking of IMF support. 

“Zambia remains committed to implementing the much needed economic reforms, being transparent about our debt and ensuring fair and equitable treatment of our creditors,” Finance Minister Situmbeko Musokotwane said. 

On Friday, the finance ministry said it was canceling $2 billion in undisbursed loans. 

Zambia’s creditor committee said that the restructuring terms would be finalized in a memorandum of understanding, without providing further details. 

It also called on private creditors to “commit without delay” to negotiating debt relief on terms at least as favorable. 

Kevin Daly, who chairs a committee of holders of Zambia’s Eurobonds, welcomed the bilateral creditors’ statement, but repeated a call to be given access to the IMF’s Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA), which forms the basis of negotiations. 

“That’s where you could have delays with the restructuring, if all of a sudden we get the DSA and … (it) is just way too conservative, in terms of the forecasts,” Daly, of emerging markets investor abrdn, formerly Standard Life Aberdeen, told Reuters by telephone. 

The first bilateral creditor meeting was held in June, after Zambia’s government complained of delays to the restructuring. Talks are taking place under the Common Framework, a debt relief process launched by the Group of 20 major economies in 2020 that has been criticized by some for being slow to yield results. 

“This shows the potential of the #G20CommonFramework for debt treatment to deliver for countries committed to dealing with their debt problems,” Georgieva said in the tweet. 
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Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has called on the Somali public to join the government’s effort to help millions of people in the country affected by the drought. The U.N. says 7.7 million Somalis have been affected by the drought.

Speaking at a mosque in the country’s capital, Mogadishu, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud called on citizens to join his government’s efforts to help Somalis devastated by the worst drought in more than 40 years in the Horn of Africa nation.

Mohamud said those affected the most by the drought are the elderly and children, who are experiencing severe malnutrition.

He says the drought and its circumstances have worsened, and it now has reached a state of famine and death. The livestock are already gone, there was much hunger, he said, but the government has been doing whatever it can to help people, and the world is helping. He emphasized that the Somali people and those abroad need to double their efforts to reach a lot of people in time of great need.

Mohamud was elected in May by the country’s parliament for a second time, and he announced shortly after taking office that his government’s priority was to battle the current prolonged drought that has devastated 90 percent of the country.

He also appointed a special envoy for drought response to facilitate the humanitarian activities in the country.

According to the United Nations office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), 7.7 million Somalis have been affected by the drought, and nearly a million people have been displaced. Drought-related malnutrition has killed more than 500 children since January of this year.

The U.N. Migration Agency (IOM) in Somalia told VOA on Saturday the people displaced from the drought are living under extreme conditions.

Claudia Rosel is the IOM media and communications officer, and she said the numbers of those displaced by drought have been steadily increasing since the beginning of this year.

“Those who are newly displaced due to drought are on top of 2.5 million people who were already internally displaced in Somalia due to natural hazards and conflicts over the years,” said Rosel. “And now what we are preoccupied with is that in just one year, we are seeing almost 1 million people nearly displaced due to drought conditions and most of them – they won’t be able to go back to their communities of origin because they have lost everything.”  

The Somali prime minister’s office said the drought has affected more than 15 million livestock — 28 percent of Somalia’s total livestock population — while killing more than 2 million other animals.

Somalia’s southern Jubaland state minister of planning, Abdirahman Abdi Ahmed, told VOA Somali service that 200 children have died because of drought-related illnesses during the past three months.

 
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The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, Friday called for more to be done to protect African refugees and migrants from traffickers on their way from the Sahel and the Horn of Africa toward North Africa and Europe.

UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo says traffickers take advantage of African refugees fleeing persecution and violence and of migrants fleeing poverty and climate shocks, subjecting them to appalling abuse.

“Some of them are left to die in the desert.  Others suffer repeated sexual and gender-based violence, kidnapped for ransom, torture and many other forms of physical and psychological abuse,” said Mantoo. “So, the human trafficking issue is widespread and is incredibly alarming.”   

The report issued by the UNHCR and the Mixed Migration Center at the Danish Refugee Council, is based on information from 12 countries, from Burkina Faso and Cameroon to Somalia and Sudan.   

Mantoo tells VOA human traffickers and smugglers use technology and online platforms to advertise their services to unsuspecting victims.  She says traffickers employ the internet to identify, groom and recruit victims, including children.   

