Tunisian opposition lawmakers are in Paris to lobby against a controversial constitutional referendum taking place later this month, which they argue risks plunging the fragile Arab Spring democracy back into dictatorship.

For years, Tunisia’s bickering parties delivered gridlock in parliament and mounting public anger. So today, it’s strange to see onetime political foes here in Paris, united against one man — Tunisian President Kais Saied — and his new draft constitution. 

“The international community hasn’t to recognize the Saied process in Tunisia because it’s not a legitimate process…,” said Makhloufi.

Sofiane Makhloufi is a member of parliament from Tunisia’s Tayyar party — which once supported Kais Saied. That was before Tunisia’s president dismissed his government, suspended parliament and seized wide-ranging powers in July 2021. 

Now, President Saied wants Tunisians to vote on a new draft constitution in a July 25 referendum. The United States and European Union have called for an inclusive democratic process—one, critics say, that guided Tunisia’s last 2014 constitution, but not this one. Even the legal expert behind the new charter has disavowed it, saying it’s not what his committee originally drafted.

“He didn’t respect the (2014) constitution (but) he has been elected by the constitution. I think everybody in the world, and Tunisians, must not recognize the legitimacy Saied is (trying to get) for himself,” said Makhloufi.

In April, Makhloufi’s Tayyar and four other opposition parties formed a new opposition alliance, the National Salvation Front. It’s calling on Tunisians to boycott the referendum.

The opposition alliance includes the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha party, that retains fading but still sizable popular support. Ridha Driss is advisor to Ennahdha’s leader Rached Ghannouchi. He warns President Saied is bent on one-man rule and will ensure the constitution is passed, one way or another.  

Also, part of the alliance is Ennahdha’s once-staunch enemy, the Qalb Tounes, or “Heart of Tunisia” party. Lawmaker Oussama Khlifi says his party is calling for national unity, as the only way to save Tunisia.  

The tiny, North African country has faced a rocky ride toward democracy since its 2011 revolution that kicked off the wider Arab Spring revolt. Tunisia’s economy has stumbled, and politics have been marred by paralysis and corruption. 

Many Tunisians hailed Saied’s unlikely presidential win in 2019. They cheered when the former law professor seized wide-ranging powers last year. But today, public support is fading and disenchantment growing as the country battles a mounting economic crisis. Experts predict low voter turnout for this upcoming referendum. 

For his part, President Saied denies authoritarian goals and says he’s committed to political freedoms. He sees this new draft constitution, which among other things, strengthens presidential powers and waters down legislative ones, as correcting a dysfunctional system.

If the constitution is passed, the opposition fears more unrest and troubled times for Tunisia in the weeks and months ahead. 
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The leaders of Eritrea and Somalia have announced the signing of an agreement covering defense, security, diplomatic and political cooperation.

The agreement, finalized by Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki and Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, was reached following a four-day visit to Asmara by the new Somalia leader.

In a seven-point memorandum of understanding released Tuesday, the two leaders said they have agreed to enhance defense and security cooperation to safeguard peace, stability and security. They also have agreed to strengthen diplomatic and political cooperation, to protect and advance their national interests, and to promote relations between their two peoples, they said.

Afwerki and Mohamud said the memorandum they signed is based on historical and fraternal ties and common interests they share and on recognition that the successful fight against terrorism in Somalia is a “prerequisite for peace, stability and security, not only in Somalia but in the Horn of Africa.”

Eritrea has been training thousands of Somalia forces for nearly three years. Most of the military has received regular and specialized training, including the naval force, as well as mechanized units.

VOA Somali has reported the number of Somali troops trained in Eritrea at 5,167, a figure later confirmed by former president of Somalia Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo, who sent the troops to Eritrea.

The first wave of Somali soldiers was flown from Mogadishu to Eritrea on Aug. 19, 2019. There were second and third waves in February and June 2020, respectively.

The training of the soldiers was a clandestine operation hidden from the public and the media. The program was criticized by Somali parents of the soldiers and opposition politicians. It attracted controversy after unverified media reports alleged their participation in the conflict in Tigray, a claim strongly denied by the previous Somali government. VOA Somali did not find evidence backing their alleged link to the Tigray war.

During this week’s visit, Mohamud attended a parade by the Somali forces and congratulated them for completing their military training.

According to a statement issued by the president’s office, Mohamud renewed his pledge to return the troops to Somalia and said he has told them about his plans to stabilize the country and to liberate areas still under al-Shabaab control.

“The Somali people will be excited by your sight, and the enemy will be demoralized by [your] strength,” Mohamud told the soldiers, thanking the Eritrean government.

Earlier this month, the new Somali government reported that “some” Somali soldiers died during the training, and “some” died of natural causes. No exact figure was given, but some of the soldiers who defected last year gave mixed figures, with one deserter reporting that four died, and a second soldier saying seven soldiers died.

According to one soldier who deserted and arrived in Somalia in July of last year, one died of dehydration from severe diarrhea, one was electrocuted and a third drowned in a lake while escaping from Eritrean guards.

Ali Said Faqi, the Somali ambassador to the European Union who is among just a few Somali officials to visit the soldiers’ training camp in late 2019, said the troops received “tough training” and most of them were trained as special forces. He said the original plan was that Eritrea would train them and arm them.

