Some African nations’ repeated abstentions on U.S.-led resolutions condemning Russia could be a subtle signal for the revival of the Non-Aligned Movement at the United Nations, analysts say.

For years, the NAM had about 120 countries voicing a principle not to formally align with or against major power blocs.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, the U.N. General Assembly has passed two nonbinding resolutions. For the first, half of the African Union member states abstained from voting — or simply withheld votes — to condemn Europe’s largest country.

Last week, the General Assembly voted to suspend Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council. Of the 58 nations abstaining, 24 were African, including Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt. Eight African states, including Algeria, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, were among those voting against the resolution.

Pauline Bax, the International Crisis Group’s deputy program director for Africa, said African nations were deeply concerned about food and fuel prices rising on the continent because of the conflict, and their posture regarding condemning Russia could point to their unhappiness about the global intergovernmental body’s inaction.

”It’s a way of saying they’re not going to choose sides in this war, and especially not if it’s going to be a cold war between the U.S. and the East,” Bax told VOA. “And abstaining is one way to send a message.”

Paul Ejime, a London-based international affairs analyst, suggested that a desire to protect sovereign national interests, as well as bilateral ties with Russia, might explain most African nations’ reluctance to vote on a resolution against the Kremlin.

”The U.N. needs to give Africa a bigger say,” Ejime said. “Fifty-four nations make up the continent of Africa, but they’re only being treated like unequal partners.”

Naureen Chowdhury Fink, executive director of the New York-based Soufan Center, said that because African nations have long ”been champions of the Non-Aligned Movement,” abstention seems ”a logical choice.”

”Food security has also been a concern for many states, and abstention may be a way to demonstrate an unwillingness to get involved in great power conflicts, especially when there are negative consequences for citizens at home,” Fink told VOA.

ICG’s Bax added that “repeat abstentions signal reliability, particularly important for states depending on Russia, or Russian actors, for preserving their security. To some audiences, the abstention also signals (an) unwillingness to be seen as an unquestioning or undisputed supporter of the West.”

Ejime suggested that sovereign African nations were likely using their U.N. votes to let the global community know that ”you can’t win a war with another war.”

African countries’ reactions to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “have ranged from solidly supporting Ukraine to condemning NATO’s response,” a new Gallup poll has found.

The poll found that “median approval of Russia’s leadership stood at 42% last year,” higher than the global median of 33% but lower than Africa’s approval ratings for leadership in the United States (60%), China (52%) and Germany (49%).

Gallup polling found that Africans’ more positive view of Russia peaked in 2011, with a 57% approval rating.
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Seven Niger police officers and four soldiers were killed on Tuesday in two separate attacks near the country’s borders with Burkina Faso and Libya, the government said Wednesday.

Niger’s interior ministry said “unidentified armed bandits” attacked the Petelkole police station near Burkina Faso in western Niger and a military base in Djado in the country’s desert-covered far north.

Seven police officers died at Petelkole and 10 were injured, with four in a serious condition, the ministry added in a statement, in an attack that bore the hallmarks of jihadi assaults that have long plagued the area.

Six vehicles, including three belonging to police officers, were burned and the attackers made off with another three vehicles, the ministry said.

The statement added that shops and buildings home to businesses surrounding the police station were also set on fire.

In the second attack in Djado, the ministry said four soldiers died and another was injured, with two vehicles also taken away.

“Security measures have been immediately strengthened in the two areas,” the interior ministry said.

Other sources had earlier said seven police officers had died and 16 more had been injured in the Petelkole attack.

“The provisional toll of this attack is seven police officers dead and 16 wounded,” said a municipal official who visited the scene of the incident.

A local official had also told AFP that “heavily armed men” arrived “in large numbers” during their assault on the police station.

The Petelkole attackers, believed to be fighters of the Islamic State (IS) group in the region, seized three vehicles and torched several others, according to the city official.

The Petelkole attack took place in the Tera district of the Tillaberi region, a vast area on the borders of Burkina Faso and Mali, which is regularly targeted by jihadi groups affiliated with al-Qaida or the Islamic State group.

On March 16, at least 21 people, including two policemen, were killed in an attack by suspected jihadis on a bus and truck near the same police station, according to an official report.

In October 2021, three Nigerien police officers were killed and several others were injured, and in May 2017, two police officers and a civilian were killed in an attack on the same post.  

Niger’s vast and sparsely populated Djado region is not a jihadi target but is a corridor for trafficking people, weapons and drugs to Libya and Europe.  

The area is also home to gold mines that attract thousands of Nigeriens and nationals from neighboring countries.

Local authorities have recently denounced the “deterioration of the security situation” on major roads where armed gangs roam.

The unstable region of Tillaberi, around 100,000 square kilometers, in size, is in the so-called three borders area between Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali and has been the scene of several bloody attacks by jihadi movements since 2017.

Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, in a new approach, has initiated dialogue with jihadi leaders in an attempt to keep the peace.

But the military response continues, with about 12,000 soldiers fighting in a dozen anti-jihadi operations, nearly half of them along the more than 1,400 kilometers of borders with Mali and Burkina Faso.
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Police in Somalia’s breakaway Somaliland region arrested at least seven journalists Wednesday, including a VOA reporter, as they covered a prison scuffle in the region’s capital, Hargeisa.

VOA Somali stringer Sagal Mustafe Hassan was freed after a short detention, but the other journalists remained in custody at Hargeisa’s central police station.

Among the journalists arrested were BBC reporter Hassan Gallaydh, local MM TV journalist Mohamed Ilig and Ahmed Mohamud Yusuf of Saab TV.

Authorities did not say why the journalists were arrested. Colleagues and family members told VOA that some of them were broadcasting live at the time of their arrest outside the prison, where about 150 criminal and terror convicts are held.

“There are people who misinformed the public about the small incident that happened at the prison. We hold them accountable, and we will not allow such people to go unpunished,” said the commander-in-chief of the Somaliland Custodial Corps, Brigadier General Ahmed Awale Yusuf, in a news conference following the incident.

On March 18, gunmen later identified as members of the intelligence services attacked three journalists riding in a car in Hargeisa and kidnapped one of them, freelance online journalist Abdisalan Ahmed Awad.

On Monday, The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called for the release of Abdisalan, who remains in custody.

“Authorities in the breakaway region of Somaliland should unconditionally release freelance online journalist Abdisalan Ahmed Awad and hold the intelligence officers who harassed and assaulted him and two other journalists responsible,” CPJ said.

Somaliland is a breakaway republic from Somalia that has not won international recognition since it declared its cessation from Somalia in 1991, following the ousting of the Siyad Barre regime.

In an interview with VOA Somali, during a visit in Washington in March, Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi said he has secured pledges of increased U.S. support for his self-declared state.

Even as formal recognition remains off the table for the time being, he urged the international community to recognize his territory’s quest for independence, saying negotiations with Somalia had failed.

Unlike southern Somalia, Somaliland has been enjoying relative peace, has its own military and police money, and has received credit for holding democratic elections, but rights groups often accuse Somaliland authorities of being hostile toward journalists.
…

MOMBASA, KENYA — Climate activists are urging more banks and insurers not to back the controversial $5 billion East African Crude Oil Pipeline that is primed to transport oil from the Hoima oilfields in Uganda to the Tanzanian coastal city of Tanga. Influential climate activists Vanessa Nakate and Hilda Nakabuye have lent their support to opponents of the pipeline citing the need for Africa to stay away from fossil fuels. 

The unrelenting pressure mounted by environmental groups, under the banner #StopEACOP, has led to a growing list of banks and insurers quitting the oil pipeline project. Just this week the project suffered another major setback after insurer Allianz Group pulled out of the project. It joins 15 banks and seven insurance companies — including HSBC, BNP Paribas and Swiss Re — who have denied financially backing the pipeline in response to the campaign waged by numerous environmental organizations, led by the international group 350.org. 

