The U.S. government is urging the Ethiopian government, rebel group Tigray People’s Liberation Front, and other warring factions to end the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and allow humanitarian aid to reach millions in need of assistance. Unless the conflict stops, key officials could be facing U.S. travel and financial sanctions.

Speaking at an online press briefing Monday, Bryan Hunt, the acting deputy assistant secretary for East Africa, said the U.S. government wants to see an end to the 10-month conflict in Tigray.

“If the government of Ethiopia and the TPLF take meaningful steps to enter into talks for a negotiated cease-fire and allow for unhindered humanitarian access, a different path is possible, and the United States is ready to help mobilize assistance for Ethiopia to recover and revitalize its economy. Those meaningful steps include accepting African Union-led mediation efforts, designating negotiation teams, agreeing to negotiations without preconditions, and accepting an invitation to initial talks,” he said.

Hunt also said the parties should allow convoys of trucks carrying humanitarian aid to reach Tigray and restore essential services to the region. 

On Friday, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order that paves the way for sanctions on Ethiopian government officials, Eritrea and other groups involved in the Tigray conflict.

Hunt said other tools to press for a peaceful resolution to the conflict have failed.

“This conflict has already sparked one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world today, with more than five million people requiring assistance, of which over 900,000 are already living in famine conditions. For far too long, the parties to this conflict have ignored international calls to initiate discussions to achieve a negotiated cease-fire and the human rights and humanitarian situations have worsened,” he said.

The U.S. government said the sanctions program will not affect personal remittances to non-sanctioned persons, humanitarian assistance, and international and local organizations’ activities.

Ethiopian army troops invaded Tigray last November, following months of rising tension between the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Tigray’s ruling party, the TPLF.

Erik Woodhouse, deputy assistant secretary for the U.S. State Department’s Counter Threat Finance and Sanctions Bureau, said the sanctions aim to warn sides to find a solution to the conflict rather than using the military.

“Sanctions are a tool that seek to change the behavior of the targets. These measures impose tangible costs on human rights abusers and perpetrators of conflict. By imposing such costs, the United States seeks to send a signal that such actions are not without consequence,” he said.

Professor Chacha Nyaigotti Chacha, a specialist in diplomacy and international relations at the University of Nairobi, said sanctions are not always effective.

“Some of the leadership, when such sanctions are threatened to be applied, they don’t care. So, sanctions may not work because the idea of a sanctioning, the idea of stopping opportunities from a flowing country which you are sanctioning is to make them feel the pinch then change their trend. But sometimes they don’t care,” said Chacha.

In a letter to Biden, Prime minister Abiy defended his actions in Tigray, saying his government has stabilized the region and addressed humanitarian needs amid a hostile environment created by the TPLF.
…

Sudanese authorities have foiled an attempted coup, the army said on Tuesday, warding off a challenge to a civilian-military council that has run the country since Omar al-Bashir was overthrown in 2019. 

A civilian member of the ruling council told Reuters the situation was under control after the attempted coup overnight had been contained. Interrogation of suspects was due to begin, the council member, spokesman Mohamed Al Faki Suleiman said. 

The ruling body known as the Sovereign Council has run Sudan under a fragile power-sharing deal between the military and civilians following Bashir’s overthrow. 

It plans to hold free elections in 2024. 

“The military has defeated the coup attempt and the situation is completely under control,” the media advisor to Sovereign Council head, General Abdelfattah al-Burhan, told state news agency SUNA. 

A government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the coup attempt had involved an effort to take control of state radio in Omdurman, across the River Nile from the capital Khartoum. 

Measures were being taken to contain a limited number of people involved, the source said. All those implicated had been arrested, SUNA reported. 

A witness said that military units loyal to the council had used tanks to close a bridge connecting Khartoum with Omdurman early on Tuesday morning. 

It was not the first challenge to the transitional authorities, who say they have foiled or detected previous coup attempts linked to factions loyal to Bashir, who was deposed by the army after months of protests against his rule. 

In 2020, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok survived an assassination attempt targeting his convoy as he headed to work in Khartoum. 

Sudan has gradually been welcomed into the international fold since the overthrow of Bashir, who ruled Sudan for almost 30 years and is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged atrocities committed in Darfur in the early 2000s. 

Bashir is presently in prison in Khartoum, where he faces several trials. 

The ICC’s chief prosecutor held talks with Sudanese officials last month on accelerating steps to hand over those wanted over Darfur. 

Sudan’s economy has been in deep crisis since before Bashir’s removal and the transitional government has undergone a reform program monitored by the International Monetary Fund. 

Underlining Western support for the transitional authorities, the Paris Club of official creditors agreed in July to cancel $14 billion of Sudan’s debt and to restructure the rest of the more than $23 billion it owed to the club’s members. 

