Cameroonian authorities say Anglophone separatists have been trying to disrupt the continent’s top soccer tournament, the Africa Football Cup of Nations, which Cameroon is hosting. The military says rebels have launched small-scale attacks in the towns of Buea and Limbe, which are holding matches. Authorities have also blamed the separatists for the killing of a Cameroonian lawmaker this week.

In a video shared by Cameroon separatist fighters on social media platforms, armed men are seen shooting indiscriminately in the air while ordering about 15 children dressed in school uniforms to strip naked.

In the video, two armed men brandish weapons and threaten to kill any student who attempts to disobey the fighters’ orders. Other voices are heard ordering the students to lie down or be killed. The students plead for their lives to be spared.

Cameroon’s Secondary Education Ministry Friday said the incident happened Thursday near Government High School Buea. Buea is a town in Cameroon’s English-speaking South-West region.

The ministry says 15 students were on their way to school when separatist fighters stopped and assaulted them. None of the students was injured, but their school has been closed since Thursday, the government said.

The military acknowledged Thursday’s attack on students. In a release read over Cameroon state radio, CRTV, military spokesperson Colonel Cyrille Serge Atonfack Guemo blames separatists for the attack.

Anglophone separatists fighting in Cameroon’s western regions to break away from the majority French-speaking nation have vowed to disrupt the continent’s top soccer tournament in Buea and Limbe.

Buea and Limbe are hosting football fans, players and match officials for group matches for teams from Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, and Tunisia.

The military says it has been in running battles with fighters since the tournament began Sunday ((1/9)).

Twenty-one-year-old University of Buea student Clementine Yaji says many people have been wounded in heavy gunfire and shooting in the outskirts of Buea. He spoke via a messaging app from Buea.

“People have been shot, some wounded. We have been scared because of those gunshots. It is really tense here and students cannot study under such a tense environment so we are pleading with the government to try and see how they will resolve this issue [shooting] in Buea, he spoke via a messaging app from Buea.

The Cameroon military says the separatists have increased attempts to infiltrate Buea and Limbe. The military says separatists are frustrated over their inability to disrupt matches of the Africa Football Cup of Nations.

Capo Daniel is deputy defense chief of the Ambazonia Defense Forces, a rebel group in Cameroon’s western regions.

“One Cameroon military man died in that attack, two others later died in the hospital, bringing a total of three Cameroon [military] casualties during this football tournament. We have also destroyed one armored personnel carrier of the Cameroon military. In addition to this, a Cameroon government school was closed down,” he says.

The military says none of its troops died and none of its equipment was destroyed. Civilians say they saw government troops evacuating the corpse of their colleague after heavy gun battles in Mutengene, a town near Buea.

The military says it has killed several fighters around Limbe and Buea but gives no details.

The military also blames separatists for Tuesday’s killing of an influential lawyer and opposition member of the Senate, the upper house of Parliament.

Nobody has claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s killing of Henry Kemende in Bamenda, an English-speaking northwestern town.

Tamfu Richard, a human rights lawyer and member of the Cameroon Bar Council says the association of Cameroon lawyers has asked for investigations to be opened to determine Kemende’s killers.

“This is somebody who has always been seeking for social justice. My heart bleeds sincerely. This is somebody who was an outstanding lawyer within the Cameroon Bar Association, who was outstanding when he went [was elected] to the Senate. It is a shame on those who did that to [killed] him,” Richard says.

The military says two other people were also killed by separatists this week in Bamenda, and three civilians, including two women, were abducted and taken to an unknown destination.

Cameroon’s government and the military this week said attacks have increased in English-speaking western regions since the tournament started, but that English-speaking towns hosting it are safe. The government says troops will protect all civilians and calls on people to cooperate with the military by reporting suspects and strangers in their towns and villages. 
…

Namibian authorities say thousands of Angolans who entered Namibia in the past year to escape drought back home, have been returning amid fresh rains. Authorities this month said at least 18 Angolan infants, whose parents fled hunger, died in Namibia from malnutrition.

The acting health director in the Omusati region of northern Namibia, Dr. Francina Ananias, said most of the Angolan migrants arrived in the country in terrible condition, leading to the deaths of several infants, who had accompanied their mothers in search of food and water.

“We assessed them to find out that they had malnutrition,” said Ananias. “So, we have been giving them formulas that we have so that they can pick up, but unfortunately some of them died.”

The governor of the Omusati region, Erginus Endjala, who oversees the migrants’ safe return to Angola, said the recent rains have encouraged them to return home in order to tend to their fields.

“For the past five years, they did not receive enough rain. It means climate change have really brought severe drought to that part of Angola, that’s now the southern part of Angola,” Endjala Ananias. “When they came you could see from their bodies that they were malnourished and of course, as a result, some of those kids could not survive due to the lack of food and also their mothers did not have enough milk to breastfeed them. That is the reason I think we have recorded that high number of infant mortalities.”

Local journalist Maria Davids spoke to some of the migrants who are being repatriated by the Namibian government to Angola.

“The group were excited to return home, saying they were willing to re-start over and be re-united with their families,” said Davids.

In Namibia and Angola, incidents of hunger, both rural and urban, are increasing. The COVID-19 pandemic, drought and changing weather patterns are reversing gains made in terms of both countries realizing United Nations sustainable development goals.
…

Western diplomats fear the spread of extremist groups and persistent economic and social problems in Western Africa and the Sahel are nearing a tipping point that could have disastrous consequences for the region and beyond. 

