Seven protesters were shot to death in Sudan on Thursday, medics said, as large crowds took to the streets despite heavy security and a communications blackout to rally against the military leadership that seized power eight months ago.   

In central Khartoum, security forces fired tear gas and water cannons in the afternoon as they tried to prevent swelling numbers of protesters from marching toward the presidential palace, witnesses said.  

They estimated the crowds in Khartoum and its twin cities of Omdurman and Bahri to be at least in the tens of thousands, the largest for months. In Omdurman, witnesses reported tear gas and gunfire as security forces prevented protesters from crossing into Khartoum, though some later made it across.  

The protests in the capital and other cities marked the third anniversary of huge demonstrations during the uprising that overthrew long-time autocratic ruler Omar al-Bashir and led to a power-sharing arrangement between civilian groups and the military.   

Last October, the military led by General Abdel-Fattah Burhan toppled the transitional government, triggering rallies demanding the army quit politics. 

Some of Thursday’s protesters carried banners calling for justice for those killed in previous demonstrations. Others chanted, “Burhan, Burhan, back to the barracks and hand over your companies,” a reference to the military’s economic holdings. 

In the evening, protesters in Bahri and Khartoum said they were starting sit-ins against Thursday’s deaths, one of the highest single-day tolls to date.   

June 30 also marks the day Bashir took power in a coup in 1989.   

“Either we get to the presidential palace and remove Burhan or we won’t return home,” said a 21-year-old female student protesting in Bahri.   

It was the first time in months of protests that internet and phone services had been cut. After the military takeover, extended internet blackouts were imposed in an apparent effort to weaken the protest movement.   

Staff at Sudan’s two private sector telecoms companies, speaking on condition of anonymity, said authorities had ordered them to shut down the internet once again on Thursday.   

Phone calls within Sudan were also cut, and security forces closed bridges over the Nile linking Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri, another step typically taken on big protest days to limit the movement of marchers.   

On Wednesday, medics aligned with the protest movement said security forces shot to death a child in Bahri during neighborhood protests that have been taking place daily.  

Thursday’s seven deaths, five in Omdurman, one in Khartoum and another child in Bahri brought the number of protesters killed since the coup to 110. There were many injuries and attempts by security forces to storm hospitals in Khartoum where the injured were being treated, the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors said. 

There was no immediate comment from Sudanese authorities. 

The United Nations envoy in Sudan, Volker Perthes, called this week on authorities to abide by a pledge to protect the right of peaceful assembly. 

“Violence against protesters will not be tolerated,” he said.   

Military leaders said they dissolved the government in October because of political paralysis, though they are yet to appoint a prime minister. International financial support agreed with the transitional government was frozen after the coup and an economic crisis has deepened. 

Burhan said on Wednesday the armed forces were looking forward to the day when an elected government could take over, but this could only be done through consensus or elections, not protests.   

Mediation efforts led by the United Nations and the African Union have so far yielded little progress. 

 
…

The battles between Ethiopian government-aligned troops and Tigrayan forces may have stopped, but herders in western Afar region are left fighting for survival.

The record drought in the Horn of Africa that has killed millions of livestock has been made worse by landmines left by combatants.

Herder Hassen Arebti Hassen’s 4-year-old daughter was injured by a landmine, and the weapons are also killing his animals.

He said landmines are everywhere, and many animals have stepped on them and died.

Landmines and other explosives are so common in the area that some locals use the wood from their crates as building materials.

Nine-year-old Ali Omer said his 10-year-old friend was killed by a landmine while they were herding goats together.

“We were just there to take care of the goats, but my friend died,” he said.

Omer said his friend was playing, throwing stones at the landmine, but then he picked it up and threw it to the ground.

Omer was also injured.

His father, Oumer Hadeto, said landmines make them all afraid to collect water, despite the drought.

Hadeto said the community doesn’t know what to do, and he has to spend a lot of money to buy food for his family and animals. The landmines need to be removed, he added.

After speaking with locals, VOA was unable to establish which side in the conflict was responsible for laying the mines.

Bekele Gonfa, executive director of a nonprofit in Addis Ababa that supports landmine victims, said people in mined areas of Ethiopia, like Chifra, need help.

“Number one is the medical treatment. And then, they’re provided with psychosocial support, which includes counseling. Particularly, that’s what the organization is basically engaged in. The public and the community [have] to be given risk education in order to really keep themselves away from the mines,” Gonfa said.

But with the ongoing drought, people in Chifra have little choice but to risk landmines if they want to find food for their animals and collect water for their survival.
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A U.N. investigative panel is calling on the government of Ethiopia to end conflict-related rights violations on its territory and bring the perpetrators of crimes to justice. The commission has submitted its first report to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The three-member International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia reports that violations of international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law continue and appear to be committed with impunity.

Commission chair Kaari Betty Murungi said the panel is alarmed by ongoing atrocities against civilians, including events reported in the Oromia region. This is a reference to the recent killings of an estimated 250 people, mostly from the Amhara ethnic group, allegedly by the rebel Oromo Liberation Army.

