Senegal has opened an underwater museum just off the coast from its capital, Dakar. Its goal is to raise awareness of environmental problems in the bay. Allison Fernandes explains in this report narrated by Carol Guensburg. Camera – Mbaye Ndir.
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Nigeria’s main opposition party has won the governorship election in southwest Osun state, the electoral commission said on Sunday, in a major upset against President Muhammadu Buhari’s ruling All Progressives Congress.

Osun is among eight of Nigeria’s 36 states where governorship elections are not being held at the same time as the rest of the country because of legal challenges to previous results.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said Senator Ademola Adeleke of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) polled 403,371 votes to unseat incumbent APC Governor Gboyega Oyetola, who scored 375,027 in Saturday’s ballot.

“I declare… that Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke of the PDP, having satisfied the requirements of the law, is hereby returned elected,” said INEC returning officer Oluwatoyin Temitayo Ogundipe in Osogbo, the state capital.

Adeleke, 62, won 17 of the state’s 30 local government areas while Oyetola won in 13.

The announcement was greeted with spontaneous celebrations on the streets of the state capital as PDP supporters started singing and dancing. Motorists blared their horns on the roads. 

Election observers said the polls which opened early with a large turnout was peaceful but added that cases of vote-buying were rampant.

Political test

Of the 15 parties that vied for the seat, only four candidates were frontrunners. They were the APC’s Oyetola who was seeking a second term, Adeleke of the PDP, Akin Ogunbiyi of the Accord Party and the Labour Party’s Yusuf Lasun.

However, it was a straight race between old political foes Oyetola and Adeleke — who lost by less than 500 votes after a run-off four years ago.

Described locally as a “dancing senator” because of his penchant for partying, Adeleke is an uncle of celebrated Nigerian superstar singer Davido, who joined him on the campaign.

The PDP flagbearer comes from a wealthy political family. His father was a senator in the 1980s while his late brother, Isiaka, was the state governor from 1992 to 1993. 

Another brother, Deji, is a billionaire oil and shipping mogul and Davido’s father.

Davido was in the state to mobilize the youth, including his supporters and fans, for his uncle.

The ballot was seen as a battleground for Nigeria’s leading parties to test support for their presidential hopefuls ahead of the February 2023 election as Buhari steps down following eight years in office.

The APC has chosen former state governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu as its presidential candidate.

The APC’s loss in Osun is a blow to Tinubu’s regional influence.

Tinubu, a Muslim from the southwest, faces a tough challenge from PDP candidate Atiku Abubakar, a northern Muslim. 

Another frontrunner is the Labour Party’s Peter Obi who has been enjoying growing support among the younger generation in a bid to break the APC and PDP dominance.

Last month, the APC won a governorship vote in nearby Ekiti state with a landslide.
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Authorities in Zambia have extradited a Chinese citizen who fled Malawi last month over accusations of selling exploitative videos to China of Malawian children.

Police in Malawi told VOA Sunday that their counterparts in Zambia handed over Lu Ke to them Saturday night in the Mchinji district which borders Zambia.    

“He is in police custody. He was handed over by our friends from Zambia. As of now he has been charged with trafficking in persons, but other charges may be added,” said Harry Namwaza, the deputy spokesperson for Malawi Police Service.      

Lu Ke fled Malawi last month where police were searching for him after a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) investigation found he was recording young villagers in central Malawi and making them say racist things about themselves in Mandarin.      

In one video, children, some as young as nine years of age, are heard saying in Mandarin that they are a “black monster” and have a “low IQ.”    

The BBC reported he was selling the videos at up to $70 apiece to a Chinese website. The kids performing in the videos were paid about half-a-dollar each.    

The news sparked outrage in Malawi forcing various rights organizations to hold street protests and present a petition to the Chinese Embassy in the capital, Lilongwe.    

In the petition, the protesters asked the government of China to compensate the children in the videos for being fooled to say words in a foreign language they could not understand.      

Comfort Mankhwazi is the president of the University of Malawi Child Rights Legal Clinic, which led the protests.     

She told VOA Sunday that she is happy with the extradition.  

“Because we feel like this is one of those things we had in our petition, what we wanted, and we got that. We truly hope that this extradition and the arrest will lead to something big like the prosecution in our courts and finally those victims will be able to get justice they deserve,” she said.

There were no official comments from Chinese authorities on the extradition of Lu Ke as of Sunday.    

However, police spokesperson Namwaza said Lu Ke is expected to appear in court soon. 
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Flash floods triggered by seasonal torrential rains in Sudan’s western Darfur region killed at least 12 people, including children, the U.N. and an aid group said Sunday. 

Heavy rains started late Friday in the Kass locality in South Darfur province, according to the the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA. 

Citing Sudan’s Humanitarian Aid Commission, OCHA said around 540 people were affected by the flooding, which also destroyed or damaged more than 100 houses in an area inhabited by displaced people. 

Toby Harward, a coordinator with the U.N. refugee agency, reported the deaths. He posted footage on Twitter showing flooded areas and homes. He said the UNHCR and its partners were working to provide humanitarian aid to affected communities. 

The General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, a local NGO, said the dead included a pregnant woman and two boys ages 2 and 8. 

According to OCHA, at least 9,336 people have been affected by heavy rains and flooding the provinces of South Kordofan, South Darfur, White Nile and Kassala since the beginning of the rainy season in June. 

Sudan’s rainy season usually lasts to September. Last year, flooding and heavy rains killed more than 80 people and inundated tens of thousands of houses across the country. 
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Sudanese police and soldiers deployed in large numbers Sunday across the capital Khartoum, ahead of mass protests planned by pro-democracy groups against coup leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.   

Security forces erected roadblocks on bridges crossing the Nile river linking Khartoum to its suburbs, AFP reporters said.   

Undeterred, protesters vowed to take to the streets in large numbers following a period of relative calm over the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha which ended early last week.   

The demonstrators oppose Burhan’s October power-grab and are also highlighting heavy fighting in Sudan’s southern Blue Nile state, about 450 kilometers south of Khartoum.   

Sudan’s latest coup derailed a transition to civilian rule, sparking near-weekly protests and a crackdown by security forces that has left at least 114 killed, according to pro-democracy medics.   