“That was the plan, and I believe that is still the decision,” he said.

Faqi said it’s the new president’s call to determine a policy of operation and decide about how specifically the soldiers will be deployed.

“They can participate in the fight against terrorism; they can participate in opening the highway between Afgoye and Baidoa; they can participate in the opening of the highway between Mogadishu and Kismayo,” he said. “These are young personnel who obtained the best military training.”

Somali President Mohamud last week introduced a new security strategy to counter al-Shabab, comprising a military, ideological and economic approach toward the militant group.

Meanwhile, the leader of al-Shabab, Ahmed Umar Abu Ubaidah, vowed in a new audio threat to fight the new government, asserting the group will “never allow a government that is not founded upon Islam and an administration that doesn’t fully implement Sharia [law].”
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The International Committee of the Red Cross warns hundreds of millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa are going hungry due to conflict, climate shocks, and rising food prices triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The ICRC warns Africa’s food crisis is set to worsen. It says conflict and armed violence, failing harvests due to years of drought, and increases in food and other commodity prices are driving more people into extreme poverty and hunger.

A recent U.N. assessment estimates 346 million people on the continent face severe food insecurity, meaning one-quarter of the population does not have enough to eat.

The ICRC regional director for Africa, Patrick Youssef, says the situation is urgent. He warns many lives will be lost without a concerted effort by different actors to meet the challenges ahead. He says aid agencies, international financial institutions, and governments must collaborate to prevent the humanitarian crisis from becoming irreversible.

“As we look at 2023, we know that this will repeat itself. These climate shocks will repeat themselves; food insecurity will remain as acute as it is,” said Youssef. “It will not end with the calendar year. So, we all will better collectively be prepared for a long haul, for a situation, for a crisis that will certainly increase in size and volume.”

The ICRC reports the war in Ukraine has caused a sharp increase in fuel and fertilizer prices. That, it says, has added significant pressure on farmers, many of whom are weathering the combined impact of conflict and climate shocks.

Youssef says the Horn of Africa is most seriously affected. He notes, however, that other parts of Africa, from Mauritania to the Sahel to Lake Chad and, to a lesser extent, the Central African Republic, are suffering from the effects of the Ukraine crisis.

“Countries are equally, at least those who are, as you mentioned, so dependent on grains and wheat from Russia and Ukraine. Somalia is the worst—90 percent,” said Youssef. “But Nigeria has also a large dependency on that. Sudan and South Sudan as well. And, indeed the situation is extremely difficult for people that are inaccessible for humanitarian organizations, such as Somalia.”

Youssef says lack of access to people in areas affected by conflict and armed violence, such as Somalia and Burkina Faso raise the challenges to a different level.

The ICRC reports more than 35 armed conflicts are taking place on the continent and around 30 million people are internally displaced and refugees. The Swiss-based humanitarian agency says people uprooted from their homes are particularly vulnerable to extreme weather, fluctuation of food prices and hunger.
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Nicktar Benedito, an artist in south-central Mozambique, has physical disabilities that have limited the use of his hands but honed his determination and empathy. Andre Baptista reports from Chimoio, capital of Manica province, in this story narrated by Carol Guensburg. Camera: Andre Baptista
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Olympic champion Mo Farah revealed in an article published Monday that he was brought to Britain illegally under the name of another child to work as a domestic servant. 

Farah told the BBC that he was given the name Mohamed Farah by a woman who flew him to the UK from the East African country Djibouti when he was 9. 

The 39-year-old, whose father was killed in Somalia when he was 4, said his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin and claimed he was made to look after another family’s children in Britain. 

“The truth is I’m not who you think I am,” he said as part of a documentary to be aired Wednesday. 

“Most people know me as Mo Farah, but it’s not my name, or it’s not the reality. 

“The real story is I was born in Somaliland, north of Somalia, as Hussein Abdi Kahin. Despite what I’ve said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK. 

“When I was 4 my dad was killed in the civil war, you know, as a family we were torn apart. 

“I was separated from my mother, and I was brought into the UK illegally under the name of another child called Mohamed Farah.” 

Farah, who became the first British track and field athlete to win four Olympic gold medals, said his children have motivated him to be truthful about his past. 

“I’ve been keeping it for so long, it’s been difficult because you don’t want to face it, and often my kids ask questions, ‘Dad, how come this?’ And you’ve always got an answer for everything, but you haven’t got an answer for that,” he said. 

“That’s the main reason in telling my story because I want to feel normal and don’t feel like you’re holding on to something.” 

‘Just being honest’ 

Farah’s wife, Tania, said in the year leading up to their 2010 wedding she realized “there was lots of missing pieces to his story” but she eventually “wore him down with the questioning” and he told the truth. 

During the television program, Farah said he thought he was going to Europe to live with relatives and recalled going through a UK passport check under the guise of Mohamed at the age of 9. 

“I had all the contact details for my relative and once we got to her house, the lady took it off me and right in front of me ripped them up and put it in the bin and at that moment I knew I was in trouble,” he said. 

Farah eventually told his physical education teacher Alan Watkinson the truth and moved to live with his friend’s mother, Kinsi, who “really took great care” of him, and stayed seven years. 

It was Watkinson who applied for Farah’s British citizenship, which he described as a “long process” and on July 25, 2000, Farah was recognized as a British citizen. 