The 897-mile (1,443 kilometer) oil pipeline is billed as the longest heated pipeline in the world. The China National Oil Corporation and French energy conglomerate TotalEnergies, alongside the Uganda National Oil Company and the Tanzania Petroleum Development Cooperation, have remained firm in pushing ahead with the pipeline project which is expected to start transporting oil in 2025. 

Johnson Nderi a financial analyst in Nairobi supports the oil pipeline, saying “Africa needs cheap stable power as that afforded by oil and coal, to grow its manufacturing sector.” 

Construction of the pipeline will displace thousands of families and threaten water resources in the Lake Victoria and River Nile basins, according to 350.org. The environmental group goes on to say that the crude pipeline will generate some 37 million tons (34 million metric tonnes) of carbon dioxide emissions annually, fueling climate change. 

“TotalEnergies is putting profits over people and it shows. Communities in Uganda and Tanzania have been fighting tirelessly against the planned pipeline and the trail of destruction it is already leaving in its wake,” Omar Elmawi, the coordinator of the #StopEACOP campaign, said. “At a time when scientists call for the phasing out of fossil fuel projects, to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, it is ill-advised and irresponsible to go ahead with this project, while ignoring the cries of those most affected.” 

TotalEnergies has defended the pipeline noting that it adheres to strict Ugandan and Tanzanian environmental laws. An environmental social impact assessment report conducted by the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment raised concerns about significant risks posed to wildlife notably chimpanzees in the Bugoma, Wambabya and Taala forest reserves. 

Initially priced at $3.5 billion, the underground electrically heated pipeline will now cost $5 billion and is expected to start near Lake Albert in Hoima District, western Uganda. It will skirt around Lake Victoria entering northern Tanzania on its way to Chongoleani peninsula on the Indian Ocean transporting 216,000 barrels of crude oil per day. 

The pipeline is expected to displace over 14,000 households in both Uganda and Tanzania, according to the international poverty charity Oxfam. But proponents of the project are citing a $2 billion annual revenue from the oil exports alongside some 12,000 direct jobs in its defense. 

British firm Tullow Oil first discovered oil in the Lake Albert Basin in 2006, with recoverable oil estimates pegged at 1.2 billion barrels. In 2020, Tullow sold its entire stake to Total Energies. In early February, the oil pipeline’s major backers, led by Total Energies, announced the conclusion of the Financial Investment Decision, signaling the commencement of the construction of the oil pipeline. 
…

More than 7 million South Sudanese will be facing a food crisis by July because of floods, drought and armed clashes.

Food insecurity has worsened since last year. Increased armed violence, population displacement, and climatic shocks such as floods and droughts have played a role, the United Nations and South Sudan government said Saturday in a joint report.

Some 87,000 people in the Pibor Administrative area and parts of Jonglei, Lakes and Unity states are likely to be at catastrophic levels of famine by July. About 2.9 million people will be just one step lower, at emergency levels, according to an analysis of Integrated Food Security Phase Classification data.

More than two-thirds of the population — almost 9 million people — need humanitarian assistance, the U.N. said.

Last year, 5.3 million South Sudanese received food, health, and water and sanitation services as well as education, livelihoods and nutrition assistance.

“We will continue to have the situation we have in South Sudan if we don’t start to make that transition to ensuring peace at the community levels,” U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in South Sudan Sara Beysolow Nyanti said.

According to Saturday’s report, Unity, Jonglei, Upper Nile, Warrap and Eastern Equatoria states will suffer the most from the food shortages.

“Until conflict is addressed, we will continue to see these numbers increase because what it means is that people do not have safe access to their lands to cultivate,” said Adeyinka Badejo, World Food Program acting country director in South Sudan.

South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 and has struggled with political and economic crises since then. A five-year civil war killed almost 400,000 people.

Although a 2018 cease-fire and power-sharing deal between President Salva Kiir and his deputy Riek Machar is still in place, the conflict continues. The U.N. has criticized both leaders for incentivizing violence and corruption.

The U.N. Mission in South Sudan has increased the number of peacekeepers it has deployed and is working with communities in Leer in Unity State to ease ongoing tensions. They are working with local authorities to protect displaced families and provide them with access to clean water and health care.

The South Sudan People’s Defense Forces are also reportedly working in Leer to restore order amid the growing humanitarian crisis stemming from the worst flooding in decades.

VOA United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this story. Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse.
…

Former President Barack Obama “pivoted” towards Africa, his predecessor Donald Trump away from it, and current U.S. leader Joe Biden has had his hands full with the pandemic at home and now the war in Ukraine.

But in an address to lawmakers on Capitol Hill last week, the commander for U.S. forces in Africa pointed to China’s dominance in a region vital to America’s security and economic growth, and warned that Washington ignores Africa at its peril.

“China’s heavy investment in Africa as its ‘second continent,’ and heavy-handed pursuit of its ‘One Belt, One Road’ initiative, is fueling Chinese economic growth, outpacing the U.S., and allowing it to exploit opportunities to their benefit,” AFRICOM Commander General Stephen Townsend told the House Committee on Appropriations, echoing comments he made last month to the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Townsend’s remarks come amid a burst of Chinese diplomacy with the continent. Foreign Minister Wang Yi — who has visited three countries in Africa this year — met with seven African counterparts in March alone. Last month, President Xi Jinping had what was billed as a “productive” telephone call with Cyril Ramaphosa, the leader of the region’s most developed economy, South Africa.

There’s been speculation that China may simply be trying to shore up support for its position on the Ukraine crisis, with Townsend noting: “Our African partners face choices to strengthen the U.S. and allied-led open, rules-based international order or succumb to the raw power transactional pressure campaigns of global competitors.”

Deborah Brautigam, director of the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University, told VOA that China is trying to create a “non-aligned” axis as “Beijing does not want the Ukraine war to become a new Cold War with countries forced to choose between the U.S. and Russia.”

But China’s interest in Africa long predates the war in Ukraine.

Townsend noted the region is home to rare earth metals used for mobile phones, hybrid vehicles, and missile guidance systems, and stressed that “the winners and losers of the 21st century global economy may be determined by whether these resources are available in an open and transparent marketplace or are inaccessible due to predatory practices of competitors.”

West Africa base worries?

The continent also occupies a key geostrategic location. Townsend expressed concern that China — which already has a naval base at the mouth of the Red Sea in Djibouti — is looking at setting up another on the Atlantic coast. That, he said, would “almost certainly require the [Defense] department to consider shifts to U.S. naval force posture and pose increased risk to freedom of navigation and U.S. ability to act.”

Brautigam says she doubts it is in China’s interest to “carve out a threat posture in the Atlantic.”

She told VOA that “with continued terrorism and instability in Nigeria, Cameroon and other parts of the Gulf of Guinea, that area has become the world’s hotspot for piracy.” For China, as the world’s largest trading nation, “that’s reason enough to want an outpost to protect Chinese citizens and economic interests in the Gulf of Guinea.”

An op-ed in China’s state-affiliated Global Times in January appeared to echo this line of reasoning, noting that compared to hundreds of U.S. bases around the world, China only has one and its need for any more would purely be to “ensure local security and interests.”

Another piece in the paper insisted: “China is the most cautious and restrained in terms of overseas military base deployment, as China does not have a desire to project military power globally to support the strategic competition of major powers.”

“Nevertheless, as China’s overseas interests continue to expand, there will be an increasing need for the Chinese PLA Navy to defend the national interests in more distant regions, inevitably demanding footholds in some distant waters,” it read.