Nine were killed on June 30, the medics said, when tens of thousands had gathered and their deaths reinvigorated the movement.   

On July 4, Burhan vowed in a surprise move to make way for a civilian government.   

But the country’s main civilian umbrella group rejected the move as a “ruse”. Protesters have continued to press the army chief to resign.   

They accuse the military leadership now in power and the ex-rebel leaders who signed a 2020 peace deal of exacerbating ethnic tensions for personal gain.   

In Blue Nile on Sunday, witnesses reported troops deployed in the town of Al-Roseires, after at least 33 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in violence between rival ethnic groups, according to the Health Ministry.   

Guerrillas in Blue Nile battled former strongman president Omar al-Bashir during Sudan’s 1983-2005 civil war, picking up weapons again in 2011.   

Bashir was ousted in 2019. The following year, the transitional administration reached a peace deal with key rebel groups, including from Blue Nile as well as the war-ravaged western Darfur region.   

The current violence in Blue Nile is between two local groups, the Berti and the Hausa. 
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Police are on the hunt for suspects after nine people were fatally shot in separate shooting incidents in two provinces of South Africa on Saturday night, police said on Sunday.

The latest slew of shootings come on the heels of an uptick in violent deaths in a country with one of the world’s highest murder rates.

Four people were shot and two more were injured at the Thembelihle informal settlement in the Gauteng province. Preliminary investigation suggests that a group of men were playing dice at a street corner, at approximately 19:30 p.m. (1730 GMT) on Saturday, when they were attacked by unknown assailants who shot at them, the authorities said in statement.

“Four people were certified dead on the scene on Saturday while two people were taken to the nearest medical care center after sustaining gunshot wounds,” the police said.

In another separate incident also at Thembelihle, in the south of Johannesburg, a 36-year-old man who appeared to have been robbed of his belongings, including a cellphone and bicycle was found shot dead, they added.

Police said that the motive for the shootings cannot be confirmed at this stage.

Meanwhile in the Western Cape Province, police have launched an investigation into the circumstances of a triple murder last night in Khayelitsha township. A fourth one was an unrelated incident, Colonel Andrê Traut said.

On Friday, eight suspects linked to the “random” separate shooting and robbery incidents of six people on Thursday night at the Alexandra township in Johannesburg were arrested, officials said.

It was not yet clear whether the suspects in the Alexandra shooting were in the same group that carried out all the killings.

Around 20,000 people are murdered in South Africa every year out of a population of about 60 million.
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Forest elephants are smaller than their cousins on the African savannah, but in Gabon their destructive raids of farmers’ fields are having an outsized impact on support for the government and its conservation agenda.

With over 10% of its land protected in national parks, Gabon has become the main stronghold in central Africa for critically endangered forest elephants, whose relative abundance and marauding habits are undermining efforts to protect them there, authorities and scientists warn.

The long-standing conflict has become markedly more acute in the past few years – 2021 saw the most widespread anti-elephant protests so far by farmers across Gabon, according to the environment ministry.

“Some people cannot farm anymore – the elephants are eating so much of their crops,” Environment Minister Lee White told Reuters. “It has become a political issue and is eroding support for conservation and for the president (and) government.”

Just outside the capital Libreville, splintered tree-trunks, trampled undergrowth and churned-up earth mark where an elephant strolled through the forest.

When they draw close to villages, these natural bulldozers can wipe out carefully tended crops in just a few hours.

“You can see how people get mad and sometimes kill the elephants,” said guide Djakel Matotsi as he followed the elephant tracks in Pongara National Park.

Up to 50 elephants are killed per year in revenge or self-defense, while around 10 people have been killed by elephants in the past 2-1/2 years, according to the environment ministry, which says there is not enough data to quantify long-term trends.

The raids are causing food prices to rise, spurring rural exodus and driving up perceptions that the authorities prioritize elephants’ interests while doing little to support the around third of Gabonese who live in poverty, said Oliwina Boudes, head of a female farmers’ association.

“All rural communities harbor this feeling,” she told Reuters.

Need for detente

The need for a detente is clear. Gabon is home to 95,000 or 60-70% of all African forest elephants, which are facing dramatic decline elsewhere, a study published in Global Ecology and Conservation in December showed. Managing these herds while promoting rural development in Gabon is of “critical importance to the species’ persistence,” it said.

After nationwide consultations in 2021, authorities are rolling out new initiatives this year to try to strike this balance.

To address the lack of data on elephant disturbances, the ministry has launched a database and app to track and verify complaints while for the first time, the government has set aside $4.5 million in this year’s budget to compensate farmers for trashed crops.

The government is also allowing charity Space for Giants (SfG) to trial elephant-repelling electric fences around fields, customized to simplify their installation and maintenance in tropical forest conditions.

The 57 single-strand fences set up so far have repelled all interactions with elephants, SfG said in June. It plans to install 500 by year-end if it can get the funding.

Even with the fences, the government will need to do more to help farmers cope with elephants as it pursues its ‘Green Gabon’ plan for sustainable development, said John Poulsen, elephant ecologist at Duke University, who is helping SfG assess the impact of the fence trial.

He said that the government could potentially deploy agents in the field to help keep troublesome elephants away from villages and provide training so communities can deal with problem animals better themselves.

“If they have that perception that elephants are that bad … it absolutely affects their outlook and willingness to work with the government and with other conservation efforts,” he said.
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Many Somalis are reacting with horror — and a sense of understanding — at British runner Mo Farah’s tale of being trafficked to Britain as a child and forced to look after other children.

Olympic champion Farah was born in present-day Somaliland, a territory by the Gulf of Aden that has asserted independence from the Horn of Africa nation of Somalia. In a BBC documentary aired earlier this week Farah revealed how as a boy of 8 or 9 he was separated from his family and trafficked from neighboring Djibouti to the U.K. under a new name under which he eventually ran for glory.

Here, in the Somali capital Mogadishu, those who have heard of Farah’s account express sadness for what he went through as a child forced to work in servitude. But they also point out that he was not alone in facing exploitation.

