Kenyan authorities are training domestic workers sent to the Middle East on their rights after years of reported abuses, including beatings, rapes, and deaths. Authorities say there have been 23 such cases so far this year, most of them in Saudi Arabia. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi. Camera: Amos Wangwa
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Senegalese President and African Union Chair Macky Sall on Thursday urged Ukraine to demine waters around its Odesa port to ease much needed grain exports from the war-torn country. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions have disrupted grain deliveries from the two countries, fueling fears of hunger around the world. 

Cereal prices in Africa, the world’s poorest continent, have surged because of the slump in exports, sharpening the impact of conflict and climate change and sparking fears of social unrest. 

If wheat exports do not resume from Ukraine, Africa “will be in a situation of very serious famine that could destabilize the continent,” Sall told French media outlets France 24 and RFI. 

Russia and Ukraine produce 30% of the global wheat supply. 

But grain remains stuck in Ukraine’s ports because of a Russian blockade and Ukrainian mines, while Western sanctions on Moscow have disrupted exports from Russia. 

Moscow has called for Ukraine to demine the waters surrounding the Ukrainian-controlled port of Odesa to allow out blocked grain, but Kyiv has refused for fear of a Russian attack. 

Sall said Russia President Vladimir Putin, whom he met last week in Russia, had assured him this would not happen. 

“I even told him: ‘The Ukrainians said that if they demine, you’ll enter the port.’ He says, no, he will not enter, and that’s a commitment he made,” the Senegalese leader said. 

“There must now be work towards getting the demining done, the United Nations involved … so that we can start getting the Ukrainian wheat out,” he said. 

Sall is to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in France on Friday. 

He is expected to ask him to help lift EU sanctions against Russia, especially to reverse its exclusion from the global SWIFT bank messaging system. 

“Since our banks are mostly linked to European banks, they cannot pay as they used to” for Russian products, the AU chair explained. 

 
…

Attacks by armed gangs on motorcycles are blamed for the deaths of at least 32 people in rural northwestern Nigeria, residents told The Associated Press.

The gunmen attacked four villages in the Kajuru area of Kaduna state on Sunday, said Monday Solomon, a resident of the area, about 230 kilometers (143 miles) from Abuja. The attackers moved from village to village for hours before leaving, he said.

Poor telecommunications delayed residents from reporting the attacks, as is often the case in parts of Nigeria’s north.

News of the killings in Kaduna state came shortly after more than 30 people were killed in an attack on a Catholic church on Sunday in southwestern Ondo, a state previously known as one of Nigeria’s safest.

Nigeria’s National Security Council said Thursday that the attack in Ondo was carried out by extremist rebels under the Islamic State West Africa Province group, confirming alarms raised in the past by local authorities and security analysts that the militants who have been restricted to the northeast for many years are looking to expand their influence and reach to other parts of the country.

Following the recent attack in Kaduna state, at least 32 bodies have been recovered from the villages, according to the Adara Development Association. It said survivors continue to “comb surrounding bushes for more corpses.” Twenty-eight people have so far been buried, residents said.

In the Kajuru area, attackers arrived on more than 100 motorcycles, said resident Usman Danladi. Many villagers “took to their hills and ran into the bush [but] they [the attackers] followed them with motorcycles and killed many of them,” said Danladi.

More than 20 people were kidnapped and the abductors are demanding money for their release, he added.

Such attacks have become frequent in Nigeria’s troubled northwest. Thousands have been killed in the violence, according to data compiled by the U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations. Residents are often abducted and kept in detention for weeks, usually in forest reserves, until ransoms are paid.

The gunmen in the latest violence were “armed Fulani militia,” said resident Danladi. “That is the language they were speaking. That was their outlook. They are not new to our environment because this is not the first time they were attacking.”

Herdsmen, farmers in conflict

The Fulani herdsmen, who are mostly Muslim, have been in conflict for decades against the settled farmers over access to land for grazing. The rivalry has become deadly in recent years as gangs of gunmen attack rural communities.

In one of the villages, residents were able to repel them at first before a helicopter arrived and “started gunning the youths from the air,” Awemi Dio Maisamari, the Adara association national president, said in a statement.

Neither the police nor Kaduna state officials have yet confirmed the attacks. The limited security presence in many remote communities in Nigeria makes it difficult for government forces to protect residents from the attacks or quickly arrest the perpetrators, analysts say.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has been accused of not doing enough to end the country’s security woes, a key campaign promise the former military general made when he sought election in 2015. Buhari’s tenure as president ends in May next year after eight years in office.
…

Nigerian authorities suspect the insurgent group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) carried out a massacre in a Catholic church on Sunday in which 40 people were killed, Interior Minister Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola said on Thursday.

Assailants wielding AK-47 rifles and explosives attacked the congregation at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, in southwestern Ondo State, during Pentecost mass on Sunday, leaving behind a scene of carnage as they escaped.

“We have been able to see the footprint of ISWAP in the horrendous attack in Owo and we are after them. Our security agencies are on their trail and we will bring them to justice,” Aregbesola told reporters in the capital Abuja.

The authorities had not previously made any comment about the identity or motive of the killers.

ISWAP, predominantly active in northeastern Nigeria and neighboring Chad, is one of two major Islamist insurgent groups that have been fighting each other and the Nigerian military for years. Hundreds of thousands have died and millions have been displaced.