“Any spread of violence against civilians, fueled either by hate speech or incitement to ethnic-based or gender-based violence, are early warning indicators and a precursor for further atrocity crimes,” Murungi said. “These and the protracted humanitarian crisis including blockades to food and medical aid, supplies and services pose grave risk to the Ethiopian civilian population and to people in the region.”

The commission was established last December at a special session on the human rights situation in Ethiopia since Nov. 3, 2020. That was when the government’s military offensive in Tigray began in response to attacks by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Ethiopia has rejected as unwarranted the adoption of the resolution that established the commission.

Ethiopia’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, Zenebe Kebede Korcho, however, has told the council his government will cooperate with the commission despite ongoing reservations. He said discussions have begun.

“The country is now turning a page,” Korcho said. “The government of Ethiopia has decided to seek peaceful end to the conflict. An inclusive national dialogue is launched to address political problems across the country. The government has taken numerous confidence-building measures.”

The ambassador said his government has declared an indefinite humanitarian truce in northern Ethiopia. As a result, he noted humanitarian assistance is reaching all those in need.

The commission said it has begun its work and welcomes the cooperation of the Ethiopian government. The commission adds it believes it can contribute to furthering accountability for the many violations that have occurred since the start of the conflict in Tigray and that are still ongoing.
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A Britain-based group says its latest study of worldwide free expression rights shows only 15% of the global population lives where people can receive or share information freely.

In its 2022 Global Expression Report, Article19, an international human rights organization, said that in authoritarian nations such as China, Myanmar and Russia, and in democracies such as Brazil and India, 80% of the global population live with less freedom of expression than a decade ago.

The report said authoritarian regimes and rulers continue to tighten control over what their populations see, hear and say.

While mentioning Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, the report singles out China’s government for “exerting ultimate authority over the identities, information and opinions” of hundreds of millions of people.  

The annual report examines freedom of expression across 161 countries using 25 indicators to measure how free each person is to express, communicate and participate in society, without fear of harassment, legal repercussions or violence. It creates a score from zero to 100 for each country.

This year, the report ranks Denmark and Switzerland tops in the world, each with scores of 96. Norway and Sweden each have scores of 94, and Estonia and Finland both scored 93. The study said the top 10 most open nations are European.

Article 19 ranks North Korea as the most oppressive nation in the world with a score of zero. Eritrea, Syria and Turkmenistan had scores of one, and Belarus, China and Cuba had scores of two.   

The United States ranked 30th on the scale. In 2011, it was 9th in the world. The U.S. has seen a nine-point drop in its score, putting the country on the lower end of the open expression category. It was globally ranked in the lowest quartile in 2021 in its scores for equality in civil liberties for social groups, political polarization and social polarization, and political violence.

The report said that over the past two decades, there have been more dramatic downward shifts in freedom of expression around the world than at any time. Many of these occur as the result of power grabs or coups, but many more nations have seen an erosion of rights, often under democratically elected populist leaders.

Article 19 takes its name from the article under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states, “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”
…

Tanzanian authorities say violent clashes on June 10 between police and ethnic Maasai people they were trying to evict from a conservation area left one officer dead and scores of Maasai shot and wounded. While rights groups have condemned Tanzanian authorities for what they call unlawful evictions, some Maasai families say they had no choice but to move from their ancestral home to a reservation 600 kilometers away.

Saiboku Laizer, 63, has found a new home in eastern Tanzania’s Handeni township.

It’s about 600 kilometers south of his ancestral land in the Ngorongoro Conservation area.

Laizer has three wives and 20 children. In this new environment, he is worried about the fate of their long-preserved traditions, including living in a traditional Maasai bomas (huts).

Laizer said that in Ngorongoro, the laws were strict, and people were instructed about what to do with their land, so they had much time to invest in their traditions. But for now, he added, the traditions of living in bomas and living with many cattle may suffer.

He is among the Maasai who have left their land after a government eviction that has sparked protests and a violent police crackdown.

Government officials say the Maasai are being asked to voluntarily leave their homes, located in parts of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.

They also say the goal of the eviction is to protect a conservation area from a growing Maasai population and their cattle.

But activists say they are being forced out to make way for trophy hunting and conservation zones. Onesmo Ole Ngurumwa, the executive director of Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition, said they have been advising citizens to sit together with the government and write down their recommendations, and they have done that.

The challenge comes on the government’s side, he said.  The government, he said, didn’t seem want or to pay attention to any recommendations. Instead, he said, it simply continued with the strategies it has already planned.

About 27 Maasai families already have shifted from Ngorongoro to Msomera village, where the government provides those evicted with a house and land where they can let their cattle graze.

Msomera Village chairperson Martin Oleikayo said the president’s plan to move Maasai from the Ngorongoro Conservation Area is for the benefit of all the country, adding that the revenue collected from tourism activities from the conservation area benefits all citizens.