But the economy is still struggling with rapid inflation and shortages of goods and services.  
…

The U.S. Department of Justice says it will use money from assets seized from Equatorial Guinea Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, which the DOJ alleges Obiang obtained through corruption. 

Of that amount, $19.25 million will go to the United Nations to buy COVID-19 vaccines, and $6.35 million will pay for medicine and medical supplies for Equatorial Guinea. 

In a news release, the DOJ said Obiang used his position as minister of Agriculture and Forestry in 2011 “to amass more than $300 million worth of assets through corruption and money laundering, in violation of both U.S. and Equatoguinean law.” 

According to a 2014 settlement agreement, Obiang was required to sell a $30 million mansion in Malibu, California, a Ferrari automobile, and “various items of Michael Jackson memorabilia,” DOJ said.

“As provided in the agreement, $10.3 million of these settlement funds were to be forfeited to the United States, and the remaining settlement funds would be distributed to a charity or other organization for the benefit of the people of Equatorial Guinea,” the DOJ news release said. 

Obiang has also been convicted in France for purchasing luxury properties with illegal funds. He was given a suspended three-year sentence and fined $35 million.

Equatorial Guinea is rich in oil, but most of its 1.4 million citizens live in poverty. 

Some information in this report comes from Agence France-Presse. 

 
…

About 15 soldiers and several civilians have died in two attacks in English-speaking western areas of Cameroon in the grip of a breakaway campaign, the Defense Ministry said Monday.

Heavily armed “terrorists” ambushed a convoy of elite rapid intervention forces at Bamessing in the Northwest region on September 16, the ministry statement said. 

“Using IED (improvised explosive devices) and an anti-tank rocket launcher, the insurgents immobilized the vehicles (in the convoy) before opening heavy fire on the latter,” it added. 

Another IED hit a military convoy at Kumbo in the same region on September 12. 

The ministry estimated the total death toll at “about 15 soldiers and several civilians.”

Western Cameroon is in the grip of a four-year conflict triggered by militants demanding independence for two predominantly English-speaking regions in the francophone-majority state. 

More than 3,500 people have been killed and over 700,000 have fled their homes. 

Rights groups say abuses have been committed by both separatists and the armed forces. 

The Defense Ministry noted “the existence of links and exchanges of sophisticated weaponry” between “secessionist terrorists” and “other terrorist entities operating beyond the borders,” including fundamentalist groups. 

 
…

BloLab is converting plastic jerricans into computers using recycled components.. Anne Nzouankeu visited the startup in Cotonou, Benin in this story narrated by Moki Edwin Kindzeka.
…

BloLab, a startup in Benin is turning plastic jerricans into computers using recycled components and distributing them to the public at a low cost.

Arthur Dadjo is a student in Cotonou, Benin, where innovation and recycling meet. For the past year, he has been using a computer he built himself. It is made from a plastic jerrycan, recycled materials and parts from an old or broken computer to build what would become the computer’s motherboard and hard drive. 

Locals call it “Jerry” after the name of the containers. With royalty-free software installed, it is as good as new. And most importantly, cheaper.  

“You can find a complete office computer between 300 and 350,000 in West African CFA franc, the local currency,” he said. “But with the components we bought with the help of the startup, we spent about 100 to 150,000 (CFA franc) to have this computer.”  

BloLab, a digital innovation lab working in the fields of education and digital technology, makes these “Jerry” computers. The startup regularly organizes workshops to teach people how to make their own computers for free.  

Medard Agbayazon, the founder of BloLab, says in addition to giving people access to cost effective products, the trainers want to help develop skills in innovation.

The second objective is to stimulate creativity in children. He says when they learn to do these “Jerrys,” they also learn how to solve problems they are confronted with in their environment, using the material or the means they have at their disposal.

Experts believe that the computer is increasingly an indispensable working tool and that initiatives such as BloLab’s should be encouraged.

Ali Shadai, is with Open Nsi, an organization focusing on digital transformation of companies.  

“A computer is a door to a world of opportunities,mand making it accessible to the greatest number of people is beneficial for these people and for society in general,” he said. “BloLab’s effort is positive.”

The training to learn how to build a “Jerry” is offered for free. But participants must find the components to build their own computers themselves.

BloLab has been in operation for 4 years and founders say that hundreds of people have already taken advantage of the training sessions and built their computer.

The startup is now working to make these self-built computers available to schools located in remote areas. With that, BloLab says, it would bridge the digital gap one “Jerry” at a time.

Moki Edwin Kindzeka contributed to this report.
…

France’s Armed Forces minister arrived in Mali on Sunday to pressure the military junta to end talks to bring Russian mercenaries into the country and push it to keep a promise to return the country to constitutional order in February.

Diplomatic and security sources have told Reuters that Mali’s year-old military junta is close to recruiting the Russian Wagner Group, and France has launched a diplomatic drive to thwart it, saying such an arrangement is incompatible with a continued French presence.