Farah, who named his son Hussein after his real name, said: “I often think about the other Mohamed Farah, the boy whose place I took on that plane, and I really hope he’s OK. 

“Wherever he is, I carry his name and that could cause problems now for me and my family. 

“The important thing is for me to just be able to look, this is what’s happened and just being honest, really.”
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Somalia is normally a top exporter of livestock to the Middle East, especially during the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. But a record drought in the Horn of Africa has wiped out millions of livestock, leaving Somali livestock farmers struggling — some forced to live in camps for displaced people. For VOA, Mohamed Sheikh Nor reports from Mogadishu, Somalia.
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The world’s population is expected to reach 8 billion on November 15, the United Nations said Monday, with India replacing China as the world’s most populous country.

The United Nations released its report, World Population Prospects 2022, on World Population Day, which is observed every year on July 11. This year’s theme is “A world of 8 billion: Towards a resilient future for all — Harnessing opportunities and ensuring rights and choices for all.”

Despite 2022 being a “milestone year” for global population, according to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, the population growth rate fell below 1% in 2020 and is growing at its slowest pace since 1950.

The U.N. said global population could potentially reach 8.5 billion in 2030, 9.7 billion in 2050 and 10.4 billion by the 2080s. The population is projected to remain steady at 10.4 billion until 2100.

More than half of the growth by 2050 is expected to come from Africa, which is the world’s fastest-growing continent, the U.N. said. The growth in Africa comes despite a slowing global fertility rate, which is expected to decline to 2.2 births per woman by 2050, down from 2.5 births in 2019, and 3.2 births in 1990.

World Population Day is a reminder of the world’s most pressing issues, including overpopulation. The current global population stands at 7.942 billion people.
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Cameroon’s government has called for emergency food support for more than two million people facing hunger along its northern borders with Chad and Nigeria. At a crisis meeting Monday in Yaoundé, authorities blamed natural disasters, insecurity, and intercommunal clashes in part for causing the food shortage in the nation of 26.5 million people. 

Agriculture Minister Gabriel Mbairobe said floods and elephants have devastated several hundred hectares of farmland, poultry farms and crops, and killed an unknown number of cattle, sheep and goats within the past six months. 

Mbairobe also said devastating migratory caterpillars, crickets and weaver birds have decimated thousands of hectares of farmland in Cameroon, especially on the border with Chad and Nigeria. He said close to 300,000 people find themselves in extreme or emergency food insufficiency situations and 2.6 million people are not certain they will have a meal each day.

Food insecurity is threatening the lives of 6 million Cameroonians, Mbairobe said. 

Speaking in Yaounde on Monday during the crisis meeting, Mbairobe said most poor civilians threatened by food insecurity find it difficult to cope with rising prices caused by Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

The Cameroonian government blames the war for a 15 to 30 percent increase in the price of staple food items, especially wheat, maize, sorghum and rice widely consumed in areas along the northern border with Nigeria and Chad. 

Cameroon relies on Ukraine for 60 percent of its wheat imports. The war has caused the price of a 50-kilogram bag of wheat to climb from $35 to $60, an amount the government says a majority of the hungry people cannot afford. 

Ephraim Chi, who owns a maize plantation in Pousse, a town on the border with Chad, said unpredictable weather conditions and changing climate patterns make it difficult for farmers to know when to plant. 

“At times we will go for a long time without rain and at times the rains will become intense, so farmers are now confused when to actually plant their crops and that is why we have a lot of poor yields now,” he said. “People are cutting a lot of trees and these trees regulate the climate. When the soil is so dry because we have cut down a lot of trees, the catchments (water collections) dry up.” 

Chi blamed civilians for cutting down trees for firewood and logging companies for what he said is their attitude to destroy the environment. 

Cameroonian officials say more than 40,000 people, a majority of them cattle ranchers, farmers and fishers, plan to return to the border region despite fleeing December 2021 bloody clashes over water resources. 

The government has not said how much it needs to reduce the food crisis, but that it is in negotiations with funding agencies and friendly countries. 

Last week, Japan’s government donated $1.2 million to the World Food Program to assist vulnerable persons, including those threatened by hunger in Cameroon, Chad and the Central African Republic. 

In a food analysis in April, the World Food Program said staple food prices, early depletion of household food stocks, and declining incomes from reduced crop sales limit food access for poor Cameroonian households amid low levels of humanitarian assistance. 

The report says the ongoing Boko Haram insurgency in northern Cameroon and clashes between government forces and separatist fighters in the Northwest and Southwest regions continue to negatively affect the livelihoods of populations and drive high numbers of acutely food insecure persons. The separatists are seeking to carve out an independent English-speaking region from the rest of the French-speaking country. 

 
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A Spanish court has cleared the way for an autopsy to be conducted on Angola’s former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who died in Barcelona Friday.

His daughter, Tchize dos Santos, requested the autopsy because she believes there were suspicious circumstances surrounding his death. She said political enemies did not want him to back the opposition in forthcoming Angolan elections, the BBC reported.

In addition, the BBC reported that the politician wanted to be buried privately in Spain, but Angola has taken measures to have his body returned to his home country for a state funeral.

