Gaborone, Botswana   — A coalition of churches in Botswana has voiced its opposition to parliament’s latest effort to amend the constitution to include gay rights.

Botswana’s minister for state president, Kabo Morwaeng, introduced a constitutional amendment bill for the first reading Wednesday. Among proposed amendments is the inclusion of a clause that would “protect and prohibit the discrimination of intersex persons and persons with a disability.” 

However, churches are opposed to the move promoting gay rights. 

Abraham Kedisang is a pastor at the Apostolic Faith Mission, a church that issued a statement denouncing the effort to amend the constitution.  

“As the AFM Botswana, we express our grave concerns regarding the tabling and ultimate debate by parliament of these proposed amendments without the benefit of the people’s engagement and contribution,” Kedisang said. “These provisions portend grave threat for our Christian way of life, our democracy and, indeed, our republic as we have known it over the many decades.” 

Botswana’s High Court decriminalized same-sex relations in 2019, after a legal challenge. In July 2023, the government proposed a bill to incorporate gay rights into the constitution, but hundreds of opponents protested the development. 

Kedisang said the church is right to challenge the proposed changes, despite the court’s 2019 pronouncement. 

“The disturbing provision in the constitution [Amendment] bill 2024, No. 4 of 2024, which threatens to destroy the cardinal structure of family life at the heart of Botswana’s cherished Christian way of life, through the bringing of ‘intersex’ legal provision that seeks to change the binary male and female structure of our society established and enacted by the almighty God,” Kedisang said.   

Lesbians, Gay and Bisexuals of Botswana (LEGABIBO) supported the court challenge in 2019. The group’s chief executive, Thato Moruti, says the constitutional amendments are about protecting human rights and are not a religious issue. 

“The nation must separate religious beliefs from human rights matters,” Moruti said. “This issue of decriminalization is a human rights matter, it is not a religious matter. It is an issue that is concerned with reducing systematic disadvantages on other people, especially the LGBTQI persons.”  

The government filed a challenge against the 2019 judgment, but the Court of Appeal upheld the initial ruling in 2021. 

Moruti said members of the National Assembly have a duty to protect disadvantaged communities. 

“As international beacon of democracy, it is very important that as Botswana, we must recognize that this democracy also includes minority groups such as the LGBTQI community. It is important for legislators to remember that their democratic oath is to protect those who are unable to speak for themselves, including members of the LGBTQI community,” Moruti said. 

Before the Botswana courts decriminalized homosexuality, the offense was punishable by up to seven years in jail. 

Homosexuality remains illegal in most African countries, with some, like Uganda, imposing stiff penalties, including the death sentence.
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NAIROBI — A Kenyan military helicopter crashed in the west of the country, killing five soldiers inside on Thursday, a police source said. 

Three other soldiers on the helicopter were injured and taken to hospital, the police source said, asking not to be named. 

The helicopter came down in Elgeyo-Marakwet county, the president’s spokesman said, without going into detail on any casualties.

“President William Ruto convened an urgent meeting of the National Security Council at State House Nairobi this evening following a Kenya Defense Forces’ helicopter crash this afternoon,” Hussein Mohamed wrote on X. 

A statement about the crash would be issued soon, government spokesperson Isaac Mwaura said on social media. 

Defense minister Aden Duale did not respond to Reuters’ calls to his telephone.  

At least 10 soldiers were killed in June 2021 when their helicopter crashed while landing near the capital Nairobi.
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — In response to growing campaign violence, Chad’s transitional president, General Mahamat Idriss Deby, has ordered his military to arrest angry civilians and make sure peace reigns in the run-up to the May 6 presidential election and afterwards. Opposition and civil society groups, which have called for a boycott of the vote, which they dismiss as a sham, acknowledge that some civilians have attacked members of the Deby’s campaign team.

Chad’s transitional president, General Mahamat Idriss Deby, says he will not allow anyone to disrupt the central African country’s May 6 presidential election. Deby is running as the candidate of the Patriotic Salvation Movement, or MPS, Chad’s former ruling party, against nine challengers.

He told state TV on Wednesday that government troops have been quelling confrontations between his supporters and opposition followers in towns and villages across the country since the presidential campaign was launched on April 14.

Deby said that when he took power three years ago, he vowed to maintain peace and order until he hands power to a democratically elected president. He said he has asked Chad’s military to be on alert because he will not allow people he describes as inexperienced and power-hungry to create chaos in Chad. He said the military will ensure that peace reigns in Chad before, during and after the May 6 vote.

Chad’s transitional government claims that some opposition leaders began calling for violence after about 1,000 civil society groups and 200 opposition parties publicly declared their support for Deby. He said that among those promoting violence are opposition figures whom Chad’s Constitutional Council barred from running for president.

Among those barred from running was Djimet Clemen Bagaou, a former army colonel who is president of the Democratic Party of Chadian People or PDPT. The Constitutional Council said the birth certificate that Bagaou presented in registering as a candidate had irregularities but did not explain further.

Bagaou said some of his supporters, including members of civil society groups, have had daily confrontations with followers of Deby and troops in several towns and villages.

Bagaou claims Deby asked Chad’s military to attack his supporters and civil society members who have called for a boycott of the May 6 vote. He dismissed the election as fake, accusing Deby of doing everything possible to maintain his family’s grip on power, including harassing and arresting civilians who do not support his plans. Bagaou said scores of opposition and civil society members are ready to prevent the election from taking place.

Bagaou spoke via a messaging app from Chad’s capital N’djamena. He did not say how his supporters and civil society groups plan to stop the election from happening.

Chad’s military government insists that government troops deployed to maintain peace are not harassing civilians, as the opposition and civil society groups claim.

Still, it acknowledges that some arrests have been made in what officials say is part of an effort to assure a peaceful election.

Two other fierce opponents of military rule who were barred by the Constitutional Council from running for president are Nassour Ibrahim Neguy Koursami and Rakhis Ahmat Saleh. They accuse Deby of using government troops to crack down on his opponents in a bid to remain in power after Chad’s transitional period ends in August. They claim he is also using state resources, including government vehicles and officials, for his election campaign.

Yaya Dillo Djerou, who was the leader of the opposition Socialist Party Without Borders and a cousin of Deby, was killed in March in the capital N’Djamena by troops who surrounded the party’s headquarters. 

Opposition supporters say Dillo may have been killed because he was planning to challenge the general at the polls. Chad’s government denies the accusation, saying there was an exchange of gunfire when Dillo resisted his arrest.

While some opposition members are calling for an election boycott, Deby’s challengers say they are counting on Chad’s election commission, the National Agency for Elections Management, or ANGE, to ensure a free, transparent and credible vote.