The officials from both Europe and the United States warned Thursday that international efforts have so far failed to counter factors that are driving young people to take up arms and called for increased cooperation with countries in the region. 

“The rise of violent extremism and the worsening of the humanitarian situation in the Sahel and the wider West African region is threatening the future of the entire African continent and of all of us,” European Union Ambassador to the U.S. Stavros Lambrinidis told the virtual conference. “This is as high stakes as it gets.” 

U.S. officials described the situation as no less dire. 

“Despite a decade of robust international investments, the region continues to trend in the wrong direction,” said U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Michael Gonzales. 

“Armed groups continue to expand their presence as well as their capabilities and their violence,” Gonzales added. “We need to address the underlying drivers of insecurity more holistically in order to turn the tide.” 

The biggest concern has been Mali, where terrorists linked to groups like Islamic State and al-Qaida have continued to make inroads, and where the military government, which seized power in August 2020, postponed elections scheduled for this February until 2026. 

Earlier this week, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) imposed a series of sanctions against Mali’s interim government for refusing to hold elections as initially agreed, including the suspension of all commercial and financial transactions, and putting financial assistance on hold. 

The EU on Thursday announced it would follow suit with its own sanctions against Mali’s interim government. 

“Despite all the warnings that we made to the Malian authorities, we see no sign of progress on the part of these authorities,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said following a meeting with the EU defense minister in the French city of Brest. 

“The risk that the situation in this country [Mali] continues to deteriorate is evident,” he said. “We will follow the situation closely.” 

Borell said that despite the imposition of sanctions, EU missions to Mali to train and advise Malian armed forces will continue. 

Mali’s ambassador to the United Nations decried the ECOWAS sanctions as “illegal, illegitimate and inhumane” but said the interim government remains open to additional talks with its neighbors.

Further complicating matters, European officials have raised concerns about Mali’s decision to bring in mercenaries from the Russia-based Wagner Group to bolster its security forces – a charge that Mali’s interim government has denied. 

The U.S. Defense Department, while declining to confirm the reports, described the prospect as worrying. 

“Given the Wagner Group’s record, any role for Russian-backed Wagner Group forces in Mali will likely exacerbate an already fragile and unstable situation,” spokesperson Cynthia King told VOA.

The U.S. suspended military training and cooperation with Mali following the August 2020 coup. 

Germany, which has about 1,000 troops in Mali, has said it would be taking another look at its mission. France, which had 3,000 troops in Mali, has slowly been reducing its military footprint, withdrawing from all but one of its military bases in the country. 

Despite the drawdown, French officials insist they remain committed to helping Mali defeat terrorist groups on its soil. 

“France will not abandon Mali or the other Sahel countries,” French Ambassador to the U.S. Philippe Etienne told Thursday’s virtual conference on the region. “At the request of African nations, France is continuing to combat these armed groups in the Sahel with very appreciated support from the United States.” 

“Young recruits who join these terrorist organizations are doing this not necessarily because they want to engage in jihad but also because they have no other prospects,” he said. “Stabilizing the Sahel in the long term will take time, and there’s a long way to go.” 

Emanuela Del Re, the EU special representative for the Sahel, said the goal, ultimately, is to “keep Mali engaged and not isolate it.” 

“We must keep the dialogue open and alive and hold the transitional authorities to their commitments,” she said.

VOA’s Margaret Besheer and Annie Risemberg contributed to this report.
…

Africa Cup of Nations – Day 5

Cameroon vs Ethiopia | 4-1

Cape Verde vs Burkina Faso | 0-1

 
…

Human Rights Watch has released its World Report for 2022, which gives a country-by-country review of human rights in more than 100 states over the last year. 

In the HRW report released Thursday, which cites reporting by VOA at times, the monitoring group criticizes governments in the western Sahel region and their international partners, including France, the EU and the U.S., for reluctance to hold security forces to account for human rights abuses. 

Ida Sawyer is the deputy director of HRW’s Africa division. 

 “We’ve seen how international partners have regularly issued statements to denounce abuses by Islamic armed groups, but they remain reluctant to denounce abuses by pro-government forces or to publicly press the national authorities to investigate the allegations of abuse,” Sawyer said.

Sawyer added that some international partners offering military support in the region were also failing to hold their own armed forces to account for alleged abuses. 

“We have specifically called for a thorough investigation into allegations that a French airstrike killed 19 civilians in Bounti village in central Mali last January,” Sawyer said.

France has denied the findings of a U.N. report into the incident, saying the people killed were combatants and the report is “biased.” 

Meanwhile, Sahel governments have rejected accusations by HRW that their armed forces are committing atrocities. For example, Burkina Faso’s government denied a HRW report in 2020 saying that more than 180 people were executed and buried in a mass grave in the northern town of Djibo.

Mali — and later Niger and Burkina Faso — has been embroiled in a conflict with armed groups linked to Islamic State and al-Qaida since 2012.

According to data by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, more than 8,000 civilians died in the conflict in those countries during that period. 

The report says that Sahel governments and international partners have taken steps to engage security forces in human rights training. 

The report also expresses concerns for the human rights of people displaced by the conflict. The United Nations refugee agency says there are almost 3.5 million displaced people in the western Sahel. 

Alexandra Lamarche, senior advocate for West and Central Africa at Refugees International, spoke with VOA.

“Numerous reports of atrocities and human rights violations, including murder, rape, torture and violent persecution based on ethnic and religious grounds,” Lamarche said.  “All of which fuels intercommunal violence and continues to force people to flee their homes and the temporary displacement camps they sought refuge in.”

