At least 30 Burundian soldiers were killed and 20 others injured in Tuesday’s attack by al-Shabab militants on an African Union base in southern Somalia, according to a Burundian official. 

The official, who requested anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to media, told VOA Somali that 10 soldiers died on the spot, and the rest of the soldiers succumbed to their wounds. He confirmed that other soldiers are still missing. 

Al-Shabab said it killed 173 soldiers in the attack on the AU base in the village of El-Baraf, about 150 kilometers north of Mogadishu. The casualty figure has not been independently verified. A separate source told VOA Somali that 161 soldiers were at the camp at the time of attack. The Burundian official confirmed that number. 

The Burundian official told VOA Somali that the soldiers had intelligence al-Shabab was gathering in a nearby village about 48 hours prior to the attack. He said the soldiers prepared to defend themselves and dug trenches. 

He said what caught the soldiers by surprise was the enormity of al-Shabab explosives detonated at the camp. He said the militants used three truck bombs, one of which fell into a ditch. He estimated the militants detonated about 20 kilograms of explosives, and that 450 militants overran the camp. 

The official said the suicide truck bombs caused most of the casualties. 

Earlier, the government of Burundi reported 10 of their soldiers were killed, with five others missing and 25 injured. Burundi also said 20 al-Shabab militants were killed in the attack. 

On Twitter, Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye said there are no words strong enough to condemn the terrorist attack against the Burundian contingent. He wrote, “I join with all of Africa which has just lost sons and daughters … to console the hard-hit families.”  

The African Union, the Somali government and the embassy of the United States in Mogadishu have all strongly condemned the al-Shabab attack. 

AU chief Moussa Faki Mahamat paid tribute to the Burundian soldiers killed, and said the “heinous” attack will not lessen support of AU forces to Somalia. 

The Somali ministry of foreign affairs called on the international community to increase and provide higher-end capability to Somali security forces and AU forces so they can effectively combat terrorism in Somalia. 

The U.S. embassy in Mogadishu said the U.S. extends condolences to the families of the troops killed and wished a quick recovery to those injured. 

The Mayor of El-Baraf, Abdullahi Haji Muhumed, told VOA that Tuesday’s fighting at the camp was the heaviest the area has seen.   

“Fighting like this never happened in this area,” he said, explaining that the violence also killed two civilians and injured 10 others. “It was heavy fighting.”   

The incident marked the first major al-Shabab attack on AU forces since the mission changed its name and operational structures last month.   

The U.N. Security Council, which authorized the new mission called the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia, gave it a mandate to reduce the threat posed by al-Shabab, support the capacity building of Somali security forces, and conduct a phased handover of security responsibilities to the Somali government. The mission’s mandate runs through the end of 2024. 

This story comes from VOA’s Somali and Central African services. 

 
…

Kenyan authorities are training domestic workers who accept jobs in the Middle East about their rights after years of reported abuses there, including beatings, rapes and deaths. 

It’s been a year since Bernard Njenga learned his wife, Esther Thuku, had died in Saudi Arabia, where she had been a domestic worker for three years.  

Saudi authorities reported that his wife had committed suicide at her employer’s home, Njenga said, but he believes the mother of four was murdered.  

Njenga said his wife’s body did not have any marks that would show that she had hanged herself. It appeared the body had been buried because it was very dirty and looked like she had been stabbed on the left side, he added.  

Kenyan authorities say that since November, at least 23 domestic workers have died while working in the Middle East. Most of those deaths occurred in Saudi Arabia, according to labor officials. 

Saudi authorities have reported that all 23 of those deaths resulted from cardiac arrest.  

In April of 2020, rights advocacy group Amnesty International reported that Kenyans who have jobs as domestic workers in the Middle East often complain of lack of payment, forced labor, physical abuse, rape and dangerous working conditions. 

Now, Kenya is offering safety training for domestic workers who take jobs abroad. 

“When you don’t train them, basically, you are exposing them to a lot of exploitation and abuse,” said Edith Murogo, director at East Africa Institute of Homecare Management in Nairobi. “Part of the training also includes labor rights awareness. They have to know how to bargain and talk to employees about decent terms and conditions of employment.” 

An estimated 30,000 Kenyans migrate to the Middle East to find work each year.  

Kenya’s cabinet secretary for labor, Simon Chelugui, said his department is working with Saudi officials on labor law reforms.  

“We would want them also to upscale their law to protect workers and employers equally, not to discriminate and have the attitude of the employer is right always,” Chelugui said. “Number two is the pay is reasonable and commensurate to the work.” 

VOA reached out to the Saudi embassy in Nairobi for comment on alleged mistreatment and deaths of Kenyan workers. In an email response, the embassy said the kingdom does not condone illegal and ill treatment of anyone and said Riyadh is working with Nairobi to protect citizens from any offense. 

Meanwhile, officials say with an estimated 2 million young people graduating each year, according to national figures, and only about 800,000 new jobs, many Kenyans will continue to go abroad to find work. 

 
…

At least 20 people have been killed in a bus crash in western Uganda, Ugandan police said.  Among the dead are at least seven children.

The crash happened Wednesday when the bus, which was traveling from Fort Portal to the Ugandan capital, Kampala, veered off a highway and into a tea estate.

The accident happened around 10:30 a.m. local time two kilometers from Fort Portal.

There has been no information about what caused the crash.

Several photos of the incident were posted on social media and showed emergency responders trying to free people from the wreckage.