Ahmed Bartchiret is ANGE’s president.

He said the May 6 presidential election is a barometer of Chad’s young democracy and that his agency must prove to the world that it respects people’s democratic choices. Bartchiret said all the candidates in the presidential race should know that ANGE is committed to having a fair and transparent election.  

Deby headed a military junta that seized power in Chad immediately after his father, Mahamat Idriss Deby, who had ruled the country for 30 years, was killed by rebels. 

The younger Deby initially promised an 18-month transitional period, but later appointed himself as the head of a transitional government. 

The May 6 presidential election is meant to be part of Chad’s transition back to democracy.  Provisional results are expected on July 7.

Deby said he will respect the voting results and hand over power if he is defeated. 
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Goma — In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, specifically in the Beni and Butembo region, parents are finding it hard getting vaccines for their children. Health care providers report that vaccines have been in short supply for several months, leaving thousands of children unvaccinated. Parents worried about their children’s health are calling on authorities to quickly resolve the situation.

In the town of Butembo, vaccination programs have come to a stop. The head nurse of the Makasi health area, Kambale Wangahikya, confirms the absence of vaccines in certain areas of North Kivu province.

He said they’re missing several vaccines, such as the one that fights pneumonia and helps children fight coughs, and also the vaccine that fights meningitis and mumps. He said that all children born and unborn are therefore still at risk.

This situation creates frustrations for breastfeeding women. One mother, Kasoki, is worried because her infant son has not yet received the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis.

She said she has a 4-month-old baby, but he’s having trouble getting BCG and other vaccines. She went to the hospital four times and couldn’t find anything. The doctors gave her several appointments but when she arrived, she could hardly find anything. She’s worried that her baby will catch serious diseases.

Another mother, Stephanie’s, said she made several trips to health facilities to have her child vaccinated. It was only last week, she said, that her son received his first dose of any vaccine. She told us about the fear she felt.

She said she felt very bad because the vaccine she had been looking for a long time was very important for her child, because if he didn’t get it, he would be exposed to disabilities and diseases when he grew up. She said that the health authorities should force themselves to bring in the vaccines, because this shortage could cause problems for the children later on.

Kasoki Defrose, a nurse at Beni’s university clinic, said that not vaccinating children has consequences for the physical health of newborns. She said that local authorities are working hard to respond to this shortage.

She said that if children aren’t vaccinated against polio, for example, they risk becoming weak and their muscles won’t be strengthened. She said the authorities intend to respond to the shortage soon.

According to officials from the Beni health zone, which oversees dozens of hospitals in the region, over 1,000 children are waiting to be vaccinated in several towns in the Beni and Butembo region.
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Port-au-Prince, Haiti — Haitian business leaders said in a letter addressed to Kenyan President William Ruto that they were “extremely concerned” over a delay to a United Nations-backed security mission his government has pledged to lead to fight gangs in the Caribbean nation.

In a letter dated Monday but distributed on Wednesday, the leaders of eight top business chambers said they were concerned as the mission has yet to deploy more than six months after its approval and as the end of its initial mandate fast approaches.

The U.N. Security Council had on October 2 approved a voluntary corps of international troops to deploy to Haiti to help its under-resourced police battle gangs that have cemented their control over nearly all of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The authorization is valid for 12 months with a review after nine, but the mission has yet to deploy, and some countries that did pledge funds or troops have struggled to get these approved by their parliaments or have been slow to hand over the resources.

Kenya is the only country that has offered to lead the mission, but as of early March, it had not yet presented a letter to the United Nations formalizing its contribution.  

On March 11, Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who had first requested the deployment back in 2022, announced his resignation, prompting Kenya to put its plans on pause. Days earlier, Henry and Ruto had signed a deal intended to fast-track the force.

Haiti has yet to formally install a transition council to take over from Henry, though it named the designated representatives on Tuesday after extended delays that prompted critics to accuse the government of delaying the process.

Meanwhile, gangs have further escalated their assaults on parts of the capital they do not yet control. Key ports have been closed for over a month, blocking supplies of food and essential goods while millions go hungry, and hundreds of thousands are internally displaced.

Pointing to the transition council’s “imminent formation,” the letter said Haiti’s business leaders “look forward to welcoming the Kenyan forces in a relatively short order.”
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — The state of health care in Cameroon is a source of growing concern, with thousands of doctors fleeing the central African country for lucrative jobs elsewhere, especially in Europe and North America, according to officials. 

The number of people, including doctors, acquiring passports and applying for visas has increased by 70 percent, officials say. In addition, 75 percent of the 1,000 doctors that Cameroon’s government trains each year are leaving.  

Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health reports that several hundred doctors are enrolled in what members of the profession see as lucrative schemes to emigrate to Canada. Also, the number of health workers, including doctors, applying for the U.S. government’s Diversity Immigrant Visa Program, also known as the Green Card Lottery, is rising. 

The Cameroon Medical Council, an association of doctors, says the doctor-patient ratio in Cameroon has sunk to one doctor per 50,000 people, instead of the World Health Organization’s recommended ratio of one doctor per 10,000 patients. The group reports that the doctors are fleeing to escape hardship, poor pay, difficult working conditions and unemployment. 

Doctor Peter Louis Ndifor, the council’s vice president, said it is unfortunate that Cameroon trains but does not recruit thousands of its doctors. He spoke to VOA via telephone from Buea, an English-speaking town in southwestern Cameroon. 

“The number of registered doctors on the roll[s] of the Cameroon Medical Council is about 13,000, but we have 5,000 to 6,000 doctors in Cameroon presently,” he said. “Doctors quitting Cameroon is an eloquent testimony that doctors are in discomfort, doctors are in distress.” 

Cameroon says it currently needs at least 30,000 health workers, including doctors. The country is facing attacks from Boko Haram that have left more than 36,000 people dead, a separatist crisis that has killed more than 6,000 people and displaced about 750,000 others, and the spillover of sectarian violence from neighboring Central African Republic.  

The Cameroon Medical Council says the central African country in 2013 launched a program to train about 1,000 doctors in order to improve the doctor-patient ratio, which was then one doctor per 17,000 patients. 

However, the government recruits less than 100 doctors each year due to financial constraints, officials say. Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health says it expected privately owned hospitals to recruit a majority of the doctors upon graduation from medical school, but hospitals owned by individuals, communities and churches also recruit less than 100 doctors each year.  

Even when recruited, the doctors say they are paid about $100 per month in private hospitals and about $220 per month in government hospitals.