She says the UNHCR is urging governments and the private sector to work together to crack down on the use of the Internet by traffickers.

“These same digital technologies can be leveraged to actually counter the issue and counter trafficking by helping empower communities with trustworthy information, to better protect themselves and also be aware of the risks that they might face on these journeys …to ensure that there are protection services available for the people who are taking these precarious and perilous journeys, to prevent and end the human trafficking and smuggling rings,” said Mantoo.

The report provides tailored information for refugees and migrants on services available on different routes.  The UNHCR is calling for the creation of shelters and safe places, better access to legal services, and specialized services for children and female survivors of trafficking and gender-based violence.

UNHCR officials stress the importance of identifying critical locations to serve as so-called last stops – places where refugees and migrants can get information about the dangers that lie ahead before they embark on journeys across the Sahara.
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken travels to East Asia and Africa next week seeking to counter the influence of Russia and China in a fight for global influence.

Blinken begins his travels Tuesday on a tour that will take him to Cambodia, the Philippines, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda.

During his first stop in Cambodia, he will attend a Southeast Asian regional security forum where both the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers are expected to be in attendance.

When asked if Blinken would hold direct meetings with either Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov or Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink said there were no plans for formal meetings at this time.

During a briefing with reporters about Blinken’s trip, Kritenbrink did not rule out the possibility of an informal conversation between Blinken and Wang on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum in Cambodia.

Blinken spoke to Lavrov on Friday in the first conversation between the high-level officials since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in late February. Blinken pressed Lavrov to accept a U.S. proposal to secure the release of two Americans detained in Russia —professional basketball star Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan.

The State Department said in a statement Friday that Blinken will address the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, Myanmar and the war in Ukraine during the ASEAN ministers meeting.

Kritenbrink said Blinken would urge Asian nations to increase pressure on Myanmar after its government executed four activists this week.

“This is just the latest example of the regime’s brutality,” he said.

While in the Philippines, the secretary’s next stop, Kritenbrink said Blinken would reaffirm the U.S. commitment to the two countries’ mutual defense treaty, which he called “ironclad.”

Blinken then travels to Africa, part of an increased U.S. diplomatic effort in the region that follows Russia’s outreach to the continent.

USAID chief Samantha Power recently visited Kenya and Somalia, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield is planning to travel next month to Ghana and Uganda.

The visit by Blinken is part of the U.S. view that “African countries are geostrategic players and critical partners on the most pressing issues of our day,” according to a State Department release.

Each of the African countries Blinken is visiting — South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda — is a “significant player on the continent and on the globe,” according to Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee.

She told reporters Friday the secretary will deliver a speech on U.S. strategy toward sub-Saharan Africa while in South Africa.

Russia’s war in Ukraine is expected to be a major focus during Blinken’s stops in Africa.

Russia’s Lavrov this week wrapped up a tour of four African nations to strengthen ties with the continent and seek support against Western pressure over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Most African nations have remained neutral on the Ukraine war, despite pressure from Washington to condemn Russia’s invasion.

During his visit to the continent, Lavrov praised African nations for their independence.

Climate change will be another important topic during Blinken’s tour of Africa, according to Phee, who said the secretary would press Congo on its plan to reopen its rain forest to commercial logging.

While in Rwanda, Blinken will raise the “wrongful detention” of U.S. permanent resident Paul Rusesabagina, according to the State Department. Rusesabagina’s actions saved hundreds of lives during the 1994 genocide and inspired the movie Hotel Rwanda.

“We’ve been very clear with the government of Rwanda about our concerns about his case, his trial and his conviction, particularly the lack of fair trial guarantees in his case,” Phee said.

She said Blinken would also work to ease tensions between Congo and Rwanda. Congo has accused its neighbor of backing M23 rebels, a charge Kigali denies.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.
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Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.     

Anti-UN protests turn deadly in DRC   

The acting head of the United Nations mission in eastern Congo said Wednesday that they would carry out a joint investigation with national police into the shooting deaths of three peacekeepers and a dozen Congolese civilians during anti-U.N. protests this week.  

UN, DRC to Jointly Investigate Deadly Protests  

Iraq calls for Turkish troop withdrawal at UN Security Council   

Iraq’s foreign minister took his government’s demands Tuesday to the U.N. Security Council, where he sought the withdrawal of Turkish forces from Iraqi territory following a deadly strike on a vacation resort that Baghdad has blamed on Turkish forces. Turkey denies carrying out the July 20 strike, accusing a Kurdish terrorist group.  