Lamarche added that efforts have been made by governments to protect the displaced from such abuses.
…

A group of Kenyan LGBT students protested Thursday against a Cabinet minister’s recent suggestion they be banned from boarding schools. The schools are common in Kenya and the students and rights groups say a ban would be discriminatory and compromise their safety.

Dozens of angry students took to the streets of Nairobi Thursday in a peaceful protest to Kenya’s Ministry of Education.

They were armed with placards that denounced a suggestion by the Cabinet secretary for education, George Magoha, that homosexual students be barred from boarding schools.

MaryLiz Biubwa, one of the protesters, said Magoha’s comment is beginning to have an effect at some schools.

“Because of the directive Magoha has given, I have two students who have reached out, one I am planning to start the journey of helping them tomorrow, because she was already sent out of school. She has KCSE in March, she can’t go back because she will be told she is gay,” said Biubwa.

KCSE is Kenya’s certificate of secondary school examination.

In their two-page petition to the education secretary, the protesters called on him to withdraw his December remarks, and to criminalize all types of phobias they say put people’s lives at risk, including the lives of homosexual students.

Makena Njeri is the founder of Bold Africa, a gay rights network.

“Being a gay student going through high school already was a challenge all the way down to even being very close to being expelled. This already is discriminating me as a child when I was growing up.Now that the government is adding more pressure to institutions to continue discriminating [against] the kids [and] is something that we’ll not stand,” said Njeri.

Kenya is one of many African countries that outlaw homosexuality.

VOA has established that the cabinet secretary has yet to officially order boarding schools in Kenya to bar suspected gay students.

A state education official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said ordinarily, a formal circular would be sent to all heads of boarding schools.

“Implementing such a directive would be very difficult and can lead to a lot of fury. You can see that the statement he made is already causing chaos. What if a principal of a school was seen doing that? it would be a disaster,” said the education official.

The LGBT community leaders who presented their petition to the Ministry of Education are expected to meet with Magoha next week.
…

The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the Nobel Peace Prize, said Thursday that Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who won the honor in 2019, bore special responsibility for ending the bloodshed in Tigray.

“As Prime Minister and winner of the Peace Prize, Abiy Ahmed has a special responsibility to end the conflict and contribute to peace,” Berit Reiss-Andersen, chair of the committee, said in a statement to AFP.

Northern Ethiopia has been beset by conflict since November 2020 when Abiy sent troops into Tigray after accusing the region’s ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), of attacks on federal army camps. 

The fighting between forces loyal to Abiy and the TPLF and their allies has killed thousands of people and forced several million from their homes.

Tigray is under what the United Nations calls a de facto blockade that is preventing life-saving medicine and food from reaching millions, including hundreds of thousands in famine-like conditions.

“The humanitarian situation is very serious and it is not acceptable that humanitarian aid does not get through sufficiently,” Reiss-Andersen said.

Speaking at a press conference, Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth appealed for countries to press Abiy to allow aid to get through.

“The big threat there is the Ethiopian government’s blockade of humanitarian assistance that is desperately needed by millions of people in the region,” Roth told reporters.

“This is a classic case of collective punishment. This is not punishing Tigrayan military forces. It is punishing the people… in Tigray,” he added.

The conflict in Tigray has sparked calls to strip Abiy of the Nobel, but this is not possible under the award’s statutes.

The Norwegian committee said it could not comment on what factors were emphasized when the prize was awarded to Abiy beyond “the reasons given in connection with the award,” as the panel’s discussions are confidential.

Abiy’s prize “was awarded on the basis of his efforts and the legitimate expectations that existed in 2019,” Reiss-Andersen said.

“The peace initiatives that Abiy Ahmed launched and for which he received the Nobel Prize were based on his contribution to the peace agreement with Eritrea and his comprehensive political initiative for democracy and the development of civil rights,” she added.
…

Africa Cup of Nations – Day 3, Jan. 11, 2022

Algeria vs Sierra Leone | 0-0

Nigeria vs Egypt | 1-0

Sudan vs Guinea Bissau | 0-0

 
…

Iran, Venezuela and Sudan are in arrears on paying dues to the United Nations’ operating budget and are among eight nations that will lose their voting rights in the 193-member General Assembly, the U.N. chief said in a letter circulated Wednesday.

Also losing voting rights are Antigua and Barbuda, Republic of Congo, Guinea, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in the letter to General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid.

The suspension takes effect immediately.

The U.N. Charter states that members whose arrears equal or exceed the amount of their contributions for the preceding two full years lose their voting rights. But it also gives the General Assembly the authority to decide “that the failure to pay is due to conditions beyond the control of the member,” and in that case, a country can continue to vote.

The General Assembly decided that three African countries on the list of nations in arrears — Comoros, Sao Tome and Principe, and Somalia — would be able to keep their voting rights.

According to the secretary-general’s letter, the minimum payments needed to restore voting rights are $18,412,438 for Iran, $39,850,761 for Venezuela and $299,044 for Sudan. The five other countries each need less than $75,000 to restore their voting rights.

Iran also lost its voting rights in January 2021. It regained those rights in June after making the minimum payment on its dues and lashed out at the United States for maintaining sanctions that have prevented it from accessing billions of dollars in foreign banks. At that time, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq thanked banking and government authorities in various places, including South Korea, for enabling the payment to be made.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran after pulling the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and six major powers in 2018.
…

Severe drought is affecting more than three million people in Somalia and southeast Ethiopia, says the aid group International Rescue Committee (IRC). The IRC says the two Horn of Africa nations are among 20 countries in the world most at risk for a worsening humanitarian crisis this year. 