Jathor Godlove, 29, is an unemployed doctor. After seven years of study at the faculty of medicine of Cameroon’s University of Bamenda, he says hardship is forcing him to consider leaving the country. 

“I find myself being very restrained and restricted in my capacity to help my family,” he said. “I even have some peers who venture out of medicine because they see that as a medic, when you get somewhere to offer your services, they will tell you they want to pay you 50,000 [Central African CFA] francs a month [around $80 U.S.], which is very funny. Some of them have families, when they find themselves in such situations, they see better opportunities abroad. I think you can’t blame them.”  

He says poor working conditions — including the lack of hospital equipment and poor pay — are pushing nurses, midwives and laboratory technicians to join doctors in leaving Cameroon for Europe and North America. 

However, some medical staff members who have not been able to travel out of Cameroon offer voluntary services in hospitals like in Bamenda, capital of Cameroon’s English-speaking Northwest Region.  

Doctor Denis Nsame, director of the Regional Hospital in Bamenda, says unemployed health care workers outnumber health workers hired by the government. 

“At the Regional Hospital in Bamenda, out of 600 staff, only 146 are state-employed staff, and we consult on average 45,000 patients per year, carry out about 1,900 surgeries per year, we have deliveries [of babies] close to 250 to 300 every month,” Nsame said. 

The Cameroon Medical Council says that some health workers, including doctors, at times go several months without pay. Many of the health workers count on donations and consultation fees from well-wishers and patients to make a living.  

In a message to Cameroonian youths last February 11, Cameroonian President Paul Biya said young people’s growing desire to emigrate is increasingly a cause for concern. He said Cameroonians should be patriotic and serve their homeland because the country is facing difficulties and leaving is not a solution.  

Doctors and other health workers say the president, if he wants to curb emigration, should improve their living conditions and hospital equipment.
…

Washington — The United States has barred four former officials of the Malawi government from entry because of their involvement in significant corruption, the State Department said on Wednesday.

The officials designated are former solicitor general and secretary of justice Reyneck Matemba, former director of public procurement and disposal of assets John Suzi-Banda, former Malawi Police Service attorney Mwabi Kaluba, and former Inspector General of the Malawi Police Service George Kainja, the department said.

The four were cited by the State Department as having “abused their public positions by accepting bribes and other articles of value” from a private business person in exchange for a government police contract.

“The United States stands with Malawians working towards a more just and prosperous nation by promoting accountability for corrupt officials, including advocating for transparency and integrity in government procurement processes,” department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

Matemba expressed surprise when contacted by Reuters.

“I am still in Malawi and have never traveled outside the country since 2021. I am on bail, therefore I can’t travel because my passport is technically with the police,” Matemba said.

Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera has waged a crackdown on corruption in recent years. In January 2022, he dissolved the country’s entire Cabinet on charges of corruption against three serving ministers.

Later that year, Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau arrested and charged the country’s vice president, Saulos Klaus Chilima, over graft allegations.

The group has been investigating public officers in Malawi over alleged plundering of state resources by influencing awarding of contracts through the country’s public procurement system.

Malawi is one of the world’s poorest countries, with nearly three-quarters of the population living on less than $2 a day. Though small in size, it features in the top 10 in Africa in terms of population density.
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ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — Dame Touré rushed to quickly gather what she could as bulldozers rolled into her neighborhood in Ivory Coast’s fast-growing economic hub of Abidjan. Her three children joined her, stuffing plastic bags with clothes and whatever other items they could grab, before their home was reduced to rubble as armed security forces looked on.

The Touré home was among hundreds crushed in a February wave of demolitions targeting Abidjan’s underdeveloped areas.

The government says it’s because of public health concerns as the poor areas — built along a lagoon in this port city of 6.3 million on West Africa’s southern coast — suffer deadly floods during the rainy season. More than 300 people have been killed since 2005, and officials say the deluges become breeding grounds for diseases.

“My children and I now sleep under the sun,” said Touré, 50. “We don’t know where to go.”

Demolitions in low-income neighborhoods are nothing new in Abidjan, where rapid urbanization has led to a population boom and housing shortages, with nearly one in five Ivorians residing in the city. It’s a challenge in many parts of Africa where economic woes pushed more people into cities in search of better opportunities, straining an already overstretched infrastructure.

However, the latest Abidjan demolition — mainly in impoverished suburbs in the Gesco and Sebroko districts — is one of the largest in years, with an estimated hundreds of thousands of residents affected since it began in late January. Evicted families and rights groups say that this time, it’s being done without prior notice or compensation.

Analysts say many African governments struggle to manage population explosions in cities and meet growing infrastructure needs. Chimezie Anajama, a policy researcher and founder of Blooming Social Pen development nonprofit, says few administrations have managed to solve the developmental problem.

“There must be a strong commitment by different African governments to come up with creative solutions to address the infrastructure gaps in African cities,” Anajama said.

Local authorities have defended the demolitions, and say relocations of families left homeless to safer areas has started.

Some 35% of Ivorians are poor. Water shortages are a daily curse, with many forced to fetch water from streams for their daily needs. The country has also had to contend with other challenges, such as jihadi attacks that have spread to coastal states in West Africa, including Ivory Coast.

“The aim is to provide a decent … living environment for these people,” the Ivory Coast’s communications minister, Amadou Coulibaly, has said of the demolition campaigns. He claimed in February that some of those evicted in neighborhoods like Boribana are being resettled in at least 1,000 houses built by the government.

Many families, however, remain homeless, stranded in several parts of the city.

The demolitions are being carried out in “a brutal manner … causing disastrous consequences for many families already vulnerable,” the Ivorian League for Human Rights said in a statement. It urged authorities to halt the campaign.

Among those affected by the demolitions were nearly 2,000 schoolchildren of Cha Hélène College in the Yopougon neighborhood, which was reduced to rubble in February.

The school was not informed it would be demolished — neither by the Ivory Coast’s ministry of construction nor the national education ministry, said Sévérin Okpo Abe, the school’s founder. The children were eventually enrolled in other nearby schools.

Most of the evicted residents who are not sleeping out in the open have either relocated to other parts of Ivory Coast or are squatting with residents elsewhere.

“We have been made homeless in our own country,” said Aimée Ouédraogo, a spokesperson for women affected by the forced evictions.

The evictions broke up families and the homeless were scattered across the city, she added. “We no longer have a home, we no longer have our family, we no longer have our children next to us.”

Amid the outrage and protest from the evicted, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara has asked Abidjan’s local authorities to “show solidarity … to preserve cohesion and social peace.”

However, city’s officials say the demolitions are part of a broader project to reconstruct and provide basic amenities in the areas. Plots of land would be leased to those evicted for up to 25 years, for about $16 a month, they say.