West Africa’s main political bloc, ECOWAS, as well as other allies combating militants in the Sahel region, have also expressed concerns over the potential deal.

But Mali’s junta, which seized power in August 2020, has dug in, noting that France has begun scaling down its decade-old operation against insurgents linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State across the region.  

On Sunday, Mali’s foreign ministry called objections from neighbor Niger to the prospect of a deal with Wagner “unacceptable, unfriendly and condescending.”

The visit by Florence Parly to Mali is the highest-level trip by French officials since the talks with Wagner emerged.

An official from the French Armed Forces Ministry told reporters ahead of the visit that Parly would stress “the heavy consequences if this decision were to be taken by the Malian authorities.”

She would also underscore the importance of keeping to the calendar for the transition to democracy leading to elections in February 2022, the official said.

French officials describe the relationship with the junta as “complicated,” although it still relies on Paris for counterterrorism operations.

Paris said on Thursday it had killed the leader of Islamic State in Western Sahara in northern Mali.

Parly earlier on Sunday was in Niger to lay out plans to reshape its operations in the region.

The French army started redeploying troops from its bases in Kidal, Tessalit and Timbuktu in northern Mali at the start of the month, French army sources have said.

France wants to complete the redeployment by January. It is reducing its contingent to 2,500-3,000 from about 5,000, moving more assets to Niger, and encouraging other European special forces to work alongside local forces.

The European force in the Sahel so far totals about 600 troops from nine countries.
…

The mayor of Johannesburg was killed in a car accident as he returned from campaigning with South Africa’s president on Saturday, just over a month after being elected, his office said in a statement.

Jolidee Matongo, 46, was returning from a voter registration drive in Soweto township ahead of local elections when the accident happened.

“It is hard to comprehend this tragedy, given the vitality and passion with which Mayor Matongo interacted with me and residents of Soweto so shortly before his death,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a tweet.

“Nothing could prepare any of us for this sudden loss, which has deprived our nation’s economic center of its second Executive Mayor in two months.”

Matongo’s predecessor died from Covid-19 complications in July, and Matongo was elected on August 10.

Gauteng province premier David Makhura, who was also at the Soweto voter registration drive, said the news had left him “shocked and shattered.”

“[Matongo] executed his duties with a cool and calm demeanor and remained committed to selflessly serving the citizens of Johannesburg,” he added. 

Photos posted on social media by Ramaphosa and Matongo himself from earlier in the afternoon showed the two men walking around Soweto talking to residents, Matongo dressed in a bright yellow tracksuit with the African National Congress party’s logo on it.

Matongo was born in Soweto, according to the City of Johannesburg’s website, and became a member of the ANC Youth League after taking up student politics at the age of 13.

Matongo’s office said more details on the accident would be released “in due time.”
…

Bandits have released 10 more students kidnapped two months ago from a Baptist school in northwest Nigeria, the school administrator told Reuters on Saturday.

The Rev. John Hayab, administrator of the Bethel Baptist High school, said 21 students from the school remained in captivity. He said an undisclosed ransom was paid to release eight students while another two were set free due to ill health.

Last month bandits released 15 students from the school after a group of 28 was set free in July following the release of a first group of 28 two days after the raid.

Around 150 students were missing after armed men in July raided the school in Nigeria’s Kaduna state, the 10th mass school kidnapping since December, which authorities attributed to criminal gangs seeking ransom.

“They are looking for more money, that’s why they are releasing them in batches,” Hayab said.

He has previously said the abductors were seeking $2,433 per student.

Schools have become targets for mass kidnappings for ransom in northern Nigeria by armed groups. Such kidnappings in Nigeria were first carried out by jihadist group Boko Haram, and later its offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province, but the tactic has now been adopted by other criminal gangs.

The United Nations children’s agency UNICEF said on Wednesday that 1 million Nigerian children could miss school this year as the new term begins amid a rise in mass school kidnappings and insecurity. 

 
…

Malawi plans a nationwide rollout of the newest typhoid vaccine after a two-year study, the first in Africa, found it safe and effective in children as young as 9 months. Previously available vaccines were found not effective in children younger than 2 years and even then only provided short-term protection.  

Typhoid is an increasing public health threat in Malawi and across sub-Saharan Africa with an estimated 1.2 million cases and 19,000 deaths each year.

Typhoid is a treatable bacterial infection that has become a serious threat in many low- and middle-income countries.

In Malawi, the study on the efficacy of the Typhoid Conjugate Vaccine or TCV involved about 28,000 children aged between 9 months and 15 years from three townships in the commercial capital, Blantyre.

The University of Maryland School of Medicine’s Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, the Blantyre Malaria Project, and the Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust conducted the study.

Professor Melita Gordon, principal investigator for the study at the Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust, says the results, released this week, show an efficacy rate of more than 80% in protecting children against the disease.