Ethiopia and Somalia are among 20 countries on the International Rescue Committee’s emergency watchlist for 2022.

Richard Crothers is the IRC country director for Somalia. He said the humanitarian situation in the two countries is not good.

“The Horn of Africa has been on the verge of crisis for some time. There have been several failed consecutive rainy seasons. We have a situation right now where we are having a significant amount of food insecurity, human displacement,” he said.

The IRC says the lack of rainfall has led to the driest conditions in 40 years in parts of Somalia and Ethiopia.

At least 3 million people have been affected by drought and more than 170,000 have fled their homes in search of water, pasture and humanitarian assistance. 

Forty-seven-year-old Noor Ahmed fled his hometown with his 60 cattle.

He said he transported his cattle from Bir-qod to Harorays town. In Harorays district, the local administration and the people welcomed us. I am still here. He said there are some challenges. The cattle are finding it difficult to adapt to the area and we need some medicine. We use water from the borehole but we don’t have enough storage. He says if we can get a place to store the water, that could help us a lot.”

Crothers said women and children are the most affected by the drought.

“Particularly the children under 5 are the most hit, its destroying livelihoods, crops and herds of cattle once large have been diminished…so it’s a rather desperate situation as usual, it’s particularly women and children that get hit the hardest,” he said.

Abdiaziz Bashir is a businessman based in the port city of Kismayo, who deals with buying and selling livestock. He lost 99 animals to the drought.

He said, I had 118 livestock. Only 19 survived. I lost the rest to the drought. I am yet to recover from that loss, Bashir said. He added, the only good thing is that I no longer spend money on food to feed the remaining animals they can get water and pasture for now.

Aid agencies in Ethiopia and Somalia say food prices have gone up and some people cannot afford basic food to feed their families.

The IRC says it has launched a response in Ethiopia’s Somali region, and says more money is needed to scale up humanitarian assistance in other areas.

The agencies call for more funding to support cash assistance, food, water and sanitation facilities to combat health challenges. 
…

An opposition senator was shot dead in western Cameroon where a bloody insurgency has been waged by anglophone separatists against the state, his party and an official said.

Lawmaker Henry Kemende, whose body was found Wednesday, “was killed (overnight) by unidentified armed assailants”, a local communications ministry official confirmed on condition of anonymity.

He had been a lawyer and lawmaker for the Social Democratic Front (SDF), one of Cameroon’s main opposition parties.

The killing happened in Bamenda, a major town in the country’s northwest region which, along with the southwest, has seen a spate of insurgent violence by members of the regions’ anglophone minority against the predominantly French-speaking security forces.

“We recovered his body, his chest riddled with bullets,” Joshua Osih, the vice president of the SDF, confirmed to AFP. 

The vehicle in which the victim was travelling at the time of the attack had “disappeared”, he added.

A senate official who requested anonymity confirmed the information to AFP.

No one had come forward to claim the killing as of Wednesday afternoon.

“We assume it’s the ‘Ambazonians’,” Osih suggested, referring to the armed anglophone insurgent groups.

Cameroon has been torn by violence since October 2017, when militants declared an independent state in the northwest and southwest, home to most of the anglophone minority in the majority French-speaking country.

Both the separatists and government forces have been accused of atrocities in the fighting, which has killed more than 3,000 people and forced over 700,000 to flee their homes.

Armed groups are regularly accused of abducting, killing or injuring civilians whom they accuse of “collaborating” with Cameroonian authorities. 

Several SDF leaders have been targeted previously including John Fru Ndi, the party’s president.

Fru Ndi has run several times against President Paul Biya, 88, who has ruled the country with an iron grip for nearly 40 years. 

Osih said separatist elements opposed the SDF because it is a predominantly English-speaking party that participates in the political process and is opposed to the partition of Cameroon.

It is the third largest party in the national assembly, the lower house which, like the senate, is dominated by Biya’s RDPC party. 

NGOs and the UN accuse Biya of repressing dissent in the English-speaking areas as well as clamping down hard on political opponents.
…

The African members of the U.N. Security Council urged their counterparts on Tuesday to support sanctions imposed this week on Mali’s coup leaders by a bloc of West African nations. 

“We call for the Security Council to respect and embrace the determination of the heads of state and government of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), that the proposal by the authorities to extend the transition to five years is unacceptable and that an expedited transition to constitutional rule in Mali should be undertaken without delay,” Michel Biang, Gabon’s U.N. ambassador, told the 15-nation council on behalf of his government, Ghana and Kenya. The three African states currently hold seats on the Security Council. 

In a special summit on January 9, ECOWAS members imposed sanctions on Mali’s military government, which seized power in a coup, after it said it would not hold elections on Feb. 27, 2022, but at the end of 2025. 

The sanctions include the closing of land and air borders between ECOWAS member states and Mali; the suspension of all commercial and financial transactions (with humanitarian exemptions); the freezing of assets and public enterprises located in the region in commercial banks; and the suspension of financial assistance from ECOWAS. 

Mali responded by closing its borders with ECOWAS states and recalling its ambassadors. 

“The number one interest of the A3 (Gabon, Ghana and Kenya) is in a peaceful and secure Mali, whose government reflects the will of its people and that is in full control of its territory,” Kenya’s U.N. envoy Martin Kimani told reporters following the meeting. 