Ondo State is far from ISWAP’s usual area of operations.

The state governor, Arakunrin Akeredolu, gave new casualty figures on Thursday. He said a total of 127 people had been affected by the attack in the church, of whom 40 had died, 61 were still in hospital and 26 had been discharged.

Previously, an official from the National Emergency Management Agency had given a death toll of 22. Akeredolu said the new casualty figures had been compiled from reports from multiple hospitals, including private ones.

He said the state government would provide land for a mass burial of the victims but did not say when that would take place.

“We will have a memorial park here where those who died in the attack will be buried,” he said, addressing Catholic clergymen who had come on a condolence visit.
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The war in Ethiopia has seen reports alleging ethnic cleansing and mass detention of Tigrayans, including in western Tigray region, where authorities have prevented entry to rights groups and journalists. VOA was given rare but limited and tightly controlled access to the region and some sites allegedly used for detentions and mass graves. Henry Wilkins reports from Humera, Ethiopia.
Videographer: Henry Wilkins  
…

The United States on Thursday called on the Malian transition government to take steps toward holding elections, adding to pressure on military leaders in Mali to restore democracy.

The West African country’s military leaders toppled the government and failed to keep a promise to hold elections in February, prompting sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The length of the transition has also caused a rift with Mali’s partners including the United States and former colonial power, France.

“We urge the Malian transition government to make sustained, tangible action toward holding elections, including detailed benchmarks and the early adoption of the electoral law,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson on Thursday.

On Monday, a spokesman for Mali’s military junta said it would take 24 months from March 2022 to restore civilian rule after an August 2020 coup.

Mali’s putsch leaders and regional heads of state have been at odds over a proposed five-year election timeline that was then revised to two — a delay that was previously rejected as too long by ECOWAS.

The West African regional bloc ECOWAS said on Tuesday that it regretted the decision by Mali’s interim government to extend the transition back to civilian rule by 24 months while negotiations between the two sides were ongoing.
…

Algeria has suspended a two-decade-old friendship treaty with Spain.  

Relations between Algeria and Spain have deteriorated since March, when Madrid openly backed Morocco’s plan to grant autonomy to Western Sahara, which Rabat annexed in 1975 when Spanish forces withdrew from the region.  

Algiers supports the region’s Polisario independence movement, which has led to steadily worsening ties between the neighboring North African countries.  

Under the friendship treaty signed in 2002, Algeria and Spain agreed to cooperate on controlling the flow of migration and fight against human trafficking.  

Spain’s foreign ministry issued a statement saying it regretted Algeria’s decision but remained committed to upholding the principle of the treaty.  

The growing tensions between Algeria and Spain could also further complicate Algeria’s role as a key supplier of natural gas to Spain. Algiers stopped pumping gas to Spain through a pipeline that passes through Morocco last year.  

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.  
…

The risk of monkeypox becoming established in nonendemic nations is real, the WHO warned Wednesday, with more than 1,000 cases confirmed in such countries. 

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the U.N. health agency was not recommending mass vaccination against the virus and added that no deaths had been reported from the outbreaks. 

“The risk of monkeypox becoming established in nonendemic countries is real,” Tedros told a press conference. 

The zoonotic disease is endemic in humans in nine African countries, but outbreaks have been reported in the past month in several other states — mostly in Europe, and notably in Britain, Spain and Portugal. 

“More than 1,000 confirmed cases of monkeypox have now been reported to WHO from 29 countries that are not endemic for the disease,” Tedros said. 

“So far, no deaths have been reported in these countries. Cases have been reported mainly, but not only, among men who have sex with men. 

“Some countries are now beginning to report cases of apparent community transmission, including some cases in women.” 

Greece on Wednesday became the latest country to confirm its first case of the disease, with health authorities there saying it involved a man who had recently traveled to Portugal and who was hospitalized in stable condition. 

The initial symptoms of monkeypox include a high fever, swollen lymph nodes and a blistery chickenpox-like rash. 

Tedros said he was particularly concerned about the risk the virus poses to vulnerable groups, including pregnant women and children. 

He said the sudden and unexpected appearance of monkeypox outside endemic countries suggested that there might have been undetected transmission for some time, but it was not known for how long. 

One case of monkeypox in a nonendemic country is considered an outbreak. 

Tedros said that while this was “clearly concerning,” the virus has been circulating and killing in Africa for decades, with more than 1,400 suspected cases and 66 deaths so far this year. 

“The communities that live with the threat of this virus every day deserve the same concern, the same care and the same access to tools to protect themselves,” he said. 

Vaccines

In the few places where vaccines are available, they are being used to protect those who may be exposed, such as health care workers.

Tedros said that post-exposure vaccination, ideally within four days, could be considered for higher-risk close contacts, such as sexual partners or household members.  

He added that the WHO would issue guidance in the coming days on clinical care, infection prevention and control, vaccination and community protection.  

He said people with symptoms should isolate at home and consult a health worker, while people in the same household should avoid close contact.  

Few hospitalizations have been reported, apart from patients being isolated, the WHO said last weekend. 

Sylvie Briand, the WHO’s epidemic and pandemic preparedness and prevention director, said the smallpox vaccine could be used against monkeypox, a fellow orthopoxvirus, with a high degree of efficacy. 