“The previous vaccines were only 50% effective, and they were never even tested very well in the very youngest children. They were never even usable in the youngest children. So, the fact that this new conjugate vaccine works in pre-school children, right down to 9 months is a really big deal and important to be able to tackle typhoid across the board in all the children who suffer with it,” she said.

Gordon also said the vaccine efficacy data provides hope that sub-Saharan Africa can be rid of the multidrug-resistant strain of typhoid that arrived from Asia about a decade ago.

“In Malawi, the incidents are something [around] four or five hundred cases per 100,000 per year. Now anything over 200 is considered high incidence, so we are a very high-incidence country. There have been studies in Burkina Faso, in Ghana, in Kenya; we know that many other African countries have an equivalent burden of the disease,” Gordon said.

Dr. Queen Dube, chief of health services in Malawi’s Health Ministry, says rollout should begin soon.

“The exciting news is that we had applied to GAVI that supports us on the vaccination front to add this to the list of vaccines we are administering in the country and GAVI approved our application. And we are looking at introducing this typhoid vaccine and rolling it out next year,” Dube said.

However, some fear the new typhoid vaccine would face hesitancy and resistance from people, as has been the case with COVID-19 vaccines, and which led to the incineration of about 20,000 expired doses in Malawi in May.

But Dube said this won’t happen with typhoid vaccine because COVID-19 was a new disease.   

“We have had typhoid for decades and decades, so people know what typhoid is. Nobody will wake up in the morning saying, oh no, typhoid was manufactured in a laboratory. And so, chances that you will end up with misinformation are on the lower side compared with a new disease which swept across the globe, killing so many people brought a lot of fear and a allowed a lot of false theories,” she said.

Still, Dube said Malawi’s government plans to launch a massive sensitization campaign to teach people about the new typhoid vaccine to a reemergence of the myths and misinformation that engulfed the COVID-19 vaccine rollout.

 
…

The World Health Organization is warning that COVID-19 vaccine export bans and hoarding by wealthy countries will prolong the pandemic in Africa, preventing recovery from the disease in the rest of the world.

While more than 60% of the U.S., European Union, and British populations have been vaccinated, only 2% of COVID vaccine shots have been given in Africa.

The COVAX facility has slashed its planned COVID-19 vaccine deliveries to Africa by 25% this year.  WHO Africa regional director Matshidiso Moeti says the 470 million doses now expected to arrive by the end of December are enough to vaccinate just 17% of Africans on the continent.   

“Export bans and vaccine hoarding still have a chokehold on the lifeline of vaccine supplies to Africa.… Even if all planned shipments via COVAX and the African Union arrive, Africa still needs almost 500 million more doses to reach the yearend goal.  At this rate, the continent may only reach the 40% target by the end of March next year,” Moeti said.   

The WHO reports more than 8 million cases of COVID-19 in Africa, including more than 200,000 deaths.  Forty-four African countries have reported the alpha variant and 32 countries have reported the more virulent and contagious delta variant.

Moeti warns of further waves of infection and loss of life in this pandemic.  Given the short supply of vaccines, she urges strict adherence to preventive measures, such as mask wearing and social distancing.

She reiterates WHO’s call for a halt to booster shots in wealthy nations, except for those with compromised immune systems and at risk of severe illness and death.

“I have said many times that it is in everyone’s interest to make sure the most at-risk groups in every country are protected.  As it stands, the huge gaps in vaccine equity are not closing anywhere near fast enough. The quickest way to end this pandemic, is for countries with reserves to release their doses so that other countries can buy them,” she said.

Moeti said African countries with low vaccination rates are breeding grounds for vaccine-resistant variants.  She warned this could end up sending the world back to square 1, with the pandemic continuing to ravage communities worldwide if vaccine inequity is allowed to persist.

 
…

Former Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, who fought for independence from France, reconciled his conflict-ravaged nation and was then ousted amid pro-democracy protests in 2019 after two decades in power, has died at age 84.

A statement from the office of current President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, did not provide the cause of death or information about funeral arrangements.

Bouteflika had suffered a stroke in 2013 that badly weakened him. Concerns about his state of health, kept secret from the Algerian public, helped feed public frustration with his 20-year, corruption-tarnished rule. Mass public protests by the Hirak movement led to his departure.

An astute political chameleon, Bouteflika had been known as a wily survivor ever since he fought for independence from colonial ruler France in the 1950s and 1960s.

He stood up to Henry Kissinger as Algeria’s long-serving foreign minister, successfully negotiated with the terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal to free oil ministers taken hostage in a 1975 attack on OPEC headquarters, and helped reconcile Algerian citizens with each other after a decade of civil war between radical Muslim militants and Algeria’s security forces.

“I’m a non-conformist politician. I’m a revolutionary,” Bouteflika told The Associated Press on the eve of his first presidential victory in 1999, after a campaign tarnished by fraud charges that drove his six rivals to pull out of the vote.