He urged the Malian authorities to comply with ECOWAS’s conditions for the gradual removal of the sanctions by producing an acceptable transitional calendar. 

“In his address to the nation on 10 January, our president stated that despite the illegal, illegitimate and inhumane nature of these decisions, Mali remains open to dialogue with ECOWAS to strike a balance between the interests of the Malian people and respect for the principles of the organization,” Issa Konfourou, Mali’s U.N. ambassador, said of Interim President Assimi Goita. 

The United Nations, which has more than 15,000 peacekeeping troops and police in the country, urged a quick resolution to issues linked to the transition. 

“A protracted impasse will make it much harder to find a consensual way out, while increasing hardship for the population and further weakening state capacity,” the head of the U.N. mission, El-Ghassim Wane, told the council. “Such a scenario will have far-reaching consequences for Mali and its neighbors.” 

Mercenaries 

Several Western council members expressed concern about reports that Russian-backed mercenaries have been invited to Mali by the transitional military government. 

“The confirmed presence of the Wagner Group in Mali risks destabilizing the country further,” Britain’s Deputy U.N. envoy James Kariuki told the council, referring to the contractors by name. 

“The deployment of mercenaries will only increase the challenges facing Mali,” he said. “We urge the Malian authorities to rethink their decision.” 

“We regret the fact that transitional authorities are using already limited public funds to pay foreign mercenaries, rather than supporting the national forces and public services for the benefit of the Malian people,” French Ambassador Nicolas de Riviere said. “France and its closest partners robustly condemn the deployment on Malian territory of mercenaries from the Wagner Group who are known to threaten civilians, pillage resources, violate international law and the sovereignty of states.” 

Western states have accused Wagner mercenaries of involvement in conflicts in Libya, Syria, the Central African Republic and Ukraine. 

Russia has denied any links with the group, and its envoy dismissed his counterparts’ accusations. 

“We believe Malians have every right to interact with other partners that are ready to cooperate in promoting security,” Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said. “The hysteria around a Russian private military company is another manifestation of double standards, because it is well known that this market is dominated by Western countries.” 

Mali’s envoy denied that mercenaries are present on its territory, saying those who accuse the government are engaging in a “false information campaign.”

Konfourou said the two countries have a long relationship dating to the 1960s and currently, Moscow has military personnel in Mali to train its military on Russian equipment. 
…

Eight soldiers including a high-ranking commander have been detained over a “plot to destabilize” Burkina Faso’s institutions, military prosecutors and security sources said Tuesday. 

The military prosecutor’s office in the capital, Ouagadougou, said it had learned of an “allegation of a project to destabilize the institutions of the republic being planned by a group of soldiers.” 

The office learned of the plot on Saturday after “a member of the gang” denounced the plan, it said in a statement. 

An investigation has been launched and eight soldiers have been detained for questioning, the statement added. 

The West African nation’s government has come under sustained pressure over failures to stem the bloodshed of a brutal six-year jihadist insurgency that claimed about 2,000 lives and forced 1.4 million from their homes. 

Security sources told AFP that Lieutenant Colonel Emmanuel Zoungrana, the commander of western forces fighting jihadists in the country, was among those arrested. 

One of the security sources said that “suspicions of a plot to destabilize (the government) with ramifications abroad” hung over Zoungrana and several soldiers since protests in November. 

Hundreds took to the streets on November 27 to protest the state’s inability to stop the jihadist violence, with about 10 injured in clashes between demonstrators and police. 

Tensions had been raised after 57 people, including 53 police officers, were killed by a jihadi attack that overran a northern Inata base earlier in November. 

Two weeks before the Inata attack, the police based there had warned the authorities of their precarious situation, saying they were so short of food and were relying on poaching to eat. 

Last month in a bid to defuse public anger over the jihadi violence, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore accepted the government’s resignation. 

Lassina Zerbo, a former U.N. official who was installed as the prime minister of the new government, has called for “cohesion” in the face of the jihadi threat. 

Like its neighbors Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso has been caught in a spiral of violence since 2015, attributed to jihadi groups affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State militant group. 
…

The U.N. human rights office says it is seriously concerned about what it sees as a deteriorating human rights situation in Tunisia and is calling on the government to protect and respect the rights and freedoms of its people.

One of the latest gross violations occurred on December 31. On that day, two men, one a member of parliament and former justice minister, and the second man, a former interior ministry official, were snatched from their homes by men in plain clothes. They subsequently were bundled into cars and driven away without any explanation to unknown destinations.

U.N. human rights spokeswoman Liz Throssell says the lawmaker, Noureddine Bhiri, subsequently was put under house arrest. Since he has a heart condition, he has been transferred to a hospital, where he remains under guard.

The second man taken away, identified in media reports as Fathi Baldi, is now under house arrest.

Throssel says the men reportedly are suspected of terrorism-related offenses, though neither has been formally charged.

“Although the men’s families and the U.N. Human Rights Office in Tunisia have since been able to visit them, these two incidents echo practices not seen since the Ben Ali era and raise serious questions regarding abduction, enforced disappearance and arbitrary detention,” Throssel said.

Ben Ali was Tunisia’s authoritarian leader from 1987 until he was ousted by Arab Spring street protests in 2011. He died in self-exile in Saudi Arabia in 2019.

The U.N. rights office is urging Tunisian authorities to promptly let the men do free or charge them according to due process standards for criminal proceedings.