On April 8, the government announced it’s started to compensate affected households and that each would get about $405 to support the relocation. In a country where the minimum wage is about $121 a month, some believe it’s not enough to afford the growing cost of housing.

“All displaced people will receive the necessary support for their relocation,” said Belmonde Dogo, the minister in charge of efforts to alleviate poverty.

The Yopougon municipality, mostly of working-class residents, also announced plans to help those affected.

But many like Touré say they were overwhelmed by helplessness watching bulldozers rampage through their neighborhoods.

“I don’t have anyone in Abidjan and I don’t have money to buy a house,” said the mother of three, not knowing how she would go on. “I can’t do it.”
…

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Blantyre, Malawi — Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera has ordered police to tighten border security to control tobacco smugglers who sell the crop to neighboring countries for better prices. However, analysts and some farmers say tobacco smuggling would only stop if buyers offer competitive prices to farmers.

Tobacco is the main cash crop and major foreign exchange earner in Malawi.   

Statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture show that the crop, also known in Malawi as “green gold,” contributes about 60% to the country’s foreign exchange basket. It also contributes about 13% to the country’s gross domestic product.   

Recent reports, however, show that almost 10% of the crop is smuggled to neighboring countries like Zambia and Mozambique for better prices. 

One farmer, who bypasses Malawi’s auction floors and asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, told VOA that they get double the profits from cross-border trading compared to selling in Malawi.   

“Currently, tobacco prices at the auction floors in Zambia are averaged $5/kg for the highest quality leaf while the cheapest is $2/kg,” he said. “While here in Malawi, the average price for the highest-quality leaf is $3.05 while the cheapest is $2.40/kg.” 

Another problem is that, among other costs of selling tobacco at Malawi auction floors, a lot of levies are charged on tobacco bales, he said.

These include seed and auction taxes as well as a fee by tobacco associations, he said. While in Zambia, he added, the only costs incurred have to do with transportation and auction levies. 

Speaking during the opening of this year’s tobacco marketing season Monday, President Lazarus Chakwera said tobacco smugglers bring down Malawi’s efforts to earn much-needed foreign currency. 

“To those of you who are doing this, I will not spare you,” he said. “The inspector general of police who is already here, please tighten security in all areas where people are doing this illegal business. Such people should be arrested.” 

Chakwera said his government recently negotiated with tobacco buyers to offer better prices to farmers this year to curb tobacco smuggling.   

Some farmers who sold their crops at the start of selling season Monday said they were happy with the prices offered by the buyers. Others said such has been the trend in the past and the prices drop when the marketing season picks up.        

Adam Chikapa, an economist based in Blantyre, said arresting tobacco smugglers cannot end the illegal malpractice which has been there for decades. Previous attempts, he said, have changed nothing. “So the solution in this case, should be just creating conducive environment in terms of the sales that the farmers are making by giving them good prices” 

Chikapa said it’s time Malawi reduce relying on tobacco for foreign exchange, citing falling demand following anti-smoking campaigns championed by the World Health Organization and the proven link between tobacco use and cancer. 

“We need now to embark on the production of other crops that are highly demanded outside there,” he said. “We have got industrial hemp, even legumes.”

Parliament recently passed legislation to permit cultivation of marijuana or cannabis as an alternative to tobacco farming.     

The lawmakers said cannibis — if grown full scale — is expected to earn Malawi as much as $700 million per year, more than double the foreign exchange it gets from the sale of tobacco. 
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One year after Sudan’s war started, international donors pledged over $2.13 billion dollars in funding for the country at a conference in Paris. Meanwhile, the U.N. says the looming famine in Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, is unprecedented, and human rights activists are calling for justice for the “coordinated” ethnic killings that continue in Darfur. Henry Wilkins reports.
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Geneva — A high-level pledging conference in Geneva co-sponsored by Ethiopia, Britain and the United Nations received $628.9 million in pledges to provide lifesaving humanitarian assistance for millions of Ethiopians suffering from the ill effects of conflict and climate change. It was seeking $1 billion.

“We understand this is just the beginning, and we hope for continued and increased support throughout the year,” said Joyce Msuya, U.N. assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs.

Of the 21 countries, the U.S. was the biggest donor with $154 million, followed by the United Kingdom with $124.58 million and the European Union with $139 million.

Last month’s U.N.-backed multibillion-dollar humanitarian response plan is less than 5% funded, far from enough to address the dire needs of 15.5 million people suffering from conflict and back-to-back climate shocks.

Ambassador Shiferaw Teklemariam, commissioner of the Ethiopian Disaster Risk Management Commission, told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday that he hoped the pledging event would turn things around and donor nations would provide critical lifesaving support to Ethiopia. Failure to do so, he said, would have serious consequences.

“We are coming out of the COVID pandemic. And, at the same time several disasters including epidemics, locusts, displacements, as we have already raised, is an issue which we have to address and that is why we are saying we really have to act before it is too late,” he said.

The United Nations warns the emergency has been building up through cycles of droughts, floods and conflict and is likely to peak during the July-September lean season.

The U.N. projects nearly 11 million people are likely to be food insecure, causing malnutrition levels to rise during the lean season, the period between harvests when food stocks are at their lowest.

Andrew Mitchell, Britain’s deputy foreign secretary and minister for Development and Africa who recently visited Ethiopia, said he saw increasingly worrying signs of famine-like conditions emerging in conflict areas in the north.

“What we found when we went up into Tigray and looked at the areas, where the marginalization and the difficulties were taking place. We found an increasing number of people, particularly children suffering from malnutrition, with the pipeline growing,” he said.

“Because of climate change and particularly because of the displacement of people, we saw that the coping mechanisms of people were being seriously eroded and people were selling whatever they had,” he added.

El Nino has exacerbated a drought in the northern highlands. U.N. agencies report malnutrition rates in conflict-ridden parts of Afar, Amhara, and Tigray are worsening, forcing millions of people to cope with less water, drier pastures and smaller harvests.

Ramiz Alakbarov, U.N. assistant secretary-general, resident and humanitarian coordinator in Ethiopia, noted that the compounded effect of back-to-back climate shocks and conflicts “is quite devastating.”

“On top of it, we have 4.5 million people who have left their homes,” he said, noting that Ethiopia “is among the top 10 countries with the highest level of internal displacement caused by all those elements.”

At the same time, he said “conflicts have destroyed and damaged thousands of schools, health facilities, water systems and other community infrastructure in a number of regions and that adds to the difficulty.”