Upon taking office, Bouteflika promised “to definitively turn the somber pages of our history to work for a new era.”

Born March 2, 1937, to Algerian parents in the border town of Oujda, Morocco, Bouteflika was among Algeria’s most enduring politicians.

In 1956, Bouteflika entered the National Liberation Army, formed to fight Algeria’s bloody independence war. He commanded the southern Mali front and slipped into France clandestinely.

After the war’s end, Bouteflika became foreign minister at just 25, at a time when Algeria was a model of doctrinaire socialism tethered to the Soviet Union. Its capital, Algiers, was nicknamed “Moscow on the Med.”

He kept that post for 16 years, helping to raise Algeria’s influence and define the country as a leader of the Third World and the Non-Aligned Movements. He was active in the United Nations and presided over the U.N. General Assembly in 1974.

In 1978, he slipped from sight for nearly two decades, spending more than six years in exile to escape corruption charges that were later dropped.

Algeria’s army held the reins of power throughout that time. The National Liberation Army had been transformed into a single party that ruled until 1989, when a multiparty system was introduced.

But as the Islamic Salvation Front party, or FIS, rapidly gained support, the army canceled Algeria’s first multi-party legislative elections in 1992 to thwart a likely victory by the Muslim fundamentalists. An insurgency erupted that left an estimated 200,000 dead over the ensuing years.

Bouteflika took office in 1999, Algeria’s first civilian leader in more than three decades. He managed to bring stability to a country nearly brought to its knees by the violence, unveiling a bold program in 2005 to reconcile the fractured nation by persuading Muslim radicals to lay down their arms.

Bouteflika and the armed forces neutralized Algeria’s insurgency, but then watched it metastasize into a Saharan-wide movement linked to smuggling and kidnapping — and to al-Qaida.

Bouteflika stood with the United States in the fight against terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, particularly on intelligence-sharing and military cooperation. It marked a turnaround from the militantly anti-American, Soviet-armed Algeria of years past when figures like Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver took refuge there.

Bouteflika’s powerful political machine had the constitution changed to cancel the presidency’s two-term limit. He was then reelected in 2009 and 2013, amid charges of fraud and a lack of powerful challengers.

His firebrand past dissolved as age and illness took its toll on the once-charismatic figure. Corruption scandals over infrastructure and hydrocarbon projects dogged him for years and tarnished many of his closest associates. His brother, two former prime ministers and other top officials are now in prison over corruption.

Bouteflika balked at the region-wide calls for change embodied by the 2011 Arab Spring revolutions that overthrew three dictators to his east. Bouteflika tamped down unrest through salary and subsidy increases, a vigilant security force and a lack of unity in the country’s opposition. He also failed to restore civic trust or create an economy that could offer the jobs needed for Algeria’s growing youth population despite the nation’s vast oil and gas wealth.

Bouteflika was increasingly absent from view during his third and fourth presidential terms after suffering a stroke. The extent to which Bouteflika was controlled by the army remained unclear. He once told the AP that he turned down the job of president in 1994 because he was unable to accept conditions set by the military.

Algeria’s Hirak protests erupted after he announced plans to run for a fifth term in 2019, and it was the then-army chief who sealed Bouteflika’s fate by siding with the demonstrators. Bouteflika had no choice but to step down.

Despite new elections and some gestures toward the protesters, Algeria’s leadership remains opaque and has recently cracked down on dissent, notably among Berber populations.

The secrecy surrounding Algeria’s leaders is such that it’s unclear whether Bouteflika ever married or had any survivors.

 
…

A new executive order signed by U.S. President Joe Biden allows the U.S. Treasury Department to sanction all sides involved in the war in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, including the Ethiopian and Eritrean governments. 

“The new executive order I signed today establishes a new sanctions regime that will allow us to target those responsible for, or complicit in, prolonging the conflict in Ethiopia, obstructing humanitarian access, or preventing a ceasefire,” Biden said in a statement Friday. 

“These sanctions are not directed at the people of Ethiopia or Eritrea, but rather the individuals and entities perpetrating the violence and driving a humanitarian disaster.” 

The order allows the agency to impose sanctions if steps are not taken soon to end 10 months of fighting. 

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) and the Amhara regional government can also be sanctioned.

Previous U.S. attempts to pressure the warring factions, including visa restrictions against Ethiopian and Eritrean officials, have not been successful. 

“The United States is determined to push for a peaceful resolution of this conflict, and we will provide full support to those leading mediation efforts, including the African Union High Representative for the Horn of Africa Olusegun Obasanjo,” said Biden. “We fully agree with United Nations and African Union leaders: there is no military solution to this crisis.” 

The war is threatening the stability of Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country. 

The conflict has triggered the world’s largest hunger crisis, leaving millions of people in need of humanitarian aid. 