Following violent demonstrations on September 1, spokeswoman Throssell says President Kais Saied called on the country’s Internal Security Forces to change their practices and respect the rights and freedoms of the Tunisian people.  

However, she noted authorities have yet to translate their words into action.

“As well as the actions of the Internal Security Forces, we are concerned at the stifling of dissent in Tunisia, including through the improper use of counter-terrorism legislation, and the increasing use of military courts to try civilians, which raise serious concerns regarding the equitable, impartial and independent administration of justice,” Throssell said.

U.N. officials say Tunisia has made tremendous progress toward promoting and realizing human rights over the past decade. They urge authorities to continue in that pathway.  

They call on them to reform the security and justice sectors so they are fully compliant with Tunisia’s international human rights obligations.
…

A Ugandan author who wrote critical comments about President Yoweri Museveni’s son has been charged with offensive communications. Kakwenza Rukirabashaija’s lawyer says he was tortured in detention.  

Award-winning writer Kakwenza Rukirabashaija appeared before a court Tuesday and was charged with two counts of offensive communication.

Rukirabashaija was arrested on December 28 and taken from his Kampala home. The government says he was using his Twitter account to offend President Yoweri Museveni and his son, Commander of Land Forces Lieutenant General Muhoozi Kainerugaba.

The writer’s lawyer, Eron Kiiza, tells VOA he was not made aware of his client’s court appearance until later.

“This was a clandestine move intended to deny him an opportunity for legal representation and an opportunity to pursue his legal remedies like bail and opposing the charges which are bogus,” said Kiiza.

Rukirabashaija’s court appearance comes a day after the high court issued an order for it to take place before the close of business Wednesday.

The magistrate Tuesday also issued an order for him to be subjected to a medical examination by prison authorities to ascertain his health status.

During a January 3rd search at his home in Iganga district in the Eastern region, the writer reportedly whispered to his wife that he had been tortured. Photos of his blood-stained undergarments were later posted on social media. 

The author was allegedly detained at the Special Forces Command facility in Entebbe, a claim the army vehemently denied.

The award-winning writer has been remanded to a prison facility until January 21, when he reappears before a court.

This is the third time he has been arrested. The first time was in April 2020 for his novel, The Greedy Barbarian, a fictional account of high-level corruption. He was again arrested the following September for his second novel titled Banana Republic, which detailed torture. 

He won the PEN Pinter Prize International Writer of Courage Award in 2021.
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Kenya experienced a nationwide power outage on Tuesday after a major transmission line collapsed.

Blackouts were reported in many parts of Kenya after the power line fell to the ground in Nairobi.

At least 25 million people had lost power in Nairobi, western and central Kenya, the Rift Valley region and the Nyanza region.

State-controlled Kenya Power said in a statement that electricity has since been restored to all parts of the country.

Earlier, Kenya Power blamed the outage on a tower collapse along the Kiambere- Embekasi transmission line.

Kenyans depend on Kenya Power, the main electricity provider in the country.

In December, another power line in the town of Suswa collapsed, resulting in power rationing across the country.

In May 2020, a geothermal power plant about 75 kilometers outside Nairobi broke down, leaving much of the country without power for hours.
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The South African man charged with arson for burning down large parts of the country’s historic parliament buildings has also been charged with terrorism. 

Forty-nine-year-old Zandile Christmas Mafe made his second appearance in court Tuesday.  He is now facing several charges related to the fire, including terrorism, arson, breaking and entering and theft. 

Mafe was arrested shortly after the fire erupted at the parliament buildings in Cape Town in the early hours of January 2nd.

He was allegedly found with laptops, documents and crockery in his possession.  Prosecutors now say he was also in possession of an explosive device, hence the additional terrorism charge.

In his first court appearance his lawyer denied all charges against him.

Mafe has since changed lawyers, and is now being represented by the famous Dali Mpofu, who is affiliated with the left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters political party.

Mpfou has also been representing the country’s former president Jacob Zuma, who was jailed for contempt of court.

Mafe’s bail hearing was postponed till the 11th of February and he will be detained in a psychiatric institute.

It was revealed that he’d already been sent for psychiatric observation on January 3rd and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.  

The estimated damage to the parliament complex is just over 14 million U.S. dollars. That excludes the cost of moveable assets inside, like computers and furniture.
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In male-dominated societies like Burkina Faso, wives are most often blamed when marriages run into trouble. But a project funded by the World Bank is testing the concept of teaching men how to be better husbands by taking them to school. Henry Wilkins reports from Yako, Burkina Faso.

Camera: Henry Wilkins
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U.S. President Joe Biden spoke with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Monday, expressing his concern about ongoing hostilities in the country and recent airstrikes that killed dozens of civilians in the Tigray region. 

The White House said the two leaders “discussed ways to accelerate dialogue toward a negotiated ceasefire” after a year of civil war in the country that has left thousands of people dead and forced more than two million from their homes. 

The White House said Biden stressed “the urgency of improving humanitarian access across Ethiopia, and the need to address the human rights concerns of all affected Ethiopians, including concerns about detentions of Ethiopians under the state of emergency.” 

The Biden administration gave no indication of Abiy’s reaction to the U.S. leader’s concerns. 

The White House, in a statement about the call, said Biden “expressed concern that the ongoing hostilities, including recent air strikes, continue to cause civilian casualties and suffering, and he reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to work alongside the African Union and regional partners to help Ethiopians peacefully resolve the conflict.” 