The 79-year-old died at the Teknon clinic in Barcelona, where he was being treated following a prolonged illness, according to a statement by the presidency.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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Seven children were killed in a blast in northern Togo.

The circumstances surrounding the explosion late Saturday into Sunday were not immediately clear.

An investigation is underway “to determine the circumstances of this explosion and identify the perpetrators,” the army said Sunday.

Eight soldiers were killed in the region in late May. The country declared a state of emergency in the northern region following the attack.
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Two bar shootings, one in a township close to Johannesburg and another in eastern South Africa, left 19 dead, police said on Sunday.

In Soweto, 15 people were killed after as they enjoyed a night out, police said, when assailants drew up in a minibus taxi and began randomly firing at bar patrons.

In the eastern city of Pietermaritzburg, police reported four people were killed and eight wounded during a shootout in a bar after two men fired discriminately at customers.

Police sources said it was too early to say if the assaults were in some way connected but observed their similarity.

In Soweto, Johannesburg’s largest township to the southwest of South Africa’s economic capital, police were called to the scene shortly after midnight.

“When we arrived at the scene, 12 people were dead with gunshot wounds,” local police officer Nonhlanhla Kubheka told AFP.

She added 11 people were taken to hospital. Three died shortly after arrival.

There were no details regarding the assailants.

“Nobody has been arrested. Officers are still on site. They came and shot at people who were having fun,” said Kubheka, commander of the Orlando police station, the Soweto district where the shooting took place.

Hundreds of people were massed behind police cordons Sunday as police investigated, AFP journalists reported. Only a small poster showing beer prices at the bar could be seen outside the establishment.

Police led away relatives of those caught up in the drama who tried to approach the crime scene.

Previous unrest 

In Pietermaritzburg, four people were killed and eight wounded in a shootout around 8:30 pm (1830 GMT) which left eight others injured, local police spokesman Nqobile Gwala said.

Two men drove up, entered the bar and “fired random shots at the patrons”, before fleeing, Lieutenant Colonel Gwala said.

“A total of 12 people were shot. Two people were declared dead at the scene and the other two died in hospital.

“Another eight people are still in hospital after they sustained injuries.”

The dead were aged between 30 and 45.

The two incidents come a year after an outbreak of the worst violence the country has seen since the end of the apartheid era three decades ago brought democracy.

Last July saw large scale rioting and looting, ransacking of shops, a wave of arson attacks and attacks on infrastructure and industrial warehouses leading to more than 350 deaths and several thousand arrests with the country already in the throes of a major COVID-19 wave.

Most of the unrest occurred in Johannesburg and the eastern province of Kwazulu-Natal as South Africans protested the sentencing and incarceration of former President Jacob Zuma.

Zuma was sentenced after refusing to testify on corruption charges stemming from his 2009 to 2018 tenure.
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Rebels attacked a hospital in Congo and killed at least 13 people, including infants and patients, according to hospital and military officials. The Congolese army said three attackers were killed when the military intervened. 

Some hospital staff are missing, and several houses were burned in the attack Thursday night on the medical center in Lume, North Kivu province. It’s the largest health facility in the region. 

Islamic State claimed responsibility, the group’s news agency said in a statement on its Telegram channel on Saturday. 

Among those killed in the attack were three infants and four patients, hospital chief Kule Bwenge told reporters. 

“Four blocks of the medical center were set on fire. Several sick guards, as well as a nurse, are missing,” he said. 

The reason for targeting the hospital was unclear. 

In the nearby village of Kidolo, four other people were killed with machetes and shot, apparently as part of the same attack. 

North Kivu military spokesman Anthony Mualushayi said the attackers were Mai-Mai militia members from the Dido group. In addition to the attackers who were killed, one was captured in the ensuing clashes, he said. 

But local civic groups accused rebels of the Uganda-based Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, of carrying out the attack. ADF rebels have been active in eastern Congo for decades and have killed thousands in the region since they resurfaced in 2013. 

Other attacks were reported last week in the nearby towns of Bulongo and Kilya, also in North Kivu. 

North Kivu is in eastern Congo and borders Uganda and Rwanda. Eastern Congo sees daily threats from armed groups battling for the region’s rich mineral wealth, which the world mines for electric cars, laptops and mobile phones. Infants, Patients Among 13 Killed in Congo Hospital Attack 
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How did a popular period drama on Chinese TV help lead to the theft and brutal slaughter of millions of donkeys in Africa?

It all started when fans of the show “Empresses in the Palace” saw the aristocratic characters using a traditional Chinese medicine called ejiao, which is made from donkey skin, Simon Pope, who works for U.K.-based charity the Donkey Sanctuary, told VOA.

“It was all set in the (Chinese) imperial court and at a certain time of the day the ladies of the court would all say, ‘Let’s have some ejiao,’” said Pope. Ejiao, also called donkey glue, is used as medicine or as a tonic for health and beauty in China.

“As a result of this program the demand for ejiao just literally went through the roof,” he said of the show first broadcast in 2011. “The problem was China simply does not have enough donkeys to be able to meet demand.”

The Chinese started looking for donkeys abroad, particularly in Africa where they’re used as a beast of burden by rural communities from Mali to Zimbabwe to Tanzania. When locals didn’t want to sell, thefts started, with distressed farmers finding their precious donkeys skinned and left to rot on the veld.