At UN, Iraq’s Foreign Minister Demands Withdrawal of Turkish Forces  

Calls for repeal of Hong Kong’s National Security Law  

A U.N. monitoring committee called Wednesday for the repeal of Hong Kong’s National Security Law (NSL), saying it undermines the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people in the territory. The U.N. Human Rights Committee, which monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, said it is deeply concerned about the overly broad interpretation of the law, which was passed by the National People’s Congress of China without consultation with the people of Hong Kong.  

UN Committee Calls for Repeal of Hong Kong National Security Law

In brief      

— Following the signing in Istanbul on July 22 of a package deal to get millions of tons of Ukrainian grain to world markets and remove hurdles to Russian exports of fertilizer and grain, the U.N. says the first grain ships are expected to leave the Ukrainian port of Odesa in the coming days. A joint coordination center (JCC) has become operational in Istanbul and will oversee the movement of commercial vessels carrying grain through safe lanes in the Black Sea.   

— The World Health Organization is urging people who may have been exposed to or at risk of monkeypox to get vaccinated against the disease as a preventive measure. Since it declared monkeypox a global health threat last week, the WHO says the disease has continued to spread around the world, with cases topping 16,000 in at least 75 countries. The monkeypox virus is spread from person to person through close bodily contact. It can cause a range of symptoms, including painful sores. Those at higher risk for the disease or complications include men who have sex with men, women who are pregnant, children and people who are immunocompromised.  

— WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned this week that the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. He said COVID-19 cases and deaths have been on the rise for the last five weeks. Tedros says new tools must be developed to curb the virus, while public health measures that are known to work must be maintained and strengthened, including vaccinations. The latest WHO report puts the number of confirmed global cases at nearly 566 million, including more than 6.3 million deaths.  

— The International Criminal Court unsealed an arrest warrant Thursday for a former Central African Republic government minister who is accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mahamat Nouradine Adam is accused of committing crimes during his tenure as Minister of Security between March 31 and August 22, 2013, including alleged “acts of savagery” at detention centers in the capital of Bangui. Prosecutors say Adam was involved in torture, persecution, enforced disappearances and cruel treatment of prisoners at these detention centers. Prosecutors say Adam had a prominent role in the Seleka group, which seized power and forced President Francois Bozize to step down from office in 2013. Adam is believed to be moving from country to country within the region.  

 — The U.N. Security Council on Friday voted to relax a 9-year-old arms embargo imposed on the Central African Republic but stopped short of lifting it as the Bangui government, the African Union and some other regional groups had wanted. The African members of the council – Gabon, Ghana and Kenya – along with Russia and China, abstained in the vote. CAR Foreign Minister Sylvie Baipo-Temon spoke in person at the meeting, saying the embargo is no longer justified. Under the new resolution, the government will be able to get certain weapons, but the sanctions committee must be notified ahead of their delivery. Some non-lethal forms of equipment are no longer prohibited. The embargo is intended to keep weapons out of the hands of rebels, mercenaries and armed groups in the country.   

Good news  

On Thursday, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution recognizing the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a universal human right. Activists called the adoption “historic” and said it has been 50 years in the making. While General Assembly resolutions are largely symbolic, this one had strong support, with 161 countries voting in favor and none against. U.N. Environment Program chief Inger Andersen said the resolution sends a message that “nobody can take nature, clean air and water, or a stable climate away from us – at least, not without a fight.” UNEP hopes this will encourage governments to enshrine the right to a healthy environment in national legislation and international treaties, as well as give a boost to the work of environmental advocates.  

Quote of note       

“Anywhere in the world, the act of walking outside your front door is an ordinary part of life. But for many Afghan women, it is an act that is extraordinary. It is an act of resistance.”     

— U.N. Women Afghanistan Deputy Country Representative Alison Davidian to reporters on Monday about the challenges women and girls in that country are facing after nearly a year of Taliban rollbacks on their human rights.   

What we are watching next week    

On Monday, the 10th review conference of the parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) gets underway at U.N. headquarters through August 26. The treaty aims to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and weapons technology, to promote cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and further the goal of nuclear disarmament.  