Alakbarov said the U.N. was working with the Ethiopian government and international partners to strengthen national systems and civil society. He said humanitarian aid is focused on helping the most vulnerable people, which is a major challenge.

“The challenges are working on improving the access, which is not fluid. Sometimes we are prevented in reaching people and people cannot reach us because of insecurity. … In many parts of Ethiopia that situation needs to improve,” he said.

Conference organizers say Ethiopia will need at least $1 billion to cover critical aid needs for the next three months.

Last year, USAID and the U.N.’s World Food Program temporarily suspended food aid to Ethiopia amid allegations that the food was being diverted. The Ethiopian government denied this.

The agencies have since resumed food distributions following stringent reforms to prevent anything similar from occurring.

“In December, after a six-month pause prompted by the discovery of widespread aid diversion, USAID resumed food assistance in Ethiopia,” Isobel Coleman, USAID deputy administrator told the conference.

“We worked closely with the Ethiopian government and our partners, including the U.N., to reform the food aid system and protect against corruption,” she said.

“Since December, we have reached more than 4 million people with food assistance across the country, prioritizing drought- and conflict-affected regions with the most acute need,” said Coleman, noting that the U.S. is providing Ethiopia with an additional $154 million contribution, bringing its total aid to $243 million this year.

Alakbarov described the reform system as “one of the most detailed and most verified processes I have ever observed in my life.”

“That includes 30 verification points including issuance of digital IDs, creation of community complaint mechanisms and all sorts of digital tracking of every bag of items,” he said.

“The problem is that we do not have enough to distribute,” he said.
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Abuja, Nigeria — Nigeria will no longer pay ransom to armed gangs that have plagued the country with kidnapping and extortion, President Bola Tinubu said in an opinion piece published Monday.

He made the statement as activists commemorated the 10th anniversary of the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls from the town of Chibok. Acknowledging that “legitimate concerns” over kidnappings persist, Tinubu said Nigeria must address the root causes of poverty, inequality, and a lack of opportunity if it hopes to eradicate the threat posed by criminal gangs.

In the Newsweek magazine piece, titled “Ten Years Since Chibok – Nigeria Will No Longer Pay the Price,” Tinubu said ransom payments to gangs only encouraged gangs to commit more crimes and said, “the extortion racket must be squeezed out of existence.” 

The president said instead of ransom, perpetrators of the violence will receive the security services’ counter actions. 

He cited the recent rescue of 137 school students kidnapped in Kaduna state. Their abductors had demanded $600,000 in ransom, but the president said no ransom was paid. 

Ndu Nwokolo, managing partner at Nextier, a public advisory firm with focus on security and economic issues, agreed that ransom payment emboldens perpetrators, but said Nigeria is not ready to take such a stance. 

“The Nigerian state is obviously very weak to do those things it says it wants to do. If you’re someone, you have your [relative] kidnapped and you know that the state security agents can’t do anything,” Nwokolo said. “How come you were able to retrieve those numbers of kids without shooting a gun, and we know that those guys demanded ransom? The entire thing shows that there’s no honesty, there’s no transparency.” 

Tinubu said the government’s response to the Chibok abduction in 2014 was slow. 

But, the president said, Nigeria must recognize the changing nature of the threat. He said criminal gangs behind more recent kidnappings are primarily after cash rewards, unlike Boko Haram, which sought to impose Islamist rule. 

In 2022 Tinubu’s predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, tried to criminalize ransom payments to kidnappers, but the decision was met with resistance from activists and the families of victims.  

Security analyst Senator Iroegbu said lack of accountability from authorities is the main concern. 

“There will not be ransoms in the first place if measures are on ground to prevent it,” Iroegbu said. “Why is it easy for kidnappers to kidnap Nigerians and keep them for long? Ten years after Chibok girls, why are the cases still rising? It’s not trying to blame victims who are desperate to do everything they can to rescue their loved ones. For citizens, that may be their last resort.” 

Tinubu said Nigeria must ultimately address the triggers for insecurity, including poverty, inequality and lack of opportunity. 

In the article, Tinubu also talked about his economic reforms. The Nigerian president said they were necessary to save public finances and encourage foreign investment.  

Tinubu scrapped fuel subsidies for the public and floated the naira just days after assuming office last year. The decisions sent prices soaring and were widely criticized, but have not been reversed.  

Tinubu said previous governments had failed to boost the economy, and 63 percent of Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor. 

Iroegbu said blaming predecessors will not solve Tinubu’s problems. 

“This mentality of trying to blame past administrations, thinking you’re better while you’re not actually doing something different, needs to stop until there’s a result that Nigerians can see and testify,” Iroegbu said. 

The Nigerian president ended his article by saying, “there will be no more ransoms paid to kidnappers nor towards policies which have trapped our people economically.”
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Harare, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s recently introduced gold-backed currency is sliding on the local black market but officials insist the currency is getting stronger and has a bright future. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare.

Even songs are played on the radio encouraging citizens to embrace the currency, called Zimbabwe Gold — or ZiG — introduced on April 5 trading at 13.56 to the U.S. dollar.

Official statistics say ZiG is now trading at 13.41. But on the black market it is around 20.

Chamunorwa Musengi, a street vendor in Harare, is not optimistic about the new currency which for the moment is trading electronically, with notes and coins coming into circulation on April 30:  

“Let’s wait and see,” he said. “Maybe it will boost our economy for some time. But I do not see anything changing with the new currency, because things are really tight at the moment. We been through this before. When they introduced bond notes, things stabilized for a short time and then it started sliding on the market. They are saying ZiG is around 13 — it will end up around 40,000 against the dollar.”

Bond notes refer to the currency which was launched in 2019 after a decade of Zimbabwe using the U.S. dollar and other currencies.  The bond note had lost about 80% of its value and was trading at around 40,000 to the dollar before its official demise.

Samson Kabwe, a minibus conductor, says he cannot wait for the physical notes and coins of ZiG to be released.

“We are for ZiG, especially for change,” he said. “We had no small notes for change. If ZiG notes and coins come, the government would have done a great thing. We want it like now.”

The government says for now, commodities like fuel will still be bought and sold using U.S. dollars. 

Gift Mugano, an economics professor, predicts the new currency will go the way of the abandoned one.

“[In] 2016, we introduced bond notes which was backed by Afreximbank (African Export–Import Bank) facility of $400 million,” he said. “The Afreximbank is an international bank with reputation. But that was not be sufficient to guarantee the success of the bond notes. So it failed. Right? Why are we failing to guarantee stability? There is no sustained production in the economy because you defend the economy with production. Secondly, confidence issues. People do not trust this system because we have lost money several times.”