The WHO is trying to determine how many doses are currently available and to find out from manufacturers what their production and distribution capacities are.
…

King Philippe of Belgium, in a historic visit to Congo, said on Wednesday that his country’s rule over the vast central African country had inflicted pain and humiliation through a mixture of “paternalism, discrimination and racism.” 

In a speech outside Congo’s parliament, Philippe amplified remorse he first voiced two years ago over Belgium’s brutal colonial rule — an era during which historians say millions died. 

“This regime was one of an unequal relationship, in itself unjustifiable, marked by paternalism, discrimination and racism,” Philippe said, speaking in French.  

“It led to abuse and humiliation,” he said. 

The king noted that many Belgians had been sincerely committed to Congo and its people, however. 

Philippe landed in Kinshasa on Tuesday afternoon for a six-day visit, billed as a chance for reconciliation between Congo and its former colonial master. 

Belgium’s colonization of Congo was one of the harshest imposed by the European powers that ruled most of Africa from the late 19th into the mid-20th centuries. 

King Leopold II governed

King Leopold II, the brother of Philippe’s great-great-grandfather, governed what is now Congo as his personal property between 1885 and 1908, before it became a Belgian colony.  

Historians say that millions of people were killed, mutilated or died of disease as they were forced to collect rubber under his rule. The land was also pillaged for its mineral wealth, timber and ivory.  

As Congo headed to its 60th anniversary of independence, Philippe wrote a letter to Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi in 2020 to express his “deepest regrets” for the “wounds of the past.” 

The king’s speech Wednesday went further in expressing regret, but it fell short of an apology for colonial-era crimes.  

Looted art 

Earlier Wednesday, Philippe visited Congo’s national museum in Kinshasa, where he handed over a mask the ethnic Suku group use in initiation rites.  

The ceremonial mask is on “unlimited” loan from Belgium’s Royal Museum for Central Africa, he announced.  

The Belgian government last year set out a plan for returning artworks looted during the colonial era, a sensitive topic in Congo.   

“The colonizer hauled away our artworks. It’s right that they should be returned to us,” said Louis Karhebwa, 63, a businessman. 

Prince Pungi, a young civil servant, agreed. “Congo is changing, moving forward,” he said. “It’s time to take back what belongs to us.”  

Philippe is due to address university students in the southern city of Lubumbashi on Friday.  

On Sunday, he will also visit the clinic of gynecologist Denis Mukwege, co-winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against sexual violence, in the eastern city of Bukavu. 

His trip comes as Belgium is preparing to return to Kinshasa a tooth — the last remains of Patrice Lumumba, a hero of the anti-colonial struggle and short-lived first prime minister of the independent Congo.  

Lumumba was murdered by Congolese separatists and Belgian mercenaries in 1961 and his body dissolved in acid, but the tooth was kept as a trophy by one of his killers, a Belgian police officer. 

Eastern violence  

The Belgian sovereign’s trip also comes at a time of heightened tension between Kinshasa and neighboring Rwanda over rebel activity in the conflict-torn eastern Congo.  

The Congolese government has accused Rwanda of backing the resurgent M23 militia, an accusation that Rwanda has denied. 

At a news conference Wednesday in Kinshasa, Tshisekedi told reporters that he saw security support as a priority in Congo’s relationship with Belgium.  

“There is no development without security,” the president said.  

Congo, a nation of about 90 million people, is one of the poorest countries in the world. 

Over 120 groups roam the country’s volatile east, many of which are a consequence of regional wars more than two decades ago, and civilian massacres remain common. 

Philippe, in his speech Wednesday, also said the situation in eastern Congo “cannot continue.”  

“It is the responsibility of all of us to do something about it,” he added.
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Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Kenyan companies that unload freight ships and transport cargo faced growing competition from international shippers. Now, workers unions say unless steps are taken to protect local businesses an estimated 1,000 firms and 10,000 jobs may be lost. Juma Majanga reports from the port of Mombasa, Kenya. Camera: Amos Wangwa.
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As much of the world is shunning Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, Zimbabwe this month hosted Russia’s third highest ranking official. Analysts say Zimbabwe is looking to Russia for fuel as well as cooking oil and wheat that it used to get from Ukraine, while Russia has its eyes on Zimbabwe’s minerals.

During a visit to Zimbabwe last week, Valentina Ivanovna Matvienko, chairperson of the Federation Council of Russia, said Moscow would improve trade relations between the two countries given that the West was shunning them.

Alexander Rusero, who heads international relations studies at Africa University in Zimbabwe, says the nation’s ties with Russia are both ideological and historical.

He says the relationship goes back to when Russia supplied arms to the now-ruling ZANU-PF party as it fought for Zimbabwe’s independence in the late 1970s.

Russia later vetoed proposed U.N. sanctions on Zimbabwe in 2008, when President Robert Mugabe won re-election through vote-rigging and heavy-handed intimidation.

“And given the realities that Zimbabwe is perceived as a pariah state, it is perceived as an outpost of tyranny by the Western international community, by the United States which is currently in an antagonistic relation with Russia, so Zimbabwe historically and ideologically will be leaned more to Russia and China than the Western international community,” said Rusero.

Harare-based independent political commentator Rejoice Ngwenya says Russia has an interest in Zimbabwe’s minerals, such as gold and platinum.