While China plays down any ambitions to build a West Africa base, a State Department spokesperson told VOA: “It is widely understood that they are working to establish a network of military installations. … Certain potential steps involving PRC-basing activity would raise security concerns for the United States.”

Debt trap accusations

As the two superpowers vie for influence in Africa, Beijing is regularly accused by the West of providing “debt trap” loans to countries on the continent and of working with some of the region’s less savory leaders.

Government mouthpieces like the Global Times and Xinhua reject those allegations, with one op-ed in March countering: “While China offers financial supports and affordable proposals to local economies to build up economic strength to weather challenges, some developed countries have only offered aid with political strings attached.”

And, in a recent interview with a Kenyan newspaper, The East African, China’s special envoy for the Horn of Africa Xue Bing blamed instability in that region on Western foreign intervention. “China will send out engineers and students. We don’t send out weapons. We don’t impose our views on others in the name of democracy or human rights,” he told the newspaper.

Asked if China has already outplayed America on the continent, the State Department spokesperson said: “The United States does not want to limit African partnerships with other countries. The United States wants to make African partnerships with the United States even stronger.”

But Brautigam said that aside from foreign aid, China is a bigger economic player on the continent than the U.S. in every area, adding: “It’s not clear that Washington has pivoted to Africa beyond rhetoric.”
…

President Muhammadu Buhari vowed on Tuesday there would be no mercy for those behind the killings of more than 100 people in a series of attacks in central Nigeria.

Gunmen raided and ransacked a group of villages there, local sources said, in one of worst attacks this year blamed on heavily armed criminal gangs.

Condemning what he called the heinous killings, Buhari promised that the perpetrators would receive “no mercy.”

“They should not be spared or forgiven,” he said in a statement.

Sunday’s attacks in Plateau State and a high-profile kidnapping raid on a train in neighboring Kaduna State have highlighted intensifying insecurity in northwest and central regions of Africa’s most populous nation.

On Sunday, gunmen attacked more than four villages in Plateau, leaving more than 100 people dead with scores of homes destroyed, two local community leaders and the commander of a local vigilante force said Tuesday.

Details of the attack were still sketchy, with local officials and security forces confirming the assault but declining to give a death toll.

“Many people were killed with houses and properties destroyed,” Plateau State Governor Simon Bako Lalong said in a statement that condemned the violence but gave no precise toll.

One local community leader, Malam Usman Abdul, told AFP on Monday that 54 bodies were found at Kukawa village, 16 local vigilantes were also found dead at Shuwaka village, 30 villagers were recovered at Gyambahu and four more were found around other villages.

“People are still looking for their family members,” he said.

Bala Yahaya, operational commander of the local vigilantes who work with security forces told AFP they had recovered 107 bodies, including 16 members of his group.

Another community leader gave a similar figure for the number of fatalities.

Residents said there were mass burial services on Monday for the victims of the attack in four adjoining villages.

Security forces and local government officials did not respond to requests for confirmation of a toll.

Major Ishaku Takwa, military spokesman, said on Monday that many villages had been ransacked but that the number of casualties was still being verified.

Northwest and central states in Nigeria have long struggled with a security crisis that has emerged from tensions and clashes between farmers and herders over water and land.

Tit-for-tat revenge killings spiraled into broader criminality as gangs known locally as bandits with hundreds of members targeting villages for raids, mass kidnapping and looting.

Despite a military campaign to flush them out of their forest hideouts, attacks by bandit gangs have intensified.

Last month, gunmen blew up rail tracks and attacked a train between the capital Abuja and the northwestern city of Kaduna, killing eight people and abducting an unspecified number of other passengers.

They later released videos showing their hostages.

The train attack came two days after bandits killed a security guard at the perimeter fence of Kaduna’s airport, prompting two local airlines to temporarily halt flights into the city.

Nigeria’s overstretched security forces are already battling a grinding 12-year jihadi insurgency in the country’s northeast, where Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province are operating.

The conflict has killed more than 40,000 people and forced around 2.2 million more people to flee their homes since it erupted in Borno State in 2009.
…

An estimated 250 million people in Africa lack access to daily food, with the number impacted in west and central Africa expected to reach a record high. Officials and aid groups from more than 50 African countries meet this week in Equatorial Guinea to discuss ways of improving the continent’s agricultural food systems.

The U.N. World Food Program says the number of people affected by the ongoing food crisis in west and central Africa has quadrupled over the last three years, rising from 10.7 million in 2019 to 41 million today.

Countries in the Horn of Africa are also experiencing one of their worst food crises following three consecutive poor rainy seasons.

The food insecurity has caused a massive nutrition crisis, particularly among small children. It has also fueled a huge population displacement as people leave rural areas in search of better economic opportunities.

Many factors are at play. Extreme weather events such as drought and floods are occurring more regularly. In some countries, conflict prevents farmers from planting or harvesting crops.

As a result, many African countries have become increasingly reliant on food imports. So when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and disrupted global and regional trade, the continent suffered.

Abebe Haile-Gabriel is the assistant director general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

“Each time a new crisis hits, it adds to what is already a very precarious situation. And the economic base is not very strong. Productivity and production of food is one of the lowest in the world. Not enough is being produced,” said Haile-Gabriel.

The situation has been further complicated by the war in Ukraine. More than 20 African countries depend on Ukraine or Russia or both for wheat imports, Haile-Gabriel said, including 13 which depend on the warring nations for more than half of their annual wheat supply. Many African countries are also heavily reliant on fertilizer imports from Russia.

Benoît Thierry is the West Africa representative for the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

“In Africa, not all countries are self-sufficient. Senegal is importing 50% of its food and we think that all the governments should now get organized to ensure self-sufficiency in their countries. And for that you need investment plans in agriculture,” he said.

Past agricultural plans have had a scope of three to five years, Thierry said, but governments should be thinking longer term.

At this week’s U.N. food conference, government officials are expected to discuss ways of decreasing Africa’s dependence on imports by providing emergency support to farmers, taking advantage of the African continental free trade agreement, and investing in ecosystem restoration and resource management.

 
…

KIAMBU COUNTY, KENYA — Monica Kariuki is about ready to give up on farming. What is driving her off her about 40,000 square feet (10 acres) of land outside Nairobi isn’t bad weather, pests or blight — the traditional agricultural curses — but fertilizer: It costs too much.

Despite thousands of miles separating her from the battlefields of Ukraine, Kariuki and her cabbage, corn and spinach farm are indirect victims of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion. The war has pushed up the price of natural gas, a key ingredient in fertilizer, and has led to severe sanctions against Russia, a major exporter of fertilizer. 

Kariuki used to spend 20,000 Kenyan shillings, or about $175, to fertilize her entire farm. Now, she would need to spend five times as much. Continuing to work the land, she said, would yield nothing but losses.

“I cannot continue with the farming business. I am quitting farming to try something else,” she said. 

Higher fertilizer prices are making the world’s food supply more expensive and less abundant, as farmers skimp on nutrients for their crops and get lower yields. While the ripples will be felt by grocery shoppers in wealthy countries, the squeeze on food supplies will land hardest on families in poorer countries. It could hardly come at a worse time: The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said last week that its world food-price index in March reached the highest level since it started in 1990. 

The fertilizer crunch threatens to further limit worldwide food supplies, already constrained by the disruption of crucial grain shipments from Ukraine and Russia. The loss of those affordable supplies of wheat, barley and other grains raises the prospect of food shortages and political instability in Middle Eastern, African and some Asian countries where millions rely on subsidized bread and cheap noodles. “Food prices will skyrocket because farmers will have to make profit, so what happens to consumers?” said Uche Anyanwu, an agricultural expert at the University of Nigeria.