On Thursday, U.S. officials said only 10 percent of humanitarian supplies for the embattled Tigray region have been allowed to enter the area over the past month. 

The U.S. and the United Nations say the trucks transporting essential aid such as food and water to the area have been blocked by Ethiopian troops.

Some information in this report was provided by the Associated Press and Reuters. 

 
…

Somalia’s government has condemned what it calls the unlawful detention of President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo’s national security adviser.

Somali government spokesman Abdirashid Hashi in a tweet Friday said Fahad Yasin was detained at Djibouti airport.   

Yasin was flying from Turkey to Mogadishu with a stop in Djibouti.    

Government spokesman Hashi tweeted such acts will not help to strengthen ties between Somalia and Djibouti.   

Djibouti’s Minister of Economy and Finance Ilyas Dawaleh tweeted a response to the communication director’s accusation.   

Dawaleh asked him to “refrain from any inappropriate and baseless statements.”

Djibouti’s Foreign Minister Mohamed Yusuf added, “There are fake news released in social media trying to create confusion and drag Djibouti into Somalia internal challenges and crisis. We will continue to stand by our brothers and sisters in Somalia but never interfere in their internal affairs.”

Yasin, who is the former head of Somalia’s National Intelligence and Security Agency, is at the center of a power struggle between Somalia’s president and prime minister.   

Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble suspended Yasin over the disappearance of a female cybersecurity spy, who the agency says was killed by al-Shabab militants.   

Her family believes Somalia’s spy agency was responsible for her disappearance.    

Yasin was due to attend a national security meeting on Saturday to discuss the controversial case.   

The case has Farmajo and Roble in a stand-off that threatens the country’s elections and security gains.

Farmajo on Thursday issued a suspension of Roble’s executive powers, which the prime minister promptly rejected.   
…

With the U.S. out of Afghanistan, some experts say China and Pakistan are stepping in to provide immediate support and the prospect of long-term investment for the Taliban acting government. VOA’s senior diplomatic correspondent Cindy Saine reports on what this could mean for the region and for U.S. security interests.

Producer: Barry Unger.
…

Somalia’s President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmajo, has suspended the powers of Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble in the latest power struggle between the two leaders. 

In taking action Thursday, Farmajo accused the prime minister of making rush decisions and not having good working relations with the president’s office. 

Citing Articles 87 and 90 of Somalia’s provisional constitution, Farmajo said Roble, who also served as chief minister, violated the constitution. There has been no immediate comment from Roble. 

The decree from the president’s office further halted Robles’ powers of hiring and firing pending the completion of the country’s ongoing election process. Long-delayed presidential elections are set for November. 

The men are also at odds over the firing Monday of former National Intelligence and Security Agency Director Fahad Yassin. He was dismissed in connection with the investigation into the disappearance of female spy Ikran Tahlil Farah back in June. 

NISA said Farah was abducted and killed by the armed group al-Shabab. But in a new twist, the militants strongly denied involvement. 

According to constitutional experts, the ongoing power struggle between the two men is also sparked by the way their roles are designated in the constitution.

U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed Monday visited Mogadishu and appealed to both men to put their differences aside so they can focus on the already delayed polls.

 
…

Two men have been accused of defamation after they allegedly lied to a Burkina Faso journalist in a recent report, which found that those responsible for distributing aid in the country are exploiting internally displaced women, demanding sex in return for food. The government and the media outlet which published the story are now at loggerheads as the trial of the two men is set for the end of the month.

In the northern town of Kongoussi on Wednesday, two men displaced by Burkina Faso’s conflict stood accused of defamation after they told a local journalist that women in their community, including one of their wives, had been forced into sex in exchange for food aid distributed by the government. 

A key witness, the director of Minute.bf, which initially published the story, did not arrive for the court hearing. The judge subsequently postponed the case until September 29.  

Minute.bf published a statement on their website later in the day, claiming they had not received a summons to appear at the court.  

Speaking to VOA Wednesday, Lassane Sawadogo, director of Minute.bf said he believes they spoke to credible witnesses despite doubts after publication. 

“One of our sources clearly said that his wife traded sex for food. For us, a husband who makes such statements about his own wife cannot be lying. But how do we verify such information? We have now been told that the people we interviewed confessed they lied. What’s to say they are not lying again?”  

Sawadogo went on to say he hopes the government will investigate the allegations of sex in exchange for food in other parts of the country too.   

Last month, VOA and another news website focusing on aid, The New Humanitarian, also published stories documenting testimonies from nine women who said they had been forced into sex in exchange for food aid in the nearby city of Kaya.  

One of the defendants outside the courtroom in Kongoussi told VOA he had lied to Minute.bf. Meanwhile, members of the government’s social action department responsible for distributing aid in the area spoke to members of the local press. When VOA asked for an interview, they said they were banned from speaking to international media without authorization.  