“Not to mention the business arrangements and relations that have been established in the last two decades. So it is not realistic to expect any drastic change of any policy between Zimbabwe and Russia on the basis of the Ukraine war. It is important to condemn invasions of any country, but unfortunately international politics also works in terms of self-interests and self-preservation,” said Ngwenya.

Zimbabwe depends on Russia and Ukraine for about 65 percent of its imported wheat. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, the price of bread and flour in the country has increased drastically as exports from the war zone have dried up.

“We have been affected. We are working with the government to bring in more wheat. We need as soon as possible. The commodity prices are going up, some of our wheat products such as bread are going up,” said Tafadzwa Musarara, the chairman of Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe, which is in charge of importing grain.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he considered Africa “friendly” and would make efforts to ensure goods in shortage reach the continent.

That would certainly be good news for countries like Zimbabwe, which even in the best of times struggles to feed its population.

 
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The United Nations warned Tuesday that Somalia is at risk of another famine, as consecutive droughts have withered crops and killed scores of livestock, and grain imports from Ukraine and Russia have dramatically dropped due to their war.

“Somalia is certainly heading toward a famine, if action is not taken now,” U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Adam Abdelmoula told reporters in a video call from Mogadishu.

He said if the international community waits until a formal declaration of famine to act, it will be too late.

“We have been there before — in 2011, severe drought resulted in a famine that killed a-quarter-of-a-million people, partly because we were slow to act. We must not allow that to happen again,” the humanitarian coordinator said.

Abdelmoula said that nearly half the country’s population, about 7.1 million people, are facing crisis-level food insecurity or worse at least through September. He said 213,000 of them would face famine-like conditions. The situation in south and central parts of the country is especially grim.

Somalia has endured four consecutive failed rainy seasons, plunging much of the country into severe drought, prompting the government to declare a state of emergency. Recent moderate rains have not alleviated the crisis.

Complicating the situation is Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Before Moscow’s February 24 invasion of its neighbor, Ukraine provided Somalia with about half of its grain imports, while Russia accounted for 35%.

“Both of those import sources have come to a complete halt,” Abdelmoula said. He added that global supply chain disruptions and increased fuel prices, as a result of the war, have also disproportionately affected Somalia.

“In some parts of the country, food prices have risen by 140% to 160%, leaving poor families hungry and destitute,” he said.

The United Nations appealed for $1.5 billion for its Somalia humanitarian response this year, but with the year half over, it has only received 18% of the funds needed. This has resulted in the shuttering of hundreds of U.N.-operated feeding centers and health clinics.

Abdelmoula said the World Food Program and partners have decreased food and cash handouts to affected communities by as much as 40% already. And of the 5.1 million people they had been trying to assist, they have only been able to reach 2.8 million.

“And the rest were left out,” the humanitarian coordinator said.

The situation is especially dangerous for children under five years old. Suspected cholera cases are on the rise and at least 8,700 cases of measles have been reported. Malnourished children are much more likely to succumb to those diseases.

In 2017, Somalia also faced the prospect of famine, but it was averted by concerted action by both the government and the international community.

 
…

Malawi wants renewed access to the International Monetary Fund’s Extended Credit Facility, or ECF, after a two-year halt. 

In 2020, the IMF canceled a planned $70 million in loans to Malawi after it came to light that former president Peter Mutharika gave the lender false information about how ECF funds were being used. 

The investigations into the matter last year led to the arrest of the former governor of Reserve Bank of Malawi, Dalitso Kabambe, and former finance minister Joseph Mwanamveka. 

In a statement released Monday, at the end of a weeklong mission in Malawi aimed at discussing terms of the resumption of the ECF, the IMF said Malawi should first meet certain conditions. 

Among those, the IMF asked Malawi to address what it called the country’s unsustainable public debt and to produce a report on allegations the country was giving false information between 2018 and 2020 about the administration of ECF funds.  

Sosten Gwengwe, Malawi’s finance minister, told a news conference Monday the government has engaged a debt adviser to help the country address its problem.  

“For us to be able to do that, we needed technical expertise,” he said. “And the advice from the Fund was that we get a qualified debt adviser, and that’s why we recruited the Global Sovereign Advisory of France. They have been in the country since last week and they also hope to put together the debt strategy for us in the next one week, maximum, two weeks.”  

Gwengwe said a report on alleged falsification of documents on ECF funds is also in its final stages.   

“The interim report is out but the substantive report should be coming out mid this month,” he said. “Once these two documents are on the table, then we will re-engage again for a staff level agreement which must be taken to their board, mid-July.” 

Economic experts say the ECF is now the only program that can help bail Malawi out of its dire economic straits. 

“I am squarely behind the government on this one that we need the ECF,” said Betchani Tchereni, a lecturer in economics at Malawi University of Business and Applied Science. “There might be issues that we have, we are trying to do our best. Yes, we have got some bad apples within the system that may be not helping us well, but the bottom line is that we need those resources. However, way they are going to make those resources available to us as Malawians.”  

The IMF says it will make its final decision on the resumption of the ECF to Malawi at its board meeting scheduled for July.  

 
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Ethiopian authorities have refused to release three detained journalists, despite a court order they be given bail. 

Solomon Shumye, Meaza Mohammed and Temesgen Desalegn appeared Tuesday morning before the Federal First Instance Court and were granted bail of about $190 each. 