The aid group Action Aid warns that families in the Horn of Africa are already being driven “to the brink of survival.” 

The U.N. says Russia is the world’s No. 1 exporter of nitrogen fertilizer and No. 2 in phosphorus and potassium fertilizers. Its ally Belarus, also contending with Western sanctions, is another major fertilizer producer. 

Many developing countries — including Mongolia, Honduras, Cameroon, Ghana, Senegal, Mexico and Guatemala — rely on Russia for at least a fifth of their imports. 

The conflict also has driven up the already-exorbitant price of natural gas, used to make nitrogen fertilizer. The result: European energy prices are so high that some fertilizer companies “have closed their businesses and stopped operating their plants,” said David Laborde, a researcher at the International Food Policy Research Institute. 

For corn and cabbage farmer Jackson Koeth, 55, of Eldoret in western Kenya, the conflict in Ukraine was distant and puzzling until he had to decide whether to go ahead with the planting season. Fertilizer prices had doubled from last year. 

Koeth said he decided to keep planting but only on half the acreage of years past. Yet he doubts he can make a profit with fertilizer so costly. 

Greek farmer Dimitris Filis, who grows olives, oranges and lemons, said “you have to search to find” ammonia nitrate and that the cost of fertilizing a 10-hectare (25-acre) olive grove has doubled to 560 euros ($310). While selling his wares at an Athens farm market, he said most farmers plan to skip fertilizing their olive and orange groves this year. 

“Many people will not use fertilizers at all, and this as a result, lowers the quality of the production and the production itself, and slowly, slowly at one point, they won’t be able to farm their land because there will be no income,” Filis said. 

In China, the price of potash — potassium-rich salt used as fertilizer — is up 86% from a year earlier. Nitrogen fertilizer prices have climbed 39% and phosphorus fertilizer is up 10%. 

In the eastern Chinese city of Tai’an, the manager of a 35-family cooperative that raises wheat and corn said fertilizer prices have jumped 40% since the start of the year. 

“We can hardly make any money,” said the manager, who would give only his surname, Zhao. 

Terry Farms, which grows produce on about 90,000 000 square feet (2,100 acres) largely in Ventura, California, has seen prices of some fertilizer formulations double; others are up 20%. Shifting fertilizers is risky, Vice President William Terry said, because cheaper versions might not give “the crop what it needs as a food source.” 

As the growing season approaches in Maine, potato farmers are grappling with a 70% to 100% increase in fertilizer prices from last year, depending on the blend. 

“I think it’s going to be a pretty expensive crop, no matter what you’re putting in the ground, from fertilizer to fuel, labor, electrical and everything else,” said Donald Flannery, executive director of the Maine Potato Board. 

In Prudentopolis, a town in Brazil’s Parana state, farmer Edimilson Rickli showed off a warehouse that would normally be packed with fertilizer bags but has only enough to last a few more weeks. He’s worried that, with the war in Ukraine showing no sign of letting up, he’ll have to go without fertilizer when he plants wheat, barley and oats next month. 

“The question is: Where Brazil is going to buy more fertilizer from?” he said. “We have to find other markets.” 

Other countries are hoping to help fill the gaps. Nigeria, for example, opened Africa’s largest fertilizer factory last month, and the $2.5 billion plant has already shipped fertilizer to the United States, Brazil, India and Mexico. 

India, meanwhile, is seeking more fertilizer imports from Israel, Oman, Canada and Saudi Arabia to make up for lost shipments from Russia and Belarus. 

“If the supply shortage gets worse, we will produce less,” said Kishor Rungta of the nonprofit Fertiliser Association of India. “That’s why we need to look for options to get more fertilizers in the country.” 

Agricultural firms are providing support for farmers, especially in Africa where poverty often limits access to vital farm inputs. In Kenya, Apollo Agriculture is helping farmers get fertilizer and access to finance. 

“Some farmers are skipping the planting season and others are going into some other ventures such as buying goats to cope,” said Benjamin Njenga, co-founder of the firm. “So, these support services go a long way for them.” 

Governments are helping, too. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last month that it was issuing $250 million in grants to support U.S. fertilizer production. The Swiss government has released part of its nitrogen fertilizer reserves.

Still, there’s no easy answer to the double whammy of higher fertilizer prices and limited supplies. The next 12 to 18 months, food researcher LaBorde said, “will be difficult.” 

The market already was “super, super tight” before the war, said Kathy Mathers of the Fertilizer Institute trade group. 

“Unfortunately, in many cases, growers are just happy to get fertilizer at all,” she said. 
…

Russia’s Nordgold is shutting down its Taparko mine in Burkina Faso and calling force majeure, citing the deteriorating security situation in the West African country, according to a company statement seen on Monday. 

Burkina Faso, like its neighbors Mali and Niger, is battling armed militants linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group who have carried out attacks killing thousands of people and displacing over 2 million others in the West Africa Sahel region. 

The gold producer faces increasing threats against its operations and staff each day, Alexander Hagan Mensa, director-general of Nordgold subsidiary Société des Mines de Taparko, said in a statement dated April 9, seen by Reuters. 

Nordgold’s head of corporate communications confirmed in an email that the statement was official. 

Access to the site has become “quasi-impossible” in recent weeks, and the situation is putting the lives of on-site staff members in grave danger, according to the statement. 

“The company finds itself in a situation of total incapacity to continue its activities,” Mensa wrote. “We are therefore advising you of the halt of our mining activities because of force majeure and for security reasons.” 

He called on staff to remain calm and “follow the evacuation plan and management’s instructions.” 

Nordgold declined to give further details on evacuation procedures or say whether employees’ contracts were being terminated. 

The Taparko mine was Burkina Faso’s first industrial gold mine, launching in 2005, according to Nordgold’s website. It is in Namantenga province, approximately 200 kilometers (124.3 miles) northeast of Ouagadougou. 

Taparko, which Nordgold acquired in 2008, produced 53,500 ounces of gold in the first nine months of 2021, according to the company’s latest report. Full-year production figures are not yet available. 

The mine is located south of the market town of Dori, which has witnessed several attacks by armed militants in recent months. It is close to the tri-border area of Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali, where militants linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State control swaths of territory. 

The government of Burkina Faso, which has a 10% stake in Taparko, did not immediately reply to a request for comment on the mine’s closure. 

Sanctions affecting Nordgold

The forced shutdown is another blow for Nordgold as it navigates disruptions linked to Russian sanctions. It also operates the Bissa and Bouly mines in Burkina Faso, the Lefa mine in Guinea, four mines in Russia, and one in Kazakhstan. 

Though not under sanctions, Nordgold, like other Russian miners, has faced disruptions due to the sanctions regime and counterparties self-sanctioning. 

Alexey Mordashov, previously the controlling shareholder in Nordgold, was sanctioned by the European Union on February 28 because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. 

United Kingdom company filings show Mordashov transferred part of his more than 75% stake in Nordgold to Marina Aleksandrovna Mordashova on February 28, leaving her with a more than 50% stake. Mordashov resigned as director of Nordgold on March 1. 

Four foreign directors stepped down from Nordgold’s board on March 7.  

The Swiss gold refiner MKS PAMP, which used to refine gold from Nordgold’s mines in Burkina Faso and Guinea, told Reuters last month it had suspended its commercial activities with Russian counterparties. 

“MKS suspended our cooperation, and we redirected gold ore from our African mines to refineries in other countries,” Nordgold said, declining to say which refineries the gold was now going to. 
…

The EU on Monday decided to halt its military training missions in Mali but will keep a presence in the Sahel, the bloc’s top diplomat said Monday. 

“We are halting the training missions for the (Malian) armed forces and national guard,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told a media conference but added: “The Sahel remains a priority. We’re not giving up on the Sahel, far from it. We want to commit even more to that region.” 