Conflict, climate change and economic collapse are displacing record numbers of people around the world, pushing more and more migrants into the hands of criminals who profit by smuggling them into Britain, the European Union and the U.S.

Somalis, like their neighbors in Ethiopia and Eritrea, are often among the desperate — people fleeing conflict and hunger in hopes of safety and a better life. Convinced they have little to lose, the young risk their lives on flimsy boats organized by human traffickers who get them across the English Channel to Britain.

Those who can afford it pay thousands of dollars to reach countries where they hope to find jobs and security. Others fall prey to criminals who force them into sex work, drug crimes and domestic servitude.

Wealthier countries lack robust policies to respond to this complicated situation. Britain has welcomed refugees from Ukraine, for example, while proposing to deport asylum seekers from other places to Rwanda. While Prime Minister Boris Johnson says the Rwanda plan will break the business model of criminals who smuggle people across the Channel in inflatable boats, immigrant activists are suing over a plan they describe as illegal and inhumane.

Farah, who represented Britain at three Summer Olympics in 2008, 2012 and 2016, is a rare success story. Many others trying to escape poverty, hunger and violence in countries such as Somalia don’t get so lucky — the reason many activists here say efforts must be put into supporting local governments to eradicate the many reasons people wish to go.

“It is certainly sad that Mo Farah had such a bad experience as a boy,” said Ahmed Dini, who runs the Mogadishu-based children’s rights group Peace-Line. “It has become evident that there are many contributing factors to child trafficking, such as poverty, a lack of adequate education, and insufficient security.”

Farah still has family members — including his mother and two brothers — living on a farm near Hargeisa, the Somaliland capital. He said in the BBC film that his father was killed during unrest when the boy was 4.

In the documentary, produced by the BBC and Red Bull Studios, Farah said that when he left Africa, he thought he was going to Europe to live with relatives and had a piece of paper with the contact details. But the woman he ended up with tore his papers and took him to an apartment in west London where he was forced to care for her children.

Farah said his fortunes in Britain changed when he was finally allowed to attend school. A teacher who was interviewed for the documentary recalled a 12-year-old boy who appeared “unkempt and uncared for,” was “emotionally and culturally alienated” and spoke little English.

Farah eventually told his story to a physical education instructor. The teacher contacted local officials, who arranged for a Somali family to take him in as a foster child. He soon blossomed on the track.

Anti-slavery advocates say Farah is the most prominent person to come forward as a victim of modern-day slavery, a crime that is often hidden because it occurs behind closed doors and inflicts such trauma on its victims.

Now that a man of such celebrity has spoken of his experience, there can no longer be any doubt about the horror of child servitude even among ordinary Somalis who otherwise would find his account “unusual,” said Bashir Abdi, an academic based in Mogadishu.

“Children consistently face abuses, but the story this renowned athlete revealed has captured the attention of many people, including Somalis,” he said. “We often hear of child exploitations, and I believe that significant (numbers of) Somali children go through domestic violence and abuses, but little is exposed to the public.”

Amina Ali, a stay-home mother of four in Mogadishu, told The Associated Press that it was tough for her to hear the story of a 9-year-old boy “so weak and helpless forced to clean house and change the diapers of other kids.”

“As a mother, I felt sadness for him once I have listened,” she said. “Praise be to Allah that he is no longer under those circumstances. However, he is now at some point where he can reveal his story and I wish those (who) committed that abuse to be brought before justice one day.” 
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The Republic of Congo’s ruling party won a majority in last week’s parliamentary election, based on provisional results seen by AFP on Saturday as opposition groups alleged electoral fraud.

Congolese Territorial Administration Minister Guy Georges Mbaka announced the results of the July 10 poll on national television early Friday.

His ministry subsequently allowed journalists, including an AFP correspondent, to see the provisional results on Saturday.   

According to these results, the Congolese Labour Party (PCT) won 103 out of 151 assembly seats.

The PCT is the party of President Denis Sassou Nguesso, a 78-year-old former paratrooper who first came to power in the central African nation in 1979.  

Smaller parties allied with the PCT won 13 seats, according to the provisional results.  

“The PCT won again because it is a unifying party that has no ethnic problems,” said party representative Serge Ikiemi.

Opposition groups in the Republic of Congo, which is also known as Congo-Brazzaville, denounced the results as fraudulent.  

A civil-society group called “Let’s Turn the Page” said Friday the vote was marked by “cheating, fraud and scenes of open corruption.”

Independent candidate Vivien Manangou, who was defeated by a PCT member in a bid for an assembly seat, told AFP that “the results did not come from the ballot box at all.”

The country’s leading opposition party, the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS) won four seats, according to the provisional results. UDH-Yuki, another opposition party, won two.

Two other small opposition parties boycotted last week’s vote over fears the election would be rigged.  

A run-off vote scheduled for July 24 will decide 27 unfilled assembly seats. 
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A new United Nations report says African countries must diversify exports if they are to survive economic shocks.

A report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD, calls on African countries to broaden their exports beyond commodities if they are to escape poverty.

UNCTAD’s economic development in Africa report for 2022 says that global crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic and Ukraine war threaten African countries’ economies.  It says millions of Africans already struggle to make a living in the middle of a rapidly rising food and energy crisis.

U.N. economists say Africa will not get out of its poverty trap if the continent remains dependent on exports of primary products, mainly in the agricultural, mining, and extractive industries.  They note commodities still account for more than 60% of total merchandise exports in 45 of Africa’s 54 countries.

UNCTAD Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan says 1 out of 2 Africans, more than 600 million people, are severely vulnerable to food, energy, and finance shocks.  She says Africa must diversify its economy to become more resilient.

“The report makes clear the great potential for African countries to transform their economies through services, supporting the continent’s long-standing economic diversification goals, boosting productivity and development,” Grynspan said.

UNCTAD says knowledge-intensive services, such as information and communication technology, or ICT, and financial services, could be a game-changer for Africa.  However, they note the sector currently accounts for only 20% of the continent’s services exports.  

Grynspan says traditional services, such as travel and transport, dominate, accounting for about two-thirds of the total services trade.  

“The analysis we are sharing today provides convincing evidence that high-value services, especially high-intensity ones in ICT and finance, are often the missing links that explain why diversification has not been achieved in the continent,” Grynspan said.

