In an upper-class estate on the northern fringes of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, a black gate with iron bars leads into a cream-colored duplex that offers a good view of the city.

It is home to businesswoman Torkwase Kuraun and her husband Jeffrey Kuraun, a geologist with the Department of Petroleum Resources. And for two months, it also was home to Kuraun’s younger brother Tordue Salem, a parliamentary journalist for The Vanguard.

Salem moved in temporarily after gunmen attacked his apartment in Lugbe, some 20 kilometers southeast, in September. He escaped by a whisker.

When VOA visited earlier this month, a quietness had fallen around the house — a reflection of the uncertainty the family has faced since October 13.

That was the day when Salem, 43, went missing. For 28 days, his family and colleagues waited for news.

Finally, on November 11, they learned the journalist was dead.

National police said Salem had been hit by a car and his body taken to a hospital, which had not been able to identify the missing journalist.

Nigeria’s press community is mourning the reporter’s death. On Tuesday, the House of Representatives held a minute’s silence in his memory.

But Salem’s colleagues and family are not convinced by accounts of how he died. The Nigerian Union of Journalists has demanded an independent investigation.

Police have said that Salem had identity cards on him when he died, and a family friend, who had spoken with the journalist’s relatives, said the body appeared to show signs of torture. The friend, who asked for anonymity out of concern for her safety, believes the journalist was privy to information that cost Salem his life but did not provide further details.

Police spokesperson Frank Mba did not respond to several calls requesting an interview.

Prior to Salem’s body being identified, police said they had questioned six people whom the reporter was in contact with the day he went missing. On Friday, the day after Salem’s body was identified, Mba paraded a man whom he says was driving the car that hit the journalist.

Dangers for media

Journalists in Nigeria have on occasion been attacked, abducted, or detained because of their reporting.

And while no one has been able to prove that Salem’s disappearance is work-related, the earlier attack gave his family reason to be worried.

His sister Karaun said she had been worrying about her brother for months.

Holding back tears, she recalled the last time she saw Salem. “He was in front of the gate when I was leaving, so I just waved because he was on the phone.”

Salem was the only son in a family of seven — a big deal for a typical African home. His first name, Tordue, means “A King is Born” in the Tiv language of Nigeria’s central Benue State, where the family are from.

His late parents waited so long for a son that they held a big celebration to mark his birth, Kuraun said, adding that she and Salem were always close.

“He’s always there with me sitting on this couch and watching the television, news he likes. News, he doesn’t watch football,” she said, sobbing as she sat upon an L-shaped grey sofa.

With her younger sister, Angela Kpamkwase, who runs a restaurant business in Lagos, Kuraun launched a social media campaign to raise awareness of their brother’s case. Kuraun created a WhatsApp group, adding journalists, friends, volunteers, private agents.

Colleagues in the media also campaigned, marching to police headquarters in Abuja last month and demanding action. The police spokesperson Mba addressed the crowd of journalists who were holding placards that read “Free the Press,” “Enough is Enough,” “Free Tordue Salem” and assured them the police were on top of the matter.

The Abuja march was an opportunity for many to address a wider issue – attacks on the media. In October alone, news crews were harassed while covering the anniversary of mass protests against police brutality, and they were barred from entering an Abuja courtroom during the trial of a separatist leader.    

Arise News correspondent Adefemi Akinsanya is one of the reporters harassed while covering the October 20 protest memorial. She says police tried to seize the media company’s drone and her colleague. 

“They were trying to forcibly take our cameraman into custody, they were grabbing him off the ground, it was quite a scary experience,” Akinsanya said.

Security had cordoned the entire Lekki toll gate area — a flashpoint since the October 2020 protests known as the End SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) movement.

Videos of Adefemi and the security agents appeared on social media. She says the Lagos state police commissioner later apologized, but at that moment, she feared for her life.

“You see you cannot tell the story of End SARS without the toll gate, that’s just it,” freelancer Peter Oboh told VOA.

The Lagos-based videographer says he was filming in April, when police seized his camera, slapped him and dragged him into a vehicle.

At a police station, officers asked Oboh why he was trying to film the toll gate and searched his camera before releasing him after about two hours.

Such attacks come as civil society and media advocates warn of a poor climate for journalists under President Muhamadu Buhari’s government. News outlets have been fined, journalists harassed or detained, and the president in June banned Twitter after the social media platform deleted a comment he posted about a separatist group.  

The Twitter ban was widely criticized by rights groups. But the government defended its decision, saying the platform too often has been used to promote violence and fake news.  

Nigeria has declined five points on the media freedom ranking, falling to 120 out of 180 places, where 1 is the most free, according to Reporters Without Borders. 

But Nigerian press freedom activist Raphael Adebayo says journalists must remain resilient and firm.

“We must continue to denounce very strongly this incessant desire to rein in freedom of expression, freedom of the press and all types of freedom that makes our democracy strong.”

Media freedom also is important to Adefemi, who told VOA, “It’s the hallmark of a free and just society and that is what we want from Nigeria, a free and just place.”

Nigerian journalists agree that without better treatment from authorities, the country will become too risky a place to work. But for Salem, those risks already may have cost him his life.

Back at the Kuraun house, Salem’s room looks the same. His bed is made, and his clothes hang just the way he left them. The reporter’s family will be grieving his loss for a long time, and they will be waiting for answers that never may come.
…

The late F.W. de Klerk, South Africa’s final apartheid president, leaves a legacy as complicated as the nation he once led.

Some South Africans say de Klerk, who died last week, deserves to be honored as one of the world’s great statesmen for releasing Nelson Mandela and helping South Africa toward democracy.

Others, though, are focusing on de Klerk’s support of whites-only rule for most of his political career and for the alleged role he played in the murderous rampage of anti-apartheid activists.

“F.W. de Klerk, knowing him also on a personal level for many years now, he’s very misunderstood,” said Jan Bosman, the director of the Afrikanerbond, a group representing Afrikaner interests. “Some very unfair remarks are made towards him. And I think it’s unfair at this stage, also in the time of death, to be so harsh and so critical.”

Elected president in 1989, de Klerk released African National Congress leader and anti-apartheid icon Mandela from prison in 1990, setting off South Africa’s path to its first democratic, multiracial elections. Four years later, de Klerk’s National Party lost to the ANC, which has held power ever since.

After that, de Klerk was a visible figure amid national reconciliation efforts and fierce debate over whether the pain of segregationist rule could ever be erased.

Political critics and activists say he never went far enough to condemn the brutal acts committed under the whites-only rule. Activists say it is unlikely that former officials during apartheid will ever face justice.

In the 1980s, as South Africa experienced one of the most violent periods in its history, the government, in which de Klerk was a senior member, imprisoned thousands of people. Its forces killed scores of anti-apartheid activists, including four from the small town of Cradock in Eastern Cape province.