Some information in this report comes from The Associated Press.
…

Despite Ethiopia’s declared humanitarian cease-fire with Tigrayan rebels, aid groups are struggling to get food and medicine to those in need. Even outside the worst affected areas in Tigray, which are cut off to reporters, providing aid is fraught with risks and challenges. For VOA, Henry Wilkins reports from Dessie, Ethiopia.
Camera: Henry Wilkins 
…

Despite Ethiopia’s declared humanitarian cease-fire with Tigrayan rebels, aid groups said they are struggling to get food and medicine to those in need. Even outside the worst affected areas in Tigray, which are off limits to reporters, providing aid is fraught with risks and challenges.

In Ethiopia’s northern Amhara region, burned tanks and other ruined military equipment lie at the roadside four months after occupying forces of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, left the area. As the region recovers from a brutal civil war, the U.N. said some 9.4 million people in the Amhara region and neighboring Afar and Tigray regions need humanitarian assistance. But aid has been slow to arrive.

Seventeen-year-old Ahmed Nuru was living in the Oromia region, but said he had to flee after facing persecution for his Amhara ethnicity. He lost his mother when he was young. Last year, his father died after being unable to get lifesaving treatment due to the war’s impact on the local health care system.

Now, Nuru is left to take care of his sisters, ages 10 and 8. He said life is very difficult and doesn’t know how he will be able to raise his sisters.

Daniel Tigabu, a public health officer based in the camp for the displaced where Ahmed lives, said there is not enough medical equipment or medicine. The center is running out of basic medical kits, as well as a shortage of kits for malaria, hepatitis and HIV testing.

Tens of thousands live in camps for the displaced in the Amhara region. Others live in host communities, like Tsgenet Tibebu, who lost her husband during the conflict with the TPLF.

Tibebu said she and her son rely on what her husband’s friends provide as charity, which includes a room to stay in. As tears begin to flow, she said she is a housewife who has nothing and is waiting for support to help her raise her two children. She believes she should pay rent even though the owners have given her a place to stay. She wonders how she can plan for the future when she has nothing.

Mulugeta Kebede, an aid worker who works in the Hayk camp, spoke to VOA and said stories like Nuru’s and Tibebu’s are not uncommon across Amhara.

He said the situation makes aid workers cry day and night. He said if someone is hungry, they can’t sleep because they think about their empty stomach. He said he has seen displaced people sell pans or mattresses to surved and added that the situation is at a critical stage.

About 30,000 people displaced by conflict live just north of Hayk, in Weldiya. A local government representative, Habtemariam Assefa, North Wollo Zone spokesperson, said there was a little support shortly after TPLF left, after the area had been a conflict zone for months. But, he said, aid has been distributed only twice since and the aid provided by the U.N. or the federal government is not enough.

North of the Amhara region, in Tigray where journalists are banned from entering, the U.N. said the situation is worse, with famine-like conditions. Tigray is under a de facto humanitarian blockade, according to the U.N.

For now, all Ahmed Nuru and his sisters can do is try to scrape by and hope more assistance arrives soon.
…

When Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy took office four years ago, Reporters Sans Frontiers, a Paris-based group that promotes press freedom, raised Ethiopia’s ranking in its international press freedom index by 40 places.

It was a giant leap forward after decades of media repression by the state. But since the war between federal government forces and rebels in the Tigray region began in late 2020, Ethiopia has dropped in the rankings.

To mark World Press Freedom Day 2022, VOA spoke to Ethiopian journalists about how free they feel to carry out their work.

Elias Meseret, who worked with the Associated Press and now lives outside of Ethiopia, told VOA that press freedom in Ethiopia is at a crossroads.

“Overall, I can say that lack of professionalism and also extreme views have become the hallmarks of the state of the media in Ethiopia, at this point in time,” Meseret said. “For this to change, I think the government has a responsibility to let media professionals do their job freely. This means without any harassment and intimidation.”

Assegid Mulugeta, a radio presenter for the government-owned broadcaster, the Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC), thinks press freedom has improved in recent years. Mulugeta said it’s a positive development that for the first time in 20 years, there are no journalists in prison.

However, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission released a statement Tuesday expressing concern for journalist Gobeze Sisay, whose whereabouts are unknown since plainclothes officers arrested him on Sunday.

Another journalist, Amir Aman Kiyaro, was arrested in November and released in March. But he still may face years in prison if convicted of violating the country’s wartime state of emergency law and anti-terrorism law.

Still, radio presenter Mulugeta said he sees improvement.

Under the pre-2018 TPLF government, he said, there were “lots of stifling systems, there was lots of censorship, there was beating of journalists, there was lots of pressures and censorship against journalists and now we are seeing the booming of YouTube and online media … this is a good thing to hear.”

Sisay Sahlu, editor at The Reporter, a private newspaper based in Addis Ababa, said independent media often get stonewalled by the government.

“My experience and the experience of my friends from public media is totally different,” he said. “As a private newspaper employee, it’s tough to get information for me.”

Sahlu said that for a simple story, he might call 10 officials, who all may be unwilling to answer his questions.

“When you call them, they don’t give us any clue,” he said. “We write a letter to them, they are not talking. Finally, when we publish [the story], they are coming to our office. Sometimes they are on the phone and start a verbal fight. Either they are giving us information or not.”

A government spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

In the latest World Press Freedom Index, Ethiopia is ranked 114th, down 13 places from its ranking in 2021.
…

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, at the start of a two-day visit to Nigeria, is in northeast Borno state, where the country has been struggling in its fight against Islamist militants.

The United Nations information center in Nigeria said the Secretary General is expected to meet with the Borno state governor, Babagana Zulum in Maiduguri, the state capital before embarking on a field mission where he will meet families affected by the Boko Haram conflict ravaging the region for more than twelve years.