Meanwhile, Laizer is adjusting to a new life and a new home. But he is worried about those more than 300 families that remain in the area, who are reluctant to leave the only home they have ever known.
…

The top U.N. official for the Democratic Republic of the Congo said Wednesday that the resurgent M23 rebel group in the country’s east is well-armed and equipped, posing a growing threat to civilians.

“During the most recent hostilities, the M23 has conducted itself increasingly as a conventional army, rather than an armed group,” said Bintou Keita, head of the U.N. Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known as MONUSCO.

“The M23 possesses firepower and equipment, which is increasingly sophisticated, specifically in terms of long-range fire capacities — mortars, machine guns, as well as precision fire against aircraft,” she said in remarks to the Security Council.

The M23 was defeated by Congo’s army (FARDC) and special MONUSCO forces in 2013. But in November 2021, its forces began to reemerge.

Congolese officials blame neighboring Rwanda, saying it supports the group, which claims to be protecting the Tutsi minority in eastern DRC. Rwanda’s government is Tutsi-led but denies any link to the rebel group.

At the Security Council, Congolese Ambassador Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja called for the M23’s unconditional withdrawal from the DRC. He also urged strong condemnation of those who support the group “beginning with the state of Rwanda and its president.”

“This is an unfounded accusation,” Rwanda’s envoy Claver Gatete responded.

MONUSCO has more than 16,000 troops and police in Congo’s east. But Keita warned they may soon be outgunned by the rebels.

“Should the M23 continue its well-coordinated attacks against FARDC and MONUSCO with increasing conventional capabilities, the mission may find itself confronted by a threat that goes beyond its current capabilities,” she said.

The United Nations has called on the group to cease all hostilities and disarm.

In the past three months, the U.N. has recorded nearly 1,000 civilian deaths and scores of injuries in the provinces of North and South Kivu and Ituri because of attacks by armed groups and their clashes with security forces.

The militants seek to control lucrative trade in sought-after minerals, including gold, tungsten, copper and cobalt, which are abundant in the east.

As Congolese security forces and U.N. peacekeepers have redeployed to respond to the M23 threat, Keita said, other armed groups have exploited the security vacuum, including the Allied Democratic Forces and the Coopérative pour le développement du Congo-Zaire (CODECO).

Civilians suffering

The U.N. has chronicled abuses including looting, rape and murder. Displacements have soared in the east, with 700,000 people forced from their homes since the beginning of 2022.

“Just imagine — mothers are cooking dust, soil, to feed their children instead of boiling corn or soya,” said Julienne Lusenge of the Ituri-based women’s NGO Female Solidarity for Integrated Peace and Development.

Speaking to council members via video, Lusenge read the horrifying testimony of one woman who was kidnapped by CODECO militants when she went to pay a ransom for a captive relative.

“It was a trap. They brought me there, they tied me up, they beat me, they undressed me. They slit the throat of a Nande man, they pulled out his entrails and asked me to cook them,” Lusenge said, reading the woman’s statement. “They then fed all of the prisoners human flesh.”

The woman’s ordeal did not end there.

“Late at night, we went to another camp. I was raped all night long, and I was subjected to other physical abuse,” she said.

Released by CODECO a few days later, the woman was then taken by another group in a different village as she made her way home. She was held as a sex slave for several days and again was asked to cook and eat human flesh. When she finally arrived home, she discovered the relative whose release she had been trying to secure had already been murdered.

Regional stabilization force 

The resurgence of the M23 has led to a deterioration in relations between the DRC and Rwanda.

On May 27, the Congolese government declared M23 a terrorist movement, accused Rwanda of supporting the rebels and suspended RwandAir flights to the DRC.

At an African Union summit the next day, Senegalese President Macky Sall, chairman of the AU, met with the two presidents and offered Angolan President João Lourenço, chair of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region, to mediate between them.

Last week, East African leaders agreed to deploy a regional security force to help restore order in the eastern Congo and ease tensions. Kenya is slated to lead the force, the size of which has not been announced.

The U.N.’s Keita told reporters she has been told the force’s headquarters will be deployed by the end of July, and troops will follow in August.

“I would urge East Africa Community leaders to prioritize dialogue-based approaches to the crisis,” U.S. envoy Richard Mills told the council. “The United States insists that the deployment of any additional force in eastern DRC must be closely coordinated with MONUSCO, and it must be conducted in conformity with the parties’ respective commitments under international law, including international humanitarian law.”

He said it must also be done in line with existing Security Council sanctions resolutions, and the council should be formally notified before it is deployed.
…

South Africa’s state-owned power company, Eskom, said some workers were returning to their posts Wednesday, amid a strike over pay issues that caused severe nationwide power cuts. The rolling blackouts have dealt a blow to South Africa’s already ailing economy.

Some of the striking workers who are members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) and the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) — have heeded the call to return.  

But the exact number of those who have resumed duties is still unclear, as the workers walked off the job without approval. Eskom’s spokesperson, Sikonathi Mantshantsha, said while some are back at work, there is still a high level of absenteeism.   

He explained that despite the workers returning, the country remained on what is known as a Stage 6 alert regarding the outages. 