He spoke after chairing a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers that discussed the issue. 

Borrell said it was decided that developments in Mali “have forced us to see there were not sufficient guarantees … on noninterference by the Wagner group,” a Russian private military organization that France and other countries say is operating in Mali as an armed force. 

Russia says it has only supplied what it officially describes as military instructors to Mali. 

Borrell said the “notorious Wagner group … is responsible for some very serious events which have led to tens of people being killed in Mali in recent times.” 

France last week expressed concern over reports that Malian soldiers and Wagner mercenaries killed more than 200 civilians in an operation last month in the Malian village of Moura. 

Paris in February announced the withdrawal of its troops from Mali, a former colony, after a breakdown in relations with the country’s ruling junta that seized power last year, ending a near 10-year deployment. 

France’s deployment, to fight Islamic extremists, operated separately from the EU missions. 

Talks this week

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock will hold talks with the junta in Mali this week amid uncertainty over the future of German troops there, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday. 

Baerbock will travel to Mali on Tuesday where she will meet the leader of the junta, Assimi Goita, and Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop, the spokesman said. 

Her aim is to “get a precise picture of the political and security situation on the ground” as Germany weighs its ongoing participation in military missions in Mali, he said. 

Germany has about 1,100 soldiers deployed as part of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA.  

The European state has also contributed some 300 troops to the EU military training mission in Mali. 

Human Rights Watch has said Malian soldiers and foreign fighters executed 300 civilians between March 27 and 31 in Moura.  

Borrell called the Moura operation a “massacre” and said: “We cannot collaborate with reprehensible events … We cannot be training people who are responsible for those kinds of behaviors. So the military training for troops, we’re going to stop.” 

He said the EU ministers discussed hopes that west Africa’s regional bloc ECOWAS would reach agreement with Mali’s junta for “an acceptable election” to be held for a return to civilian rule. 
…

Somalia’s first women-run radio and television outlet has opened in the capital, Mogadishu. United Nations-supported Bilan Media will produce content aimed at addressing issues affecting women and champion women’s rights in the conservative country.

The launch of Bilan Media in Mogadishu marks another leap in the effort by women to secure their place in Somalia’s patriarchal public arena.

Bilan means bright and clear in the Somali language, and the founders say they will stay true to its meaning by shedding light on some of the most consequential issues relating to and affecting women.

Nasrin Mohamed Ibrahim is the editor at Bilan Media.

This project is designed to overcome many of the challenges facing the community, she says. It will focus on the challenges facing women. She says there are stories about women which will be revealed … because there are a lot of stories in the community and they don’t allow them to be published, so Bilan will reveal those stories.  

By going all-female, Bilan hopes to break the barriers in Somalia’s conservative society where issues such as rape, sexual assault and women’s medical issues are often ignored. 

Bilan says it does not seek to compete with the mainstream media but to chart its course in elevating the voices of women and influencing the agenda in the male-dominated society

Fathi Mohamed Ahmed is the deputy editor.

She says, “I can say that the reason for the formation of this media outlet for women is that in most parts of Mogadishu and Somalia as a whole, there are media outlets where both men and women work but are managed and owned by men. The circumstances of women’s needs are not discussed in detail. For example, violence against women is not discussed in depth.”

Ahmed says the owners of the station are not out to make a profit.

It is not about making money, it is about showcasing the productivity and power of women. So we want to improve our skills and present them at a place free from corruption and abuse by men.

Practitioners in the industry say the launch of a female-only media house is a bold step in a country where Islamist militant groups do not hesitate to harm or even kill journalists. 

The situation is even worse for female journalists who have to battle other forms of challenges such as sexual harassment in newsrooms, cultural stereotypes, pressures from families as well as low pay, compared to male counterparts.

Hinda Jama is head of gender affairs at the Somali Journalists Syndicate.

The potential challenges to this radio station are many, she says. As the radio is only operated by women, women could face challenges from Somali culture. Also, she says, Somali society is not accustomed to women doing things alone or being journalists working alone and most people are not aware of it. Religion-wise, she adds, some clerics may consider women unworthy to speak in the media.

The answers will come soon as to whether the station can meet these challenges.  Bilan Media is scheduled to go on the air April 25th.
…

Police in Nigeria’s central Plateau state say they have sent extra officers to nine villages where gunmen on Sunday reportedly killed more than 70 people and burned down houses. Police and locals say hundreds of villagers have fled their homes since then. Attacks by armed gangs are becoming increasingly common in northern and central Nigeria.

The Plateau State Police public relations officer, Gabriel Ubah, tells VOA that police have sent reinforcements to the affected villages including Kukawa, Giyanbahu, Dangur and Keren.

“We’re doing our possible best. Security operatives will be deployed to the areas and we’ve also renewed our strategies which will not be made known to the public. It’s an in-house security strategy that has been put in place,” he said.

Ubah said police have yet to determine the number of casualties from the attacks. Local residents say more bodies were discovered Monday.

Armed gangs invaded the villages in broad daylight on Sunday, shooting sporadically and torching houses. Local residents say the victims included farmers who were tilling their fields in preparation for planting. They say the attackers abducted dozens of people, including women and children.

The attacks occurred barely one week after 17 people were killed elsewhere in Plateau during a festival held to pray for peace and a bountiful harvest.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Attacks by marauding armed gangs in northwest and central Nigeria are becoming more common, causing widespread criticism of the Nigerian government.

Last week, gunmen attacked an army base in Kaduna state, killing 15 people.

Late last month, terrorists attacked a train in Kaduna, killing eight people and kidnapping dozens of others. Most of the abductees have yet to be freed. In a video released Monday, abductees were seen calling on authorities for help.

Security expert Kabiru Adamu says authorities must take responsibility for failing to protect the public.

“It is very important that we introduce monitoring and evaluation within the security sector and include in this monitoring and evaluation key performance indicators so that persons who let down the ball and allowed these attacks to happen are held accountable and whatever the punishment or penalty for that is meted out on them. We also need to increase the participation of the communities in the security operations,” said Adamu.

Last week, Nigerian telecommunications operators complied with a government order to bar phone numbers not registered under the country’s national identification scheme, in a bid to track those used by criminals, especially terrorists.
…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left a sour taste for South Africa’s citrus farmers, who are facing millions of dollars in losses over sanctions that have closed off the Russian market. South Africa is the world’s second largest citrus exporter and farmers are scrambling to find other markets before the fruit spoils. For VOA, Linda Givetash reports from Groblersdal, South Africa.
…

Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo Monday declared he would run for the nation’s top job next year when incumbent Muhammadu Buhari is scheduled to step down.

He becomes the latest figure from the two main parties to join the race to lead Africa’s most populous country and biggest economy.

First elected as Buhari’s deputy in 2015, Osinbajo made the announcement after months of speculation on whether he planned to succeed his boss.

In a statement, the 65-year-old senior lawyer and former university teacher said his years of stewardship under Buhari had made him the best man for the job.

“Which is why I am today, with utmost humility, formally declaring my intention to run for the office of the President… on the platform of our great party, the All Progressives Congress,” Osinbajo said.

He promised to continue with Buhari’s policies and programs, including huge projects of new roads and railways.

A key issue ahead of the February 2023 election is security, with Nigeria’s armed forces battling a jihadist insurgency in the northeast, violent criminal gangs in the northwest and separatist tensions in the southeast.

Osinbajo joins an array of aspirants from the ruling APC to vie for the party’s ticket.

APC leader and former Lagos Governor Bola Tinubu has already announced he would run. Osinbajo served under Tinubu as justice commissioner in Lagos for eight years.

Other APC aspirants are Transport Minister Rotimi Amaechi and Yahaya Bello, the governor of central Kogi state.