The center said he will also evaluate the impact of climate change on vulnerable communities and assess progress made as well as the challenges to the COVID-19 recovery.

Guterres will then head to Nigeria’s capital to meet with President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osibanjo and other top cabinet officials.

In Abuja, Guterres is expected to officiate a wreath-laying ceremony for victims of the 2011 bombing at the U.N. house and will then meet with young people’s delegates, women, religious leaders and diplomatic communities and journalists.

It is the first visit by the U.N. secretary-general to Nigeria since his appointment. The visit is part of his annual Ramadan solidarity visits to nations.

But this year, Guterres is focusing on countries affected by terrorism and also highlighting the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war on the African continent.

Before arriving in Nigeria, Guterres already visited Senegal and Niger.
…

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission is investigating a video shared online that appears to show government troops abusing and shooting an ethnic Tigrayan boy.   

The four-minute video shows an alleged ethnic Tigray teenager being surrounded by men in Ethiopian army uniforms. The forces are seen abusing the boy, who they refer to as being from Abbi Adi, a location in the northern Tigray region of Ethiopia.   

In response to a query from VOA, the state-run Human Rights Commission said it was “gathering information regarding the incident.”  

In the video, the boy, with blood on his face, is seen sitting while the men in uniform surround him and threaten him with death. One of the men in uniforms calls for the boy to suffer rather than being killed immediately.   

They tell a teenage girl to forcefully feed the boy. Finally, one man steps forward and shoots the boy, and the video ends.  

VOA cannot independently verify the location of the incident or the identities of the individuals in the footage. Asked about the video, both the Ethiopian government communication minister and Ethiopian ministry of defense spokesperson declined to comment.  

A similar incident was reported by rights groups in January 2021 in which Ethiopian army members were seen executing a number of civilians in Mahibere Dego, in central Tigray.  

Rights group Amnesty International has verified the killing of 11 civilians in that incident.    

Forces from the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front also have been accused of committing human rights violations. In February 2022, Amnesty International reported that TPLF forces and their affiliates have killed more than a dozen people and gang raped women in towns of the Amhara region they occupied.   

The Ethiopian Human Rights Commission recently reported that more than 740 civilians were killed in the Tigray war between July 2021 and March 2022.  

Both the government and the TPLF deny accusations of rights violations, saying their operations do not target civilians.  

 
…

Muslims across India marked Eid al-Fitr on Tuesday by offering prayers outside mosques, even as the celebrations this year came in the backdrop of a series of recent attacks against the community during the month of Ramadan.

“We will not have the same kind of festivity” this time, said Mohammad Habeeb ur Rehman, a civil engineer in India’s financial capital, Mumbai. “This is the most painful Eid with worst memories for Indian Muslims.”

Anti-Muslim sentiment and attacks have surged across the country in the last month, including stone throwing between Hindu and Muslim groups during religious processions and subsequent demolitions of a number of properties mostly belonging to Muslims by authorities.

The community, which makes up 14% of India’s 1.4 billion population, is reeling from vilification by hard-line Hindu nationalists who have long espoused an anti-Muslim stance. Some leaders of India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party have tacitly supported the violence, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has so far been silent about it. Eid al-Fitr is typically marked with communal prayers, celebratory gatherings around festive meals and new clothes, but celebrations in India for the past two years have been marred by COVID-19 restrictions.

In Indian-controlled Kashmir, the Muslim festival has been subdued for the past three years because of an unprecedented military lockdown after India stripped the region’s semi-autonomy in 2019, followed by the pandemic. The region also saw a rise in violence during Ramadan, with at least 20 militants, two civilians and five police and soldiers killed.

“As we prepare to celebrate Eid, a strong sense of collective loss jars at us,” said Bashir Ahmed, a businessman in Srinagar.

Kashmir is the Muslim-majority disputed region where a violent insurgency against Indian rule and New Delhi’s brutal crackdown has raged for over three decades. Tens of thousands of people have died in the conflict.

Meanwhile in the capital, New Delhi, hundreds assembled in the Jama Masjid, one of India’s largest mosques, while offering Eid prayers there for the first time in over two years due to pandemic restrictions. Families came together early on Tuesday morning while many people shared hugs and wishes.
…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has also led to another casualty: freedom of the press in Russia, according to a new report by Reporters Without Borders.

The media advocacy group has ranked Russia near the bottom of its 2022 World Press Freedom index, which was issued Tuesday in conjunction with World Press Freedom Day. The annual index classifies a record 28 countries as “having very bad media freedom.”

The Reporters Without Borders, also known as RSF, says Moscow’s assault on a free press ramped up as Russian troops invaded Ukraine through such means as propaganda, laws aimed at discrediting credible media, website bans and arrests.

Russia is just one of several countries highlighted in the updated index whose governments have either curtailed or outright suppressed media freedoms. They include:

– Afghanistan, where the Taliban pledged to uphold press freedom after regaining power last year, but instead imposed restrictive laws and blocked female journalists from the airwaves, and where media outlets are facing financial hardship after bans on entertainment and advertising cut revenue;

– Hong Kong, where pro-democracy news sites have been shut down after a series of raids and arrests since Beijing approved a sweeping national security law in 2020 after massive anti-government protests the year before;

– Ethiopia, which has imposed communications blackouts and restricted access amid the war in the Tigray region;

– and Myanmar, where the 2021 coup that overthrew the civilian government led to journalists being detained, media licenses revoked, and many news outlets driven back into exile, marking a 10-year setback for media rights.