“The system will still take some time to recover. As a result of the strike, maintenance work has had to be postponed and this backlog will take time to clear,” Mantshantsha said.

Stage 6, also known as loadshedding, means many areas are without electricity for at least six hours a day on a rolling basis. Eskom resorted to that stage only once before, for three days in December 2019. 

The alert level is expected to go down in the coming hours. 

Regular power cuts started in South Africa back in 2007 due to increased demand and aging coal power stations. 

Energy analyst Chris Yelland said the strike, which started last week, simply aggravated an already bad situation. 

“Eskom says that there were a number of units that had come off even before the industrial action but because of the industrial action, key people were not able to get access to the power stations,” Yelland said. “As a result, picketing at the power stations, intimidation, acts of violence and so people that needed to bring these units back on stream were not available.” 

Workers from the two unions went on strike to demand pay increases of 10 and 12 percent. Union leaders will meet with Eskom on Friday to discuss the company’s latest offer, reported to be a 7 percent raise.  

Meanwhile, Yelland is calling on the government to get rid of the regulations that give Eskom a near-monopoly over South Africa’s electricity market.  

“And every effort should be made to remove all the restrictions that are preventing the private sector from building their own generation capacity. And that means domestic, commercial, industrial, mining, agricultural,” Yelland said. “They’ve all got to come to the table and be allowed to build their own generation facilities.” 

If the government doesn’t act, he said, the blackouts will steadily worsen.  

Economists, meanwhile, have warned of a ratings downgrade if the situation doesn’t change quickly. 

 
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The African Continental Free Trade Area has been operating for more than a year with the aim of cutting red tape to expand inter-African trade and lift millions of people out of poverty. But the largest trade pact in the world, in terms of member countries, has seen slow progress and mixed results. Anne Nzouankeu reports from Abidjan, Ivory Coast, in this report narrated by Moki Edwin Kindzeka.
Videographer: Anne Nzouankeu
…

The African Union called for restraint Wednesday after clashes between Ethiopia and Sudan in a disputed border area.  The tensions broke out after Sudan accused Ethiopia of executing seven of its troops, which Ethiopia blamed on a local militia.

The statement appealed for “complete refrain from any military action, whatever its origins,” and called for dialogue between Sudan and Ethiopia to resolve any dispute.

Sudan on Tuesday captured Jabal Kala al-Laban, an area on the border, after using heavy artillery a Sudanese military source told Reuters.

Shawgi Abdulazim, a Sudanese political analyst, said a broader conflict is unlikely because both countries are politically and economically fragile and a conflict could have disastrous effects.

He said if war happens, it will affect the humanitarian situation in both countries, resulting in an influx of refugees and displaced people.  It would also further impact the situation in Djibouti, Somalia, and South Sudan amid an expected hunger crisis in the region.

Sudanese journalist Abdelmoniem Abuedries doubts the conflict will escalate.

“I don’t think this will lead to broader conflict, it will continue to be small clashes here and there,” he said. “Always these small clashes are happening at the beginning of the rainy season in this area, because the farmers start cultivating their farms.”

The clashes have taken place around the al-Fashaqa region, where land disputes between Sudanese and Ethiopian farmers have simmered for decades.
…

In his first oral report since beginning his job as the United Nations special rapporteur on Burundi’s human rights, Fortune Gaetan Zongo appealed to Burundian authorities to grant him access to their country to properly discharge his mandate to investigate alleged violations in that country.

Zongo noted with satisfaction that since the start of his mandate on April 1, Burundi’s return to the international scene had begun with the lifting of sanctions by the European Union, the United States and others. In return, he said Burundi has begun interacting with international and regional actors.

Additionally, he said Burundi has made some progress on human rights. He noted that Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye has pardoned more than 5,000 people in detention and freed some journalists and civil society representatives, as well. He spoke through an interpreter.

“But despite this major progress achieved since 2020, additional efforts are still necessary in the area of fighting impunity, in beefing up institutions, notably in the justice sector, the police and the army,” Zongo  said. “In protecting the enjoyment of public freedoms and expanding the democratic space through effective participation of civil society and the media.”

Zongo said he intends to fulfill his mandate in an impartial manner and will examine documents from all sources regarding the human rights situation in Burundi.

However, he noted he only has access to partial information, achieved through secondary sources. That, he said, could tarnish the credibility and neutrality of his effort.

“From the height of this tribune, I would like to request of the Burundi authorities the possibility of interacting with them — visiting this brotherly country in order to better understand the realities on the ground, the country’s opportunities, as well as the challenges and priorities of that country.”

Burundi’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Renovat Tabu, said Burundi has achieved major progress in implementing reforms and promoting good governance, social justice, and freedom of expression.

He said his country was aware of the crucial role played by the council in reinforcing, promoting and protecting human rights across the world. But he added that Burundi would not accept any mechanism or political attempts to interfere with the domestic affairs of sovereign states.