However, the federal police force immediately appealed the judge’s decision at the High Court. The High Court overruled the lower court’s decision, and the three journalists were returned to police custody. 

Their lawyer, Henok Aklilu, told VOA he was expecting that to happen but will continue to seek their release. 

“These things have been very much common when politically motivated cases come to court, especially journalists who are very much critical of the regime,” he said. “So, I was not surprised. You know, they give you bail in the lower court and it will be overturned by the higher court.” 

The three journalists are among 19 arrested last month in a crackdown aimed at reporters who have been critical of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government.   

The government accuses the journalists of inciting violence and disturbing the country’s peace through their work. 

Henok told VOA it is not clear when the journalists will next appear in court. 

“So, we were appealing to the court that they release this unreasonable suspicion by the police to arrest someone. But the police, you know, the police are the police. They come up with all kinds of stories, which are not substantiated by any real evidence,” he said. 

Authorities have accused Temesgen Desalegn, editor of privately owned Feteh magazine, of inciting violence and public disturbance through unspecified interviews published on YouTube. 

Solomon Shumye, a current affairs talk show host, is accused of inciting violence on his show. It is not clear what accusations Meaza Mohammed faces.  

The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned the arrest of the 19 and called for the Ethiopian government to unconditionally release them. 

Henok said he has filed an appeal before the Supreme Court, so the case does not become a criminal matter but is instead handled under Ethiopia’s Media Proclaomation Law, which prohibits the detention of journalists. 

 
…

South Africa’s language authorities have denounced Irish airline Ryanair for requiring a test in Afrikaans for all South Africans before they can fly to Britain. Afrikaans is spoken by about 12% of South Africans as their first language and the country boasts ten other official ones, including the more widely spoken Zulu and Xhosa. Singling out Afrikaans also reopens apartheid-era racial wounds. 

VOA asked Dublin-based Ryanair about its test, which is given to South African passport holders traveling in Europe en route to Britain.

In response, Ryanair said: “Due to the high prevalence of fraudulent South African passports, we require passengers travelling to the UK to fill out a simple questionnaire issued in Afrikaans. If they are unable to complete this questionnaire, they will be refused travel and issued with a full refund.”

The CEO of the Pan South African Language Board, Lance Schulz, says the board has expressed its displeasure with Ryanair’s Afrikaans test because many South Africans do not understand the language.

“Our view is that the decision is quite reckless and reminiscent of the apartheid systemic subjugation of speakers of other languages, mainly black people. And in essence our concern is that it creates racial as well as linguistic discrimination. We believe that not just is it in contravening our constitutional democracy as well as linguistic diversity, but it’s an ignorance of the UN Declaration of Human Rights,” he said.

Schultz says the Board believes that Ryanair must find other non-discriminatory means to test South African passports.

Meanwhile, the CEO of the Afrikaans Language Council, Conrad Steenkamp, has written directly to Ryanair to explain how absurd their test is.

He says many South Africans would fail a test given in Zulu or one of the other official languages.

Steenkamp says he hopes that Ryanair will see the error of its ways.

“Thus far Ryanair has not responded to us about our comments. We advised them to, one: immediately stop using the profiling; two: they need to start apologizing to people. People were turned back from flights as a result of this and they are in serious jeopardy, this could end up in court cases,” he said.

Reuters reports that the Department of Home Affairs in South Africa said it was taken aback by Ryanair’s decision to use the Afrikaans test. The department reportedly said the government had measures that it regularly shares with airlines to curb any instances of fake documents.

Ironically, news of Ryanair’s Afrikaans test breaks in June when Youth Day is marked in South Africa. The day commemorates the 1976 uprising against the language.

On the 16th of this month 46 years ago, thousands of black students marched in Soweto against the white apartheid government’s insistence that Afrikaans be a compulsory medium of instruction in South African schools.

Their peaceful protest was met with teargas and live ammunition fired by police, and it’s estimated at least 176 people died in the unrest.
…

Mali’s military junta will take 24 months from March 2022 to restore civilian rule after an August 2020 coup, its spokesman said on Monday, the latest move in negotiations with regional bloc ECOWAS to lift sanctions crippling the economy  

The West African country’s military leaders have been under pressure to restore democracy since they toppled the government and failed on a promise to hold elections in February, prompting sanctions from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

“The duration of the transition is set at 24 months,” the transitional government spokesman Abdoulaye Maiga said on national television, with a start date of March 26, 2022.   

Maiga said the decree followed an “advanced stage of negotiations with ECOWAS” and Mali hoped sanctions would be lifted. 

“The adoption of this decree is proof of the willingness of (Malian) authorities to dialogue with ECOWAS,” he added.   

Mali’s putsch leaders and regional heads of state have been at odds over a proposed five-year election timeline that was then revised to two – a delay that was previously rejected as too long by ECOWAS. Read full story   

The ECOWAS bloc did not immediately comment on the 24-month decree adopted on Monday.  

The length of the transition has also caused a rift with Mali’s partners including the United States and former colonial power, France.   

Maiga said both the ECOWAS mediator on the crisis, former Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan, and heads of state had been informed of the 24-month decree. 

“We are hopeful… the sanctions will be lifted imminently,” he said, adding that an electoral timeline would follow. 