 
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Kenyan authorities have called on Facebook to do more to rid the platform of hate speech ahead of the August 9 general election. Rights group Global Witness said the social media company approved hate speech advertisements promoting ethnic violence.

Research has shown how social media has played a destructive role in elections worldwide, enabling parties and individuals to stoke unrest by disseminating hateful speech and misinformation.

Global Witness set out to study whether the biggest social media platform, Facebook, was able to detect hateful and inciteful messages concerning Kenya’s election — and whether Facebook was prepared to deal with the haters and those spreading fear.

In June, Global Witness submitted 10 ads in English and 10 in Swahili that contained hate speech.

The senior adviser of the organization, Jon Lloyd, said the hateful messages were approved.

Lloyd said Global Witness submitted batches of three to four advertisements. The first ads submitted were in Swahili, with the assumption that Facebook would have weaker controls in Swahili than it would in English.

All the Swahili ads were accepted without issue, Lloyd said, often within a few hours. Three English ads were initially rejected for a violation of Facebook’s grammar profanity policy, Lloyd said.

“We were invited to amend the ads and resubmit them,” he said.

Lloyd said they made adjustments to correct the grammar and profanity and the ads were accepted.

In Kenya, Facebook has about 10 million users. As the East African nation prepares to elect a new president on Aug. 9, experts warn there is a real risk of ethnic violence propagated on the platform and the spread of disinformation.

In a statement, Facebook admitted Friday to have missed some hate speech messages because of mistakes by the people and machines the platform relies on.

Facebook also said they have Swahili speakers and technology to help remove harmful content and have invested in people and technology to help ensure safe and secure elections in Kenya.

But Lloyd of Global Witness said it appears Facebook is not capable of dealing with the issues of hate speech that threaten Kenya’s political stability.

Kenya’s National Cohesion and Integration Commission, tasked with addressing and minimizing ethnic tensions, said it has seen less in-person hate speech in this year’s campaign compared to past years.

But Danvas Makori, one of the members of the government-funded commission, said the problem has not gone away.

“Hate speech has migrated from political rallies and platforms to social media platforms,” Makori said. “No longer do we see politicians engaging in hate speech in rallies today. They use their proxies, whether bloggers, to conduct and propagate hate speech mostly online.”

Kenya’s previous elections have been characterized by ethnic tensions and violence, most notably the 2007 polls when post-election violence killed more than 1,100 people.

Global Witness is calling on Facebook to take the Kenyan elections seriously and protect users from speech that could cause a repeat of that violence.
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A Malawian rights activist has been found safe a day after his reported abduction led to the cancellation of an anti-government protest. 

An eyewitness said five men abducted Sylvester Namiwa, the head of the Center for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives (CDEDI), as he was leaving a press conference Wednesday.

He was found alive Thursday afternoon in a bush in the Nathenje area on the outskirts of Malawi’s capital, Lilongwe.

Edwin Mauluka is the spokesperson for the CDEDI.

“I was this morning with him as we escorted him to police. The issue is in the hands of police because we reported that matter to police, that Mr. Namiwa has found there at Nathenje,” said Mauluka.

Namiwa spoke to reporters after his re-appearance Thursday.  He said he would not give details on his alleged abduction until he talked with his lawyers and family members.

However, he said he believed the abduction was a government ploy to silence dissenting views.

“I am betting my last drop on my blood to defend this democracy…. Chakwera and his Malawi Congress party are a threat to democracy but I will not be intimidated,” said Namiwa.

Police said Friday they have taken a statement from Namiwa and are conducting an investigation.  Harry Namwaza is the deputy spokesperson for the Malawi Police Service.

“After taking a statement from him, there are other things we should do like visiting all scenes where he was allegedly taken to,” said Namwaza. “So, once we are done with our investigation, we can give an update in terms of what we found and what will be the way forward because we also have to identify those behind these abductions.”

The abduction of Namiwa ignited a war of words in parliament Thursday.

The minister of Homeland Security accused the opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of carrying out the abduction to tarnish the image of the government.

DPP lawmakers accused the government of abducting Namiwa to foil an anti-government protest that was planned for Thursday.

The protest was canceled in Lilongwe but demonstrations went forward in other areas, where police fired teargas to disperse people who allegedly wanted to loot shops and vandalize property.
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At least two people were killed and eight others injured in southwestern Somalia on Friday in a bomb blast that killed a regional minister in the town of Baidoa, about 250 kilometers from the capital, Mogadishu.