The comments effectively shut the door on Zongo visiting Burundi – at least for the time being.
…

Record-breaking drought in Ethiopia has caused child malnutrition rates to soar in the northern Afar region, where the only referral hospital says babies are dying within hours of arrival. Ethiopia’s war with Tigrayan forces has left less than 10 percent of the region’s clinics functioning and hospitals struggling to cope.

Doctors at the hospital in Afar say they have admitted 369 severely malnourished children in the past three months.  

With only two pediatricians serving an area of more than 1 million people, Dubti General Hospital is overwhelmed with weak children and desperate mothers.    

Aina Kadr’s 1-year-old son has been on therapeutic feeding for two weeks.    

“When we came here, he wasn’t eating food or drinking water,” she said. “We were afraid he would die.”  

The worst drought in the Horn of Africa in four decades has left millions of Ethiopians facing hunger and malnutrition. The U.N. says Afar’s rate of admitted malnourished children jumped by 30 percent in March and then another 28 percent in April.  

The acting head of Dubti General Hospital, Dr. Muhammad Yusuf, said they’ve gone from admitting five children per month to five per day.    

“They come after the patient deteriorates. So, most of the patients die in our setup after arrival within two to three hours because they are already complicated. Since malnutrition is not the only problem. It’s accompanied with other complications, like pneumonia, anemia, diarrhea,” Yusuf said. 

Ethiopian authorities say the war with Tigrayan forces left Afar’s clinics looted and destroyed, with less than 10 percent functioning.  

That has forced even more people to seek care at hospitals like Dubti’s, where patients —many of them children — spill into the hallways and porches.

Amina Adam Ibrahim has been at the hospital with her sick baby for over two weeks. 

“He’s coughing. He has a high fever, and he cannot eat food,” she said. “We do not know what’s wrong with him.”  

Michel Saad, head of the U.N.’s humanitarian office in Ethiopia, said there’s a struggle to meet health care needs.   

“There’s a need to either rehabilitate other health centers somewhere else within Afar or to create new ones even if momentarily,” Saad said. “So, this is something that we are trying to work on. I can tell you, unfortunately, it’s not as fast as we would like to, but it’s definitely on the radar, and we are following up on this.”  

Meanwhile, Yusuf said some staff have given up and abandoned the hospital, making it even harder for remaining health workers to cope.    

 
…

Record drought in Ethiopia is seeing child malnutrition rates soar in northern Afar region, where the only referral hospital says babies are dying within hours of arrival.  Ethiopia’s war with Tigrayan forces has left less than 10 precent of the region’s clinics functioning and hospitals struggling to cope. Halima Athumani reports from Semera, Ethiopia.
Video editor:  Yidnkeachew Lemma
…

The U.N. children’s fund says more than 266,000 violations were committed against children in armed conflict between 2005 and 2020.

An analysis of more than 30 conflicts across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America finds children continue to bear the brunt of war and are forced to endure what it calls unspeakable horrors.

Authors of a report on the subject say the figure in the report represents just a fraction of the violations believed to have occurred and does not reflect the magnitude of the crimes committed against children caught in conflict.

Tasha Gill is UNICEF’s senior adviser, Child Protection in Emergencies. She says children are victims of a staggering average of 71 verified grave violations every day. She says the report documents the killing and maiming of more than 104,000 children in conflict.

“Between 2016 and 2020, 82 percent of all verified child casualties occurred in only five situations: Afghanistan, Israel and the State of Palestine, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia. It is also important to note that many children experience more than one violation, increasing their vulnerability,” Gill said.

She notes abduction often leads to other violations, such as recruitment and sexual violence. The report has verified at least 25,700 child abductions by parties to conflict and more than 93,000 children recruited as soldiers by all parties to conflict.

Additionally, the report says children have been raped, forcibly married and sexually exploited, with at least 14,200 children also having been subjected to other forms of sexual violence. Gill calls sexual violence against children the most underreported of all violations.

“Sexual violence does occur against children. It is used as a tactic of war. It is one of the lowest numbers because of the access issue but also the stigma and fear attached to reporting in conflicts across the board … Children are often used for many different reasons, which can be considered deliberate targeting. Our request is that all parties immediately cease and desist from using children in armed conflic,” Gill said.

She notes children are recruited as soldiers, and many also are used by the warring parties as porters, sexual slaves, and messengers. She says the violations must stop.

UNICEF is calling on parties to conflict and states to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law and implement concrete measures to protect children.

Agency officials say they have met with success in preventing some violations against children and putting a stop to others by engaging with those responsible for the violations. For example, over the past two decades they say at least 170,000 children have been released from armed forces and armed groups.
…

Villagers in a western Cameroon town bordering Nigeria say armed men carried out a series of attacks from June 25 to 27, killing at least 30 people, including five Nigerians, and forcing hundreds to flee.

Community leaders in the town of Akwaya say one of two communities fighting over land hired separatist fighters to carry out the shootings, which the rebels deny.  

Enow Daniel Kewong, the highest-ranking government health official in Akwaya, spoke to VOA via a messaging application. 