West African heads of state met in Ghana’s capital Accra over the weekend to discuss the situation and agreed not to lift sanctions, which include border closures and restrictions on financial transactions, unless interim leaders proposed a shorter transition.  

The leaders are expected to convene for another summit before July 3. 

Military governments in neighboring Burkina Faso and Guinea are also facing similar threats from ECOWAS for dragging their feet on democratic transitions. 
…

Six opposition leaders arrested after violent anti-French protests in N’Djamena were on Monday handed one-year suspended sentences for disturbing public order, Chad’s public prosecutor told AFP. 

They were also fined 10 million CFA francs, or about 15,000 euros, said prosecutor Moussa Wade Djibrine, who had sought two-year prison terms. 

The swift trial opened Monday morning at a court at Moussoro, around 300 kilometers (180 miles) from the capital, with defense lawyers boycotting the hearing amid a heavy police presence. 

The case comes against a backdrop of political tension with a military junta in power following the death of the country’s veteran leader more than a year ago.   

An authorized march in the capital on May 14 against France’s military presence in Chad turned violent. 

Seven petrol stations belonging to the French oil major Total were attacked and 12 police officers injured, according to a police toll. 

In the aftermath, the authorities carried out a string of arrests among the march organizers, who denied any responsibility for the violence. 

Those charged included Max Loalngar, coordinator for Wakit Tamma, Chad’s main opposition coalition, and Gounoung Vaima Gan-Fare, secretary of the Chadian trade union federation. 

The six were charged with disturbing public order and destruction of property. They had begun a hunger protest on May 23. 

Trade unions, opposition political parties, armed groups and international NGOs had called for the six to be released immediately and unconditionally. 

“We will appeal, a suspended sentence is still a sentence,” said Wakit Tamma’s lawyer Laguerre Ndjarandi. 

  “The court has been kind, it’s not a bad thing to calm things down,” communication minister Abderaman Koulamallah told AFP. 

Moussoro court’s public prosecutor Abdoulaye Bono Kono later announced: “The leaders of Wakit Tamma were released after sentencing.” 

Chad has been under military rule since President Idriss Deby Itno, who had ruled with an iron fist for three decades, was killed in April 2021 during operations to crush rebels in the north of the country. 

He was succeeded by his son Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno, a four-star general, now the transitional president. 

His junta vowed to hold “free and democratic elections” within 18 months after staging a proposed nationwide “dialogue.” 

A reconciliation forum should have started last month but has run into problems. 

Armed groups have warned that Monday’s trial further compromises the national dialogue. The political opposition has already withdrawn from the organizing process. 

France has thousands of troops in the Sahel, including in Chad, under its Barkhane mission.    

But in February, Paris announced it would withdraw its troops from Mali and deploy them elsewhere after falling out with the junta in Bamako. 

On May 16, Deby, reacting to the violence that had unfolded two days earlier, attacked what he called “false and unfounded allegations” that French troops would redeploy to Chad. 
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Belgium’s King Philippe on Tuesday begins a historic visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo, in a region cruelly exploited by his ancestors, as tensions rise in the volatile east.

The six-day trip, at the invitation of President Felix Tshisekedi, has strong symbolic significance, coming two years after Philippe expressed to the Congolese leader his “deepest regrets” for the “wounds” of colonization.

The visit, the monarch’s first to the DRC since ascending the throne in 2013, has been billed as a chance for reconciliation after the atrocities and other abuses committed under Belgian colonial rule.

The visit had originally been scheduled to take place in June 2020 to mark the DRC’s 60th anniversary of independence but was rescheduled to 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It was then postponed from March to June because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Philippe will be accompanied by his wife, Queen Mathilde, and members of the Belgian government, including Prime Minister Alexander De Croo.

Three stops are planned, and the sovereign will deliver a speech at the first two: in Kinshasa on Wednesday during a ceremony with Tshisekedi at the Congolese parliament, then Friday before students at the University of Lubumbashi in the south of the country.

Historians say millions of people in the Belgian Congo were killed, mutilated or died of disease as they worked on rubber plantations belonging to Leopold II, Belgium’s monarch from 1865 to 1909 and the brother of Philippe’s great-great-grandfather.

The growth of Black Lives Matter, initially a reaction to police violence in the United States but now a broader anti-racist movement, has seen several colonial-era statues removed in Belgium.

Belgium is also preparing to return to Kinshasa a tooth — the last remains of Patrice Lumumba — a hero of the anti-colonial struggle and short-lived first prime minister of the independent Congo.

Lumumba was murdered by Congolese separatists and Belgian mercenaries in 1961, and his body was dissolved in acid. The tooth was kept as a trophy by one of his killers, a Belgian police officer.

Philippe’s visit comes 12 years after the last visit of a Belgian sovereign, Albert II, in 2010, and will also aim to reset ties that were soured during the presidency of Joseph Kabila, who left office in 2018.

The latter was criticized, including by Brussels, for having remained in power beyond his second term, in violation of his country’s constitution, and development ties were suspended for a time.

The visit comes in a context of renewed violence in North Kivu, where the DRC accuses neighboring Rwanda of supporting armed rebels opposed to the Congolese authorities.

Belgium has called for an “immediate” halt to the fighting, which is causing civilians to flee.

In this immense country, where the GDP per capita is one of the lowest in the world despite its mineral wealth, the east has been shaken by massacres and violence for nearly 30 years.