“They were driving back from Port Elizabeth to Cradock when they were ambushed, and they were killed,” said Lukhanyo Calata, the son of Fort Calata, one of the four killed.

For much of the 1980s, de Klerk was a member of the government’s State Security Council. SSC documents show that in the months leading up to the killings of the “Cradock Four,” the council discussed the activists’ “permanent removal from society.”  Minutes of the meetings indicate that de Klerk was present.

“We wanted de Klerk to confirm what he’d said in those meetings,” Calata said. “We wanted him to tell us the truth about what his role was in the planning and conspiracy to murder the Cradock Four. He knew that a crime would be committed and yet he never did anything to stop it.”

Six former police officers later confessed to abducting and executing the Cradock Four, burning the bodies and dumping them in bush near Port Elizabeth. De Klerk denied any knowledge of political assassinations, blaming them on “rogue low-level operatives” within apartheid-era security forces.

Earlier this year, de Klerk claimed that senior ANC leaders “made deals” with his government to prevent prosecutions of apartheid-era politicians and killers. The ANC denies such deals were made.

“The ANC must be rejoicing today because their secret about who it was that entered into those deals with apartheid operatives, de Klerk took that information with him to the grave,” Calata said.

De Klerk repeatedly acknowledged that while he was in favor of apartheid in his “younger years” and a staunch supporter of whites-only rule, he eventually grew to regret his position.

“Since the early 80s, my views changed completely,” de Klerk said in a taped message shortly before his death. “It was as if I had a conversion. And in my heart of hearts, realized that apartheid was wrong. I realized that we had arrived at a place that was morally unjustifiable.”

South African President Cyril Ramaposa, the leader of the ANC, said de Klerk should mostly be judged for leading the country out of apartheid.

“We are saddened because he did play a key role in ushering in democracy in our country,” Ramaphosa said in a statement. “He had the courage to step away from the path that his party, that he led, had embarked upon from 1948, and we will remember him for that.”

De Klerk’s foundation said his funeral on Saturday would be private, attended by family and close friends.
…

With the Earth getting warmer and weather events more extreme, the African Union has set up a Disaster Operations Center in Nairobi to help monitor major hazards and provide regional early warnings for drought, floods, extreme rainfall, food insecurity, and pests like the desert locusts. Juma Majanga reports from Nairobi. Camera – Jim Makhulo.
…

Burkina Faso recently accepted its first female pilot into the air force. In this report for VOA, Henry Wilkins meets Honorine Moyenga in Ouagadougou as she prepares to fly and discusses her hope to inspire other

Camera: Henry Wilkins
…

Burkina Faso’s government says at least 32 military police were killed Sunday in the latest attack on security forces. Analysts say security in the West African country has worsened this year and the opposition has threatened to hold protests if the situation doesn’t improve. 

The dawn raid took place at a military outpost in war-torn Soum province on Sunday morning. While initial reports said 19 security force personnel and one civilian were killed, the government announced Monday night that the death toll had jumped to 32.

The attack is the latest in a long series against security forces and civilians in recent months and represents the deadliest single attack on Burkinabe personnel this year.

Burkina Faso has been battling armed groups linked to Islamic State and al-Qaida, as well as local bandits, since 2015. While 2020 saw a decline in violence, this year it has spiked again. 

Mahamadou Sawadogo, a Burkinabe security analyst, said this attack is proof that the terrorists are able to bring the fight to the army and are able to lead complex attacks. He said it’s also a sign that the peace which was beginning to emerge in that area is disappearing and there will be more and more attacks there.

Late last year, negotiations took place between security forces and terror groups in the nearby town of Djibo. The sides reached a detente, but it now appears to have fallen apart.

Analysts say the Inata base, where Sunday’s attack took place, is one of the last bases in Soum province which is still operational, which points to a severely overstretched military. 

While Burkinabe security forces struggle, analysts say the government is reluctant to accept international military support, unlike other countries involved in the Sahel conflict, such as Mali and Niger, which have accepted French military personnel. 

On November 9, Eddie Komboïgo, Burkina Faso’s opposition leader, called publicly for “urgent measures” by the ruling party to stem the violence and threatened to organize widespread protests next month if nothing is done. 

Andrew Lebovich, an analyst with the European Council on Foreign Relations, said, “Politically, this is a very complicated time for Burkina Faso’s president, in part because he made the security situation and the fight against terrorism a really important part of his campaign for reelection and so there’s been quite a bit of anger among communities, among opposition parties.” 

Speaking to VOA, Lassane Sawadogo, executive secretary for the ruling MPP party, called for patience. 

He said these are painful events for the whole nation and the war against terrorism is a long one, but that the government, with President Roch Kabore, is determined to do as much as it can to overcome terrorism. 

Kabore is the first president in Burkina Faso’s history without a military background.

 
…

U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths allocated $40 million on Monday to support life-saving aid and civilian protection efforts in Ethiopia amidst ongoing conflict and drought.

According to an announcement from the U.N., $25 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund will be allocated, as well as $15 million from the Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund.

The funds will be used to step up emergency operations in the northern regions of the country, where pro-government forces and Tigrayan rebels have been fighting for a year. Around 2.2 million Ethiopians have been displaced in Tigray, according to Reuters.

The funding will also be used to support early response efforts regarding a drought in southern Ethiopia.

In a statement, Griffiths noted that millions of Ethiopia are “living on a knife edge” as the country’s humanitarian crisis grows deeper.

“Across the country, needs are rising. This injection of cash will help aid organizations meet some of the most vulnerable people’s need for protection and relief,” Griffiths said.

The newly announced funding will support aid agencies providing protection and “other life-saving assistance” to citizens impacted by conflict in the northern Tigray, Amhara and Afar regions.

The U.N. said funding for the drought-affected Somali and Oromia regions will be used to provide drinking water and prevent waterborne diseases like cholera. It said agencies will also help pastoral communities preserve their livestock.

The allocations raise the Central Emergency Response Fund’s support to Ethiopia to $65 million, according to the announcement. It is now the second-highest recipient of support from the fund this year. The Ethiopia Humanitarian Fund’s support to the country also now totals $80 million.

The U.N. said there is still a funding gap of $1.3 billion for humanitarian operations in Ethiopia, which includes $350 million for the response in Tigray.
…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken departs for Kenya on Monday, the first stop on a three-nation tour of Africa.  Blinken will meet with Kenya’s president, who just returned from Ethiopia, to discuss that country’s internal war. Some experts fear Ethiopia’s political leadership will not agree to end the yearlong conflict. 

This week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken kicks off his visit to Africa by stopping in Kenya before heading to Nigeria and Senegal.

Blinken will meet Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta to discuss East Africa’s regional political and security situation.