“Since the incident was very horrific, we never had the courage to go to the field, so the injured were actually transported by relatives and villagers to the Presbyterian Health Center where we attended to them,” he said. ”Most of the people that were brought had severe head injuries, chest injuries, while few had minor injuries. The severe injuries, we tried to stabilize them and referred them to neighboring Nigeria for continuation of care.” 

Cameroon Presbyterian Church official Samuel Fonki said an unknown number of the injured died while being evacuated to Nigeria. 

VOA could not independently verify if any injured from the attack arrived at Nigerian hospitals.  

Fonki said the ethnic Oliti accused the Messaga Ekol people of hiring rebel fighters to carry out the attacks to try to force them from their land. 

Separatists deny they were responsible for the Akwaya killings and blamed unnamed armed groups operating across the border.   

Fonki said he was trying to organize peace talks between the communities to end the violence when the weekend attacks occurred.   

“We were planning on how we can have peace talks to end the matter and then this unfortunate incident took place where 30 people including children, women, young girls, men and the old were massacred with support from some armed men. Some were even burned in their houses,” he said. “We want to plead that the government should put a very strong military base in Akwaya since that area is also near Nigeria.” 

Cameroon’s government said troops have been deployed to protect civilians in Akwaya but gave no further details. 

The intercommunal violence along the Nigerian border first broke out in April, when villagers say at least seven people were killed and plantations were destroyed.   

Local clerics, community leaders and village chiefs called a meeting to seek a solution to the conflict, but the disputing sides refused to attend.   

The allegation of rebels being hired guns will likely complicate peace efforts.   

English-speaking separatists in western Cameroon launched an armed rebellion in 2017 to break away from the country and its French-speaking majority.   

The government has blamed them for most atrocities committed in Cameroon’s English-speaking western regions, while the rebels usually blame federal troops.  

The U.N. says the conflict has killed more than 3,300 people and displaced more than 750,000. 

 
…

The National Football League (NFL), the top league in American-style football, has hosted its first African developmental camp in Ghana’s capital, Accra. The weeklong program was aimed at finding fresh talent and building the sport’s popularity across Africa. Senanu Tord reports from Accra, Ghana.
…

Nigerian churches are introducing armed security and entry searches after a deadly June 5 attack on a Catholic church blamed on the Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP). Security experts fear the attack in Nigeria’s southwest Ondo state means the threat of terrorism is spreading and could soon reach the capital. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.
…

Hundreds of young people chanted joyously Saturday at a concert in Abuja, listening to some of Nigeria’s biggest music stars.

The concert was set up to encourage voter registration among young people. There were at least 50 registration points for attendees to either register or verify already existing voter cards.

The artists one after another took to the stage to serenade the crowd but with clear messages encouraging them to vote in elections early next year.

The initiative was organized by a joint team comprising of the European Union, Nigeria’s Independent Electoral Body or INEC, and civil society organizations to boost voter participation, especially among young people, which authorities say was below 20 percent in 2019.

INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu says thousands of people signed up to vote at the concert.

“We’re still registering today but in five days, we registered over 14,000 Nigerians in this place alone,” Yakubu said. “We’ll not stop the registration until we’re satisfied that those who wish to register are given the opportunity.”

Young people constitute about 70% of Nigeria’s total population but youth participation in politics has been low.

People who registered at the concerts say successive governments have let the country down – and that’s why they want to make their voices heard at the ballot box.

Hamza Yusuf registered to vote during Saturday’s concert.

“You can see everybody coming out,” Yusuf said. “Basically, with concerts like this, it will help people want to get off their couches from their homes. We are all tired of how our governance is.”

Francis Atama also registered to vote at the concert.

“In the past there’s been high level of bad governance, and then the youths need inclusiveness in the government,” Atama said.

Samson Itodo, the executive director of the Youth Initiative for Advocacy, Growth and Advancement (YIAGA Africa), predicts young people will assume a greater role in Nigerian politics.

“Nigerian youths have made a bold statement that they have not lost hope in Nigeria,” Itodo said. “The crowd that you see here in their thousands is a demonstration of the fact that a lot of young people are very determined to cast their votes. There are over 10,000 people here today who have come to register.”

Presidential and National Assembly elections are slated for February 25 of next year, while governor and state assembly elections will take place in March.

 
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South African authorities say the owner of a bar where at least 17 teenagers were found dead and four others died while receiving medical care is expected to face charges.  Police investigating the mysterious deaths in Eastern Cape province say they have not ruled out the possibility the teenagers were poisoned. 

South African police say they are investigating and awaiting autopsy results after the teenagers’ bodies were found at a bar early Sunday morning with no visible cause of death.

Brigadier Thembinkosi Kinana is a police spokesman.

“Whilst we understand the urgency of this matter and the anxiety of the public, in particular the affected families who want answers.  We urge that we allow sufficient time for our detectives to finalize those investigations.  I must also add that we have not made any arrests at this stage,” he said.

South African police say the owner is expected to face charges and have not ruled out the possibility that the teenagers were poisoned.

Spokesman Kinana said half-a-dozen of the bodies were not immediately claimed.