Those killed in the blast were Somalia’s southwestern regional state Minister of Justice Sheikh Hassan Ibrahim and his son, witnesses and security officials said.  

At least eight other people, including the minister’s second son, were injured in the attack.

Security officials said an apparent remote-controlled bomb went off as the minister and his sons left a mosque, where they had performed the Friday congregational prayers.

“The targeted minister has died in the hospital in about an hour after he was admitted with critical wounds. Now, one of his sons, who is among the injured is in a critical condition,” Abdifatah Ibrahim Hashi, the hospital’s director, told VOA Somali. 

No one has immediately claimed the responsibility of the attack, but the security officials usually accuse al-Shabab militants of being behind such terrorist attacks. 

Last week the group claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing attack in the town of Marka that killed 13 people, and an explosion that killed at least six people in the town of Afgoye.  

Lower Shabelle, in the Southwest federal state of Somalia, is one of two breadbasket regions of Somalia and is in the country’s south, where the nation’s only two permanent rivers, Jubba and Shabelle, cut through.  

Although the major towns in the region are under the control of Somali government, its rural environs are controlled by al-Shabab as hideouts and for agricultural revenues.

Within the areas it controls, al-Shabab has established its own brand of sharia courts that it uses to punish crime and resolve domestic civil disputes swiftly.  

Mukhtar Atosh contributed to this report.
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As conflict in northern Ethiopia spreads into the Afar region amid lingering drought, some residents are appealing for help, saying they have nothing to eat and that their children are dying. Reporter Henry Wilkins spoke to locals in the town of Erebti and to aid workers who say the Afar regional administration should declare drought as a crisis to get needed assistance.

Aysha Mohammed lives by the side of the road in a makeshift camp on the edge of Erebti in northern Ethiopia’s Afar region. She says members of her family have died of hunger.

Mohammed says there is not enough food and drink, and they do not have enough clothes or blankets, adding, “We expect God first and then the government to help us.”

In November of 2020, the federal government went to war against rebels of the former ruling group, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, in the northern Tigray region. The conflict weakened federal forces and contributed to the ongoing instability in the country. Mohammed is one of more than 5 million people displaced by the conflict.

The conflict disrupted humanitarian aid convoys to Tigray, which borders Afar. There have been concerns that aid destined for Tigray has been stuck in Afar.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, a U.S. agency tracking food insecurity, says Tigray could be in a state of famine. Fuel restrictions also make it difficult to distribute food to remote areas.

The Ethiopian government has alleged that TPLF attacks in Afar have compromised the passage of food trucks to Tigray. In recent weeks, however, World Food Program trucks have been able to deliver to Afar and Tigray.

Mohammed has seen aid trucks along the road where she lives, traveling from neighboring Djibouti en route to Tigray.

She says Tigray is getting more help than Afar.

Mohammed says humanitarian aid goes to her enemies, which makes her feel sad, and that they haven’t been given any aid for a whole month. “We notice the aid goes to Tigray while we are hungry,” she says.

The WFP told VOA via email: “WFP delivers food assistance to 650,000 people in Afar — this is as per our mandate requested by the government … we deliver in Erebti … We do not deliver in locations or to people who the government doesn’t request our support for.”

Meanwhile, this reporter visited the graves of people who lived in the makeshift camp in Erebti. They included a child, who was less than a year old. Residents say some people died of starvation. VOA was unable to independently verify the accounts.

A local nonprofit in Afar says difficulties associated with recovery from the conflict with Tigray and the historic drought are combining to create a deadly crisis for the region.

Valerie Browning works with the Afar Pastoralist Development Association.

“From the humanitarian position, we would really implore them to declare a drought, because what we’re doing is very little for the community and very insignificant compared to the need,” said Browning. “So, we’re having to go into a community and choose those who may die in the next two to three weeks and then leave the rest to go downhill.”

The Afar regional administration did not respond to a request for comment on its decision not to declare a drought.

A report by the Emergency Nutrition Coordination Unit in Afar says 1.3 million people are in need of food aid.

In a July 26 report, the state-funded Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) called for an intervention in regions affected by the drought and blamed lack of early warning for much of the devastation. The report did not cover the Afar region, however. It only focused on the southern part of the country.