Professor Chacha Nyaigotti Chacha, a specialist in diplomacy and international relations at the University of Nairobi, says Blinken’s visit shows the urgency needed for stability in the region.

“To show that there is peace and tranquility in the Horn of Africa, America recognizes the role that Kenya will have to continue to play to support the international community initiatives which are being undertaken by IGAD, the East African Community and by the African Union Commission and the world at large,” said Chacha.

The escalating war in Ethiopia has raised fears of a coup and instability in East Africa’s most populous nation.

The rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front and other armed groups have threatened to march to Addis Ababa to overthrow Ethiopian Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy’s government.

Kenya has been pushing for a ceasefire in the yearlong war, and on Sunday, Kenyatta met Abiy and Ethiopian President Sehle-Work Zewde to discuss security issues ahead of Secretary Blinken’s visit to Kenya.

Murithi Mutiga is the Horn of Africa project director at the International Crisis Group. He says international efforts are being made to help Ethiopia.

“We understand that there is a very significant quiet mediation going on in the background including the Kenyans, the former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo and we hope that this will continue and potentially a resolution will be found,” said Mutiga. “But you know the lesson of history has been that the Ethiopians usually try to settle their dispute internally by force. So, unfortunately, we have to be a little realistic about what is possible.”

U.S. Horn of Africa envoy Jeffrey Feltman came to the region early this month, but the security situation has remained the same.

Mutiga says the Ethiopian government and its opponents need to find a quick solution to the crisis.

“We now see that the war has entered its second year with no end in sight,” said Mutiga. “It’s more critical than ever given Ethiopia’s contribution to peace within the region. It’s more urgent than ever that they find a resolution, because continued instability in Ethiopia will definitely have a very significant spillover effect, not to mention the horrible cost internally in terms of lives lost but also an economy that is also in critical care.”

Last week, the U.S. government imposed sanctions on the Eritrean military, officials and businesses to show its opposition to the war. Eritrean troops have fought alongside Ethiopian troops in the north of the country.

The warring sides continue to dig into the crisis, as Tigray leadership push for the ouster of Prime Minister Abiy while the government is demanding recognition before any negotiation can take place.
…

More than 600 migrants, many of them Egyptians, arrived in southern Italy over the past 24 hours, officials said on Sunday, defying stormy winter seas in search of a better life in Europe. 

Italy has seen a sharp increase in boat migrants in recent weeks and the latest mass arrivals will put further pressure on Prime Minister Mario Draghi’s government to secure an agreement with European Union partners over how to deal with the influx. 

Coastguards rescued some 300 men and boys overnight who were packed on a fishing boat off the southern toe of Italy. The group, almost all Egyptians, were brought ashore to the nearby port of Roccella Jonica. 

Hours later, some 212 mainly Egyptian and Syrian migrants were taken off a second boat and brought to Roccella Jonica. 

Further to the south, 113 migrants, including at least eight women, reached the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa in two different landings. Local media said some of the newcomers were Tunisian. 

As of Nov. 12, 57,833 migrants have reached Italy so far this year against 31,213 in the same period of 2020 and just 9,944 in 2019. 

Right-wing parties have accused the Interior Ministry of not doing enough to stem the flow. 

Speaking after a conference on Libya on Friday, Draghi urged greater coordination with Europe to resolve the problem. 

“What is certain, however, is that these continuous landings in Italy are making the situation unsustainable,” he told reporters, standing alongside French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. 
…

The Qatar-based satellite news network Al-Jazeera said Sunday its bureau chief in Sudan was detained by security forces, a day after mass protests across the country against last month’s military coup. 

The network said on Twitter that Sudanese forces raided the home of El Musalmi El Kabbashi and detained him. 

The development comes after security forces fired live ammunition and tear gas Saturday to disperse protesters denouncing the military’s tightening grip on the country. 

The Sudan Doctors Committee said a 15-year-old protester died Sunday of gunshot wounds to his stomach and thigh, raising the death toll to six people. 

In a later statement, Al-Jazeera said El Kabbashi had been arrested at his home in Khartoum, the Sudanese capital. The broadcaster said it held the Sudanese military responsible for his safety. 

“Al-Jazeera condemns in the strongest terms the reprehensible actions of the military and calls on the authorities to release El Kabbashi immediately and to allow its journalists to operate unhindered, free to practice their profession without fear or intimidation,” the channel said. 

Sudanese officials could not be immediately reached for comment. 

Thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets across Sudan on Saturday to rally against the military coup last month. The takeover has drawn international criticism and massive protests in the streets of the capital of Khartoum and elsewhere in the country. 

The killings Saturday took place in Khartoum and its twin city of Omdurman. The dead included four people killed by gunshots and one who died from being hit by a tear gas canister. The 15-year-old who died of his wounds Sunday brought to six the number of fatalities, the doctors committee said. Several other protesters were wounded, including from gunshots, it said. 

That brought the tally since the Oct. 26 coup to at least 21 protesters dead, according to the medical group. 

Saturday’s rallies, called by the pro-democracy movement, came two days after coup leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan reappointed himself head of the Sovereign Council, Sudan’s interim governing body. Thursday’s move angered the pro-democracy alliance and frustrated the United States and other countries that have urged the generals to reverse their coup. 

The newly appointed body held its first meeting, chaired by Gen. Burhan Sunday in Khartoum, the council said on its Facebook page. 

The pro-democracy movement condemned “the excessive use of force” against the protesters Saturday. The Forces for the Declaration of Freedom and Change said their struggle to establish a full civilian government “will not stop” and called for mass demonstrations on Wednesday. 

The Sudanese military seized power Oct. 25, dissolving the transitional government and arresting dozens of officials and politicians. The takeover upended a fragile planned transition to democratic rule, more than two years after a popular uprising forced the removal of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir and his Islamist government. 
…

The son of Libya’s late dictator Moammar Gadhafi appeared for nearly the first time in a decade on Sunday to register as a presidential candidate for a December vote planned to help end the years of chaos since his father was toppled.

Saif al-Islam al-Gadhafi, 49, appeared in an electoral commission video in traditional brown robe and turban, and with a grey beard and glasses, signing documents at the election center in the southern town of Sebha.

Gadhafi is one of the most prominent – and controversial – figures expected to run for president, a list that also includes eastern military commander Khalifa Haftar, Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah and parliament speaker Aguila Saleh.

However, while his name is one of the best known in Libya, and though he once played a major role in shaping policy before the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that destroyed his family’s regime, he has barely been seen for a decade.

His formal entry into an election whose rules are still contested by Libya’s squabbling factions may also cast new questions over a contest that features candidates viewed in some regions as unacceptable.

Despite the public backing of most Libyan factions and foreign powers for elections on Dec. 24, the vote remains in doubt as rival entities bicker over the rules and schedule.