But John Mushayavanhu, the new governor or the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, predicts the currency will succeed because it is backed by reserves of gold and other minerals worth $175 million and $100 million cash.   

“We are doing what we are doing to ensure that our local currency does not die,” he said. “We were already in a situation where almost 85% of transactions are being conducted in U.S. dollars because [the] local currency was not living up to the function of store of value. We are going to restore that store of value so that we can start reviving our currency. So, we are starting at $80 million worth, and as we get more reserves, we will gradually be moving towards greater use of the local currency. It is my wish that if we get to the year (end) at 70-30, next year 60-40, the year after 50-50; by the time we get to 50-50 people will be indifferent as to which currency they are using. And that way we regain use of our local currency.”

While Mushayavanhu has that confidence, social media is awash with people and traders — including government departments — refusing to accept the outgoing Zimbabwe currency.
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Zimbabwe, with its rich deposits of lithium, is pinning its hopes for economic recovery on mining and processing the mineral, which is a key component in batteries for electric vehicles. Zimbabwe has Africa’s largest lithium reserves and is the world’s sixth-largest lithium producer and supplier. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Kamativi, about 700 kilometers from the capital Harare, where investors have poured millions of dollars into their lithium venture.
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Nairobi, Kenya — Today marks one year since the war between Sudan’s army and its paramilitary wing, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), began. The war has created widespread hunger, as fields lay uncultivated and aid agencies struggle to reach millions of Sudanese displaced from their homes. Despite the challenges, some farmers are getting support from a British aid organization. 

On April 15, 2023, Sudanese awakened to the sound of gunfire, shelling, and the roar of military aircraft as the Sudanese army and the RSF began fighting for control of the capital, Khartoum.

The fighting made it difficult for humanitarian aid organizations to distribute food, and hard for farmers in the conflict zones to plant crops. 

The spreading clashes killed thousands and displaced millions from their homes.

Practical Action, a U.K.-based aid group, is working with farmers in states not affected by the war to produce food, fight hunger and improve their economic conditions.  

The organization is supporting at least 200,000 farmers and families.

Muna Eltahir, the country director of Practical Action Sudan, says her organization is focused on easing food insecurity.    

“We have a project in Al-Gedaref and Kassala,” she said. “We have another project in the Blue Nile to support small farmers in increasing their production and productivity through the provision of seed seedlings and some knowledge for the farmers. And this is also successful and can bridge some gaps, but at a very limited scale because we are one of the very, very few organizations working on sustaining agriculture and farmers rather than distribution of relief.”  

According to the United Nations, more than 18 million Sudanese are food insecure, with most trapped in areas of active fighting.

The conflict has disrupted agricultural production, damaging infrastructure and farmers’ livelihoods. 

Jalal Babiker, leader of the Elekhia Farmers Association, told VOA that farmers in his area have increased production and are cultivating more land. 

He said using about 50 feddan of land — equal to about 50 acres — farmers cultivate a variety of crops including potatoes, grapefruit, lemons, bananas, and various vegetables. This year, in collaboration with Practical Action, he said, the farmers embarked on a potato cultivation project in Kassala state, planting approximately 24 feddan across three designated areas.

Residents of Kassala state previously depended on El Gezira and Khartoum for their potatoes and other produce, but the conflict has disrupted the supply chain, and the region is forced to be self-sufficient.

Babiker said the goal in planting potatoes in Kassala state is to improve the business situation of small farmers — planting potatoes to offer farmers cheap potatoes and seedlings and to create employment opportunities for the youth in the region.

Babiker is optimistic about the future of agriculture in his country. However, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warned Monday of an escalation of the conflict as more armed groups join the fighting.

Eltahir worries that Sudan’s war will hinder her work with farmers.

“My nightmare is the conflict will expand to the safe areas where we have our activities,” she said. “Then they will loot the harvest, or they will destroy the cultivated land. And then that would be a real disaster. And everything is expected because, like yesterday, they attacked Al-Gedaref.”

Calls from the U.N. and international agencies — urging the warring parties to cease hostilities — so far, have been ignored.
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Ten years ago, hundreds of schoolgirls were abducted in northern Nigeria by the Islamist terror group Boko Haram. Many escaped or gained freedom through negotiations, but the fate of 82 girls hangs on the hope of reviving a once-vibrant advocacy group. The “Bring Back Our Girls,” or BBOG, group dominated global headlines after the 2014 abduction. In the decade since the raid, mass abductions have become frequent, and activists have grown weary. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.
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CAIRO — On a clear night a year ago, a dozen heavily armed fighters broke into Omaima Farouq’s house in an upscale neighborhood in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. At gunpoint, they whipped and slapped the woman, and terrorized her children. Then they expelled them from the fenced two-story house.

“Since then, our life has been ruined,” said the 45-year-old schoolteacher. “Everything has changed in this year.”

Farouq, who is a widow, and her four children now live in a small village outside the central city of Wad Madani, 136 kilometers (85 miles) southeast of Khartoum. They depend on aid from villagers and philanthropists since international aid groups can’t reach the village.

Sudan has been torn by war for a year now, ever since simmering tensions between its military and the notorious paramilitary Rapid Support Forces exploded into street clashes in the capital Khartoum in mid-April 2023. The fighting rapidly spread across the country.

The conflict has been overshadowed by the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza Strip, which since October has caused a massive humanitarian crisis for Palestinians and a threat of famine in the territory.

But relief workers warn Sudan is hurtling towards an even larger-scale calamity of starvation, with potential mass death in coming months. Food production and distribution networks have broken down and aid agencies are unable to reach the worst-stricken regions. At the same time, the conflict has brought widespread reports of atrocities including killings, displacement and rape, particularly in the area of the capital and the western region of Darfur.

Justin Brady, head of the U.N. humanitarian coordination office for Sudan, warned that potentially tens or even hundreds of thousands could die in coming months from malnutrition-related causes.

“This is going to get very ugly very quickly unless we can overcome both the resource challenges and the access challenges,” Brady said. The world, he said, needs to take fast action to pressure the two sides for a stop in fighting and raise funds for the U.N. humanitarian effort.

But the international community has paid little attention. The U.N. humanitarian campaign needs some $2.7 billion this year to get food, heath care and other supplies to 24 million people in Sudan – nearly half its population of 51 million. So far, funders have given only $145 million, about 5%, according to the humanitarian office, known as OCHA.

The “level of international neglect is shocking,” Christos Christou, president of the medical charity Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, said in a recent statement.

The situation in fighting on the ground has been deteriorating. The military, headed by Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, and the RSF, commanded by Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have carved up Khartoum and trade indiscriminate fire at each other. RSF forces have overrun much of Darfur, while Burhan has moved the government and his headquarters to the Red Sea city of Port Sudan.