“We are making an appeal to parents or relatives who may have not seen their children since the past weekend to please make time to make inquiries. We are also calling upon parents whose children who may have survived the tavern incident but are still feeling sick to please visit hospitals and clinics for medical check-ups,” he said.

Police were called to East London’s Enyobeni Tavern in Eastern Cape province, where local media reported the bodies were found slumped on the floor and tables.

The tavern’s owner, Siyakhangela Ndevu, told AFP news agency that patrons had tried to force their way into the bar despite it already being packed.

But safety authorities were quick to rule out a stampede because of the lack of injuries on the bodies, some as young as 13 years old.

Eighteen is the legal drinking age in South Africa.

Lucky Ntimane is Convenor of South Africa’s National Liquor Traders Council.

“The owner had workers working there, he had bouncers, they could’ve seen, easily seen that there were minors in that establishment.  But this was allowed to happen, the owner put the profits before the people.  He should never ever trade in alcohol ever in his life. The license should be revoked with immediate effect,” he said. 

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed condolences for the families through his spokesman Vincent Magwenya.

“While the president awaits more information on the incident, his thoughts are with the families who have lost children.  The president is however also concerned about the reported circumstances under which such young people were gathered at a venue which on the face of it should be off limits to people under the age of 18.  The president expects the law to take its course following investigations into the tragedy,” he said.

He added that the deaths were even more tragic as they happened during South Africa’s youth month.

Youth month developed from the June 16 National Youth Day when South Africa reflects on the massacre of students during the 1976 Soweto Uprising against apartheid.

Some of the dead were also students celebrating the end of mid-year exams.
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A Human Rights Watch report released Monday says separatists in Cameroon are increasingly brutal in their attacks. Human Rights Watch says separatists have committed murders, are using rape as a weapon, and have carried out at least 80 abductions since January.

According to the report, separatists have killed at least seven people, injured six, raped a teenage girl, and committed other grave human rights abuses in the English-speaking western regions this year.

The separatists also torched at least two schools, attacked a university and kidnapped people, including 33 students and five teachers, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Ilaria Allegrozzi, HRW’s central Africa researcher, said an escalation in attacks on civilians, education and health has exacerbated an already dire human rights situation in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions.

“The separatist groups have kidnapped more than 80 people since January and this figure is more likely underestimated compared to the reality on the ground, given the challenges of accessing the regions, but also the widespread fear among the victims to denounce because of possible retaliations and reprisals,” Allegrozzi said. “These are serious human rights abuses and they continue in the context of increasing violence and impunity that facilitates and fuels other abuses.”

HRW said in April, separatists stormed the University of Bamenda campus in the Northwest region, shooting in the air, causing panic among students and teachers, and leading to a stampede that injured at least five people. The report said fighters attacked the university for not observing a lockdown imposed by separatists.

In April, armed separatists kidnapped 33 Roman Catholic seminary students for ransom in Bachuo-Ntai, Southwest region, HRW said.

Capo Daniel, deputy defense chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces, ADF, one of the separatist groups named in the report, said fighters alone should not be blamed for the human rights abuses.

“Criminal gangs have taken maximum advantage of the chaos of his war to carry out kidnapping for ransom,” Daniel said. “While there have been some few cases that involved Ambazonia forces, it has mainly been as a result of lack of command and control by factions within our struggle that do not take their responsibility over those forces and Cameroon is ultimately responsible for the chaos.”

Daniel said the ADF has laid out a code of conduct that forbids fighters from committing crimes, and has punished fighters who committed offenses, including rape.

HRW says in February fighters attacked a vehicle of the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health services, killing a female nurse, and injuring another female nurse and a male doctor according to the report.

The rights group also said separatists killed a Doctors Without Borders health worker in the Southwest region, after accusing him of collaborating with the military.

HRW said since the conflict began in 2017, government troops have also committed human rights violations, including torching of houses and villages, torture, rape, mistreatment and incommunicado detentions.

The Cameroonian government has denied the claims.

Separatists in English-speaking western Cameroon launched their rebellion in 2017, with the stated goal of separating from the French-speaking majority country and setting up an independent state.

The conflict has killed more than 3,300 people and displaced more than 750,000 others, according to the U.N. 
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Authorities in Nigeria’s Zamfara state said they will begin granting gun licenses to residents. The rare move will allow individuals to carry guns so that they can defend themselves against gunmen and rebels in the troubled West African country’s northern region. 

Armed gangs that rob and kidnap for ransom are common in the area. 

Gunmen recently killed eight people and kidnapped nearly 40 in two churches in Kaduna. 

Nigeria’s security forces are stretched thin with the violent attacks and a ten-year war against Islamist rebels. 

Ibrahim Dosara, the Zamfara information commissioner, said in a statement that 500 licenses will be distributed to people “who qualify and are wishing to obtain such guns to defend themselves.”

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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Sri Lanka has run out of fuel, according to a report Monday in the country’s Daily Mirror newspaper. 