“There is a contagion effect with authoritarian regimes,” said Clayton Weimers, the U.S. deputy director of RSF, “and when we allow a culture of impunity to exist where authoritarians are allowed to go after journalists, harass them, arrest them, beat them in the streets and kill them, it has a knock-on effect. It emboldens that same authoritarian to do it again next time, and it emboldens other authoritarians who are watching to do the same.”

More troubling, Weimars told VOA, is the impact media polarization and disinformation has on society: “In 2022, it’s really undeniable that media polarization and information chaos are really fueling social divisions in ways that are pretty new.”

Democracies play an important role in safeguarding press freedom. But this rise in disinformation and propaganda is having a disastrous effect on independent news, RSF finds.

The 2022 index reveals the United States made a slight improvement compared with 2021, but journalists and media outlets are flagging barriers to coverage, including of state governments and protests.

“We typically find that this is either due to just a blatant disregard for the laws governing open records or meetings, or they’re simply misinterpreting them,” Beth Francesco, the senior director of the National Press Club Journalism Institute, told VOA. “An individual is misinterpreting whether a journalist can be present at a particular event.”

Richard Green contributed to this report.
…

Like dozens of other Sudanese who were members of resistance committees, Mohammed Mustafa has been held in Soba prison for more than a month without being charged with an offense.  

The 19-year-old’s mother, Zahra Abduwahab, said she could not celebrate the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday Monday knowing her son was suffering in prison.  

“We saw his name on the list of prisoners and we continued to take food and clothes for him, but they never allowed us to see him,” Abduwahab told VOA. “I tried to talk to them to allow me to just see him so I can be sure that he is safe and healthy, but they refused.”  

Resistance committees are informal, grassroots neighborhood networks of Sudanese residents that began organizing civil disobedience campaigns against the government of former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2013. They played a key role in the Sudanese revolution.    

Security officers arrested Mustafa on March 31. Since then, the family has not been allowed to speak to him, Abdulwahab said. She said family members saw his name on a list of prisoners. 

Since last October’s military coup led by army commander Abdul Fattah al-Burhan, hundreds of pro-democracy activists and members of the resistance committee have been arrested and detained. So far, none has been charged in a court of law.  

On Sunday, three detainees were released from the Taibat women’s prison after being held for nearly a month. No explanation was given for their arrest or release.  

Yasmin Mohammed Bashir, 23, a member of the Fetihab resistance committee in Omdurman, was among the three women to be released. Bashir said she was arrested on April 11, but that authorities never gave a reason for her arrest. They also prevented her from seeing a lawyer or doctor.  

“When they arrested me, they were rough with me, and I was taken to a police station,” Bashir told South Sudan in Focus. “There was no case opened against me. The following day at around 11 a.m., we were relocated to the Taibat women’s prison with other female colleagues without any proper legal procedures.”  

Bashir’s arrest violates international human rights law, said Sudanese lawyer and human rights activist Abdulhameed Ibrahim.  

“This is an arbitrary detention which violates the law. Normally when you arrest someone, within 24 hours you need to level a case against him regardless of the charges. In this case, we regard it as an arbitrary detention and is politically motivated,” Ibrahim told VOA. 

Sudan is unlikely to release most detainees anytime soon, said Jihad Mashamoun, a Sudanese political analyst and honorary research fellow at the University of Exeter’s Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies.   

He predicted the authorities eventually would release detainees, “but now, I don’t see it happening,” he told VOA. “The military has released a few as a cosmetic approach, only to show to the international community that they are committed to dialogue. The military believes they could use this to buy time until the next election.” 

General elections had been scheduled for July 2023, but Mashamoun said coup leaders have thrown the timing into question.  

Nahid Jabrallah, who heads the Sudanese nongovernmental organization SIMA that advocates for women’s rights, said all detainees should be quickly released or charged.  

Whatever happens next, pro-democracy activists will not be deterred, Jabrallah said. 

“The resistance committee, families and the entire Sudanese people are not afraid of these detention activities. They will continue to persist on the path of the struggle, despite the aggression used against them.”  

Last week, a Sudanese court ordered the release of Khalid Omer Yousif, the former minister of cabinet affairs, and five other political detainees who were charged with different offenses, including dishonesty. The presiding judge said there was not enough evidence to convict the former Bashir-era officials.  

Carol Van Dam  contributed to this report.
…

Fighting between armed groups in Congo’s troubled east has left six dead, just days after a first round of peace talks ended, local sources and a researcher said on Monday.  

Clashes in South Kivu province’s Fizi territory on Saturday pitted groups from the Banyamulenge, a Congolese Tutsi community, against an ethnic militia called the Biloze Bishambuke Self-Defence Force, or FABB. 

Scores of rebel groups are active in east Congo, many of them a legacy of two regional wars a quarter century ago. 

Gady Mukiza, administrative head of Minembwe district, said, “FABB elements reacted to what they considered to be a provocation” by three groups of Banyamulenge forces accused of seizing two villages in a traditionally neutral zone. 

In addition to the six killed, several people were wounded, Mukiza said. 

Two of the three Banyamulenge groups — the Twirwaneho and Ngumino factions — attended peace talks in Nairobi, Kenya, last week. 

Nearly 30 delegates representing a number of armed groups in Ituri and North and South Kivu provinces joined the parley, along with envoys sent by President Felix Tshisekedi. 

The five-day session, which ended on Wednesday, is expected to be followed by more talks in the coming weeks. 

“The Nairobi meetings unfortunately cannot put a stop to clashes between armed groups on Fizi territory,” said Josaphat Musamba, a researcher at Bukavu’s Institute of Higher Education. “The Congolese state is asking armed groups … to join the disarmament and rehabilitation program,” but in Fizi, groups are battling to “occupy territory.” 

Musamba added that FABB was apparently angry it had not been invited to the Nairobi talks. 