“Both leaders underscored the importance of the U.S.-Ethiopia relationship, the potential to strengthen cooperation on a range of issues, and the need for concrete progress to resolve the conflict,” the White House said.

Biden made the call as aid agencies ceased operations in a northwest area of Ethiopia’s Tigray region, near the border with Eritrea, after an airstrike there late Friday killed 56 civilians displaced by the conflict and wounded 30 others.  

“Humanitarian partners suspended activities in the area due the ongoing threats of drone strikes,” the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a statement Sunday.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front, the party that has ruled Tigray for decades, condemned the airstrike.

In statement Saturday, the TPLF accused the Ethiopian government of targeting civilians and also accused Eritrean forces of attacking Tigrayan fighters in northwest Tigray. 

Ethiopia’s federal authorities did not immediately comment on the accusations or the U.N. announcement on the aid groups’ withdrawal.

But, since the outbreak of the war with Tigrayan rebels in November 2020, authorities have denied targeting civilians.
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Somali leaders have agreed to conclude the long-delayed parliamentary and presidential elections by February 25. Somalia’s international partners on Monday welcomed the deal but a political stand-off between the president and prime minister has some Somalis still skeptical.

According to Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimu, the spokesman of the prime minister, all involved in the electoral process should respect the rules in order to move forward.

He said in order to safeguard the close coordination of the electoral body, the national consultative council calls upon various levels of the poll management agency to respect the rules and regulations as per the existing electoral agreements. He added the council reiterates respect for the 30 percent quota of seats to be held for women in the ongoing process.

The indirect polls were supposed to be held more than a year ago, but were delayed by disputes over how they would be conducted. More recently, President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed and Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble have been at odds over election procedures, heightening the political tensions.

Residents of the capital Mogadishu who witnessed tensions linked to the electoral impasse have welcomed the deal.

Liban Mohamed said the new agreement reached is great because it brings together both Somali leadership and the people and we pray for its successive implementation.

However, many analysts are skeptical about the deal, especially the timeline.

Omar Abdulle is a political analyst and lecturer of political science and international relations at SIMAD university in Mogadishu.

He said the deal is generally welcomed but it will face three main challenges including the timeline set to conclude the parliamentary polls with 45 days. Secondly, the dispute resolution committee where the difference between president and prime minister started; and thirdly the agreement does not make it clear who will select the tribal leaders, which will result in conflict later.

The U.N. office in Somalia has urged Somali leaders to avoid provocations that risk new tensions or conflict and stay focused on delivering a credible electoral process quickly for the benefit of all.
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Authorities in Cameroon authorities say at least 25,000 villagers in the northeast who fled communal fighting to neighboring Chad last month have returned. But hundreds were left homeless by the fighting between ranchers and fishers, and more than 75,000 are reluctant to go home.

Cameroon’s ministry of territorial administration says at least 25,000 civilians who fled intercommunal violence along its northern border to Chad have returned home.

A statement read on Cameroon state radio CRTV on Monday said the civilians are returning because the area is once again peaceful.

The governor of Cameroon’s Far North Region, Midjiyawa Bakari, said a December peace mission to convince armed men to drop their weapons was a success.

He spoke to VOA via messaging application from Maroua, the capital of the Far North Region.

Bakari said thousands of civilians who fled to Chad because of the intercommunal violence between Arab Chao and ethnic Mousgoum have been returning to Cameroon each week since December 16. He said the returnees are responding to Cameroon President Paul Biya’s appeal for them to return home, seek peace, and develop their communities.

But Bakari said several hundred returnees were left homeless because their houses were torched in the conflict.

Authorities say clashes between ranchers and fishers over water and land erupted along the border on December 7, leaving at least 10 people dead and scores wounded.

The U.N. says the violence between the two communities pushed at least 102,000 civilians to flee to neighboring Chad.

Among the civilians who escaped to Chad is 41-year-old mother of two Anne Djigoue.

She told CRTV she returned from the Chadian capital N’djamena on January 2 when envoys sent by Cameroon’s government convinced her it was safe.

Djigoue said fighting between Arab Choua ranchers and ethnic Mousgoum fishers has brought agony to both communities. She said a few returnees are privileged to live in tent houses while a majority sleep in the open air. She said all of them need houses, water, and food.

Cameroonian authorities say many of those left homeless were able to stay with relatives or in village mosques or churches.

Mounouna Foutsou is minister of youth affairs and civic education in Mayo Danay on Cameroon’s border with Chad.

He said some of the returnees are seeking help.

Foutsou said as community leader in Mayo Danay, he has an obligation to plead with citizens living in Cameroon’s northern border to help their brothers and sisters returning from Chad. He said people who are not affected by the clashes should share their lodging, food, and water with returning civilians whose houses or farms were torched during the conflict.

Cameroonian authorities say they have rebuilt three markets that were torched in the conflict and are supplying food, seeds, and mattresses to resettle people affected by the clashes.

But community leaders say over 75,000 of the villagers who fled to Chad are still reluctant to return. 

The Cameroon Civil Society Organization says it will be difficult to convince many of those who fled to return without the government reconstructing homes and plantations that were destroyed. 
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Mali’s military government on Monday responded to West African sanctions by closing its borders and withdrawing ambassadors from nations imposing the penalties. Regional bloc ECOWAS imposed the new sanctions Sunday, after Mali’s military leaders postponed promised February elections.