After the Tutsi genocide in Rwanda in 1994, some of the perpetrators fled to the DRC, and Kigali’s new authorities launched operations against them.

The royal couple will come to show their solidarity with these battered populations, especially female victims of rape in the region.

The last stop of their journey is scheduled for June 12 in Bukavu, in the clinic of gynecologist Denis Mukwege, co-winner of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize for his fight against sexual violence.

A stop on Wednesday at the National Museum in Kinshasa will also address the issue of the restitution of art objects to the former colony.

The Belgian government last year began a program to give back artifacts to the DRC.
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Two soldiers were killed Monday in fighting against M23 militants in eastern Congo, the DRC army said, the latest violence in a long-standing conflict that has escalated in recent weeks and caused a diplomatic rift with Rwanda.

The rebels shelled an army position in North Kivu, killing two soldiers and injuring five. Congo accuses the neighboring state of supporting the M23, which Rwanda denies.

That clash followed a raid on a village in neighboring Ituri province on Sunday by suspected Islamists from another rebel group that killed at least 18 people, local sources said.

Fighters believed to be from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) killed residents and burned down houses in Otomabere, said a witness, a local chief and a local human rights group.

Congolese army spokesman Jules Ngongo confirmed the ADF attack without giving a death toll, and said Congolese forces were in pursuit of the rebels.

The ADF is a Ugandan militia that moved to eastern Congo in the 1990s and killed more than 1,300 people between January 2021 and January 2022, according to a United Nations report.

“We were chatting with some friends outside (when) we heard gunshots, and everyone fled in a different direction. It was total panic,” said Kimwenza Malembe, a resident of Otomabere.

“This morning we counted 18 dead, killed by knives and firearms.”

Irumu chief Jonas Izorabo Lemi said he had received word of 20 dead.

Christophe Munyanderu, coordinator of the local group Convention for the Respect of Human Rights (CRDH), put the death toll at 27, up from a provisional figure of 20.

Uganda has sent at least 1,700 troops to neighboring Congo to help fight the ADF, and last week the two countries extended a joint operation launched late last year. 
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A Guinean public prosecutor on Monday ordered a list of all police officers present when a young man was killed during demonstrations last week, in a significant shift from past practice. 

Conakry’s public prosecutor, Alphonse Charles Wright, also told police to hand over records of operational orders after an autopsy found that 19-year-old Thierno Mamadou Diallo was killed by a bullet during the June 1 protest. 

Relatives say Diallo was not involved in the demonstration against rising fuel prices, where clashes broke out between security forces and demonstrators. 

“The Public Prosecutor’s Office … warns against any political exploitation of the judicial investigation and reiterates that it will initiate legal proceedings in accordance with the law,” Wright said. 

He said judicial authorities would take control of the crime scene. 

The move represents a marked change from the recent past. 

Under the regime of President Alpha Conde, who was overthrown in September 2021, human rights groups regularly criticized security forces for using excessive force with impunity. 

Dozens of Guineans were killed between 2019 and 2021 during demonstrations against Conde’s plans for a third term. 

Almost no police or gendarmes have been held to account, human rights activists say. 

The ruling junta has promised to break with past practices. Diallo’s death — one of the first civilians to die during a protest since the coup — puts that commitment to the test. 

His funeral was due to take place in the suburbs of the capital Conakry on Monday but his family told AFP it had been postponed. 

In an announcement on Sunday, Wright cautioned people against exploiting the funeral to demonstrate, warning that authorities would crack down “in case of problems” during the march. 

The National Front for the Defense of the Constitution (FNDC), a political coalition, had called for a march to coincide with the funeral but later called it off. 

In a statement, the FNDC called on the public to maintain pressure on the authorities “so that no citizen will ever again be killed with impunity.” 

The junta’s decisions to investigate and arrest prominent Guineans and ban protests until an election in three years’ time have sparked growing discontent against perceived authoritarianism. 
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Authorities in Nigeria’s Ondo state were investigating Monday a day after a deadly attack on a catholic church.

The exact toll from Sunday’s attack at the St. Francis Catholic Church was unclear, with a spokesman for the Ondo State governor’s office telling Agence-France Presse that gunmen killed 21 people, and Reuters citing a doctor in Ondo saying the number of dead was 50.

Hospitals were treating people wounded in the attack, while volunteers launched a blood drive to aid the injured.

Ondo Governor Rotimi Akeredolu vowed to respond to the attack and ordered flags be lowered to honor the victims.

“Those who unleashed this unprovoked terror attack on our people have tested our collective resolves,” Akeredolu tweeted Monday. “We will not be deterred in responding appropriately to this dastardly act.”

The attackers struck as worshippers gathered on Pentecost Sunday, using both guns and explosives.

The Vatican said that Pope Francis “prays for the victims and for the country, painfully attacked at a time of celebration, and he entrusts everyone to the Lord, that God might send His Spirit to console them.”

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack. While much of Nigeria has struggled with security issues, Ondo is widely known as one of Nigeria’s most peaceful states. The state, though, has been caught up in a rising violent conflict between farmers and herders.

“In the history of Owo, we have never experienced such an ugly incident,” said legislator Ogunmolasuyi Oluwole. “This is too much.”