Millions of people died from violence, disease or starvation in the 1996-1997 and 1998-2003 Congo wars. 

The conflict enmeshed countries from around east and central Africa and spawned myriad rebel groups, which typically claim to defend the interests of ethnic communities. 
…

Mali’s ruling junta announced Monday it was breaking off from defense accords with its former colonial ruler France, condemning “flagrant violations” of its national sovereignty by the French troops there.   

The announcement — threatened several times over the past few weeks — was the latest confirmation of deteriorating relations between the junta in Mali and France. 

“For some time now, the government of the Republic of Mali notes with regret a profound deterioration in military cooperation with France,” spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga said in a televised statement.  

Maiga cited multiple instances of French forces having violated the country’s airspace.   

He referred to the June 2021 decision by France to end joint operations with Malian forces. 

And he mentioned France’s decision taken in February to pull out its troops from Mali.  

The Malian authorities said they had informed Paris of the decision Monday afternoon. 

France has not so far issued an official reaction to the junta’s announcement.  

Tensions between France and the junta in Mali, which seized power in August 2020, had been rising for some time.  

The agreements Mali has ended were those that set the framework for France’s intervention in Mali in 2014. 

They were signed a year after French troops deployed a large force to help Mali’s armed forces stop a jihadist offensive there. 

France’s relationship with Mali cooled as the junta resisted international pressure to set a timetable for a swift return to democratic, civilian rule.   

Paris has also objected to the regime’s rapprochement with the Kremlin.   

Both France and the United States have accused mercenaries from the Kremlin-linked security firm Wagner of deploying in Mali, where the junta claims the Russians are just military instructors helping to restore order.   

Vast swathes of Mali lie beyond government control because of the jihadist insurgency, which began in 2012 before spreading three years later to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.  

The military junta seized power in the impoverished and landlocked Sahel state following protests over the government’s handling of the war against the jihadists.   

The conflict led to thousands of military and civilian deaths and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.   

The junta initially promised to restore civilian rule, but it failed to meet an earlier commitment to West African bloc ECOWAS to hold elections in February this year, prompting regional sanctions. 

On Sunday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for a swift return to civilian rule in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso, all currently ruled by military regimes. 
…

Free speech advocates in Malawi have condemned the arrest of a nurse for insulting President Lazarus Chakwera during a WhatsApp debate on governance.

Malawi police said 39-year-old Chidawawa Mainje was charged with cyber harassment and faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $2,500 if found guilty.

Mainje was arrested after using an expletive on the instant messaging service about how the president has done nothing to change the lives of people who voted for him.

Police say Mainje’s arrest is in line with the Electronic Transactions and Cyber Security Act 2016, which prohibits insulting someone online.

Harry Namwaza is the deputy spokesperson for the Malawi Police Service.

“You can’t enjoy your freedom or your rights while at the same time you are infringing the rights of others. It doesn’t work like that. There should be a responsibility. So, it’s a criminal offense. That’s why we have arrested him,” Namwaza said.

The nurse’s arrest comes a week after police in the capital, Lilongwe, arrested a 51-year-old man for allegedly insulting the minister of labor in his WhatsApp group post.

Michael Kayiyatsa is the executive director for the rights group, Center for Human Rights and Rehabilitation.

He said the arrest is a violation of freedom of expression.

“The guy who was arrested was expressing an opinion which was not favorable to the president. But it’s within his right to express such views, and he is protected by Section 35 of our constitution,” Kayiyatsa said. “So, the best that police should have done is simply to provide advice, but this is somebody expressing their views.”

Kayiyatsa said there is a need for cybercrime legislation to be reviewed and at the same time clarified in some sections, adding that politicians could use the measure to silence dissenting views.

“Especially Section 86, which is talking about offensive communication that needs to be reviewed,” Kayiyatsa said. “And also, there is need for clarity, because in the absence of clarity, such provisions can be abused to target online users, which is worrisome.”

According to Kayiyatsa, more than 15 people have been arrested for contravening the legislation by speaking ill of government officials and associates since Chakwera took power two years ago.

Another human rights activist, Billy Banda of Malawi Watch, said he feels the police are now being used to help shield the current administration from public criticism.

“The police are not entitled in any way to sound like they are protecting one particular individual,” Banda said. “Are the police able to look back? We had the former president, professor Peter Mutharika. He was insulted. He never in any way arrested or directed anybody to be arrested.”

Namwaza said authorities are just reinforcing the law, regardless of one’s status in society.

“Of course, people may have different opinions, but we are bound to ensure that laws are being respected, laws are being enforced,” Namwaza said. “So, we are just doing our job.”

The National Organization of Nurses and Midwives in Malawi warned on Sunday that it would stage a nationwide strike if the police did not release Mainje unconditionally.

The leader of the organization, however, announced later that the group reversed its position, saying it observed that Mainje was making the remarks in his personal capacity and not on behalf of the organization.

In the meantime, police said Mainje is expected to appear in court Wednesday.
…

In Ghana, a modified coffee seedling and new farming practices are helping the country achieve steady growth in coffee production – which had declined markedly over the past decade. Women farmers are taking the lead in producing coffee , as Senanu Tord reports from Accra, Ghana.
…

Chad’s military government has announced it is postponing the start of landmark national talks with opposition forces and rebels, as preparatory negotiations between the two sides drag out in Qatar.

The landlocked African nation was thrown into turmoil after long-time leader Idriss Deby died fighting rebels last April.

His son Mahamat Idriss Deby seized control but promised free elections this year.

Ahead of these, he had wanted a national dialogue to start on May 10.