Grynspan says economic diversification should be a priority in Africa. She says it is the only path to sustainable growth and to high-quality jobs for young people.

The UNCTAD report calls on African countries to implement policies to better link trade in high-value services with other sectors, especially manufacturing.  It also calls for removal of protectionist measures that limit the development of high value-added services trade.
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Sudanese authorities have declared an overnight curfew in two towns in southeastern Blue Nile state, close to the border with Ethiopia, after several days of tribal clashes that they said had left 31 people dead and 39 injured.

Clashes spread in several towns from Wednesday after the killing of a farmer, before security forces made arrests and brought the situation under control, a statement from Blue Nile state’s regional government said.

The statement said 16 shops had been destroyed and a night curfew was declared in the towns of Damazin and Roseires.

There have been sporadic outbreaks of violence in several regions of Sudan, including eastern coastal regions and western Darfur, despite a nationwide peace deal signed by some rebel groups in 2020.

The most powerful faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North, a rebel group active in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, did not sign the deal.

Sudan’s military seized power from a transitional, civilian-led government in October 2021, triggering mass anti-military protests that have continued for more than eight months.
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The world was sadder and more stressed out in 2021 than ever before, according to a recent Gallup poll, which found that four in 10 adults worldwide said they experienced a lot of worry or stress.

Experts say the most obvious culprit, the pandemic — and the isolation and uncertainty that came with it — is a factor but not entirely to blame.

Carol Graham, a Gallup senior scientist, says the culprit for declining mental health includes the economic uncertainty faced by low-skilled workers.

“There are some structural negative changes that make some people in particular more vulnerable. And in the end, mental health just reflects that,” says Graham, who is also a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and a professor of public policy at the University of Maryland.

“For young people who do not have good higher levels of education, what they’re going to do in the future is very unknown. What their stability will be like, what their workforce participation will be like. … Rising levels of inequality between skilled and unskilled workers is another part of it, having to do with technology-driven growth.”

Gallup spoke to adults in 122 countries and areas for its latest Global Emotions Report. Afghanistan is the unhappiest country, with Afghans leading the world when it comes to negative experiences.

Overall, the survey results were not surprising to psychologist Josh Briley, a fellow at The American Institute of Stress.

“Things are moving faster. There’s so much information being thrown at us all the time,” he says. “And of course, media thrives on the bad stuff. So, we are constantly being bombarded with crisis after crisis in the news, on social media, on the radio and on our podcasts. And all that is drowning out the good things that are happening.”

Psychologist Mary Karapetian Alvord says being more connected online means people in one country can feel profoundly affected by what happens in another country, which wasn’t always the case in the past. For her U.S. clients, uncertainty is the biggest stressor.

“Uncertainty of life and how it’s going to impact them on a daily basis. Prices going up and gas going up. And then the supply chain issues that are impacting people in their daily lives,” Alvord says. “But I think the bigger issue is that uncertainty and so much suffering. Of course, the shootings have come up. A lot of people are really stressed out and feeling like, ‘Where is it safe?’”

There have been more than 300 shootings involving multiple victims in the United States so far in 2022.

Happiness worldwide has been trending downward for a decade, according to Gallup. All three psychologists who spoke with VOA point to social media and the flood of unfiltered information as contributors to declining mental health and happiness.

“We’ve seen this explosion worldwide, and I think that’s a big sort of tectonic shift in how humans interact and experience emotions and all sorts of things. And we’re seeing that there’s some real downsides to it,” Graham says.

Briley says part of the problem is that although people are more connected online, they’re often less connected in real life.

“The connection that we have with people, the physical connection has changed. We’re more connected than ever before with people all the way around the world, but we may not know our neighbors’ names anymore,” he says. “So, we don’t necessarily have that person where if my car breaks down, who do I call for a ride to work?”

More optimism, despite frowns

On the upside, the survey found that the percentage of people who reported laughing or smiling a lot was up two points in 2021, while the number of people who say they learned something interesting increased one point. Alvord says looking beyond the negative is critical to maintaining mental health.

“It’s important for people to also find moments of, if not joy, at least satisfaction in life,” she says. “I think sometimes we reach for happiness and that’s just not attainable … and so, our expectations need to be realistic.”

Minorities in the United States might already be doing that. The survey found that people from marginalized groups are among the most resilient.

“Their anxiety may have increased but their optimism, particularly for low-income African Americans, remains very high,” Graham says. “It was a finding I’ve seen for many years, but it surprised me that even during COVID, it held. I think that’s more due to the kind of community ties and other ties that minority communities have built, almost informal safety nets, that have been very protective many, many times in history.”
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The United States has pulled out of the systems that monitor the peace process in South Sudan because of the country’s failure to meet reform milestones, the State Department said Friday.  

South Sudan continues to face chronic instability even after rival leaders President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar agreed to form a unity government more than two years ago, following a conflict that left nearly 400,000 people dead from 2013 to 2018. 

A transition period is set to end in February 2023, but many key provisions of the deal have not been met, including drafting a permanent constitution.  

The United States cited that “lack of sustained progress” Friday as the reason for withdrawing from two peacekeeping organizations monitoring the impoverished country’s path to implement the transition: the Reconstituted Joint Monitoring and Evaluation Commission (RJMEC) and the Ceasefire and Transitional Security Arrangements Monitoring and Verification Mechanism (CTSAMVM). 

“South Sudan’s leaders have not fully availed themselves of the support these monitoring mechanisms provide and have demonstrated a lack of political will necessary to implement critical reforms,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.  

The statement called out South Sudanese leaders’ failure to establish a “unified, professional military”; to protect civil society members and journalists; and to enact necessary financial reforms. 

The United States will continue to provide about $1 billion in humanitarian and development aid and in support to the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), among other financial backing, the statement said. 

The U.N. peacekeeping mission, one of the world’s most expensive, was renewed for another year in March.  

The U.N. has repeatedly criticized South Sudan’s leadership for its role in stoking violence, cracking down on political freedoms and plundering public coffers, and has accused the government of rights violations amounting to war crimes over deadly attacks in the southwest last year. 