The Sudanese Unit for Combating Violence Against Women, a government organization, documented at least 159 cases of rape and gang rape the past year, almost all in Khartoum and Darfur. The organization’s head, Sulima Ishaq Sharif, said this figure represents the tip of the iceberg since many victims don’t speak out for fear of reprisal or the stigma connected to rape.

In 2021, Burhan and Dagalo were uneasy allies who led a military coup. They toppled an internationally recognized civilian government that was supposed to steer Sudan’s democratic transition after the 2019 military overthrow of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir amid a popular uprising. Burhan and Dagalo subsequently fell out in a struggle for power.

The situation has been horrific in Darfur, where the RSF and its allies are accused of rampant sexual violence and ethnic attacks on African tribes’ areas. The International Criminal Court said it was investigating fresh allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity in the region, which was the scene of genocidal war in the 2000s.

A series of attacks by the RSF and allied militias on the ethnic African Masalit tribe killed between 10,000 and 15,000 people in Geneina, the capital of West Darfur near the Chad border, according to a report by United Nations experts to the Security Council earlier this year. It said Darfur is experiencing “its worst violence since 2005.”

With aid groups unable to reach Darfur’s camps for displaced people, eight out of every 10 families in the camps eat only one meal a day, said Adam Rijal, the spokesman for the Coordination for Displaced Persons and Refugees in Darfur.

In Kelma camp in South Darfur province, he said an average of nearly three children die every 12 hours, most due to diseases related to malnutrition. He said the medical center in the camp receives between 14 and 18 cases of malnutrition every day, mostly children and pregnant women.

Not including the Geneina killings, the war has killed at least 14,600 people across Sudan and created the world’s largest displacement crisis, according to the United Nations. More than 8 million people have been driven from their homes, fleeing either to safer areas inside Sudan or to neighboring countries.

Many flee repeatedly as the war expands.

When fighting reached his street in Khartoum, Taj el-Ser and his wife and four children headed west to his relatives in Darfur in the town of Ardamata.

Then the RSF and its allies overran Ardamata in November, rampaging through the town for six days. El-Ser said they killed many Masalit and relatives of army soldiers.

“Some were shot dead or burned inside their homes,” he said by phone from another town in Darfur. “I and my family survived only because I am Arab.”

Both sides, the military and RSF, have committed serious violations of international law, killing civilians and destroying vital infrastructure, said Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch.

Food production has crashed, imports stalled, movement of food around the country is hampered by fighting, and staple food prices have soared by 45% in less than a year, OCHA says. The war wrecked the country’s healthcare system, leaving only 20 to 30% of the health facilities functional across the country, according to MSF.

At least 37% of the population at crisis level or above in hunger, according OCHA. Save the Children warned that about 230,000 children, pregnant women and newborn mothers could die of malnutrition in the coming months.

“We are seeing massive hunger, suffering and death. And yet the world looks away,” said Arif Noor, Save the Children’s director in Sudan.

About 3.5 million children aged under 5 years have acute malnutrition, including more than 710,000 with severe acute malnutrition, according to the World Health Organization.

About 5 million people were one step away from famine, according to a December assessment by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, considered the global authority on determining the severity of hunger crises. Overall, 17.7 million people were facing acute food insecurity, it found.

Aid workers say the world has to take action.

“Sudan is described as a forgotten crisis. I’m starting to wonder how many people knew about it in the first place to forget about it,” said Brady, from OCHA. “There are others that have more attention than Sudan. I don’t like to compare crises. It’s like comparing two cancer patients. … They both need to be treated.”
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Beni, Democratic Republic of Congo — At least 12 people were killed and more than 50 are still missing after heavy rain caused a ravine to collapse onto a river in southwest Democratic Republic of Congo, a local official and a civil society leader said Sunday.

The landslide occurred around midday Saturday in Dibaya Lubwe commune in Kwilu province. It sent a cascade of clay and debris down to the banks of the Kasai River, where a boat was docking, and people were washing clothes.

Interim provincial Governor Felicien Kiway said, 12 bodies had been pulled from the rubble so far, including nine women, three men and a baby.

“Around 50 people are missing but we are continuing to search through the clay,” he said, adding that the chances of finding survivors were thin as the incident had occurred 12 hours prior.

The coordinator of a local civil society group, Arsene Kasiama, said the landslide also fell on people shopping at a market.

He gave a death toll of 11, with seven seriously injured survivors and more than 60 people still missing.

Poor urban planning and weak infrastructure across the Congo make communities more vulnerable to extreme rainfall, which is becoming more intense and frequent in Africa due to warming temperatures, according to climate experts.
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A year since war broke out in Sudan, analysts foresee no end to the conflict and say the longer it drags on, the more likely Sudan will become a breeding ground for terrorist groups. VOA spoke via video to a volunteer at one of the last functioning hospitals in Omdurman. Henry Wilkins reports.
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Foumban, Cameroon — To enter the Museum of the Bamoun Kings in western Cameroon, you have to pass under the fangs of a gigantic two-headed snake — the highlight of an imposing coat of arms of one of the oldest kingdoms in sub-Saharan Africa.

Thousands of Cameroonians gathered in the royal palace square in Foumban on Saturday to celebrate the opening of the Museum of the Bamoun Kings.

Sultan King Mouhammad Nabil Mforifoum Mbombo Njoya welcomed 2,000 guests to the opening of the museum located in Foumban — the historic capital of the Bamoun Kings.

The royal family, descendants of a monarchy that dates back six centuries, attended the event dressed in traditional ceremonial attire with colorful boubous and matching fezzes.

Griot narrators in multicolored boubous played drums and long traditional flutes while palace riflemen fired shots to punctuate the arrival of distinguished guests which included ministers and diplomats.

Then, princes and princesses from the Bamoun chieftaincies performed the ritual Ndjah dance in yellow robes and animal masks.

For Cameroon, such a museum dedicated to the history of a kingdom is “unique in its scope”, Armand Kpoumie Nchare, author of a book about the Bamoun kingdom, told AFP.

“This is one of the rare kingdoms to have managed to exist and remain authentic, despite the presence of missionaries, merchants and colonial administrators,” he said.

The Bamoun kingdom, founded in 1384, is one of the oldest in sub-Saharan Africa.

To honor the Bamoun, the museum was built in the shape of the kingdom’s coat of arms.

A spider, which is over 5,000 square meters (54,000 square feet), sits atop the building while the entrances represent the two-headed serpent.