Before that dialogue, the government and more than 40 opposition groups have sent delegations to Doha for preliminary talks.

But they have spent much of the time in luxury hotels and have yet to meet face-to-face, as the Qatari mediators seek to establish enough common ground for the two sides to begin full talks.

On Sunday, the Chadian Foreign Ministry said it had agreed “to postpone the inclusive national dialogue to a later date to be decided, after consultations with the relevant institutions and political actors.”

Earlier, Doha had called for the postponement, saying its mediation was making “tangible” progress at “a good pace.”

The national talks had already been pushed back from February.

Qatar said a new delay would “give the participating parties more time to reach a peace agreement, in preparation for the convening of the comprehensive national dialogue.”

Doha had originally only wanted to host talks and was reluctant to become a full mediator.

But the Foreign Ministry reaffirmed Qatar’s “full support for Chad’s efforts in this political process, in order to achieve the aspirations of its people for peace, security and stability.”

Opposition groups have accused Deby’s administration of deliberately dragging out the Doha talks.

Deby, a 38-year-old general, came to power just over one year ago after his father was fatally wounded in battle.

Opposition groups are demanding that Deby rule himself out of the elections, and also want safety guarantees to allow opposition leaders, who are mostly in exile in neighboring Libya and Sudan, as well as in Europe, to return to Chad.

Qatar has previously helped in peace efforts for Yemen, Lebanon, Sudan and between the Afghan Taliban and U.S. government.
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A three-story mainly residential building has collapsed in Nigeria’s commercial capital of Lagos, killing eight people and injuring 23 who were rescued and taken to hospitals, emergency services said Monday. 

Building collapses are common in Africa’s most populous nation, where millions live in dilapidated structures and construction standards are often flouted. 

The building in Lagos collapsed around 9:30 p.m. Sunday in the Ebute-Metta area of the sprawling city of more than 20 million people, Ibrahim Farinloye of the National Emergency Management Agency told AFP. Farinloye said the lower parts of the building were used as a warehouse while the second and third floors were residential.

“We have recovered eight dead bodies,” he said, “while 23 others were rescued with various degrees of injuries. They are receiving treatment in the hospitals.” 

Farinloye said rescue efforts were ongoing. “We have been working since last night to clear the rubble in search of more victims,” he said.

He said an investigation was under way to determine the cause of the collapse.

In January, three people, including two children, were killed and another 18 rescued when a church collapsed in a southern Delta state. 

Building standards have been in the spotlight since a high-rise building under construction collapsed in Lagos in November last year, killing at least 45 people. 

Bad workmanship, low-quality materials, and corruption to bypass official oversight are often blamed for Nigerian building disasters.  

Since 2005, at least 152 buildings have collapsed in Lagos, according to a South African university researcher. 

One of those incidents that sparked widespread anger was in 2014 when dozens of people died in a church collapse in Lagos. 
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Authorities in Zimbabwe say more than one third of girls in the country are married before the age of 18, and in some areas more than half are minors. Rights advocates are lauding a new law that criminalizes child marriage in Zimbabwe for that first time. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Mbire, Zimbabwe. Camera – Blessing Chigwenhembe.
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As a combatant for the Islamic State group who left his native Morocco to join what he felt was a holy fight in Syria, Mohsin says he saw all the horrors of war. “A terrifying experience,” he says.

Now a prisoner, the 38-year-old claims he is no longer the fanatic he was then, enraged with a murderous hatred for non-Muslims. Captured in Turkey and extradited to Morocco, he is serving a 10-year prison term on terrorism charges.

Now the former fighter has graduated with 14 other prisoners convicted of terror offenses from a Morocco de-radicalization program that might make them more eligible for an early release.

The Associated Press and other media were invited to observe their graduation ceremony Thursday in a prison in Sale near the Moroccan capital, Rabat, and to interview some prisoners under monitored and controlled conditions. Prison administration officials picked out three men they said were willing to be interviewed.

Officials stipulated that the inmates shouldn’t be identified by their full names and that their faces mustn’t be shown, citing privacy reasons.

But prison officials didn’t listen to the interviews or intervene to shut down media lines of questioning or inmates’ answers.

The 15 inmates in crisp shirts and trousers stood solemnly for Morocco’s national anthem and were handed certificates. Prison officials said the de-radicalization program consisted of three months of classes in prison on religion, law and economics, and that inmates also received training on how to start a business. These most recent graduates were the ninth batch since the program started in 2017.

Moulay Idriss Agoulmam, the director of social-cultural action and prisoner reintegration at Morocco’s prison administration, said the program is entirely voluntary and works with inmates “to change their behavior and improve their life path.”

“It enables prisoners to form an awareness of the gravity of their mistakes,” he said.

Graduating from the program doesn’t make inmates automatically eligible for early release, but does increase their chances of getting a royal pardon or a reduced sentence. That’s been the case for just over half the program’s 222 graduates so far, the prison administration says. Since 2019, the training has also been offered to women convicted under Morocco’s Anti-Terrorism Act. Ten women have graduated so far — all of them since released, including eight with pardons.

Called “Moussalaha,” meaning “reconciliation” in Arabic, the program is offered to prisoners who have demonstrated a readiness to disavow extremism.

Mohsin said he left to fight in Syria in 2012. A school dropout as a teen, he said he “was virtually illiterate and couldn’t discern good from bad.” He said he was radicalized by people who showed him extremist videos “about the divine obligation to battle those who don’t follow Islamic principles and to murder non-Muslims.”

In Syria, “I saw massacres, rapes, and thefts,” he said. “I concluded after a time that the fight being conducted in the name of Islam had nothing to do with our religion.”