South Sudan, one of the poorest countries on the planet despite large oil reserves, has faced a decade of instability from war, natural disaster, hunger, interethnic fighting and political bickering since it gained independence in 2011.
…

Armed men killed at least 12 civilians in overnight raids on villages in northern Togo, where Islamist militants have staged several attacks, two local activists and a medical source said Friday. 

Spared until recently by the jihadi violence that has ravaged its northern neighbors for the better part of the past decade, Togo has over the past two months experienced a spate of attacks. 

They are part of a broader spillover of militant violence into coastal West African countries from the landlocked Sahel region. Benin and Ivory Coast have also been targeted in the past year by militants believed to belong to an al-Qaida affiliate. 

The overnight raids were the deadliest to hit Togo to date, topping an ambush in May that killed eight soldiers. The al-Qaida-linked Jamaa Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM), which is based in Mali, claimed responsibility for that attack. 

A local rights activist, who asked to not be named for security reasons, said suspected jihadis killed 10 civilians in the village of Sougtangou and 10 in Blamonga, both of which are near the border with Burkina Faso. 

Another local activist said suspected jihadis had killed at least 12 civilians and a medical source said the death toll was at least 14. They also spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. 

Government spokesman Akodah Ayewouadan confirmed to a local radio station that there had been an attack. 

“Clearing operations are currently under way, and we fear that there are victims,” he said. 

The government declared a state of emergency last month in the Savanes region, where the overnight attacks took place, and has bolstered security to try to prevent militants from spilling over from southern Burkina Faso. 

The army said Thursday that it had killed a group of civilians, all teenagers, last Saturday night in an airstrike after mistaking them for jihadis. 
…

Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud is on a state visit to Kenya to strengthen relations after recent tensions over trade and a maritime border.

Relations between Kenya and Somalia have deteriorated in recent years. In December 2020, Mogadishu cut off diplomatic ties and accused Nairobi of meddling in its internal affairs after Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta hosted the political leadership from Somaliland, a breakaway state that Somalia’s central government does not recognize.

Sheikh Mohamud’s visit to Kenya is the first since the eruption of the maritime dispute, which involves a contested border. The International Court of Justice ruled that the border should be adjusted so that Somalia gets rights to most of an oil-rich part of the Indian Ocean. Kenya rejected the ruling.

Nairobi and Mogadishu agreed in October 2021 that an amicable resolution of the maritime border dispute should be reached soon.

Another point of friction involves khat, a cultivated stimulant commonly known as miraa in Kenya. Somalia is Kenya’s biggest market for khat, but it stopped importation of the crop when international flights were suspended because of fear of the spread of COVID-19.

Mogadishu has lifted the ban, but under conditions that are keeping Kenyan khat traders out of business.
…

Two tribes in South Africa, the Khoi and the San, have received their first payment for the sale of the indigenous rooibos plant, grown mainly for tea. The Rooibos Tea Council, representing businesses, paid the tribes more than $700,000 as part of a benefit-sharing agreement.

The director of the San Council, Leana Snyders, said it took nine years of negotiations before the Rooibos Traditional Knowledge Benefit-Sharing Agreement was signed in November 2019. 

She said the Indigenous tribes still use rooibos when babies have teething problems. It is also used for skin conditions like eczema and to alleviate stomach cramps. 

Snyders said paying for traditional knowledge should be applied globally.

“If, for instance, I am a company based on the people that lived in the area’s knowledge, then I made a product or I used the plant and I sell it and I make a profit as a company, so I would definitely recommend this type of collaborations with industry,” she said. 

She also said Indigenous people must be taught about the legal process. 

“You must stand up for your rights because, in our case, if we did not stand up nine years ago, going to the government and saying, ‘But we want our knowledge to be recognized,’ if we did not make the first step as the San people, we would not be here, where we are today,” Snyders said. 

This first annual payment of $700,000 comes from a 1.5% levy on the sale of all rooibos that has been cut and dried. The money has been paid into two trust accounts for the San and the Khoi. 

Snyders said the money will be reinvested in the people.

“We going to make sure that it is for upliftment of the San people. And upliftment comes through livelihood upliftment, and the main thing is education. For us it is education, education, education,” she said. 

A director of the South African Rooibos Council, Dawie de Villiers, said he can’t give an accurate estimate of how much the industry is worth. However, he said, the caffeine-free product is exported to over 50 countries, and that number grows every year. 

“In fact, it has some good medical studies that identify it as being a good product to use in stress alleviation, and we’re seeing it more and more being used in a wide range of applications,” de Villiers said. “Not only in herbal teas but also in nutritional supplement formulations, so it is certainly a product for today’s times.” 

Officials say this period is being regarded as the pilot phase of the agreement, and further negotiations will take place to develop a nonmonetary benefit-sharing model. 

 
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Togo’s military says one of its aircraft accidentally targeted and killed seven teenagers in the country’s north, mistaking them for Islamist militants, who were initially suspected in the attack.

Togo’s armed forces spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Sama Sousso, in a statement read Thursday night on state Togolese Television (TVT) and carried live on their YouTube channel, confirmed the military accidentally killed seven teenagers.

He says the military expresses its profound regret in the face of the  incident and says everything possible will be done to prevent this sort of tragedy from happening again.

Togo’s army chief of staff, General Dadja Maganawe, in a written statement, said an aircraft had wrongly targeted the civilians in the village of Margba, in the northern Savanes Region’s Tone prefecture.

The statement said the army had intelligence indicating an imminent threat of infiltration by armed groups wanting to attack local communities.  

Local media initially blamed the early Sunday morning blast on an improvised explosive device, pointing the suspicion at Islamist militants.  

The victims, instead, were teenagers on their way home from celebrating Eid-al-Adha, Islam’s festival of sacrifice, known in the Wolof language as Tabaski.

Michel Douti, an independent security expert working with Togo’s Inter-Ministerial Committee for the Prevention and Fight Against Violent Extremism (CIPLEV), praised the army for taking responsibility. 

He says it was an act of courage, an act of braveness, an act of transparency, an act caused by the desire and the obligation to be accountable and show what the army is doing in the fight against violent extremism.