In a communique following a summit in Ghana Sunday, leaders of the 15 ECOWAS countries effectively severed economic and diplomatic ties with Mali.  

The countries said they are withdrawing all ambassadors and closing land and air transit points with landlocked Mali because they said the military’s proposed five-year transition plan is unacceptable.

International relations and security expert Adam Bonaa has lauded ECOWAS for taking strong action to enforce its charter.

“The military, I keep saying, have no business in governance. If you want to govern, resign from being a military leader, put yourself up to be elected, campaign, spend resources and tell the people what you want to do. If they vote you into power, so be it, and if they don’t want you, keep trying. Let’s not allow this type of impunity to fester on or come back again,” he said.

Bonaa also called on France to respect the authority of ECOWAS and stay away from possibly interfering in Malian affairs.

“France has not taken its hands off Francophone West Africa. And for me this is something we should be looking out for, hoping that France would not interfere and make it look like ECOWAS cannot do anything. If they stay away from this, I don’t see how long the military leaders in Mali will survive from these particular sanctions,” Bonaa said.

In an address on Malian state television, Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga, a spokesman for the military authorities condemned the ECOWAS sanctions as “illegal and illegitimate.” He said the military government will also retaliate by recalling ambassadors accredited to ECOWAS member states.  

“ECOWAS has ulterior motives. The junta deplores the inhumane nature of these measures which affect populations already severely affected by the security crisis and the health crisis. The government wishes to reassure the nation that arrangements have been made to ensure the normal supply of goods and services,” Maiga said.

Innocent Badasu, an expert on regional issues, believes ECOWAS’ approach is not the best.  Instead, he said, the bloc should aim at winning the goodwill of the people of Mali and the trust of the coup leaders in order to restore constitutional rule.

“There must be an honest dialogue to win the trust of the Malian military leaders. Trust that will allow them to begin to think that their personal security is not at risk and that they can successfully hand over to a civilian rule and still have a life that they don’t need to be worried about,” Badasu said.

For the moment, Mali’s ECOWAS membership is suspended and members of the transitional authority and their relatives are subject to asset freezes and travel bans.
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Despite having the highest number of COVID infections in Africa, nearly two years into the pandemic, fewer than half of South African adults have been vaccinated. The government has been reluctant to order vaccine mandates, but private companies are to encouraging people to get the jab. Linda Givetash reports from Johannesburg.
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Aid agencies have suspended operations in an area of Ethiopia’s stricken Tigray region where a deadly air strike hit a camp for people displaced by the country’s 14-month war, the U.N. said Sunday.   

The raid came only hours after the Ethiopian government had issued a call for “national reconciliation” and sparked renewed appeals from an alarmed international community for an end to the brutal conflict.   

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a statement to AFP that the attack at midnight Friday in the town of Dedebit in northwestern Tigray had “caused scores of civilian casualties including deaths”, according to its preliminary information.    

“Humanitarian partners suspended activities in the area due to the ongoing threats of drone strikes,” it said.   

The rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) said the attack had killed 56 people, while an official at the region’s main hospital in the capital Mekele reported 55 dead and 126 injured.    

TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda also claimed in a Twitter post Sunday that the Eritrean military had launched attacks against its fighters in northwestern Tigray on Saturday. 

He accused Eritrea of seeking to “sabotage any & all peacemaking efforts in the region ostensibly to protect ‘Ethiopia’s unity.'”  

It was not possible to independently verify the various claims because access to the region is restricted and it remains under a communications blackout.   

There was no response to requests for comment from Ethiopian government officials.  

Eritrean troops have fought in support of Ethiopian government forces against the TPLF and been accused of committing atrocities including rapes and massacres in Tigray.     

Near ‘total collapse’ of health system

OCHA said the lack of essential supplies, especially medical supplies and fuel, was “severely disrupting the response to the injured, and (has) led to the nearly total collapse of the health system in Tigray.” 

“The intensification of air strikes is alarming, and we once again remind all parties to the conflict to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law,” it said. 

The fighting between forces loyal to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and the TPLF has killed thousands of people and forced several million from their homes. 

Tigray itself is under what the UN calls a de facto blockade that is preventing life-saving food and medicine from reaching its six million people, including hundreds of thousands in famine-like conditions.   

Doctors at the Ayder Referral Hospital earlier this month issued a statement painting a bleak picture of desperation, saying patients including children were needlessly dying because of the blockade. 

‘Unacceptable’

The Dedebit strike came the same day that the Ethiopian government announced an amnesty for several senior TPLF figures and other high-profile opposition leaders in what it said was a bid to foster national dialogue and “unity.”

The amnesty has been welcomed by the international community as a possible way out of the fighting, which has threatened to tear apart Africa’s second most populous country.   

It followed a dramatic turnaround in fortunes on the battlefield, with the rebels retreating to their Tigray stronghold at the end of December in the face of a military offensive that saw government forces retake a string of strategic towns. 

The rebels have accused the government of continuing to conduct deadly drone attacks on Tigray despite their pullback.   

OCHA reported last month that dozens of civilians were reportedly killed in the last days of December in a barrage of air raids in Tigray.   

And the United Nations reported this week that three Eritrean refugees including two children had been killed in an air strike Wednesday on a refugee camp in Tigray.   

The U.S. Bureau of African Affairs has described the attacks as “unacceptable”. 

“We redouble our call for an immediate end to hostilities, the prompt launch of an inclusive national dialogue, and unhindered access so aid can reach all Ethiopian communities in need,” it said on Twitter. 
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