A major conference in Paris on Friday agreed to sanction any who disrupt or prevent the vote, but with less than six weeks to go, there is still no agreement on rules to govern who should be able to run.

While Gadhafi is likely to play on nostalgia for the era before the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that swept his father from power and ushered in a decade of chaos and violence, analysts say he may not prove to be a front runner.

The Gadhafi era is still remembered by many Libyans as one of harsh autocracy, while Saif al-Islam and other former regime figures have been out of power for so long they may find it difficult to mobilize as much support as major rivals.

Moammar al-Gadhafi was captured outside his hometown of Sirte by opposition fighters in Oct. 2011 and summarily shot. Saif al-Islam was seized days later by fighters from the mountainous Zintan region as he tried to flee Libya for Niger.

Ambitions

Just over a decade later, Saif al-Islam is now something of a cipher for Libyans. The Zintan fighters kept him for years out of public sight and his views on the crisis are not known.

He gave an interview to the New York Times earlier this year but has not yet made any public appearance speaking directly to Libyans.

Complicating his presidential ambitions, Gadhafi was tried in absentia in 2015 by a Tripoli court at which he appeared via videolink from Zintan, and which sentenced him to death for war crimes including killing protesters during the 2011 revolt.

He would likely face arrest or other dangers if he appeared publicly in the capital Tripoli. He is also wanted by the International Criminal Court.

Educated at the London School of Economics and a fluent English speaker, Saif al-Islam was once seen by many governments as the acceptable, Western-friendly face of Libya, and a possible heir apparent.

But when a rebellion broke out in 2011 against Moammar Gadhafi’s long rule, Saif al-Islam immediately chose family and clan loyalties over his many friendships in the West, telling Reuters television: “We fight here in Libya; we die here in Libya.”
…

Zambia-born novelist Wilbur Smith chronicled dramatic adventures on the African continent, creating internationally acclaimed fiction that drew on his own action-packed life. 

Smith died in South Africa at age 88, his publisher announced Saturday. 

He gained recognition in 1964 with his debut novel “When the Lion Feeds,” the tale of a young man growing up on a South African cattle ranch that led to 15 sequels, tracing the ambitious family’s fortunes for more than 200 years.

“I wove into the story chunks of early African history. I wrote about Black people and white. I wrote about hunting and gold mining and carousing and women,” he said in a biography on his official website. 

He also leaned on meticulous historical research and his own extensive travels, establishing a method he would use over a career spanning five decades in which he wrote nearly 50 novels and sold about 130 million books. 

Another golden rule came from his publisher, Charles Pick.

“He said: ‘Write only about those things you know well.’ Since then I have written only about Africa,” Smith said. 

Born hunter 

Born on January 9, 1933, to a British family in what was then Northern Rhodesia, Smith encountered from an early age the forest, hills and savannah of Africa on his parents’ large ranch.

He credits his mother with teaching him to love nature and reading, while his father gave him a rifle at the age of 8, the start of what he acknowledged was a lifelong love affair with firearms and hunting. 

“There are more big-game hunters in Smith’s oeuvre than spies in the works of John le Carre, and yet it is possible that he has slaughtered even more animals in real life than on the page,” Britain’s Daily Telegraph wrote in 2014. 

Also a scuba diver and mountain climber in his time, Smith was not afraid to throw himself into his research, saying that for his 1970 novel “Gold Mine” he took a job in a South African gold mine for a few weeks. 

“I was a sort of privileged member of the team, I could ask questions and not be told to shut up,” he told the Daily Telegraph of his experience. 

‘Action-man author’ 

Smith studied at South Africa’s Rhodes University, intending to become a journalist until his father said, as he recounts on his website, “Don’t be a bloody fool. … Go and find yourself a real job.” 

There followed a “soul-destroying” stint as a chartered accountant, during which he turned to fiction. 

The success of “When the Lion Feeds” encouraged him to become a full-time writer and led to the Courtney series, which runs up to “The Tiger’s Prey” published in 2017, more than 50 years after the first book. 

The four-part Ballantyne series is themed on colonial wealth and the racial struggle in the former Rhodesia, today’s Zimbabwe. There is also a series on Egypt, while standalone novels include “The Sunbird” (1972) and “Those in Peril” (2011). 

His books have been translated into around 30 languages and some made into films, including “Shout at the Devil” with Lee Marvin and Roger Moore in 1976. 

Describing Smith as the “ultimate action-man author,” Britain’s Daily Mail in 2017 remarked that it was perhaps surprising his books still appeal considering their “politically incorrect whirl of sex, violence, casual misogyny, big-game hunters, mining, full-breasted women and slaughtered beasts.”

A life of adventure

Answering a question on his site about the secret of his success, he says it is about “embroidering” a bit on real life.

“I write about men who are more manly and beautiful women who are really more beautiful than any women you’d meet,” he said, confirming he sometimes worked with co-writers. 

Published in 2018, his autobiography “On Leopard Rock” chronicles his own adventures, including being attacked by lions, getting lost in the African bush and crawling through the precarious tunnels of gold mines. 

He was married four times, with his last wife, Mokhiniso Rakhimova from Tajikistan, his junior by 39 years. 

Smith spent most of his time in South Africa and had homes in Cape Town, London, Switzerland and Malta. 

 
…

Malawi has begun a mass distribution of mosquito nets, aiming to reach almost half the country’s population of 18 million people. Health authorities say the campaign is aimed at reducing the spread of malaria, which in Malawi currently accounts for 36% of all hospital outpatients and 15% of hospital admissions.

The Global Fund-supported campaign was announced during the commemoration of Southern Africa Development Community Malaria Day November 6 and is expected to be rolled out nationally November 15.

Khumbize Kandodo-Chiponda, Malawi’s minister of health, says the intervention is a response to the health threat malaria is posing in Malawi. 

“So, one of the interventions is the distribution of the nets as vector control. As a country, we are going to distribute 9 million nets. Out target is that at least two Malawians should share a net. Our population we are targeting we are about 18 million, that why we reached the figure of 9 million,” Kandodo-Chiponda said.

She said during the campaign all expectant mothers will be given anti-malaria drugs to prevent them from suffering from malaria while pregnant. 

Statistics show that malaria is the No. 1 deadly disease in Malawi. Last year alone, malaria killed 2,500 people in Malawi, more than any other disease, including COVID-19.

However, Kandodo-Chiponda said the campaign is strewn with challenges.

“And one of the challenges is that when you distribute the nets, you will find that, especially along the lake, these nets are used for fishing and sorts of things,” she said.

To reduce the changes of such misuse of the nets, the campaign also involves teaching the recipients about the importance of sleeping under the net. 