He escaped to Turkey in 2018 and was detained for a year there before being extradited to Morocco.

He says he has now disavowed extremism.

“That period of my life has passed,” he said.

Numerous Moroccans have traveled to Syria, Iraq and elsewhere to join extremist groups. Morocco has also experienced multiple attacks itself. Five suicide attacks in Casablanca in 2003 killed 33 people. In 2011, an explosion destroyed a cafe in Marrakech, killing 17 people, most of them foreign tourists.

Al Mustapaha Razrazi, a clinical psychologist and member of the program’s scientific committee, said among 156 people who have been released after attending the courses, just one has been caught committing a crime again.

That person was convicted of a non-terrorism-related offense, he said.
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Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, the head of Guinea’s military junta, said Saturday he had opted for a 39-month transitional period before a return to civilian rule.

He made the announcement in a speech broadcast on television, saying the National Transition Council (CNT) would put the proposal to parliament.

The announcement came after the creation of what the regime has described as an “inclusive consultation framework” in April.

That culminated in a conference boycotted by several prominent political groups.

On Friday, the army-dominated government said that the forum considering the issue had considered a transition period of 18-52 months.

Doumbouya, in Saturday’s speech, described the period he had opted for as the “median proposal.”

Regional bloc ECOWAS had set last Monday as a deadline for putting forward an “acceptable” transition timetable or risk economic and financial sanctions.

Guinea’s ruling military junta let the deadline pass, however, asking the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for more time for consultations to continue.

ECOWAS has called for an “acceptable” timeline for a return to civilian rule, failing which it has threatened to extend sanctions applied to Guinea following the military coup there.

Growing discontent

In September 2021, army officers led by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya ousted elected president Alpha Conde in the impoverished former French colony.

Conde, 84, had drawn fierce opposition after he pushed through a new constitution in 2020 that allowed him to run for a third presidential term.

Following the coup, ECOWAS called for a return to civilian rule within six months.

Although many Guineans initially welcomed the coup, there is growing discontent against the junta in the nation of 13 million people.

Guinea’s coup last September came on the heels of a military takeover in Mali.

ECOWAS has applied sanctions on members of the Mali junta, shut its borders with the country, frozen its assets at the Central Bank of West African States and imposed a trade embargo.

For Guinea, leading junta members have been sanctioned and are subject to a travel ban within the bloc.

A third ECOWAS member, Burkina Faso, experienced a coup in January.

It has so far escaped the sanctions handed out to Guinea and Mali but was also given until last Monday to spell out an “acceptable transition timetable.”

The Burkinabe junta has said it stands by a three-year schedule for holding elections, arguing that it first has to deal with a bloody jihadist insurgency.
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Sudanese security forces fired tear gas at crowds who gathered in Khartoum on Saturday to rally against military rule and mark the third anniversary of the killing of scores of protesters.

The crowds blocked a major road junction in the capital and laid out food to break their Ramadan fast. But just before sundown, officers began breaking up the rally and chased demonstrators into side streets, a Reuters reporter said.

Postings on social media said people also gathered in the cities of Madani, Kosti and El Obeid, carrying posters with faces of some of the young men killed in 2019.

“We will continue on the path the martyrs began,” said one of the protesters in Khartoum on Saturday who declined to be named.

Protests and unrest have continued to rock Sudan since months of massed demonstrations culminated in the overthrow of former president Omar al-Bashir in April 2019.

On June 3 that year, armed men charged pro-democracy demonstrators who were holding a sit-in outside the military headquarters in the center of the capital, demanding the army hand over rule to civilians after Bashir’s ousting.

Activist doctors said nearly 130 people were killed in that raid and the ensuing violence. Official tallies put the death count at 87.

The military later agreed to share power with civilians but took power again in a coup in October 2021.

Sudanese police could not be reached for comment on Saturday, the third anniversary of the sit-in raid, according to the Islamic lunar calendar.

Khartoum state’s security committee had on Friday called on protests to remain peaceful and blocked off central Khartoum.

Military leaders have denied responsibility for the 2019 killings. A number of more junior officers are on trial over the deaths.

Since the October coup, many of Bashir’s former allies have been allowed to rejoin the civil service while others have been freed from jail.

“It’s very disappointing that we put in so much work to get them out, and they’re starting to come back,” Hassan, an unemployed 30-year-old protester in another part of Khartoum, said. 
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The Botswana Wildlife Producers Association, a group that focuses on the conservation and management of the country’s wildlife, says placing electronic tracking collars on big tusk elephants could help prevent indiscriminate hunts. The idea follows the recent killing of a so-called big tusker during a sanctioned hunt, which sparked outrage among conservationists.

The association’s chief executive, Isaac Theophilus, said while his organization is satisfied that the hunt of bull elephants is being handled properly, tracking some big tusk elephants could help.

An electronic elephant collar helps keep track of the animal so that unsanctioned hunts of these animals for their tusks can be prevented.       

“The hunt from the point of view of the association is that it was perfectly legal,” Theophilus said. “We are happy with the size of the trophy that was harvested, and we are glad we still have such big tuskers. Going forward, the association would like to work hand-in-hand with [the] government to ensure that we monitor elephant populations out there. Go out there and collar a few of the so-called big tuskers and follow them to ensure that they are not harvested or anything like [that].”  

Theophilus contended the criticism of Botswana’s decision to reintroduce hunting in 2019 is unjustified. The southern African country recently opened its annual hunting season, which ends in September.

“The issue might have attracted criticism from certain quarters that do not value Botswana’s conservation efforts,” he said. “This particular hunt is a very good tusker. We should as a country be very appreciative that our conservation efforts are bearing fruit. We still have big elephants in the conservation areas, particularly in the concession areas and in the parks, where no hunting is done.” 