Tarikua Getachew is director of law and policy at the EHRC.

“There are already a number of displaced persons and refugees in the Somali region,” said Getachew. “So, it’s a heavy burden on the region, but also nationwide. We certainly hope that the report will mobilize further attention to it and further action.”

The drought is Ethiopia’s severest since 1981.
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Protests against Guinea’s junta and its handling of plans to return to democracy brought the capital to a standstill Thursday, with organizers saying one person was killed.

The protest, planned last week, began ahead of comments by the chair of a regional bloc who claimed to have persuaded the junta to shorten its timeline for a return to democracy. The junta has not confirmed his comments.

The National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC) said one person had died after being hit by a bullet in the Conakry suburb of Hamdallaye, while several others were injured.

The FNDC is an influential political coalition that had called the demonstrations to denounce the junta’s “unilateral management” of the return to civilian rule after it seized power in 2021.

Authorities have not confirmed the death.

The public prosecutor on Thursday instructed prosecutors in several areas to take immediate legal action against the organizers of the demonstration, which was banned.

The FNDC has accused the military leaders of “systematically refusing” to establish a “credible dialogue” to define the terms of the transition.

The former ruling Rally for the Guinean People (RPG) and the National Alliance for Change and Democracy (ANAD), another coalition of parties and associations, then called on their supporters to join the demonstrations.

Speaking alongside French President Emmanuel Macron at a briefing in Bissau, ECOWAS regional bloc chair Umaro Sissoco Embalo, said he had recently convinced Guinea’s junta to hasten the return to democracy.

“I was in Conakry with the president of the commission (of ECOWAS) to make the military junta understand the decision of the summit of heads of state that the transition cannot exceed 24 months,” Embalo said.

“They had proposed 36 months, but we succeeded in convincing them,” he added.

But Ousmane Gaoual Diallo, a Guinean minister and spokesperson for the transitional government, told AFP that “neither the government nor the presidency confirm this information about the duration of the transition in Guinea.”

Clashes broke out Thursday morning between young demonstrators and the police in several areas seen as opposition strongholds in the capital, an AFP reporter said.

Protesters erected barricades and burned tires while police fired tear gas to disperse small groups throwing stones.

Most parts of the city center remained calm, but activity nonetheless ground to a halt.

The Boulevard du Commerce, a major roadway usually full of people, was almost deserted by midday.

“We are delighted with the success of our call to demonstrate — it was perfect,” Ibrahima Diallo, the FNDC’s head of operations, told AFP.

“The city has been quiet everywhere; the administration is paralyzed — it’s been a great success for us.”

‘Authoritarian conduct’

Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who overthrew President Alpha Conde last year, has pledged to hand over power to elected civilians within three years. But regional powers have rejected this timeline.

The junta in May banned any public demonstrations that could be construed as threatening public order.

The FNDC had announced protests for June 23 but later called them off, indicating they were prepared to give the transitional government a “chance” and start dialogue.

But their patience snapped after a meeting with the authorities that the FNDC slammed as a “parody.”

It denounced the “solitary and authoritarian conduct of the transition” and its “serious attacks on fundamental rights and freedoms.”

Three FNDC leaders were arrested on July 5, provoking violent demonstrations that were some of the first since the junta seized power.

All three were released after being found not guilty of contempt of court over comments they had posted on social media criticizing the prosecutor’s office and the military-appointed parliament.
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In Ethiopia’s Afar region, aid trucks pass through en route from Djibouti to Tigray, but people who live by the side of the road say they have nothing to eat and their children are dying. Henry Wilkins reports.
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As campaigning gears up for Kenya’s August 9 presidential elections, the two main candidates are both focused on one key talking point – the economy – and this inevitably means the country’s controversial relationship with China is coming under the spotlight.  

Deputy President William Ruto, a former chicken-seller who styles himself as a champion of the poor and calls himself the “hustler-in-chief,” has come out with a strongly anti-China platform. He’s vowed to deport Chinese nationals doing jobs he says should be reserved for Kenyans and has also promised to make public government contracts with Beijing.

At an economic forum in June, Ruto said, “Chinese nationals are roasting maize and selling mobile phones. We will deport all of them,” Agence France-Presse reported. 