At a press conference on Monday, the minister for humanitarian affairs, Laurence Ilboudo-Marchal blamed Minute.bf for rushing to publish without verification in response to a question on the matter.  

“Minute.bf, what you did there, you almost destroyed families because you didn’t give us time to answer you,” she said. “You were making an important denunciation. Did you write to us? Let us listen to you? Or come to ask us and say, ‘Madam minister here are the accusations, what is your answer?’ If you had published our response, maybe this wouldn’t have gone to court,” she said.   

At the press conference, the minister also faced questions about a recent report from aid group The Norwegian Refugee Council, which said the government was slow to register newly displaced people and was risking lives as a result.  

Over the last year, the government has also implemented a ban on journalists trying to visit official camps for internally displaced people in the country.  

With neither the government nor Minute.bf seeming ready to back down, Burkina Faso’s sex for food aid scandal remains unsolved.

 
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3Somalia’s president announced Thursday that he has suspended the hiring and firing powers of the prime minister during the Horn of Africa country’s slow-moving election period.

President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, commonly known as Farmajo, made his announcement via a Facebook post on Villa Somalia, the official presidential account. Farmajo accused Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble of making rash decisions, which he said “could lead the country into [a] political and security crisis.”

Roble did not respond immediately to Farmajo’s statement. A source close to Roble told VOA’s Somali Service that he would “soon” share his views with the Somali people.

The two leaders’ relationship has grown increasingly strained over the case of missing intelligence officer Ikran Tahlil Farah, a young woman who disappeared June 26.

She was employed by the National Intelligence Agency, which said in early September that she had fallen into the hands of al-Shabab militants and was killed by the group. Al-Shabab has denied the accusation about Farah.

Roble assigned a military court to investigate the case and appointed a new intelligence agency director to replace Fahad Yassin. But Farmajo rejected Roble’s appointment.

On Monday, Farmajo had announced a five-member commission, chaired by the attorney general, to investigate the spy case. But Roble objected to that decision, saying Somalia’s constitution requires that the judicial branch remain independent of the executive branch.

Parliamentary elections are underway, with 35 of the 54 seats in the upper house already chosen. Elections for the 275-seat lower chamber are expected in coming weeks. Members of those two chambers elect the president, a process that could take months. Farmajo took office in February 2017; his current term formally ended February 8.

 
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Eritrean refugees caught up in the months-long war in Ethiopia have suffered abuses including executions and rape that amount to “clear war crimes,” Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

A new report from the U.S.-based rights watchdog details the role of both Eritrean soldiers and rebel fighters from Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region in extensive carnage marked by forced repatriations and large-scale destruction at two refugee camps.

“The horrific killings, rapes and looting against Eritrean refugees in Tigray are clear war crimes,” said Laetitia Bader, HRW’s Horn of Africa director.

“For years, Tigray was a haven for Eritrean refugees fleeing abuse, but many now feel they are no longer safe,” she added.

Northern Ethiopia erupted in conflict last November when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray to topple the regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or the TPLF, a move he said came in response to attacks on federal army camps.

Before fighting broke out Tigray was home to 92,000 Eritrean refugees, including 19,200 in the Hitsats and Shimelba camps, according to Ethiopia’s Agency for Refugees and Returnees Affairs (ARRA).

Although Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a brutal border war in 1998-2000 that left tens of thousands dead, Abiy initiated a rapprochement with Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019, and Asmara has lent him military backing in Tigray.

Eritrean and Tigrayan forces first clashed near Hitsats about two weeks after the conflict began.

HRW said Thursday it had received “credible reports” that Eritrean troops killed 31 people in Hitsats town, and that the true toll was “likely significantly higher.”

AFP has previously documented how, once fighting reached Hitsats camp, pro-TPLF militia targeted refugees in reprisal killings, shooting dead nine young Eritrean men outside a church.

When the Eritreans gained control of the camp, they are believed to have transported 17 injured refugees to Eritrea for treatment, the HRW report said.

However, most of those evacuees remain unaccounted for, along with 20-30 others who were detained, “including refugee committee members and perceived opposition members, two of them women,” it said.

The Tigrayan forces regained control of the area in early December and began robbing, detaining, raping and attacking refugees with weapons including a grenade, potentially killing dozens, HRW said.

Eritrean forces returned the following month and forced those still in the camps to evacuate, and satellite imagery indicates Hitsats was largely destroyed soon after, the watchdog added.

Missing refugees

Thousands of refugees formerly in Hitsats and Shamella remain unaccounted for, while hundreds had little choice but to return to Eritrea in what HRW described as “coerced repatriations.”

Others ended up in two camps in southern Tigray, Mai Aini and Adi Harush, which came under TPLF control in July.

ARRA, Ethiopia’s refugee body, has accused the TPLF of deploying heavy artillery in both those camps, looting vehicles and warehouses and preventing refugees from leaving — creating what is “tantamount to a hostage situation.”