China needs about 5 million donkeys a year to produce and meet the demand for ejiao, and about 2 million of these come from China’s own population of the animals. Of the remaining 3 million or more sourced abroad, the Donkey Sanctuary estimates that between 25% and 35% are stolen.

Now, years into the trade, populations are down, and some African countries are fighting back. Tanzania last month banned donkey slaughter for the skin trade, saying the country’s donkey population was at risk of becoming extinct. Other African countries including Nigeria have also introduced bans on donkey slaughter or exports of the animal.

“I think the message that’s going to China, from Africa in particular, is that our donkeys are too valuable an asset to have them skinned and shipped off to China to have them made into medicine. Our donkeys are not for sale,” said Pope. However, he noted that because of China’s economic clout on the continent and massive investment in infrastructure, other nations are loath to push back against the trade.

South Africa allows the butchering of donkeys but only at two licensed slaughterhouses and with a quota of 12,000 a year. Authorities here have been cracking down on the illegal trade in recent years, so criminal syndicates have gone underground, especially since COVID, said Grace de Lange, an inspector with the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA) in South Africa.

Now South African donkeys are being smuggled into Lesotho, a tiny mountainous kingdom surrounded by South Africa.

“We are not sure exactly what the link is and how they’re getting it out – maybe easier from Lesotho,” she told VOA.

“We’ve had meetings with (the) government in Lesotho and they’re also investigating. … It’s going to the Chinese market,” she said, adding that authorities have also intercepted skins in warehouses and at the airport.

While small-time local criminals have been prosecuted after being arrested transporting the animals, the Chinese running the large syndicates are usually harder to get to, de Lange says.

Marosi Molomo, director of livestock services at Lesotho’s Ministry of Agriculture, responded to VOA’s questions about the donkey trade moving to Lesotho via text message saying: “It’s not possible to give an answer without evidence.”

Requests for comment from the Chinese embassies and consulates in both Lesotho and South Africa went unanswered.

De Lange said the animals are often slaughtered in a particularly cruel way. They are stunned with hammers or have their throats slit but are sometimes still alive when skinned.

“They’d actually been slaughtered in the most horrific manner,” she said.

Francis Nkosi, who works on a farm outside Johannesburg caring for some of the donkeys rescued from the skin trade, explained why the animal is so vital in Africa’s rural areas.

“Donkeys in our culture, they’re like transport. They help us,” he said as he fed fresh hay to Oscar and Presley, two of his charges who were rescued – in terrible condition – by the NSPCA last year on their way to slaughter across the border in Lesotho.

“If people get sick sometimes, we don’t have a car. We don’t have a transport. You can use the donkeys to transport some people to the hospital,” he added.

De Lange said she’s seen that donkey “numbers are dwindling” in the rural communities where she works and, for Pope, one major concern is how losing their donkeys has socioeconomic effects for many.

In some countries, “children had been pulled out of school and they were having to do the work previously the donkey was having to do,” Pope said.

While some argue Africa should set up donkey farms and benefit financially that way, Pope points out that China has tried mass farming the animals and been largely unsuccessful. Unlike other farm animals, donkeys can only produce one foal a year.

Ejiao has been used as medicine for the last two millennia, and in modern-day China it is available in various edible forms intended to aid circulation and help with aches and pains.

“Demand for donkey glue in China has affected communities halfway across the globe,” according to an article about the product in China’s state publication China Daily.

“The issue is sensitive, simply because some of these countries depend on the donkey as a working beast in both agriculture and transportation,” it said. “But this is also the reality of a tightening global network of supply and demand, and the fearsome power of being one of the largest consumer markets on Earth.”

The donkey skin trade has also become a conduit for other criminal activity, according to an investigation by the Donkey Sanctuary and researchers at the University of Oxford published in May. The report found donkey skins easily available for purchase online and that websites selling the product were also often offering endangered wildlife for sale and even illicit drugs.

There is a “vast online network of organized criminals offering donkey skins for sale, often alongside other illegal wildlife products including rhino horns, pangolin scales, elephant ivory and tiger hides,” the Donkey Sanctuary said.
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As Muslims worldwide observe the Eid al-Adha holiday, Egypt is set to receive a $500 million loan from the World Bank to help cushion the impact of the war in Ukraine on food security. From Cairo, Hamada Elrasam documents worshipers preparing for the sacred Islamic festival. Words by Elle Kurancid.
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The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission has published a detailed report on human rights violations over the past year. According to the findings, the country has suffered its worst record of rights violations as conflicts result in a surge of civilian killings.

The report documents violations in almost all parts of Ethiopia, from conflict in the north to fighting on Oromia and ethnically motivated killings in the southern Gambela, among other regions.

According to the report, 740 civilians have been killed, including women, children and the elderly, due to the war with Tigray that has advanced into the Amhara and Afar regions. The Oromo Liberation Army, an entity that the Ethiopian parliament calls “Shane” and has labeled a terrorist organization, has also been implicated in civilian killings in the Amhara, Oromia, Gambela and Benishangul regions.

The report also notes an alleged massacre in western Oromia last June. In Gambela and Benishangul, other groups have carried out ethnically targeted killings during the past year, while in the south several people have died due to unrest.

The report also blamed government forces for violations targeting civilians, including killings, torture and the jailing of over 50 media personnel.