The Christian Association of Nigeria condemned the attack, with spokesman Bayo Oladeji saying, “What happened in Owo today is an unprovoked attack on innocent people worshipping God and to [the] Christian Association of Nigeria, it is condemnable; it is unacceptable. We’re tired of people going to church and being killed.”

Nigeria is currently facing a wave of violence by armed gangs. A week ago, the prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Samuel Kanu Uche, was kidnapped on his way to the airport in southeastern Abia state.

He was released two days later after the church raised about $240,000 and paid the kidnappers.

Timothy Obiezu contributed to this report. Some information also came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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Dozens of worshippers were feared dead in an attack on a Catholic church in Nigeria on Sunday, state lawmakers said.

Legislator Ogunmolasuyi Oluwole said the attackers targeted the St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo state just as the worshippers gathered on Pentecost Sunday, with gunmen opening fire and detonating explosives. He said that numerous children were among the dead.

The Vatican said that Pope Francis “prays for the victims and for the country, painfully attacked at a time of celebration, and he entrusts everyone to the Lord, that God might send His Spirit to console them.”

“It is a black Sunday in Owo. Our hearts are heavy,” Ondo Governor Rotimi Akeredolu tweeted Sunday. “Our peace and tranquility have been attacked by the enemies of the people.”

The governor was away in Abuja, taking part in his party’s primary elections ahead of next year’s polls but suspended his activities and returned to Ondo hours later with state security officials.

Akeredolu said that the attackers would be hunted and prosecuted. He also urged residents to remain calm and not resort to retaliation. There has been no claim of responsibility for the attack.

There was no immediate death toll, but Adelegbe Timileyin, who represents Nigeria’s lower legislative chamber, said at least 50 people had been killed, while others said the figure would turn out to be higher. Video footage of the scene showed worshippers lying in pools of blood as people around them wailed.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack. While much of Nigeria has struggled with security issues, Ondo is widely known as one of Nigeria’s most peaceful states. The state, though, has been caught up in a rising violent conflict between farmers and herders.

“In the history of Owo, we have never experienced such an ugly incident,” said lawmaker Oluwole. “This is too much.”

The Christian Association of Nigeria condemned the attack, with spokesman Bayo Oladeji saying, “What happened in Owo today is an unprovoked attack on innocent people worshipping God and to [the] Christian Association of Nigeria, it is condemnable; it is unacceptable. We’re tired of people going to church and being killed.”

Church officials said many of the wounded were fighting for their lives in hospitals. Some residents launched a blood donation drive to help them.

Nigeria is currently facing a wave of violence by armed gangs. A week ago, the prelate of the Methodist Church of Nigeria, Samuel Kanu Uche, was kidnapped on his way to the airport in southeastern Abia state.

He was released two days later after the church raised about $240,000 and paid the kidnappers.

Timothy Obiezu contributed to this report from Abuja. Some material came from The Associated Press.
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Gunmen opened fire on worshippers and detonated explosives at a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria on Sunday, leaving dozens feared dead, state lawmakers said.

Legislator Ogunmolasuyi Oluwole said the attackers targeted the St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo state just as the worshippers gathered on Pentecost Sunday. Among the dead were many children, he said. Adelegbe Timileyin, who represents the Owo area in Nigeria’s lower legislative chamber, said the presiding priest was abducted as well.

“Our hearts are heavy,” Ondo Governor Rotimi Akeredolu tweeted Sunday. “Our peace and tranquility have been attacked by the enemies of the people.”

Authorities did not immediately release an official death toll. Timileyin said at least 50 people had been killed, though others put the figure higher. Videos appearing to be from the scene of the attack showed church worshippers lying in pools of blood while people around them wailed.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack at the church. While much of Nigeria has struggled with security issues, Ondo is widely known as one of Nigeria’s most peaceful states. The state, though, has been caught up in a rising violent conflict between farmers and herders.

Nigeria’s security forces did not immediately respond to enquiries as to how the attack occurred or if there are any leads about suspects. Owo is about 345 kilometers (215 miles) east of Lagos.

“In the history of Owo, we have never experienced such an ugly incident,” said lawmaker Oluwole. “This is too much.”
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Morocco on Sunday begins welcoming an influx of its citizens living in Europe after the pandemic led to a halt in what has been called one of the world’s biggest cross-continental migrations.

The last such effort in the summer of 2019 saw 3.3 million people and more than three quarters of a million vehicles cross the Gibraltar Strait.

The North African kingdom is just 14 kilometers from the coast of Spain, which has announced it will also put in place special measures for Moroccans from June 15 for two months.

Spain’s government has called the seasonal migration “one of the biggest flows of people across continents in such a small time.”

Resuming large-scale cross-strait travel comes not only after an easing of the pandemic threat but also following a mending of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

The year-long diplomatic dispute had extended border closures originally put in place because of Covid-19, but maritime traffic resumed in April.

“Operation Marhaba [Welcome] for Moroccans living overseas begins on June 5,” said a statement late Saturday from the Mohammed V Solidarity Foundation which organizes the effort.

More than 1,000 people including doctors, social workers and volunteers have signed up to help people arriving at ports and airports.

Most will come by boat from Spain.

As well as at Moroccan ports, helpers will be stationed in the Spanish ports of Almeria and Algeciras, Marseille in France and Italy’s Genoa, among others.

The traffic goes in both directions, as many Moroccans also head to Spanish coastal resorts for their holidays.
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