The ruling party is expected to choose its flag bearer by June and the candidate will face whoever emerges from the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Former vice president Atiku Abubakar, 75, who has run five times for president, last month announced he would run again on the PDP platform.

An unwritten rule of Nigerian politics is that the presidency is expected to “rotate” between the mostly Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south in bid to share power more equally.

After Buhari, a Muslim from the north, completes his two terms next year, many southerners say the presidency should rotate back to their region.
…

Former South African President Jacob Zuma is pursuing private prosecution proceedings to remove the lead prosecutor in an arms deal corruption trial after failed legal challenges, his foundation said on Sunday. 

Last month the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) torpedoed Zuma’s latest bid to have lead prosecutor Billy Downer taken off the case after accusing him of bias and leaking of confidential information to a journalist in contravention of the national prosecution act, among other complaints. 

The SCA dismissed the application for leave to appeal on the grounds that there is no reasonable prospect of success and there is no other compelling reason why an appeal should be heard. 

The spokesman of the Jacob Zuma Foundation, Mzwanele Manyi told a press briefing that Zuma’s instructions to his legal team to institute private prosecution “will now be put into operation in the next few days.” 

He also said Zuma’s legal team has filed a reconsideration application to the president of the SCA, a petition to hear the appeal. 

Zuma, who was ousted from the ruling African National Congress in 2018 after nearly two decades as president, has pleaded not guilty to charges of corruption, money laundering and racketeering in the long-running case over the $2 billion arms deal in the 1990s. 

The deal case has dogged Zuma since he was sacked as deputy president of the country in 2005. He said he was the victim of a political witch-hunt. 

On Monday the long-delayed trail is set to get underway and Zuma will be present in court. 

Manyi said Zuma, who turns 80 on Tuesday, is applying for a postponement because “it is very clear that the conditions for a fair trail are non-existent.” 

On Monday his team will also respond to the supplementary affidavit served by the National Prosecution Authority where they seek to introduce new evidence in the trial. 

“All His Excellency President Zuma really wants is his day in court, in a fair trial and certainly not in a forum which is being rigged by the State,” Manyi said. 
…

German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht on Saturday reiterated her doubts about maintaining the German armed forces’ commitment in Mali during a trip to the country during which she spoke of “atrocities” committed in Moura. 

Mali’s military-dominated government says it “neutralized” 203 jihadis in Moura, but witnesses interviewed by media and Human Rights Watch (HRW) say soldiers instead killed scores of civilians. 

“Is this regime that we want to support,” Lambrecht asked after a meeting with German soldiers in northern Gao, her ministry said. 

“We see that Malian soldiers are being trained in a tremendous way by highly motivated and skilled German soldiers, and then they go on missions with these capabilities, for example with Russian forces, even with mercenaries,” the minister added. 

“And the question then arises of whether this can be compatible with our values, especially if we then have to witness atrocities like in Moura,” she said. 

Calls for investigation

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Friday cast doubt on Mali’s account of events in Moura. 

“The authorities in Bamako announce 200 terrorists killed, without civilian casualties. I have a hard time believing, I have a hard time understanding, I have a hard time accepting these explanations,” he said. 

“There needs to be a United Nations investigation and we demand this,” he added. 

No mercenariesIn February, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the withdrawal of thousands of troops deployed in Mali under France’s anti-jihadi mission in the Sahel. 

Bamako denies the presence of mercenaries from the Russian group Wagner in Mali, acknowledging only the presence of what it calls Russian instructors and trainers under a bilateral cooperation agreement with Moscow dating from the 1960s.  

In a report, Human Rights Watch said Malian soldiers and foreign fighters had executed 300 civilians between March 27 and 31 in Moura.  

Foreign soldiers

Malian forces were operating in tandem with white foreign soldiers, according to HRW, who are believed to be Russian because witness accounts refer to them as non-French-speaking. 

Russia has supplied what are officially described as military instructors to Mali. 

However, the United States, France, and others, say the instructors are operatives from the Russian private-security firm Wagner.  

The U.N. special envoy for Mali, El Ghassim Wane, on Thursday called on the Malian authorities to provide access to the area. 

Ruled by a military junta since August 2020, Mali has been in turmoil since 2012.  

Jihadi attacks have spread from the north to the center of the country and into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger
…

Cameroonian authorities said Friday that separatists had attacked a village on the Nigerian border earlier in the week, with local officials saying they torched at least 12 homes and killed six people.  Authorities say the rebels appeared to be targeting members of the Mbororo ethnic group, who the separatists accuse of collaborating with government troops.

The Cameroonian military said separatists shot indiscriminately in the air and torched houses in Mbonhong, a western village in Ndu district on the border with Nigeria. The military did not say how many houses were burned nor how many people were killed or wounded.

Separatists have shared videos of the attack on Mbonhong village on social media including WhatsApp and Facebook.

About 15 separatists in the videos say that they are avenging abuses committed against them by Cameroon’s military and charge the government forces are using homes, farms and cattle ranches of ethnic Mbororo and Fulani as military bases. The fighters are seen torching about eight houses.

Capo Daniel, deputy defense chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces, a separatist group, says fighters in Ndu district, where Mbonhong village is located, organized the attack. 

“The operation [attack] that took place in Ndu, targeted the house of Mbororo who has been using his compound as a point where Cameroon military plan attacks,” Danielo said. “As the Cameroon military has been unsuccessful in reaching our camps that are located in remote areas, they have increasingly turned to Mbororo people who are working hand in hand with the Cameroon military.”

Daniel said the Ambazonia Defense Forces consider Mbororo people who collaborate with Cameroon government troops fighting separatists to be traitors and people who support separatist fighters as friends.

Nkwenti Simon Dooh, the highest-ranking government official in Donga Mantung, the division where Ndu is located, told Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV that a week hardly goes by without separatists attacking Mbororo.

“Armed groups benefit from the fact that the Mbororo populations are scattered over the hills to cause so many atrocities,” he said. “They [separatists] carried away many herds of their [Mbororo] cattle, looted, killed and burnt most of their structures.”

Dooh said that besides deploying the military to protect Mbororo, the government asked the ethnic group to create militias to collaborate with government troops in protecting goods and people.

Cameroon’s National Institute of Statistics estimates that there are over a million Mbororo in the central African country. More than 70% of the Mbororo are cattle ranchers owning about 70% of the estimated 3 million cattle in the English-speaking regions. 

Mohammed Umaru Abubakar, a Mbororo rights activist and member of the Human Rights Committee of the Mbororo Cultural and Development Association,

said Mbororo are victims of brutality because the ethnic group has refused to support separatists fighting to carve out an independent English-speaking state in the majority French-speaking Cameroon.

Abubakar said the Mbororo are one of the ethnic groups that has suffered most from separatist brutality within the past four years.

“Three thousand eight hundred forty-two cattle were killed or seized or killed by the separatists, and over 5,000 cows have left the Northwest to other [safer] regions, while others [cattle] left for Nigeria,” Abubakar said. “Over 195 million [have] been taken away from Mbororo people in the name of ransom. As of date, the statistics we have is about 325 Mbororo people that [have been] murdered by the separatists.” 

Abubakar said Cameroon should compensate Mbororo who have lost their cattle and protect ethnic group members from separatist attacks, looting and killing.

Separatists say they do not specifically target Mbororo, but they target all individuals and groups who collaborate with the Cameroon military. The United Nations says the Cameroon separatist crisis that turned into an armed conflict in 2017 has killed at least 3,300 people, and internally displaced some 750,000..
…

As Ivory Coast beefs up its border security with Burkina Faso, ethnic Fulanis say they are being labeled as supporters of Islamist militants and persecuted by security forces. Rights groups warn the heavy-handed tactics could backfire, providing fertile recruiting ground for the insurgents.