The rights commission called on the conflicting parties in northern Ethiopia to solve differences and bring individuals implicated in rights violations to justice. It has also called on federal and regional authorities to release all detainees in police custody without due process.
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Activists in Nigeria have condemned the death sentences given by an Islamic court to three men for homosexual acts. The ruling in Nigeria’s northern state of Bauchi was the latest in a series of controversial death sentences by Sharia courts.

In a ruling last week, Judge Munka’ilu Sabo Ningi sentenced three men to death by stoning on charges of homosexuality.

The men are ages 20, 30, and 70 and were arrested on June 14. They were not represented in court by a lawyer before pleading guilty to the charges against them.

The ruling has sparked criticism from LGBTQ and human rights activists.

One activist, Kayode Somtochukwu Ani, said he fears the sentencing could trigger mob action against homosexuals in northern Nigeria.

“We had this crossdressing bill introduced in April, and now we’re having three people sentenced to death by stoning in 2022,” Ani said. “It’s getting out of hand, the fear that northern LGBTQ people have to live in at this moment.”

Ani, who heads the Queer Union for Economic and Social Transformation (QUEST), said activists have been unable to reach the men and help them appeal the case. They have 30 days from the day of the sentencing to do so.

Nigeria’s northern Bauchi state is one of 12 where Sharia law is honored. But state authorities must approve the death sentence before the men are executed.

Government spokesperson Muktar Gidado did not respond to requests for comment on the case but a local journalist, speaking on condition of anonymity, told VOA that authorities have been avoiding the topic.

He also said media organizations in the north will not report the subject.

“Because of religion and culture, that one is a no-go area,” the journalist said. “The state government would be very careful regarding that issue because election is coming and anything that will dim their image, they’ll be careful.”

In 2020, a Sharia court in Kano state issued a death sentence, this time to a Nigerian singer found guilty of blasphemy. The defendant has asked an appeals court to overrule the decision and declare the Sharia court ruling unconstitutional.

Lakin Akintola, head of the advocacy group Muslim Rights Concerns, said even though Sharia is not widely accepted elsewhere in Nigeria, he supports the Bauchi court’s ruling.

“Why don’t you allow the Muslims to live their lives?” Akintola said. “If others want to continue to destroy civilization, they’re free to do so, but for crying out loud allow Muslims to be Muslims.”

Another activist, lawyer Martin Obono, is calling for restraint.

“Nigeria is a secular state and people have the rights to express themselves,” Obono said. “I think essential we need to go back to the drawing board and revisit the laws and also that will help us create a society of tolerance ”

In Nigeria, homosexuality is widely viewed as a Western import. Nigerian law punishes gay relationships by up to 14 years imprisonment.
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Donkeys — you might think they are ubiquitous, but for many in rural Africa they’re a lifeline. Now some countries are worried they could even become extinct. Donkey skins are used to make ejiao, a traditional medicine popular in China, and local criminal gangs are stealing and brutally butchering millions of them to meet demand. Kate Bartlett reports from Johannesburg.
Videographer: Zaheer Cassim
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Ghana’s health authorities say they have, for the first time, confirmed two fatal cases of the Marburg virus, a relative of the Ebola virus.

In a statement on Thursday, the Ghana Health Service said the two cases of Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) were detected in the Ashanti region – about 250 kilometers from the capital, Accra.

“Blood samples were sent to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research,” the statement said, adding, “Preliminary results suggest the infection is due to the Marburg virus.”

Applying standard procedure, the samples have been sent to the Institut Pasteur in Senegal, a World Health Organization (WHO) collaborating center, for confirmation, the statement added.

The two patients from the southern Ashanti region – both deceased and unrelated – showed symptoms that included diarrhea, fever, nausea and vomiting, the WHO said on its website.

So far, 34 persons have since been quarantined and are being monitored for coming in contact with the two infected persons.

The health directorate in the region, according to the statement, is “currently conducting further investigations on the cases and contacts.”

It would be the second time Marburg is being detected in West Africa, if Ghana’s case is confirmed by the WHO. Guinea confirmed a single case in September 2021.

Marburg virus is transmitted by infected persons or animals from direct contact with body fluids, blood and other discharges from the affected person or animal. The incubation period for the disease is two to 21 days.

The WHO said Marburg is a disease with a case fatality rate of up to 88%.

Prospective patients may suffer from fever, bloody diarrhea, bleeding from gums, bleeding of the skin, bleeding of the eyes and bloody urine.
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Nigerian security forces continue searching for hundreds of inmates who escaped following a Tuesday attack on an Abuja prison. The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) has claimed responsibility for the jailbreak and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has criticized the intelligence service for failing to stop it.

But security critics have pointed the finger back at Buhari, saying he has failed to secure the nation after more than seven years in office.

For a second day Thursday, teams of armed security and prison officials spread across Abuja searching for missing inmates.

After raids the day before, about 436 of nearly 900 escapees were recaptured, but hundreds remain at large, including all 64 high-profile Boko Haram suspects.

Authorities say back at the prison they’re also profiling those who fled.

A prison service statement on Wednesday said 879 inmates escaped when gunmen with explosives blasted open a perimeter fence and prison walls of the medium security prison in Kuje, Abuja on Tuesday.