Togo declared a state of emergency in the Savanes Region in June after Islamist militants attacked near the border with Burkina Faso, killing eight troops and wounding 13.

An al-Qaida-affiliated group fighting in Burkina Faso and Mali claimed responsibility for the attack.

They were the first recorded deaths from terrorism in Togo, a country of 8 million people on West Africa’s Gulf of Guinea.
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Christian groups in Nigeria are criticizing the ruling All Progressives Congress Party (APC) for choosing Muslim candidates to run in next year’s election for both president and vice president.

Past presidential tickets have been mixed, with one Muslim and one Christian, to reflect Nigeria’s religious population, which is just over half Muslim.

Among religious groups criticizing the selection is the Christian Association of Nigeria. In a statement this week, CAN said the selection portrayed insensitivity toward the collective unity of the country, citing insecurities and a recent wave of attacks on churches.

The association expressed concerns that the issues could escalate if there isn’t proper representation in the corridors of power.

On Sunday, the ruling party’s presidential flag bearer, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, a Muslim, named former Borno state Governor Kashim Shettima, also a Muslim, as his running mate.

The APC said the selection was based on competence and not religious sentiments.

“We’re not selfish,” CAN spokesperson Adebayo Oladeji told VOA. “We’re not saying he should pick a pastor or one of our officials. What we’re saying is go for a Christian to balance it. It’s for unity, peace and development of this country. The country has been polarized under [President Muhammadu] Buhari. Look at the country today. Priests are being kidnapped. Churches are being attacked.”

Despite the fact that Nigeria’s population is about equally divided between Christians and Muslims, Christian leaders have complained for years about being sidelined when top political appointments are made.

Attacks on churches noted

Since last month, Christian groups have renewed criticism of authorities, saying they have turned a blind eye to a spate of attacks on Christians and churches.

But the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) rejected claims that Christians had been marginalized and told VOA the council does not comment on political issues.

Ibrahim Aselemi, who leads the media and communications unit of the NSCIA, said, “It is a purely political matter, so that’s why we don’t want to comment on it. Look at the southern states. It’s always been Christian. Christian tickets for all the state governors. The council has not made any comments.”

Some citizens, like Abuja resident Meshach Iko, are also criticizing Tinubu’s nomination of Shettima, 

“Nigeria is not a country that is being dominated by a single religion,” Iko said. “For a candidate of his kind to only consider one part of the religion in the country is not really a good idea.”

Political analyst Rotimi Olawale said the religion of candidates should not be a setback.

“In my own perspective, it’s not important what religion the candidates subscribe to,” Olawale said. “And I think for anybody who’s concerned about that, they have the opportunity to vote for or against them at the polls.”  

Presidential and parliamentary elections take place next February 25 and March 11.

CAN said the decision is left for Nigerians to make when they vote.

But many local churches across the country have been mobilizing members and urging them to get their voter cards and use them wisely when the time comes.
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The African Development Bank (AfDB) agreed this week to help Zimbabwe clear its $13.5 billion debt during a visit by the Abidjan-based lender’s president. The AfDB has also started releasing loans from a $1.5 billion fund to help Africa avert a looming food crisis fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Zimbabwe is one of 38 countries set to benefit from the bank’s fund, which is known as the African Emergency Food Production Facility.

African Development Bank, or AfDB, President Akinwumi Adesina said during his visit that Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa had sought his assistance for Zimbabwe to clear its external debt, which started accumulating after the late Robert Mugabe’s administration defaulted.

“I believe that Zimbabweans, ordinary Zimbabweans, have suffered long enough. You have a country, a beautiful country in which you now have 40 percent of the population that is living in extreme poverty. And they do not have the resources to get out of that. So, we have to create a new hope, a new pathway so that tomorrow can be a better day than yesterday. Zimbabwe has a significant amount of debt areas that it needs to clear. But you cannot run up the hill if you are carrying a backpack of sand. So, Zimbabwe cannot run up a hill for its economic recovery and growth and prosperity if it’s carrying a backpack of sand,” he said.

AfDB and Zimbabwe are looking for ways Harare can get access to international financial money while the debt is being settled over a long period.

Mthuli Ncube is Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister.

“What we have done so far is to begin token payments for the African Development Bank, the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, and also all the 17 Paris Club partners. But what needs to be done is to fully implement the full roadmap for the arrears clearance. But for us to work well, we need a champion, and I am pleased to say that Dr. Adesina has agreed to be the champion, to cajole all partners around the world for us to be able to implement our arrears strategy,” he said.

Gift Mugano, an economics professor at Durban University of Technology, said the post-Mugabe government is still “reckless and careless,” and so the AfDB will not be able to satisfy the world on a plan to clear Zimbabwe’s arrears.

“In four years, our debt has doubled. Doubled because we were borrowing money recklessly, doubling because we created a new debt through white farmer compensation deed. There is also a component of debt, which we do not know where it is coming from because minister of finance is not going to parliament at each and every time he assumes new debt. If the government wants to clear the debt, it must stop increasing the debt,” said Mugano.

During his visit to Zimbabwe, AfDB President Adesina said his organization was filling a food security gap of 30 million metric tons caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. That will come through the African Emergency Food Production Facility, a fund worth $1.5 billion.

“It will support Africa, produce 38 million metric tons of food with a value of $12 billion. Wheat, corn, maize, that will include 6 million metric tons of rice, 2.5 million metric tons of soyabeans. So, we are very sensitive to this. Africa has no business of going around with bowls in hand to beg for food. Africa has a business and must be in the business of putting seed in the ground and producing its own food and making sure that it can unlock tremendous agriculture potential that it has, but we can’t eat potential. We have to unlock the potential of agriculture,” he said.

Africa, Adesina said, imports mainly wheat and corn from Ukraine and Russia, as well as 2 million metric tons of fertilizers.
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The World Health Organization is calling for action to stem the growing spread of deadly infections such as monkeypox and Ebola between animals and humans in Africa.

A new WHO analysis finds zoonotic outbreaks on the African continent have increased by 63% from 2012 to 2022 compared to the previous decade.