“This is a festival for the Bamoun people. We’ve come from all over to experience this unique moment,” 50-year-old spectator Ben Oumar said.

“It’s a proud feeling to attend this event. We’ve been waiting for it for a long time,” civil servant Mahamet Jules Pepore said.

The museum contains 12,500 pieces including weapons, pipes and musical instruments — only a few of which were previously displayed in the royal palace.

“It reflects the rich, multi-century creativity of these people, both in terms of craftsmanship and art — Bamoun drawings — as well as the technological innovations of the peasants at various periods: Mills, wine presses etc.,” Nchare said.

Also on display are items from the life of the most famous Bamoun King, Ibrahim Njoya, who reigned from 1889 to 1933 and created Bamoune Script, a writing system that contains over 500 syllabic signs.

The museum exhibits his manuscripts and a corn-grinding machine he invented.

“We pay tribute to a king who was simultaneously a guardian and a pioneer… a way for us to be proud of our past in order to build the future” and “show that Africa is not an importer of thoughts,” Njoya’s great-grandson, the 30-year-old Sultan King Mouhammad said.

To commemorate his grandfather’s work, former Sultan King Ibrahim Mbombo Njoya launched the construction of the museum in 2013 after realizing the palace rooms were too cramped.

The opening of the museum comes months after the Nguon of the Bamoun people, a set of rituals celebrated in a popular annual festival, joined UNESCO’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

 
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BANGUI, Central African Republic — It was too late for the mother to shield her children when the two masked and armed Russian fighters burst into her home, held her at gunpoint and took turns raping her. Her five children were forced to watch in the dark. 

Seated in a restaurant in Central African Republic’s capital, to which she fled after the attack, she wiped away tears. Two years on, the assault has “stayed with me in my core,” she said. The Associated Press does not identify survivors of sexual assault. 

She blamed the Russians who are part of the Wagner mercenary group that operates alongside Central African Republic’s army and has been accused by locals and rights groups of abuses. She had seen them patrolling in her town of Bambari before. On the day of the assault, they were fighting rebels there. 

Gender-based violence is rising in Central African Republic amid ongoing conflict, weak legal and care systems, and the stigma attached to speaking up, locals and aid groups say. 

Since 2020, incidents have jumped from about 9,200 reported cases to 25,500, according to cases tracked by the U.N. and partners. 

But international funding for the country has dropped, with gender-based violence receiving some of the least support. The humanitarian request for about $14 million received less than 15% of that, according to the U.N. 

Central African Republic has been in conflict since 2013, when predominantly Muslim rebels seized power and forced the president from office. Mostly Christian militias fought back. A 2019 peace deal only lessened the fighting, and six of the 14 armed groups that signed later left the agreement. 

Wagner, a U.N. peacekeeping mission and Rwandan troops are all on the ground to try to quell the violence. 

“More than 10 years on since this crisis unfolded, many people are still displaced, vulnerable and live at the mercy of armed groups,” said Lewis Mudge, Central Africa director for Human Rights Watch. “A new dynamic has emerged as well whereby mercenaries aligned with the government are also, at times, preying on the local population.” 

Most likely don’t report

Doctors Without Borders, one of the main organizations working on gender-based violence, says it has seen an increase in patients due to the expansion of services and outreach. But it says the majority of survivors likely don’t come forward, often because help is not available where they live. 

The 37-year-old who fled to the capital, Bangui, said she received mental health treatment and assistance for her children from an international aid group. She’s too afraid to return home and survives by selling charcoal in the market and on handouts from friends. She never reported the attack to police because she thought it was futile. 

“Who can arrest the Russians in this country?” she asked. 

A local fighter who works with Wagner asserted that he saw six of the Russians rape a local woman in the tent where he was sleeping at their base in Bambari in early 2023. He said the Russians give women canned food like sardines or bottled water afterward. He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. 

The Russian government didn’t respond to questions. 

Women don’t usually blame Wagner because its fighters are so entrenched in communities that they fear retaliation, aid groups said. During a visit by The Associated Press in March, Russians could be seen driving trucks around Bangui and walking in the western town of Bouar. 

Women who come forward find it hard to receive justice, said Lucie Boalo Mbassinga, vice president of the Association for Women Lawyers for Central Africa. She said they had 213 cases of sexual assault and rape reported in 2022 and 304 cases in 2023. Sometimes women open a case against local fighters but withdraw it because perpetrators’ families pay survivors not to proceed, she said. 

The challenges are compounded by funding cuts. 

In November, Mbassinga’s organization closed a program that was helping survivors across eight provinces, including in the capital, because there was no more money, she said. The cuts by the U.N. Development Program have prevented staff from reaching women in more rural areas, accompanying them to court, and providing medical and mental health support, she said. 

“Victims are abandoned,” Mbassinga said. She suggested having mobile courts to better reach rural areas. 

Donor fatigue and multiple global crises are part of the reason for cuts in funding, but some diplomats and aid workers say the presence of Wagner mercenaries embedded so closely with the government and in communities makes it hard to justify giving aid. There are concerns that funding could be associated with Wagner. 

Other culprits

But not only Wagner fighters are accused of rape. 

The AP spoke with three women who said they had been sexually assaulted. One blamed Wagner. One blamed an armed bandit. One, a security guard, blamed a U.N. peacekeeper. 

The 39-year-old security guard said she was assaulted in November while on the night shift in Bangui at the peacekeeper’s home. He left her about $65 when it was over, she said. 

She asked her supervisor to be transferred to another house but never reported the attack. Her pastor cautioned against it to keep her job. 

The U.N. mission didn’t receive any allegation of sexual assault involving its personnel last November, spokesman Vladimir Monteiro said, and stressed that the U.N. takes such allegations seriously. 

The U.N. has long wrestled with allegations of sexual assaults by U.N. peacekeepers in Central African Republic and elsewhere. Three years ago, the secretary-general ordered the immediate repatriation of the entire U.N. Gabonese peacekeeping contingent following credible reports of sexual abuse. 

The government’s justice ministry didn’t respond to requests for comment. The new constitution has measures to tackle the issue, saying authorities must ensure that sexual assault is eliminated. 

But that comes as little comfort for survivors. 

In December, a 29-year-old woman said she was assaulted at a market about 124 miles (200 kilometers) from Bangui. Three men with knives and machetes robbed her and one raped her. 

She didn’t report it because she didn’t know the man and thought police would refuse to investigate. 

Now the mother of two wants to move on. She finds comfort in a program run by Doctors Without Borders, meeting weekly with a dozen other survivors. 

“The advice I’ve been given is to not think about the aggressor and to stay busy,” she said.
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