Since armed groups attacked military targets near the border with Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast’s government has been sending large numbers of troops to the north over the past two years.

In the town of Kong, near where many of the attacks took place, Boubacar Koueta was among many men arrested by recently arrived Ivorian government forces. Koueta was one of three ethnic Fulani men who described how army troops beat them and their relatives and held them for 11 days to two months without charge because of their ethnicity.

Koueta said he was outside one day with several other people, including women. Two large vehicles pulled up, he said, and soldiers detained them and another group of people before firing into the air and beating them. Koueta and the others were tied up, beaten and left in the afternoon sun.

Throughout the Sahel, there is a common misconception that ethnic Fulanis are behind attacks linked to the Islamic State and al-Qaida groups that have ravaged neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali.

Relations had been cordial

A community leader for the Fulanis in Kong, Amadou Sidibé, said they had good relations with security forces before new soldiers arrived two years ago.

Amadou Sidibé said that before the arrival of the new military personnel, everything was fine. He said there were no problems with the authorities or security forces. But since their arrival, he added, the Fulani are often arrested and branded as terrorists.

Officials with Human Rights Watch said the persecution of Fulanis in Burkina Faso and Mali is a major catalyst for recruitment by terror groups, who exploit resentment toward the state.

Jihadist groups rely on long-standing tensions between farmers and herder communities like the Fulanis to stoke violent conflict, analysts say.

Ethnic fracture

Lassina Diara, an analyst with the Timbuktu Institute, said he thinks that beyond the religious rhetoric, terror groups are exploiting social fractures and ethnicity. He said there is a fracture between the Fulani communities and the region’s other communities.

A farmer near the northern city of Korhogo, who asked that his name be withheld for safety reasons, said he resented having to erect fencing because herders allow cattle to graze cashew crops. He said the farmers bear the costs of protecting their plantations while herders do nothing because they want to see their cattle well fed.

Lassina Sele, who runs an NGO that aims to resolve disputes between farmers and herders, says local militiamen called dozos add to tensions. Sele says that when dozos arrest a thief who is Fulani, they are treated worse than those of another ethnic group.

Diara, the analyst, said he did not think the government was doing enough to relieve tensions between herder and farmer communities.

Ministers in charge of security and social cohesion did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
…

Nigeria’s High Court has reduced the number of charges against Biafra separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu. He will now be prosecuted on seven counts, including terrorism.

Presiding High Court Judge Binta Nyako struck eight of the 15 federal charges, ruling on the separatist leader’s preliminary objection that the government did not show any offense committed by him on charges of inciting public unrest, destabilizing Nigeria’s political and economic orders, or mandating a sit-at-home order.

Nyako upheld seven charges, including terrorism and broadcasting falsehoods.

“The court, in its wisdom, reviewed all the charges and discovered that with the exception of seven counts, about eight counts appeared to be similar and those charges were struck out,” prosecutor Shuaibu Labaran said to journalists outside the courtroom.

Proceedings were adjourned until May 18, when the court will hear applications for bail. Kanu has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

This was the first closed session of his trial, which had been open to the public since it began last July. Nigeria’s Justice Ministry ordered Thursday that all trials on terrorism charges would now be closed, saying in a statement that the change would ensure fair trials and the security and safety of all parties.

Kanu leads the Indigenous People of Biafra group, which is seeking a separate identity for Nigeria’s Southeast region. Biafran secession led to a bloody civil war in the late 1960s that killed at least 1 million Nigerians, many from starvation.
…

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Russia suspended from UN Human Rights Council over war

In a rare move, the U.N. General Assembly voted 93-24 on Thursday to suspend Russia’s membership on the U.N. Human Rights Council over Moscow’s “gross and systematic violations of human rights” and violations of international law committed against Ukraine. Russia said after the vote that it was withdrawing from the body on its own. Its three-year term was due to expire December 31, 2023.

Russia Suspended from UN Human Rights Body

VOA spoke to U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield right after the vote. Watch the full interview here:

Ukrainian president scolds UN Security Council for inaction

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy admonished the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday for its inaction in stopping Russia’s war against his country and called for Moscow to face accountability for crimes it has carried out there. “We are dealing with a state that is turning the U.N. Security Council veto into the right to die,” Zelenskyy said of Russia, which has used its veto to block any action in the council.

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy Chides UN Security Council for Lack of Action

UN gathering evidence of possible war crimes in Bucha

The Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said Tuesday that it was gathering evidence of possible war crimes committed by Russian forces in the Ukrainian town of Bucha. Shocking images of civilians lying dead on the town’s streets emerged after Russia troops withdrew from the area last weekend. Under international law, the deliberate killing of civilians is a war crime.

UN Rights Office Gathering Evidence of Possible War Crimes in Bucha, Ukraine

UN seeks access to Mali massacre site

The head of the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, told the U.N. Security Council on Thursday he welcomed the Malian authorities’ opening of an investigation into an alleged massacre of hundreds of civilians by government troops and suspected Russian mercenaries in the village of Moura in late March, but that the U.N. mission, MINUSMA, must also have access to the site. Human rights groups have called for an independent investigation.

Rights Groups Call for Investigation into Mali Killings

In brief

— The International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday that it had successfully led a convoy of buses and private cars carrying more than 500 people who fled from the besieged southern Ukrainian city of Mariupol to the safer location of Zaporizhzhia. Thousands more civilians remain trapped in Mariupol. The mayor said this week that at least 5,000 civilians had been killed during the Russian siege of the city.

— The United Nations warned Friday that as many as 6 million Somalis could face the risk of famine if the rainy season failed as expected and global food prices continued to rise. Three poor consecutive rainy seasons have deepened the country’s drought, plunging millions of people to crisis levels of food insecurity.

— U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed news Wednesday that a convoy carrying food aid and fuel had reached northern Ethiopia’s Tigray and Afar regions following the declaration of a humanitarian truce. But on Friday, the U.N. said it had not been able to get any further aid into Tigray. The International Committee of the Red Cross also was able to get a convoy carrying medical assistance, food and water treatment supplies into Afar last Saturday. It was the group’s first road convoy to reach the region in six months.

— The World Health Organization said Thursday that the number of COVID-19 cases in Africa could be 97% higher than confirmed reported cases. WHO regional director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said two-thirds of Africans might have been infected. WHO has confirmed 11.6 million cases of COVID-19 on the continent, including more than 250,000 deaths. The new data suggests the actual numbers are much higher.

Some good news

The first nationwide truce in Yemen in six years went into effect on Saturday and appeared to be largely holding. U.N. envoy Hans Grundberg said Thursday that there had been a “significant reduction of violence,” but pockets of fighting continued, particularly around the contested city of Marib. The Yemeni government also released several fuel ships to dock in Houthi-held Hodeida port, which will help ease fuel shortages. Preparations were also underway for the first commercial flight to take off from Houthi-controlled Sanaa airport. The truce can be renewed beyond the initial two-month period if parties agree.

Quote of note

“Ukraine needs peace. We need peace. Europe needs peace. The world needs peace.”

— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, appealing to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday to stop the war in his country
…

About 30 Sudanese citizens living in Europe demonstrated Friday outside the International Criminal Court in The Hague, demanding that Sudanese officials surrender more individuals accused of committing atrocities in Darfur.

The ICC’s trial of suspected Janjaweed militia leader Ali Kushayb got underway this week, with Kushayb pleading not guilty to 31 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including rape, torture, pillaging and murder.

Darfur human rights activist Amaat Sefeldin, who traveled from Germany to The Hague to attend the protest, told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus that she wanted Sudanese officials to turn over former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, who was in power during the campaign that killed more than 200,000 people in Darfur nearly 20 years ago.