The attackers also sporadically fired weapons.

Islamic State West Africa Province, the Islamic State affiliate known as ISWAP, later claimed responsibility for the invasion.

Buhari visited the facility Wednesday and blamed the security intelligence system. The president also said he wanted a comprehensive report on the attack.

Permanent Secretary of the Defense Ministry Ibrahim Kana told VOA that officials are addressing the matter.

“We will do all that we can through our military personnel, police, spies and even the prison warders, to bring these people to book,” Kana said. “So we are calling on Nigerians to be calm — there’s no cause for alarm. We are still trying to count the numbers of the inmates that have escaped.”

The president’s criticism of the intelligence system generated widespread public condemnation. Critics said the president was pointing fingers while he failed to fulfil a promise he made in 2015 to address insecurity.

Kuje resident Peter Onoja, who said the explosions at the prison shook his family, is among the critics.

“I believe in proactive activities, not when things have happened [and] you now begin to run helter-skelter; no, I believe in preventing something before it comes to happen,” Onoja said. “This is not the first time.”

Security experts have also weighed in on the president’s response to the incident.

Security analyst Senator Iroegbu said authorities and security agencies are losing focus, distracted by political events around the country.

“Unlike before when you can actually press the president, hold him accountable … the attention has shifted to focus on who will possibly be the next leaders come 2023,” Iroegbu said. “This also has affected the alertness level of security and intelligence agencies.”

Nigeria is due to go to the polls in February 2023.

But as the search for more escapees continues over coming days, Abuja residents say the peace they once enjoyed is now threatened.
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Gambia has banned all exports of timber to curb rampant illegal logging and protect critically endangered African rosewood, but conservationists remain skeptical that the ban will be enforced.

Rosewood is one of the world’s most trafficked wildlife commodities, fueled largely by high demand from China, where the wood is used to make high-end antique-style furniture.  

The trade runs rampant throughout West Africa, where forests have been decimated and soil degraded.  

Between 2017 and 2022, China imported more than 3 million tons of rosewood worth at least $2 billion from West Africa, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency, an international NGO.  

In addition to prohibiting all timber exports, Gambia has also revoked all export licenses.  

Lax enforcement

Haidar el Ali, Senegal’s former environment minister and the former director of the country’s reforestation agency, said Gambia banned rosewood exports in the past, but the laws were seldom enforced.

He said that every time the wood depots empty, they said they’d prohibit exports, because in reality there was no wood left to export. And afterward, once the traffickers refilled the depots, exports resumed.  Rosewood trafficking will end only when the last tree has been cut, he said.

El Ali acknowledged that this time might be different. Gambia’s latest ban comes one month after the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known as CITIES, suspended all international trade of rosewood from West Africa. 

The decision applies to all 184 member states of the convention, including China.  

Raphael Edou, Africa program manager for the Environmental Investigation Agency and Benin’s former environment minister, said, “That is one of the strengths, the power, of CITIES’ decision — that the importers and exporters have to comply. So even if we may have some hesitation from Gambia, we know that now there is no way to escape this decision.”

Although Gambia’s rosewood stocks are nearly extinct, the country continues to be a top exporter. Logs are transported primarily from Senegal’s Casamance region, where the illegal trade funds a violent separatist movement.  

Seydi Gassama, director of Amnesty International Senegal, said that because of this rebellion, the state’s water and forestry services, which combat illegal logging, no longer want to enter the forests of Casamance. And because of their absence, rosewood trafficking has also fed the rebellion, he said.

Separatist rebels also collect taxes on exported logs, according to local reports.  

Thousands have died since the conflict between the government and separatists began in 1982, and a flare-up in March displaced thousands. The conflict is one of the oldest in Africa.
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Clashes broke out in eastern Congo on Thursday between the military and M23 rebels, a civil society and a rebel source said, a day after the presidents of Congo and Rwanda agreed to de-escalate diplomatic tensions over the insurgency. 

The M23, which Congo accuses Rwanda of supporting, began a major offensive in the eastern borderlands at the end of March, seizing an important border post and other towns despite army efforts to stop its advances. 

Rwanda denies backing the M23 and has in turn accused Congo of fighting alongside another armed group intent on seizing power in Kigali. 

Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi met in Angola on Wednesday and agreed on a roadmap that included an immediate cessation of hostilities and the retreat of M23 fighters from Congo. 

M23 spokesman Willy Ngoma described the Luanda agreement as “an illusion.” 

“Only the M23 can sign the cease-fire with the government,” he said. 

The fresh clashes took place around the localities of Kanyabusoro and Kazuba in Rutshuru territory, pushing residents to flee their homes, said the president of a local civil society group, Jean-Pierre Karabuka. 

Ngoma said there was an exchange of fire after Congolese troops attacked a rebel position around Kanyabusoro. 

Congo’s army spokesman for the province, Sylvain Ekenge, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

The M23 fighters are waging their most sustained offensive since capturing swathes of territory in 2012-2013, after which they were defeated and chased into Rwanda and Uganda by Congolese and United Nations forces. 

Congo has accepted a proposal for an East African regional force to be deployed in its east to help control the violence, but only if Rwanda does not take part. Kagame has said he had no problem with Rwanda not being involved. 