Globally, the WHO says more than 60% of human infectious diseases, and more than 75% of emerging infectious diseases, are caused by pathogens found in wild or domestic animals. It says those diseases sicken about one billion people and kill millions every year.

WHO’s regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said zoonotic diseases pose a severe threat in Africa. In the past decade, she said outbreaks of the animal-transmitted illnesses accounted for one in three confirmed public health events in the region.

“A deeper dive reveals that Ebola and similar hemorrhagic fevers constitute nearly 70% of these outbreaks,” she said. “The remainder include, among others, monkeypox, dengue fever, anthrax, and plague. Although there has been a notable increase in monkeypox cases since April this year, compared to the same period in 2021, the positive news is the numbers are still lower than for the 2020 outbreak peak.”

That year, the WHO recorded its highest ever monthly cases in the region. So far this year, the health agency has reported more than 2,000 suspected cases of monkeypox. Of those, only 203 have been confirmed. Most cases and deaths are among males, with an average age of 17.

Moeti noted infections originating in animals have been jumping to humans for centuries, but the risk of mass infections and deaths has been relatively limited in Africa.

“As rising urbanization encroaches on the natural habitats of the continent’s wildlife, and the demand for food from an especially fast-growing population burgeons, the risk is heighted,” she said. “The addition of improved road, rail, and airlinks, which remove the natural barrier that poor transportation infrastructure provided, opens the way for the spread of zoonotic disease outbreaks from remote to urban areas.”

Moeti said Africa cannot be allowed to become a hotspot for emerging infectious diseases. She said an “all-hands-on-deck” approach is needed to counter the threat.

She said experts in human, animal, and environmental health must work together with communities to prevent and control zoonotic outbreaks from spreading across the continent.
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Cameroon is asking for international help to fund the rebuilding of western regions that have been destroyed in five years of conflict with separatists. A plan to construct roads, schools, hospitals, markets and homes was launched in 2020 but has been hindered by ongoing fighting and budget woes. 

The reconstruction plan has raised only $18.2 million of the $150 million needed to rebuild the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest regions, the government said Thursday. Officials in the mainly French-speaking country also say intense fighting between separatists and troops is making it very difficult to rebuild infrastructure in towns and villages where relative peace has returned. 

Paul Tasong, coordinator of the Presidential Plan for the Reconstruction and Development of Cameroon’s Northwest and Southwest Regions, noted what countries like Japan have allocated in terms of Cameroonian francs. 

“Today only Japan supports us with 1.5 billion ($2.3 million) and we are currently actively working with them for an additional 900 million ($1.3 million) from Japan,” he said. “We don’t want to underestimate the very important and significant contribution from the national private sector where we recorded 1.2 billion ($1.8 million). What are the other partners doing? We are still waiting and we continue to wait with hope.” 

Tasong said the government of Cameroon contributed 70 percent of the money put forth for the reconstruction plan.  

When the government launched the plan in 2020, it promised to reconstruct 12,000 private homes and public buildings that were destroyed by fighters. So far, only 40 schools and 20 hospitals have been rebuilt. 

According to Tasong, hundreds of farmers and fishers also received funds to restart activities in towns and villages where there is relative calm. The government said at least 15 markets have been reconstructed. 

Elsie Ambe, a businessperson in Cameroon, attended a meeting Wednesday in Yaounde as a potential donor. She said donors are reluctant to contribute because separatists continue to torch government property and houses of people suspected of sympathizing with the central government in Yaounde. 

“Those who destroyed the infrastructure we already had are still there and if their minds are not rebuilt, they will likely (continue to) destroy,” she said. “So I think that moral rearmament and harmonious living together should be considered as a priority. From there, you (government) can think of any other need. Reconstructing the mind is a fundamental base of reconstruction.” 

Separatists on social media platforms, including WhatsApp and Facebook, say they intend to disrupt the plan, developed by President Paul Biya in 2020. This month, the government said fighters either chased or abducted road workers from several towns and villages in the Southwest region. 

The government said it must continue with the plan to revive the economies of the troubled regions and bring back people who have fled the crisis. It also said a majority of the 700,000 children whose schools were burned down five years ago will be able to return to the classroom to resume their education. 

Cameroon’s government said separatists will be defeated if civilians report fighters who are hiding and destroying public edifices in English-speaking areas. 

Biya created the reconstruction plan and said he was implementing a resolution approved in October 2019 when he organized a national dialogue to solve the crisis in western regions. Separatists who are seeking to carve out a republic called Ambazonia did not attend and said they will only be ready to discuss terms of their quest for independence. 

Separatists have been fighting since 2017 to split the English-speaking Northwest and Southwest from the rest of the country and its French-speaking majority. 

The United Nations says the separatist conflict has killed more than 3,300 people, with about 750,000 fleeing their homes to safer French-speaking towns and to neighboring Nigeria. 

 
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The United Nation’s latest global population projection predicts there will be 8 billion people on the planet by November and that the population will gradually increase to 8.5 billion by 2050 and to more than 10 billion by 2080. That growth will come with significant economic and environmental implications.

The projected growth is not evenly spread across the world. Some regions, including Eastern and Southeastern Asia, are expected to shrink in population, while North America and Europe are expected to grow at very low rates. The bulk of the population growth is expected to come from sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southeastern Asia.

The move past the 8 billion mark masks the fact that globally, the population is growing at its slowest rate since the 1950s. Two-thirds of all people currently live in regions where the fertility rate, measured in births per woman, has fallen below the replacement rate of 2.1. In many cases, those falling rates are driven in part by government policies.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Growth will be most concentrated among eight countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania.

Of those eight, the countries in sub-Saharan Africa will account for more than half of the world’s population increase over the next 30 years, creating what U.N. officials called a potential “demographic dividend,” with the share of working-age adults, defined as those between 26 and 64 years of age, rising as a share of the population.

Countries looking forward to an increase in the number of working age people as a share of the overall population, “have an opportunity to maximize the benefits of the dividend by investing in human capital formation,” the report found.

“While the demographic circumstances underlying the dividend are conducive to rapid economic growth on a per capita basis, reaping its potential benefits requires significant investments in education and health, progress towards gender equality and the availability of gainful employment.”