“We are demanding the handover of all criminals, especially Bashir, the president, and Abel-Raheem Muhammad Hussein, and Ahmad Muhammad Harun and others,” she told VOA. “And we would also demand for the court to try the other criminals, because the genocide in Darfur and the crimes committed in Sudan are not done by those few people. It’s a long list of people who committed crimes. They have committed war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity in Darfur since 2003.”

In 2012, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Abdel Raheem Muhammad Hussein, former minister of defense and Bashir’s special representative in Darfur. In 2007, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Ahmad Muhammad Harun, former Sudan minister of state for the interior.

The protesters praised the ICC for putting Kushayb on trial. It’s the first trial for anyone accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection with the Darfur conflict, which began in 2003 with a rebellion by armed groups against Bashir’s government.

Kushayb was a reputed leader of pro-government Janjaweed militia members who attacked and burned numerous villages in Darfur as part of attempts to crush the rebel groups.

Call for others’ trials

“Sudanese are in support of the trial and accountability for crimes committed in Darfur, but in general for crimes committed in Sudan,” said another protester, Neimat Ahmadi, president of the Darfur Women Action Group. “They also want to raise concern about the ongoing violence against protesters and the escalation of violence in areas like Darfur, South Kordofan, the Blue Nile.”

“Our message is also to the international community that it is important to try Kushayb, but it is more important to pursue others who have been indicted by the International Criminal Court and be brought to face the court,” Neimat told VOA.

Maisa Altayib, a member of the Sudanese diaspora who also attended the protest, said she wanted to see the “real criminals” brought to justice in The Hague.

“Not only Kushayb — he only executed orders given to him. The real criminals are in Khartoum and we will not be satisfied until they are brought here to the ICC. So Kushayb is only the beginning of achieving justice,” Altayib told VOA.

South Darfur-based human rights lawyer Abdulbasit Al Haj said the Kushayb trial should lead prosecutors to more evidence of crimes committed by former officials.

“This trial also should identify individuals who have been involved in funding and supplying the Janjaweed militia with the logistic process in Darfur,” Al Haj told South Sudan in Focus, adding “they are crimes that have touched the humanity around the world.”

However, another Sudanese human rights expert, who spoke to VOA on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals from security operatives, said she did not think the government was willing to hand over others accused of war crimes because they include current top officials who took power in last year’s military coup.

“I don’t think they will hand them [over],” the expert said. “I don’t think they will hand [over] anyone. Now, after the coup that took place, I don’t see it happening at all.”

Army ties seen protecting Bashir

Sudanese political analyst and researcher Jihad Mashamoun told South Sudan in Focus he believed military leaders running Sudan would never turn over Bashir.

“I doubt it,” he said. “Omar Bashir, he hails from the army, so handing him over to a foreign judiciary, that tarnishes the image or integrity of the armed forces.”

The ICC indicted Bashir in 2009 over alleged atrocities committed by his government. He remains imprisoned in Khartoum after being found guilty on corruption charges.

The U.S. State Department also praised the opening of Kushayb’s ICC trial, noting it was the first against “any senior leader for crimes committed by the Bashir regime and government-supported forces following the genocide and other atrocities in Darfur.” The statement added, “This trial is a signal to those responsible for human rights violations and abuses in Darfur that impunity will not last in the face of the determination for justice to prevail.”

Carol Van Dam contributed to this report, which originated in VOA’s English to Africa Service.
…

A top U.S. military commander says African countries dealing with violent extremism need to enact good governance, a stronger rule of law and inclusion of marginalized communities if they want to promote stability.  

Africa has seen an increase in terror groups operating across the continent in recent years. Al-Shabab in East Africa, al-Qaida and Islamic State affiliates expanding in the Sahel, and Boko Haram around the Lake Chad Basin are among the most prominent.  

The head of the U.S. military’s Special Operations Command Africa, Rear Admiral Jamie Sands, said on April 3 that African countries need better governance and greater cooperation if they are to stop the threat of terrorism.  

“No nation can solve this challenge or this problem alone,” he said. “Partnerships are key. Prevention of extremism through governance reforms and progress is an easier path than fighting established violent extremists through kinetic activity. Values matter. Transparency, accountability and inclusion are key as we move forward. International investment is critical, and this investment must be paired with security, good governance and aid.” 

Terrorist activity has displaced at least 33 million people continent-wide and contributed to political instability in countries like Mali, Burkina Faso and Somalia.  

Sands said violent extremism erodes the relations between a government and its citizens. 

“The lack of security combined with, in some regions, a perception of disadvantagement that takes place between the government and the population, really form to create an environment where the population loses faith in the government and either decides deliberately to overthrow the government through a coup or, as we saw in some – in one country, Burkina Faso, we think it was a mutiny that turned into a coup,” he said. 

In January 2022, Burkina Faso’s military removed the president and suspended the constitution. Military officers said rising extremist violence and the deterioration of security forced them to seize power from the civilian-led government. 

Militant groups have especially thrived in neglected border areas, where governments have little presence and communities on both sides of the border fight for whatever resources are available in the area. 

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says 40 percent of violent events and deaths occur within 100 kilometers of a border between two African countries. 

Simiyu Werunga, head of the Geneva Center for Africa Security, said the lack of cooperation between African governments is a key driver of terrorism on the continent. 

“What we lack in Africa is serious mechanism government-to-government to deal with these issues and deal with it for good,” he said. “In West Africa, we have the Sahel region. The Sahel has its own grouping, and ECOWAS has its own grouping, but they don’t seem to be working together. This gives these organizations space to create themselves and counter what governments are doing by creating more splinter groups to spread the chaos and make it difficult for governments to deal with them.”

Sands said the U.S. government will help mend broken relations between governments and communities, and encourage good governance as the best way of defeating terrorism. 
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The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Mali, known by its French acronym MINUSMA, has demanded the country’s military government grant it access to the village of Moura, where rights groups and witnesses say the Malian army and Russian mercenaries killed hundreds of civilians during an anti-terrorism operation in late March.

The top U.N. envoy in Mali, El-Ghassim Wane, told the U.N. Security Council Thursday that Mali’s military government has so far denied the request.  

Wane said in the statement MINUSMA was only allowed to fly over the site on April 3 and that it was “imperative” that authorities give access to the site, in line with its mandate. 

In a press release Thursday, MINUSMA repeated “deep concern at the allegations of serious violations of human rights and of international humanitarian law” in Moura.

Mali’s army on April 1 claimed to have killed 203 “terrorists” during the late March operation.  

However, Human Rights Watch, in a report Tuesday, cited witnesses saying Mali’s army and foreign fighters identified as Russians killed 300 civilians, some of them suspected Islamic fighters.

Bamako claims Russia sent military “instructors” to Mali to help with its fight against Islamist insurgents.

But European governments and the United States say the Russians are with the Kremlin-linked Wagner Group of mercenaries, which U.N. experts accuse of numerous abuses, from Syria to the Central African Republic.

VOA spoke to a man, who for security reasons did not wish his name be used, who was detained with others in Moura for five days during the operation.  

He said he witnessed “white soldiers” who spoke neither French nor English sorting men into groups.

He said he then saw Malian armed forces execute about 12 to 15 of the men.

Moura residents told VOA that while some extremists were likely among those killed, the vast majority were innocent villagers.   

Mali’s military tribunal has said it is investigating the events in Moura. 

The U.N. mission in Mali in past investigations has found that civilians are often wrongly targeted as militants.  

MINUSMA investigators a year ago found that a French airstrike on the central village of Bounty, Mali, killed 19 people – 16 of them civilians.
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