As Africa’s biggest investor, China has been responsible for major infrastructure projects in Kenya, including the recently opened Nairobi Expressway and the controversial and expensive Chinese-built Standard Gauge Railway, which links the capital with the key port city of Mombasa.

But the pro-China policies of current President Uhuru Kenyatta – with whom Ruto has fallen out – now mean Kenya now owes China billions of dollars. 

Ruto said he would cut government borrowing and promised to make public opaque contracts with China — something some Kenyan activists have even gone to court over. 

In contrast, Ruto’s opposition rival Raila Odinga — who has come up short in four previous presidential bids and is now backed by his former nemesis, Kenyatta — has been less strident on China. 

Odinga has noted that Western nations were in Africa before the Chinese, who simply filled a need for infrastructure development, and said working with Beijing does not mean having to exclude other countries. He said recently he would renegotiate terms for the debt. 

China spotlight 

“The deputy president and the presidential contender William Ruto and his allies have made China a talking point in their campaign, and they’re mostly critical of the role of China in the country,” Cliff Mboya, a Kenyan researcher at the China Global South Project think tank, told VOA. 

Another Kenyan independent analyst and China specialist, Adhere Cavince, said he thinks Ruto’s stance is “a politically convenient way to hunt for votes” in the face of rising living costs and high unemployment. 

“Kenya is currently experiencing a lot of economic difficulties and there’s been this narrative about the role of China, especially in regard to this debt trap narrative,” Cavince told VOA. “Politicians leverage anything they can blame, and I think for the deputy president, China has become a very easy target.” 

Another reason for Ruto’s stance, Cavince said, could be to distance himself from his boss, Kenyatta, with whom he fell out in 2018.   

“We understand some of these development projects could have sidelined the deputy president from the lucrative tenders that come with it and so it could be a way of getting back” at Kenyatta, he said. 

Mboya likewise said Ruto was trying to distance himself from the government, which has been associated with corruption in relation to Chinese mega-projects. 

“It is believed that a lot of money was siphoned off to benefit the political class,” he said. 

While many ordinary Kenyans are “very appreciate of the projects,” Mboya added, they are also “angry about the borrowing.” 

Both analysts also noted Ruto’s about-turn on Chinese lending and Odinga’s contrasting attitude to the Asian giant.

Previously, Ruto was “protective and defensive” about the government’s relationship with China, but has since changed tack, Cavince said, “maintaining that he will not be going to China to borrow should he ascend to the presidency.” 

“Raila Odinga, on the other side … has equally had a very measured temper to the Chinese,” said Cavince. “He’s been on record in his campaigns, giving the example of China’s development track record, saying it’s possible for Kenya to go the way China did.” 

China’s position on lending 

While both presidential candidates have expressed concern about Kenya’s debt, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Kenya earlier this year and rejected the “debt trap” accusations. 

“All China-Kenya cooperation projects have been scientifically planned and appraised in detail, bringing benefits to the Kenyan people and boosting Kenya’s national development and revitalization,” he said. 

“Eighty percent of Kenya’s foreign debt is owed by multilateral financial institutions, and its debt to China is mainly concessional loans,” he added, according to the official Foreign Ministry statement.

The Chinese Embassy in Nairobi did not respond to VOA’s requests for comment on Ruto’s anti-Chinese rhetoric. 

Tough China stance 

It is not the first time African leaders have talked tough on China. Former Zambian President Michael Sata reportedly railed against Chinese “profiteers” in the early 2000s and claimed that “Zambia has become a province of China.” In 2018 there was widespread looting of Chinese businesses in Zambia. 

Zambia, whose biggest creditor is China, defaulted on its external debt in 2020 and is now negotiating debt restructuring.

But in Kenya’s case, Mboya and Cavince say Ruto’s threats are mainly empty rhetoric, given China’s huge clout on the continent.
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The United Nations refugee agency says clashes this year between the Democratic Republic of Congo’s army and the rebel group M23 have displaced more than 160,000 people. Ruth Omar visited makeshift camps for the displaced in Nyiragongo Territory, north of the DRC’s eastern city of Goma, and has this report.
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Mali’s military government says coordinated insurgent attacks on Wednesday killed 15 troops and three civilians, while leaving scores of militants dead. Analysts say the attacks show increasing insecurity in the West African country following the withdrawal of French forces.  