Local professional hunter Randy Motsumi said hunters always target old bulls with big tusks, which is what their clients demand.

“Mostly the hunters are looking for big bulls, which are old and no longer breeding,” Motsumi said. “If natural death could have occurred, who would have benefited? No one would have benefited. The animal was going to rot in the bush. Now hunters have shot a bull and it has fed more than 700 people. There is money in the government coffers and the community got employed. All these people have gained from only one big elephant that is no longer breeding.”               

Conservationist Map Ives said shooting big elephants is what drives the hunting industry.

“It is truly an impressive elephant, and the hunting of large tusks elephant is very much at the core of what the hunting industry is selling to its customer base in the United States in particular,” Ives said. “That is what the professional hunting industry is all about; is to find the biggest, largest animal because they have lists and books of records, and everybody wants to be in that book of records and publish a story about him.”     

Among critics of the decision to gun down a big tusk elephant is British Conservative Party Member of Parliament Roger Gale. He argued that tourists pay for photographic safaris to see the big tuskers, and he is opposed to Botswana’s decision to reintroduce trophy hunting.

But Botswana government spokesperson William Sentshebeng says Gale seeks to undermine Botswana’s pragmatic and sustainable conservation policy.

While elephant populations are declining elsewhere on the continent, Botswana has seen its herd grow to more than 130,000, while the most it can support is estimated at 55,000.
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Forced to flee her home, 62-year-old Agathe fears never to see peace again as she recounts the violence she has faced in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. But the abuse Agathe has suffered in the territory of Masisi in North-Kivu province is not by rebels who have terrorized the area for more than a quarter of a century, but by soldiers.

“I tried three times to go home, but the soldiers who took control of the village behaved like those in the forest,” says Agathe, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, referring to rebels.

“They force us to work for them, they steal half of our crops. They ask us to pay taxes to access our own fields and when we don’t pay, they whip us.”

Agathe, like thousands of others displaced in Masisi, fled the fighting between DRC armed forces and rebel groups after the authorities declared a “state of siege” in the troubled region nearly a year ago.

The stringent measure gave the army and police full powers to run the administration and wage war on the hundred or so armed groups.

But in witness testimony and reports, civilians accuse soldiers of murder, rape, torture, looting, forced labor and collaborating with rebels.

“We thought that the state of siege would put an end to harassment, but in fact, it’s much worse,” says a civil society figure, who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons.

“The extortion by soldiers is taking place in broad daylight and with complete impunity,” the person says.

‘Shot on the spot’

A U.N. document seen by AFP tells of troops committing hundreds of abuses including “attacks on protected people and places … abduction, recruitment and use of children,” as well as sexual violence and torture.

The abuses were documented in Masisi between May 6 last year and February 9, 2022, the U.N. Joint Human Right Office in DR Congo (UNJHRO) says.

A religious leader blames commanders. “The people will never be safe here while soldiers’ rations are stolen by their commanders,” he charges.

A health worker describes how soldiers from the 3410e regiment stormed into a health center in Loashi, 10 kilometers from central Masisi, in February looking for a rebel before they “shot him on the spot with three bullets.”

In another incident in December, soldiers from the same regiment raped 15 women held in underground cells after they were accused of witchcraft, according to a report by UNJHRO.

The soldiers demanded $200 for the release of each woman and refused to let them access health care, it adds.

The region’s armed forces spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Ndjike, told AFP he was not aware of any accusations against the regiment.

“If necessary, they will respond [to any claims] … it’s not a problem.”

Several sources said the 3410e regiment left Masisi earlier this month, which Ndjike did not deny.

Sitting on a bench, a despondent Agathe remembers the happier times of her youth. “When I was a young girl, we could walk freely, there was no kidnapping, no shootings, no harassment,” she says, describing a world she no longer believes will return.
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The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights warns that Mali’s new media restrictions reflect a growing intolerance toward freedom of the press in the region.

U.N. human rights officials are expressing deep dismay at Mali’s decision Wednesday to permanently suspend Radio France International and France 24 from operating there. They are urging Mali’s military authorities to reverse the ban and allow independent media to work freely in the country. 

The government temporarily suspended the two international broadcasters on March 16, accusing them of airing false allegations of human rights violations by the Malian army and Russian mercenaries.

U.N. human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the current climate of fear in Mali is having a chilling effect on journalists and bloggers.

“There is a lot of self-censorship. There is a lot of pressure,” she said. “There have been a number of journalists—local, regional, international, who have come under pressure. Licenses revoked.… Journalists are trying to avoid reporting on sensitive topics, so that they do not fall foul of the authorities.”  

Shamdasani said U.N. human rights monitors continue to document allegations of serious violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law in many parts of Mali. If anything, she said the prevailing situation in the country demands more, not less, scrutiny.

However, she said Mali is not the only country where attacks on freedom of expression and opinion are occurring with increasing frequency and intensity.

“We are seeing a worrying trend in some of the other countries in West Africa as well,” she said. “And this applies not only to freedom of expression and then the work of journalists, but also civic space and civil society as a whole. There appears to be a growing intolerance for dissent, unfortunately.”  

Shamdasani said journalists all over the world are under threat, and journalists increasingly are being discredited for their reporting, accused of bias or of spreading misinformation. She said governments have many tools they can use to intimidate journalists and prevent the free flow of information. 

She said governments are increasingly using surveillance to monitor the work of journalists, adding that this makes it more difficult for them to protect their sources, to gather information, report on abuse, and bring perpetrators of crimes to account.
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