The mosquito net distribution is part of the Zero Malaria Starts With Me campaign, launched by Malawi President Lazarus Chakwera in June as part of global campaign to end malaria by 2030.

Elias Mpedi Magosi, executive secretary of the Southern Africa Development Community, commended Malawi’s efforts to eradicate malaria and said the bloc is working to adopt a regional malaria strategy.

“Primarily because if one country, one member state removes or clears malaria, these mosquitos known no boundaries, they just relocate to another country. So, it requires a pooled regional effort, resources, attributes and behaviors so that it is eliminated,” Magosi said.

Janet Kayita, the World Health Organization country representative in Malawi, said the campaign is among major steps Malawi has successfully taken against malaria.

“Malawi has been exceptional in taking forward WHO recommendations on what to do, how to prevent malaria, how to treat malaria. But the most historic groundbreaking event in the last month actually, that Malawi is at the front of, is the information that is coming out about the new malaria vaccine for infants and children,” Kayita said.

Last month, the WHO endorsed the world’s first malaria vaccine for children across Africa following a successful three-year trial in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. 

Although it is only 30% effective, scientists say the vaccine, known as Mosquirix, will have major impact against malaria in Africa, which records 200 million cases and 400,000 deaths per year.
…

A Nigerian army general and three soldiers were killed Saturday during an attack by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) militants in the northeast of the country, the army and sources said. 

ISWAP split from Boko Haram five years ago and pledged allegiance to Islamic State and has been fighting against the Nigerian armed forces.

Army spokesman Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu said troops had encountered ISWAP fighters in Borno state’s Askira Uba local government area, where a fierce battle took place and several militants were killed.

“Sadly, a gallant senior officer Brigadier General Dzarma Zirkusu and three soldiers paid the supreme sacrifice … as they provided reinforcement in a counter offensive against the terrorists,” Nwachukwu said in a statement.

Borno state is at the center of the Islamist insurgency, which has spilled into neighboring Chad and Cameroon and has left about 300,000 people dead and millions dependent on aid, the United Nations says.

Military sources and residents said ISWAP fighters attacked Askira Saturday morning with at least 12 gun trucks, burning houses, shops and a school, and forcing some residents to flee.

The army had brought in reinforcements but the battle was still ongoing as evening approached, the sources said. Askira is about 150 kilometers south of Borno state capital Maiduguri and lies along the fringes of Sambisa Forest, the operational base of both Boko Haram and ISWAP.

Security sources said ISWAP fighters also had separately attacked troops near Maiduguri town, but there were no immediate details on casualties.

Nigeria’s army said last month it had killed the new ISWAP leader in a military operation, weeks after announcing the death of the group’s former head Abu Musab al-Barnawi.
…

Sudanese security forces fired tear gas on pro-democracy demonstrators Saturday as nationwide protests continued following a recent coup.

“Million-person” marches have been held by the pro-democracy movement

since Sudan’s civilian government was ousted on October 25 in a military takeover.

Security forces closed bridges between central Khartoum and its twin cities of Omdurman and Khartoum North. As protesters began to gather in those cities, security forces fired tear gas and chased them to prevent them from reaching central meeting points.

Saturday’s protests came two days after Sudanese military chief General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan reappointed himself the head of the country’s interim governing body. 

The military coup occurred after weeks of escalating tensions between military and civilian leaders over Sudan’s transition to democracy. 

The coup has threatened to derail the process that began after the ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in a 2019 popular uprising.

At least 15 coup protesters have been killed by excessive force used by the country’s security forces, according to the United Nations and Sudanese doctors, including one person who died by gunfire Saturday in Omdurman, according to Agence France-Presse.

Some information in this report also came from the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

The idea was striking in its ambition: African countries aimed to plant trees in a more than 8,000 kilometer-line spanning the entire continent, creating a natural barrier to hold back the Sahara Desert as climate change swept the sands south.

The project called the Great Green Wall began in 2007 with a vision for the trees to extend like a belt across the vast Sahel region, from Senegal in the west to Djibouti in the east, by 2030. But as temperatures rose and rainfall diminished, millions of the planted trees died.

Efforts to rein in the desert continue in Senegal on a smaller scale. On the western end of the planned wall, Ibrahima Fall walks under the cool shade of dozens of lime trees, watering them with a hose as yellow chicks scurry around his feet. Just beyond the green orchard and a village is a desolate, arid landscape.

The citrus crop provides a haven from the heat and sand that surround it. Outside the low village walls, winds whip sand into the air, inviting desertification, a process that wrings the life out of fertile soil and changes it into desert, often because of drought or deforestation.

Only 4% of the Great Green Wall’s original goal has been met, and an estimated $43 billion would be needed to achieve the rest. With prospects for completing the barrier on time dim, organizers have shifted their focus from planting a wall of trees to trying a mosaic of smaller, more durable projects to stop desertification, including community-based efforts designed to improve lives and help the most vulnerable agriculture.

“The project that doesn’t involve the community is doomed to failure,” says Diegane Ndiaye, who is part of a group known as SOS Sahel, which has helped with planting programs in Senegal and other countries across the Sahel, a broad geographic zone between the Sahara in the north and the more temperate African savanna to the south.

The programs focus on restoring the environment and reviving economic activity in Sahel villages, Ndiaye said.

With the loss of rainfall and the advance of the desert, “this strip of the Sahel is a very vulnerable area to climate change,” he said. “So we should have projects that are likely to rebuild the environment … fix the dunes and also help protect the vegetable-growing area.”

On Senegal’s Atlantic Coast, filao trees stretch in a band from Dakar up to the northern city of St. Louis, forming a curtain that protects the beginning of Green Wall region, which also grows more than 80% of Senegal’s vegetables. The sky-reaching branches tame the winds tearing in from the ocean.

This reforestation project started in the 1970s, but many trees were cut down for wood, and work to replant them has been more recent. More trees are also planted in front of dunes near the water in an effort to protect the dunes and keep them from moving.

“We have had a lot of reforestation programs that today have not yielded much because it is often done with great fanfare” and not with good planning, Ndiaye said.

Fall, the 75-year-old chief of his village, planted the citrus orchard in 2016, putting the trees near a water source on his land. His is one of 800 small orchards in six communes of a town called Kebemer.

“We once planted peanuts and that wasn’t enough,” he said in the local Wolof language. “This orchard brings income that allows me to take care of my family.” He said he can produce 20 to 40 kilos of limes per week during peak season.

Enriched by the trees, the soil has also grown tomatoes and onions.

The village has used profits from the orchard to replace straw homes with cement brick structures and to buy more sheep, goats and chickens. It also added a solar panel to help pump water from a communal well, sparing villagers from having to pay more for water in the desert.