A ‘graying’ globe

Unlike the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the population of the planet as a whole is trending older. Between 1980 and 2022, the number of people ages 65 or older tripled to 771 million and is on track to hit 994 million by 2030 and 1.6 billion by 2050.

Some regions are aging faster than others. By 2050, the percentage of people 65 or older in Eastern and Southeastern Asia is expected to double from 13% to 26%. In Europe and North America, nearly 19% of the population is currently 65 or older, and that proportion is expected to rise to nearly 27% by 2050.

By contrast, sub-Saharan Africa is projected to have just 5% of its population in that age bracket by 2050.

“Countries with aging populations should take steps to adapt public programs to the growing proportion of older persons, including sound social security and pension systems, the establishment of universal health care and long-term care systems,” the U.N. urged.

India to be most populous

China is currently the world’s most populous country with 1.43 billion people, but that is expected to change by next year, with India, currently at 1.41 billion, surpassing it. China’s population is actually expected to begin shrinking this year, as decades of low birthrates take their demographic toll.

Projecting out to 2050, India is expected to remain the most populous country with 1.67 billion, followed by China at 1.317 billion. The United States, currently in a very distant third place with 337 million people, will maintain that position, as the population grows modestly to 375 million.

However, the United States will have to share third place with Nigeria. Currently, the sixth most populous country with 216 million residents, Nigeria is expected to grow to 375 million by 2050.

Pakistan, currently the fifth largest country with 234 million people, will retain that rank, while growing to 366 million.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to see a large percentage increase. Currently at 97 million people, its population is expected to more than double to 215 million by 2050.

Environmental challenges

The report notes that as global population growth continues, it creates possible complications in the fight against climate change. All else equal, an increase in people means more greenhouse gases are being emitted into the atmosphere.

“The growth of the population itself may not be the direct cause of environmental damage; it may nevertheless exacerbate the problem or accelerate the timing of its emergence, depending on the problem in question, the time frame considered, the available technology and the demographic, social and economic context,” it said.

However, the report argues that the most highly developed countries should bear the largest burden.

“Whereas all countries should take actions to tackle climate change and protect the environment, more developed countries — whose per capita consumption of material resources is generally the highest — bear the greatest responsibility for implementing strategies to decouple human economic activity from environmental degradation.”
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Authorities in Togo are working to prevent their small, West African nation from becoming the next country in the region to struggle with a violent, spreading, Islamist insurgency.

Saturday’s deadly explosion could mark a turning point if it’s confirmed that the seven minors killed were the first civilian casualties in the conflict.

Togo’s military did not immediately confirm the cause but local media reported the victims were killed when an improvised explosive device went off.

In June, Togo declared a state of emergency in its northern Savanes Region after Islamist militants attacked near the border with Burkina Faso in May, killing eight troops and wounding 13.

They were the first recorded deaths from terrorism in Togo, a country of 8 million people wedged between Ghana and Benin on the West African coast.

An al-Qaida-affiliated group fighting in Burkina Faso and Mali claimed responsibility for the attack.

Recruiting

But Togo authorities are also concerned that Islamists are recruiting disaffected youth for domestic terrorism and have formed the Inter-ministerial Committee for the Prevention and Fight Against Violent Extremism (CIPLEV).

Ouro-Bossi Tchacondoh, the committee’s rapporteur, said the group exists to capitalize on the thoughts and requests of the local population. He said it centralizes information and sends it to a committee of ministries that analyzes it and delivers its conclusions to the government. He said his group aims to find and study the vulnerabilities that can attract citizens or, more specifically, young people to violent extremism.

While there are no confirmed reports of Togolese being recruited by insurgents, analysts say dealing with the emergence of terrorism means going beyond security operations.

Michel Douti, an independent security expert working with Togo’s committee against extremism, said Togolese security forces have the men and the women necessary for the fight against violent extremism.  But no country in the world is immune to this phenomenon, Douti said.  More important, he said, is the collaboration between security forces and the local population.

Aid groups, including religious ones, are also looking at ways to prevent Togolese youth from being recruited.

Initiatives for youths

Stanislas Namitchougli, who is with the Episcopal Council for Peace and Justice in Dapaong, northern Togo, said the council has initiatives that help young people avoid being influenced by extremist groups. He said they are working with the U.S.-based Catholic Relief Services on a study that shows how youth might join these groups because of lack of jobs or education.  

Namitchougli said they are also trying to build some basic infrastructure like markets and schools to give economic opportunities to youth considered prone to violent extremism. 

Security experts on Africa’s Sahel region note that Islamist violence has been spreading, despite security crackdowns, including by neighboring military governments in Burkina Faso and Mali.

Jeannine Ella Abatan, a researcher on violent extremism and security in the Sahel at the Dakar office of the Institute for Security Studies, said, “This already shows the capacity of violent extremist groups to actually stage attacks in those countries to instrumentalize the porosity of borders to go to those countries but also pose explosive devices.

“In Benin we have a number of attacks with improvised explosive devices. But beyond these attacks, at the ISS, what we’ve been doing is actually to look at the extension of violent extremism beyond what we see as attacks, because for us that is only the tip of the iceberg.”

The Togolese government is also working with Western partners and Gulf states to train their military and fund projects to help locals.
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Authorities in South Africa have arrested the owner of a bar and two employees in connection with the deaths of 21 teenagers, who lost their lives at a tavern last month under mysterious circumstances. Vicky Stark reports from Cape Town, South Africa.

A team of detectives working on the case made the arrests.

Officials say the three suspects face charges of violating the liquor act, while a forensic investigation into the cause of the deaths continues.

The two employees, ages 33 and 34, have been fined $118, while the owner must appear in court for his alleged role in selling alcohol to minors.

The 21 youths, the youngest of whom was just 13 years old, died in the early hours of Sunday, June 26. Some had been celebrating the end of mid-year exams. There is speculation they ingested something poisonous or were the victims of a gas leak.

Others at the tavern made it to a hospital, where they were treated for headaches and vomiting and discharged after observation.

Police have appealed for patience as the investigation continues.

The 52-year-old bar owner will appear in the East London Magistrate’s Court in Eastern Cape Province on August 19.
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