The attacks were launched Wednesday against military targets in Mopti, a city in central Mali, as well as in Sokolo and Kalumba, also in central Mali. The Malian army issued a statement saying it “neutralized” 48 militants.

In it, the chief of staff of the armed forces reassured Malians and called on observers not to be deceived by the recent acts of an adversary losing momentum. According to the analysis of the chief of staff, the recent attacks, which confirm signals and clues previously detected and identified by the army, show the final throes of armed terrorist groups on Malian territory.

Fodie Tandjigora, a sociology professor at the University of Bamako and researcher on security in Mali for several organizations, said from Bamako that despite such assurances, the situation in Mali is getting worse, and has entered a new phase in which Islamist militants are able to better organize and carry out simultaneous, planned attacks.  

Militants also launched a series of attacks last week in several localities, before attacking Kati, a town just 15 kilometers from Bamako and home to the army’s main military base.

Tandjigora says these attacks are meant to send a message.  

It’s a message, he said, not only towards public opinion, but also and especially to the international community, to say that ultimately the Malian army, contrary to the impression which has been conveyed by them, does not have the ability to maintain security on Malian territory.

Insecurity has been mounting in Mali in recent months, as the French army completes the process of withdrawing from the country.  

French President Emmanuel Macron is currently visiting several countries in West Africa, where France continues to send military support to some of them in the fight against extremism.  

The French army was primarily active in Mali’s north. Macron announced the withdrawal of troops in February, following increasing tensions with Mali’s military government, and concerns about the government working with Russian mercenaries.  

Reports of mercenaries committing human rights abuses have been published by Human Rights Watch and several international media outlets since March.

Tandjigora said that public opinion in Mali is widely in favor of a Russian intervention, which many hope can end the country’s rampant insecurity. He said that though Mali maintains that it only works with official Russian instructors, whether official soldiers or mercenaries, the presence of these soldiers has had little effect on the security situation.  

Tandjigora also said that the state is failing to address widespread misinformation circulating on social networks, which has contributed to increasing tensions in the country.
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South Africa’s chief rabbi has condemned Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor for saying that Israel is “implementing apartheid” in its treatment of Palestinians. Pandor made the comparison to South Africa’s past oppressive system of racial segregation during a meeting of the Palestinian Heads of Mission in Africa, held in Pretoria. 

Wearing a traditional Palestinian scarf, Pandor reiterated South Africa’s steadfast commitment to the Palestinian cause, comparing it to the 20th century struggle against white minority rule in South Africa. 

“For many South Africans, the narrative of the Palestinian people’s struggle does evoke experiences of our own history of racial segregation and oppression,” she said. 

Pandor said Israel was continuing to “occupy Palestine in complete defiance of its international obligations and relevant resolutions of the U.N.,” and that it was “implementing apartheid.” 

For his part, Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki thanked South Africa for its support, also drawing parallels with the former apartheid government. 

“We came here because every time we need support and encouragement, we look for reference; we come to the origin of the struggle for liberation, for independence, against colonization, here in South Africa,” Malki said. 

Contacted by VOA, the Israeli embassy in Pretoria said it would get back with a comment on Pandor’s remarks, but no statement has been made by either the embassy or the Foreign Ministry in Israel. 

South Africa’s chief rabbi, Warren Goldstein, slammed Pandor’s comments as “factually, politically, morally repugnant.” 

“They are views which are a defamation of the Jewish state and an insult to the victims of the real apartheid, because if everything’s apartheid, nothing is apartheid,” he said. 

He added that the minister’s comments “betrayed” South Africa’s constitution. 

“Israel is the only democracy in the region, and the South African government’s support for tyrannies in China, Russia and Iran mean that it does not have the moral credibility to level accusations such as this,” Goldstein said. 

Steven Gruzd, analyst from the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg, said since the start of democracy in 1994, the South African government had strongly supported the Palestinian cause. While it maintains diplomatic relations with Israel, he noted, they are “not warm.” 

He said the accusation Israel is an apartheid state was particularly strong, coming from South Africa. 

“When the foreign minister of a country calls another country out for apartheid and that first country is South Africa, it will make people stand up and take notice,” Gruzd said. 

Gruzd said he expected Israel and its chief ally the United States to condemn Pandor’s remarks. 

 
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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is on a major tour of Africa, seeking allies amid global anger and isolation over food shortages following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports. Tatiana Vorozhko contributed.
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