African Development Bank President Akinwumi A. Adesina spoke about the importance of stopping desertification in the Sahel during the United Nations’ COP26 global climate conference. He announced a commitment from the bank to mobilize $6.5 billion toward the Great Green Wall by 2025.

The newest projects in Senegal are circular gardens known in the Wolof language as “tolou keur.” They feature a variety of trees that are planted strategically so that the larger ones protect the more vulnerable.

The gardens’ curving rows hold moringa, sage, papaya and mango trees that are resistant to dry climates. They are planted so their roots grow inward to improve water retention in the plot.

Senegal has 20 total circular gardens, each one adapted to the soil, culture and needs of individual communities so they can grow much of what they need. Early indications are that they are thriving in the Great Green Wall region. Solar energy helps provide electricity for irrigation.

Jonathan Pershing, deputy special envoy for climate at the U.S. State Department, visited Senegal as part of an Africa trip last month, saying the U.S. wants to partner with African nations to fight climate change.

“The desert is encroaching. You see it really moving south,” Pershing said.

In terms of the Great Green Wall project, he said, “I don’t think that very many people thought it was going to go very far,” including himself. But there are indications of progress, as seen in the community projects.

“It has a global benefit, and people are prepared to make those kinds of long-term investments through their children and their families, which I think is a hallmark of what we need to do in other climate arenas.”
…

Africa is on the front line of climate change. Nowhere is this more evident than the Lake Chad Basin, which covers almost 8% of the continent and supports tens of millions of people. The United Nations says it has shrunk by 90% since the 1960s because of drought.

The resulting competition for resources has caused poverty and conflict. Over 10 million people are dependent on humanitarian assistance.

Oladosu Adenike, 27, has witnessed Lake Chad’s tragic transformation firsthand. She is a prominent campaigner on climate change in Africa and started the Nigerian “Fridays for Future” campaign, joining the global movement after meeting Swedish activist Greta Thunberg.

Adenike is one of several young African delegates who traveled thousands of miles to Glasgow, Scotland, to be part of the COP26 climate summit and to convey their sense of urgency to world leaders.

“The peace and stability in this region – in the Lake Chad region, the Sahel – it depends on when we are able to restore the lake and able to say that people can get sustainable livelihoods, for them not to be able to be vulnerable to join armed groups of people. And this will likewise improve democracy in the region,” she told VOA.

Adenike is an official Nigerian youth delegate at the COP26 summit and has addressed senior delegates on the need to act fast. But she says she is frustrated by slow progress.

“We are still in the talking phase. We have not yet transited into the action phase, which is needed right now this moment, and not postponing it into the future. Because that is the most dangerous thing you can do right now. Delay now is a denial of the climate change crisis,” Adenike said.

Kaluki Paul Mutuku is a youth delegate for Kenya. Like Adenike, he’s a prominent young voice in the fight against climate change in Africa.

“We are constantly in the fear of losing our family members, losing our communities because the climate is dry – it is worsening by the day – there are droughts, there is extreme rainfall, and communities cannot bear it,” he told VOA.

“Just in 2019, we had a huge locust invasion that took over our crop plantations. We had huge floods in Nairobi, which killed so many people, and just this year, we are having so many people lives being lost due to starvation and famines,” he said.

Mutuku said that delivering on climate finance – the money rich countries have agreed to pay poorer nations to adapt to climate change and decarbonize their economies – is the most vital outcome of COP26. The 2009 pledge to pay $100 billion a year still has not been met.

“How do we finance to avoid emissions in Africa? How do we equip communities with resources and money to really be able to adapt to climate change, and how do we ensure that we give climate proofing for them?” he said.

“We cannot afford to lose hope. And as long as young people, grassroots, and our front-line communities are leading the decade of change, then we are in the right trajectory. For me, any delayed financing is a shame on (world) leaders,” Mutuku told VOA.

For young activists from around the world, it has been a long journey to COP26 in every sense. They say they will continue to fight for climate justice long after they return home. 

 
…

Several young African climate activists traveled thousands of miles to Glasgow, Scotland, to be part of the COP26 climate summit — and to convey their sense of urgency to world leaders. Henry Ridgwell spoke with some of them about their climate change experiences and what COP26 must deliver to help their communities back home.

Camera: Henry Ridgwell.
…

U.S. Secretary State Antony Blinken says he is concerned that Ethiopia might ‘implode’ unless all parties stop military action and engage in political dialogue. As VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports, Blinken is headed to Africa next week for talks in Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal at a time when many worry that Ethiopia’s yearlong war in the Tigray region may be worsening into a deeper conflict.
…

The United States has imposed new sanctions on Eritrea’s military, ruling party and two senior government officials in connection with Eritrea’s role in the Ethiopian conflict. 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced Friday that it had imposed sanctions on the Eritrean Defense Force, whose soldiers have fought in the Tigray region alongside Ethiopian forces, and Eritrea’s sole political party, the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice.

PFDJ economic adviser Hagos Ghebrehiwet W. Kidan and Eritrean intelligence chief Abraha Kassa Nemariam were also designated, along with two Eritrean businesses linked to the PFDJ: Hidri Trust and Red Sea Trading Corporation. 

“We condemn the continued role played by Eritrean actors who are contributing to the violence in northern Ethiopia, which has undermined the stability and integrity of the state and resulted in a humanitarian disaster,” OFAC Director Andrea Gacki said in a statement. 

10th UN staffer detained

Meanwhile, U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq said Ethiopia’s federal government had detained a 10th U.N. staffer, who joined nine other imprisoned staff members and more than 70 truckers contracted by the U.N. in Addis Ababa.

Haq said the U.N. was pressing on with efforts to get the staffers and drivers released. “We are continuing with our efforts; we are pushing on all the doors that we can. But we haven’t made the progress that we would have liked to have made,” he said.

The detentions add to worries that the Ethiopian government’s yearlong conflict with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front in the country’s north is about to get worse. At the beginning of the conflict, Ethiopian forces flushed from federal military bases in an early TPLF offensive retreated to neighboring Eritrea, which at first fed, clothed and rearmed Ethiopian soldiers before sending its own military into Ethiopia.

Eritrean troops face charges

Eritrea’s parallel campaign to help Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has complicated the war. Eritrean forces have been accused of killing civilians, looting Tigrayan towns, abusing refugees and blocking humanitarian aid, contributing to what some officials fear is a road to Ethiopia’s collapse.

“Eritrea’s destabilizing presence in Ethiopia is prolonging the conflict, posing a significant obstacle to a cessation of hostilities, and threatening the integrity of the Ethiopian state,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement released Friday. He called for Eritrea to withdraw its forces from Ethiopia immediately. 

The conflicts in Ethiopia and neighboring Sudan will likely headline Blinken’s upcoming trip to Africa, where he’s scheduled to meet Kenyan, Senegalese and Nigerian officials at their capitals next week. The Biden administration is stepping up efforts to collaborate with African partners on areas of shared interest, according to the State Department.