The 1,100 tons of petrol and 7,500 tons of diesel the country has would not last a day, the newspaper reported, citing anonymous sources in the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation Trade Union.

According to Reuters, which cited a top government official on Sunday, the country of 22 million people is down to just 15,000 tons of petrol and diesel to keep essential services running in  coming days. 

Without any deliveries of fuel, the newspaper said, Sri Lanka “will come to a complete standstill from this week, as even public transportation will come to a grinding halt.” 

The country’s energy crisis is compounded by a financial crisis. 

The Daily Mirror said Sri Lanka has been “blacklisted by international companies as it has defaulted on its debts and companies now require international bank guarantees for fresh orders.” 

However, Sri Lanka is sending two ministers to Russia, according to The Associated Press, for face-to-face negotiations to try to acquire the much-needed fuel. 

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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 Moussa Tolofidie didn’t think twice when nearly 100 jihadis on motorbikes gathered in his village in central Mali last week. 

A peace agreement signed last year between some armed groups and the community in the Bankass area had largely held, even if the gunmen would sometimes enter the town to preach Shariah to the villagers. But on this Sunday in June, everything changed — the jihadis began killing people. 

“They started with an old man about 100 years old … then the sounds of the weapons began to intensify around me and then at one moment I heard a bullet whistling behind my ear. I felt the earth spinning, I lost consciousness and fell to the ground,” Tolofidie, a 28-year-old farmer told The Associated Press by phone Friday in Mopti town, where he was receiving medical care. 

“When I woke up it was dark, around midnight,” he said. “There were bodies of other people on top of me. I smelled blood and smelled burnt things and heard the sounds of some people still moaning.”

Two days of attacks

At least 132 people were killed in several villages in the Bankass area of central Mali during two days of attacks last weekend, according to the government, which blames the Group to Support Islam and Muslims jihadi rebels linked to al-Qaida. 

The attack — the deadliest since mutinous soldiers toppled President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita nearly two years ago — shows that Islamic extremist violence is spreading from Mali’s north to more central areas, analysts have said. 

The conflict-riddled country has been battling extremist violence for a decade since jihadis seized control of key northern cities in 2012 and tried to take over the capital. They were pushed back by a French-led military operation the following year but have since regained ground. 

The Associated Press spoke to several survivors on Friday who had sought treatment at a hospital in Mopti and were from the villages of Diallassagou, Dianweli and Dessagou. People described hearing gunfire and jihadis shouting, “Allahu akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” as they ran into the forest to save their lives. 

Mali’s government blamed the attacks on the Group to Support Islam and Muslims, or JNIM, which is backed by al-Qaida, although the group denied responsibility in a statement on Friday. 

UN says violence has displaced population

The United States and France condemned the attacks and the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali (MINUSMA) issued a statement on Twitter saying the violence has caused casualties and displaced the population. 

Conflict analysts say the fact that the attacks happened in an area where local peace agreements were signed could signify the end of the fragile accords. 

“The resurgence of tension is perhaps linked to the expiration of these local agreements but also can be linked to the intensification of military operations by the defense forces,” said Baba Dakono, director of the Citizen Observatory on Governance and Security, a local civil society group. 

Ene Damango, a mechanic from Dialassagou, fled his village when the shooting started, but he said his uncle was shot in the leg and severely wounded. 

“When I returned to the village. I discovered the carnage.”
…

Two police officers were killed and one wounded in an attack on a police station in northwest Benin on Sunday, police sources said, the latest in a string of deadly assaults in an area affected by a spillover of militant activity in neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Suspected jihadists descended on the Dassari police station at around 2 a.m. and opened fire, killing two officers before they were pushed back, said one police officer who did not wish to be named.

“Our forces were able to resist. Unfortunately, there were two dead in our ranks,” the police officer told Reuters.

Two “terrorists” were also killed and several others wounded, he added.

A second unnamed police source confirmed the assault and the death toll.

Dassari is a town around 600 km (373 miles) northwest of Benin’s largest city Cotonou, near the border with Burkina Faso.

It is around 250 km from a police station in the commune of Karimana, near the border with Niger, that was raided by armed assailants on April 26, leaving at least one dead and several wounded. 

Benin’s army has not officially communicated on Sunday’s attack.

Its spokesman Didier Ahouanvoedo referred Reuters to the police.

“The attack this early morning once again spread panic among the local population,” said a local official in Dassari, who did not wish to be named for safety reasons.

“The situation is now under control thanks to reinforcements from the army,” he added.

Groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that spread to northern Benin from West Africa’s Sahel region have escalated attacks in recent weeks. 

Five soldiers were killed in April when an army convoy struck an improvised explosive device planted in the northern Pendjari National Park. 
…

Officials in South Africa say at least 20 young people have died in a tavern.

The cause of the deaths in East London was not immediately known, authorities said.

Siyanda Manana, a spokesperson for the Eastern Cape provincial health department, said the bodies were being transported to state mortuaries and autopsies would be conducted to determine the cause of the deaths.

Reuters reports that the victims were between 18 to 20 years old.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.

 
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