 
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In northern Ethiopia, ethnic Tigrayans in camps for displaced people say they are being held against their will because of their ethnicity after being forced from their homes. VOA was able to access two of the camps, where inhabitants say they are not allowed to leave, despite lacking food, water, and medicine. Henry Wilkins reports from Semera, Ethiopia
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The United Nations warned Wednesday that the world is failing in its efforts to eradicate hunger, as 828 million more people had too little to eat in 2021 — 150 million more than before the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2019.

The State of Food Security and Nutrition report, released Wednesday, is the collaborative effort of five U.N. agencies, including the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program. Their data show that the major drivers of food insecurity and malnutrition are conflict, climate change and economic shocks, combined with growing inequalities.

“The ongoing war in Ukraine, together with other extended conflicts around the world, is further disrupting supply chains and pushing up the price of food, grain, fertilizer and energy, leading to shortages and high food price inflation,” FAO Director General Qu Dongyu told a briefing of U.N. member states.

Around 2.3 billion people lacked access to adequate food in 2021. Regionally, hunger continued to rise in Africa where 278 million people were affected, in Asia where 425 million experienced it, and in Latin America and the Caribbean where 56.5 million people were affected.

Nearly 3.1 billion people could not afford to eat healthy foods in 2020 — an increase of 112 million people over 2019. The U.N. agencies say that number reflects the rise in food prices due to the economic impact of the pandemic and measures put in place to contain it.

The report urges governments to reallocate their existing resources to the agriculture sector more efficiently, arguing that better results, like more abundant healthy foods, do not necessarily need more investment. Attention must also be paid to policies, including trade and market restrictions, which can inhibit access to quality foods at affordable prices.

“Governments must review their current support to food and agriculture to reduce hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms,” U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed told the meeting.

She said transformative change would be the only way to get back on track to meet the Sustainable Development Goal of eradicating global hunger by 2030 — a target that now appears far out of reach.

“Our updated projections indicate that more than 670 million people may still be hungry in 2030, far from the zero hunger target and the level that was in 2015 — the year when the SDGs were agreed,” FAO chief economist Maximo Torero said.

Ukraine impact

Ukraine is one of the top five global grain exporters. The FAO says it supplies more than 45 million tons annually to the global market. Russia is blockading several million tons of Ukrainian grain in the Black Sea port of Odesa, while FAO estimates that 18 million tons of cereals and oilseeds are in storage awaiting export.

The organization says Ukraine is expected to harvest 60 million tons of grain this year, but since there is a backlog, there is a lack of storage in the country.

Torero said FAO simulations show the impact of the war could increase the world’s chronically hungry by 13 million people this year and 17 million next year, in part due to the rise in fertilizer prices and an expected global slowdown in wheat yields.

World Food Program Executive Director David Beasley warns that chronic and growing food insecurity is threatening to push 50 million people in 45 countries closer to famine.

“The global price spikes in food, fuel and fertilizers that we are seeing as a result of the crisis in Ukraine threaten to push countries around the world into famine,” he said. “The result will be global destabilization, starvation and mass migration on an unprecedented scale. We have to act today to avert this looming catastrophe.”
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Botswana is hosting an international meeting aimed at strengthening democracy and adherence to constitutions in Africa. Participants are calling on African militaries and leaders to respect term limits after several recent coups and efforts to extend time in power.

The three-day summit, organized by Botswana and the U.S.-based National Democratic Institute (NDI), has attracted former heads of state and civil society activists from across Africa.

Niger’s former president, Mahamadou Issoufou, speaking via videolink, said there is concern over the state of democracy in Africa. 

“We have some … results from certain countries, but democracy is regressing in certain countries, and especially through military coups,” he said. “I am happy Botswana and Niger are speaking with one voice.” Countries have to respect the two-term limit, he added.            

Issoufou left office after two terms in 2021 and was awarded the five-million dollar Ibrahim prize for good governance.  

Botswana’s president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, said his country, Africa’s longest-running democracy, was the ideal location for the meeting.

He said Africa requires strong institutions to promote constitutionalism and to ensure democracy flourishes.

“We remain resolute in the belief that we are better served by strong institutions rather than strongmen or women or anything in between,” he said. “My firm belief is that this summit represents our strong partnerships to renew and strengthen efforts to respect constitutional term limits as a pillar of democratic governance and peaceful political transitions across our continent.”

Peaceful political transitions remain elusive in some African countries. In the last 16 months alone, leaders have been ousted by coups in Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Sudan.

U.S. Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy and Human Rights Uzra Zeya, in a recorded statement, said her country will continue to support Africa’s efforts to uphold democratic principles.

“The United States is proud to support today’s convening and we will continue to back our partner’s efforts to bring attention to the efforts of constitutional term limits as they are key to democratic governance,” she said. “We all know from public opinion research that constitutional term limits have widespread popular support across Africa.”

National Democratic Institute President Derek Mitchell said the Gaborone summit comes at an opportune time.

“There is no more important moment to reaffirm and embrace the eternal truth than today when democracy is under attack in so many corners of the world,” he said. Democracy must be protected, defended, cultivated through regular civic practice and education. Respect for constitutionalism promotes rule of law and political accountability.”

The Gaborone meeting is a follow-up to a 2019 summit held in Niger to promote the respect of constitutional limits.
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