“I am very concerned about the potential for Ethiopia to implode given what we are seeing both in Tigray but also as we have different forces and different ethnic groups that are increasingly at odds,” Blinken said Friday. “We are working very closely to support the efforts of the former Nigerian President [Olusegun] Obasanjo to mediate a way forward with all the Ethiopian parties.” 

The State Department is holding off on approving sanctions on Ethiopia’s national government and the TPLF, but after the U.N.’s recent announcements of detained staffers, Washington’s patience may be wearing thin. The United States is “ready to pursue additional sanctions” if diplomacy isn’t renewed, according to the State Department statement issued Friday.

VOA’s Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
…

Malawi’s president, Lazarus Chakwera, has called on the country to transition from largely subsistence farming to industrialized commercial farming, in order to meet the goal of making the country food-sufficient by 2030.

Speaking as he opened the National Agriculture Fair in Blantyre, Chakwera said it is concerning that 80% of farmers in Malawi are small-scale farmers while the country has vast resources that could transform it into a commercial farming nation. 

“It is in this sector that most of our jobs are being created,” he said. “It is from this sector that our growth domestic product, GDP, is receiving its greatest boost. It is in this sector that our exports and forex earnings are growing from. It is this sector whose success will give us the capacity to diversify our economy and make it more resilient and sustainable.” 

The more the farmers engage in high value agriculture and add value to their products, the more they will see their profit margin rise, Chakwera said. 

The president added that his emphasis on agriculture does not mean that he does not dream of Malawi also thriving from tourism, mining and telecommunication. 

“It is just that at this stage of our national development, making our agriculture sector a success is foundational to diversifying our economy,” he said. “The next time you hear someone admiring America’s economy, tell them that the big part that keeps their economy strong and finances its diversification, is agriculture.” 

The United States is the highest producer of corn, the second highest producer of soybeans and the fourth highest producer of wheat in the world, Chakwera said. Malawi is making efforts to transform its agriculture sector, he added, and that includes the government’s emphasis on moving from largely rain-fed agriculture to irrigation farming. 

“As a case in point, in the 2021/2022 national budget, import duty on agriculture machinery was waived, precisely to make irrigation equipment more affordable and accessible. In fact, our entire economic policy framework is driven by our unapologetic desire to build an agriculture sector of the future,” he said. 

However, farmers are skeptical about the president’s words.

Masauko Kabapha, who owns the Chimwemwe farm in Kasungu District in central Malawi, said commercialized farming in Malawi can only be possible if banks are more flexible with farmers.

Commercial farming in Malawi is impossible, he said, because farming equipment and machinery are too expensive for a small farmer, and getting a loan is difficult because banks ask for collateral, which most farmers cannot manage. 

Kabapha suggested the government enact policies to restrain commercial banks from asking for collateral. 

He also said that, although the government has waived duty charges on machinery for irrigation farming, most areas of Malawi still lack the necessary equipment. Most of the dams and water reservoirs that were built for that purpose are not functional and need rehabilitation, he added.
…

The United States and other Western powers expressed grave concern Friday at the appointment of a new Sudanese ruling council by the general who led last month’s coup, saying it complicated efforts to restore a transition to democracy.

The United States, Britain, Norway, the European Union and Switzerland also urged the security services to respect the right to free speech “without fear of violence or detention” ahead of protests set for Saturday by critics of the army’s move.

Sudan’s Khartoum state said it would close all but three bridges across the river Nile at midnight ahead of the demonstrations on Saturday, Sudan TV reported, announcing what is a routine move to tighten security before rallies.

General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan was sworn in Thursday as head of the new Sovereign Council, which replaces the power-sharing body he dissolved last month in a takeover that derailed Sudan’s transition to civilian rule.

The head of the powerful paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, was sworn in as his deputy. The army’s move undermined its commitment to uphold transitional arrangements requiring civilians on the council to be nominated by the Forces for Freedom and Change, a coalition that had been sharing power with the army since 2019, a joint statement by the United States and the other countries said.

It “complicates efforts to put Sudan’s democratic transition back on track,” they said, adding the move was “in violation” of an accord setting out the transition.

“We strongly urge against further escalatory steps.” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter overnight Friday that events in Sudan were very worrying. “We demand the immediate freeing of all those who embody the spirit and hope of the Sudanese revolution, which must not be betrayed,” he wrote.

Abdalla Hamdok, the prime minister ousted in the October 25 coup, remains under house arrest. Hamdok has demanded the release of top civilians and a return to the transition that began after the removal of veteran autocrat Omar al-Bashir in 2019.

Western donors which supported Sudan’s transition have frozen aid in response to the Oct. 25 takeover.

Earlier, Volker Perthes, the U.N. special representative for Sudan who has been involved in mediation to try to resolve the latest crisis, said the unilateral decision “makes it increasingly difficult to return to the constitutional order.”

Referring to Saturday’s planned demonstrations, Perthes also called on the security forces to exercise utmost restraint and respect the right to peaceful assembly and free expression.

Security forces shot dead three people during the last big protest against the takeover on Oct. 31. In total, 15 protesters have been reported killed since the coup.
…

A Nigerian journalist who went missing last month in the nation’s capital has been found dead, killed by a hit-and-run driver, police said Friday. 

Tordue Salem, a parliamentary reporter with the independent Vanguard newspaper in Abuja, was last seen on October 13 after leaving the national assembly building. 

Efforts by family, friends and colleagues to locate the reporter were unsuccessful until his body was discovered on Thursday. 

National police spokesman Frank Mba told reporters in Abuja that the hit-and-run driver who killed Salem had been arrested and had confessed. 

Mba said that after the 29-year-old suspect, Clement Itoro, hit the reporter, “the victim’s phone, an iPhone, fell on the car’s windscreen.” 

Police investigators were able to track the phone and therefore the suspect to where he parked his car. 

The newspaper also confirmed the recovery of Salem’s body in a hospital in Abuja. 

Two weeks ago, journalists in Abuja had staged a protest to demand Salem’s release, fearing he might have been targeted by security forces. 

The protest came at a time of growing insecurity in Nigeria, where abductions for ransom are on the rise.
…

Parched by four years of drought, more than 1.1 million people in southern Madagascar urgently need food aid in a rapidly worsening crisis, experts warn.

About 700,000 people are already receiving food aid and increased emergency assistance is needed, according to WFP which is working with the Malagasy government and other humanitarian agencies.

“Harvests fail constantly, so people don’t have anything to harvest and anything to renew their food stocks,” Alice Rahmoun, WFP’s communications officer in Madagascar said.

More than 90% of the population in Madagascar’s “Deep South” region lives below the poverty line, making families extremely vulnerable, according to Amnesty International.

“All aid agencies are working together to try to prevent this crisis from turning into famine,” Jean-Benoît Manhes, deputy representative of UNICEF in Madagascar, told The Associated Press.

“But we are witnessing a deterioration which requires increased resources,” he said. “To give you an idea, in the months of July and August, 14,000 children were treated for severe acute malnutrition. That is usually the number we treat in an entire year.”

The four consecutive years of drought have wiped out crops and exhausted the food reserves of the farming communities of Madagascar’s “Grand Sud,” or Great South, he said.

Southern Madagascar is used to dry seasons, usually from May through October, known as kere in the Malagasy language when fields are dry and food is short, but this year is much worse, say local farmers.

The ground is so hard that it’s difficult to plant crops of corn, rice and cassava that are traditionally started in November.

“It’s impossible to cultivate here at the moment,” said Nathier Ramanavotse, 68, mayor of Maroalomainty, in the far south of Madagascar.

“It rained a little last week but it’s not enough to cultivate. We used to grow a lot of corn here but for four years the crops have failed. It has been getting worse and worse,” he said.

“There is no other work to be done here to make money,” Ramanavotse said. “We suffer a lot … many of us have eaten our seeds because it is the only thing left to eat at home. It’s an unbearable temptation when you are hungry.”

Recently the area has been plagued by intense sand winds, called “tiomena” in Malagasy which means red winds. The sandstorms have engulfed and ruined the early crops that were planted, farmers say.

“All the trees have been cut in the area and there is nothing left to hold back the wind,” said Ramanavotse. In the landlocked part of the country, many farmers have turned to tree cutting and coal mining to survive, he said.

Desperate, many families have turned to strategies of last resort to survive, say residents.

“When we run out of money, we eat cactus leaves or tubers,” said Liafara, who only has one name. “In this kere, we are eating things that we don’t even know the names of. To get water, you have to dig in the Mandrare River which is very dry at the moment and it takes a lot of work.”

The mother of five children, Liafara, 37, said it’s difficult to stretch their food to feed her family.

“If we have a little money, we buy rice to eat in the evening. We cook it with lots of water to share it with all of us,” she said. “But often at night, we can’t sleep. We just roll around in bed because we’re hungry.”

The family lives in Amboasary-Atsimo, the epicenter of the extreme food shortages where 14,000 people are in catastrophic conditions, according to the latest statistics from the World Food Program’s Integrated Phase Classification.

“My children, like all those in the village, are very weak. At the moment, they no longer go to school because they can’t concentrate due to hunger. We sell what we have at home to eat. We have no more furniture. We even sold the door to our house to get some money,” she said.

“Last week, when the rain fell a little, I sold my plates so that I could buy seeds,” she said. “Goats and zebus (cows), we sold them a long time ago.”

More than 500,000 children under the age of five in the far south of Madagascar are likely to suffer from acute malnutrition until April 2022, according to the Integrated Food Security Classification Framework. Of these, more than 110,000 already suffer from severe acute malnutrition and need urgent action.

The Portuguese charity Brotherhood Without Borders has set up 14 nutritional centers in the Androy region to feed and give emergency care to malnourished children.

“The situation is not improving at all,” said Felly Zihal, coordinator for the group’s program in southern Madagascar. “There are cases of children who have practically no more flesh. There is only the skeleton and the skin.”
…

France is hosting an international conference on Libya on Friday as the North African country heads into long-awaited elections next month, a vote that regional and world powers hope will pull the oil-rich nation out of its decade-old chaos.

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris and several world leaders will take part in the Paris conference, and are expected to push for transparent, credible elections. They will also urge the withdrawal of mercenaries and foreign forces from Libya, as stated in last year’s U.N.-brokered cease-fire that ended fighting between rival factions in the country.

Libya has been engulfed in chaos since a NATO-backed uprising 2011 that toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. The oil-rich country was for years split between rival governments – one based in the capital, Tripoli, and the other in the eastern part of the country. Each side is backed by different foreign powers and militias.

Friday’s conference is co-chaired by France, Germany, Italy, Libya, and the United Nations, and attended by international and regional high-level officials.

The participants are expected to push for an “indisputable and irreversible” election process, a joint commitment to fight trafficking of people and weapons through Libya. They also are expected to advocate for tangible efforts withdraw mercenaries and foreign troops, according to French President Emmanuel Macron’s office.

Harris said Monday she will take part in the conference “to demonstrate our strong support for the people of Libya as they plan for elections.”

Also expected to attend are Libyan leaders Mohammad Younes Menfi, head of the presidential council, Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and Foreign Minister Najla Mangoush.

The conference comes less than six weeks before Libyans are scheduled to cast their ballots in the first round of the presidential elections on Dec. 24. Parliamentary elections are to take place nearly two months later, along with a second round of the presidential vote.

The long-awaited vote, however, still faces challenges, including unresolved issues over election laws and occasional infighting among armed groups. Other obstacles include the deep rift that remains between the country’s east and west and the presence of thousands of foreign fighters and troops. The U.N. has estimated that there have been at least 20,000 foreign fighters and mercenaries in Libya over the past few years, including Russians, Syrians, Turkish, Sudanese, and Chadians.

A leading rights group questioned Thursday whether Libyan authorities can hold free and fair elections. Human Rights Watch criticized what it said were Libya’s restrictive laws that undermine freedom of speech and association, as well as the presence of armed groups accused of intimidating, attacking and detaining journalists and political activists.

“The main questions leaders at the summit should ask are: can Libyan authorities ensure an environment free of coercion, discrimination, and intimidation of voters, candidates, and political parties?” it said in a statement.

In July, the U.N. special envoy for Libya, Jan Kubis, accused “spoilers” of trying to obstruct the vote to unify the divided nation. The Security Council has warned that any individual or group undermining the electoral process could face U.N. sanctions.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said this week, “We want to see an election which the Libyan people can believe in, that is credible, and that is in line with the past agreements.”

Politicians and warlords in western Libya issued statements this week opposing holding the vote according to the laws ratified by the country’s parliament. Khaled al-Meshri, head of Tripoli-based Supreme Council of State, went further and threatened in televised comments to resort to violence to prevent powerful military commander Khalifa Hifter, a potential frontrunner in the presidential race, from taking office if he is elected.

Libya’s civil war escalated in 2019, as Hifter, who commands the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces, launched an offensive to take Tripoli from armed militias loosely allied with the then U.N.-supported but weak government in the country’s capital.

Hifter, who was allied with an east-based administration, was backed by Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Russia and France. However, his 14-month campaign and march on Tripoli ultimately failed in June 2020, after Qatar and Turkey intensified their military support, with the latter sending mercenaries and troops to help shore up western Libya militias.
…