The TPLF has dismissed such allegations and vowed to ensure the refugees’ protection.

Ethiopian officials are trying to expedite the relocation of refugees out of southern Tigray to a 90-hectare site in the neighboring Amhara region.

Yet the TPLF launched an offensive into Amhara in July, and the region has been hit hard by recent fighting.

HRW said Thursday that all parties to the conflict should grant freedom of movement to the refugees, as well as expanded access to aid. 
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France’s president announced the death of Islamic State in the Greater Sahara’s leader late Wednesday, calling Adnan Abu Walid al-Sahrawi’s killing “a major success” for the French military after more than eight years fighting extremists in the Sahel.

French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted that al-Sahrawi “was neutralized by French forces” but gave no further details. It was not announced where al-Sahrawi was killed, though the Islamic State group is active along the border between Mali and Niger.

“The nation is thinking tonight of all its heroes who died for France in the Sahel in the Serval and Barkhane operations, of the bereaved families, of all of its wounded,” Macron tweeted. “Their sacrifice is not in vain.”

Rumors of the militant leader’s death had circulated for weeks in Mali, though authorities in the region had not confirmed it. It was not immediately possible to independently verify the claim or to know how the remains had been identified.

“This is a decisive blow against this terrorist group,” French Defense Minister Florence Parly tweeted. “Our fight continues.”

Al-Sahrawi had claimed responsibility for a 2017 attack in Niger that killed four U.S. military personnel and four people with Niger’s military. His group also has abducted foreigners in the Sahel and is believed to still be holding American Jeffrey Woodke, who was abducted from his home in Niger in 2016.

The extremist leader was born in the disputed territory of Western Sahara and later joined the Polisario Front. After spending time in Algeria, he made his way to northern Mali where he became an important figure in the group known as MUJAO that controlled the major northern town of Gao in 2012.

A French-led military operation the following year ousted Islamic extremists from power in Gao and other northern cities, though those elements later regrouped and again carried out attacks.

The Malian group MUJAO was loyal to the regional al-Qaida affiliate. But in 2015, al-Sahrawi released an audio message pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.

The French military has been fighting Islamic extremists in the Sahel region where France was once the colonial power since the 2013 intervention in northern Mali. It recently announced, though, that it would be reducing its military presence in the region, with plans to withdraw 2,000 troops by early next year.

News of al-Sahrawi’s death comes as France’s global fight against the Islamic State organization is making headlines in Paris. The key defendant in the 2015 Paris attacks trial said Wednesday that those coordinated killings were in retaliation for French airstrikes on the Islamic State group, calling the deaths of 130 innocent people “nothing personal” as he acknowledged his role for the first time. 
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The United Nations is withdrawing 450 Gabonese peacekeepers from its mission in Central African Republic following allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, Gabon’s government said Wednesday. “Following the numerous cases of allegations of exploitation and sexual abuse being processed, the United Nations today decided to withdraw the Gabonese contingent from MINUSCA,” the statement said, referring to the mission there.Gabon’s defense ministry said it had opened an investigation into the allegations. “If they are proven, their perpetrators will be brought before military courts and tried with extreme rigor,” Gabon’s defense ministry warned.The U.N mission in Central African Republic was deployed in 2014 to end insecurity stemming from inter-religious and intercommunal fighting that erupted in 2013. The mission still has more than 10,000 personnel in the country.The U.N. mission there has faced allegations of sexual exploitation by peacekeepers from other countries in the past as well. 
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Tanzania’s first female president, Samia Suluhu Hassan, this week named a woman as defense minister — the latest in a number of appointments of women to top government posts.The appointment came as part of the second Cabinet reshuffle Hassan has made since the death of her predecessor, John Magufuli, earlier this year.At the swearing-in of Stergomena Tax as Tanzania’s first female defense and national service minister, Hassan said she made the choice to shatter the myth that women cannot serve in such a position.“I have decided to break the longtime myth that in the Defense Ministry there should be a man with muscles. The minister’s job in that office is not to carry guns or artillery,” Hassan said, adding that Tax’s main duty will be to coordinate and manage the administration of policies at the ministry.   Gender activists have welcomed the appointment but said more needs to be done to address the country’s gender equality gap.  Anna Henga, who heads the Legal and Human Rights Center, says there must be an amendment of laws such as the marriage act and the education act, laws that put women in low decision positions. She added that the government should also allocate money through the Health Ministry to educate people that women can also be leaders.   Analysts say an increase in the political representation of women at the national level does not automatically lead to women having more power in daily life, especially in highly stratified societies.   Sociologist Nasor Kitunda says gender should be irrelevant.“I think this tries to show that there is a direction in gender equality though I’m not a believer in gender. The primary criteria should be someone’s performance and their ability to implement those responsibilities,” Kitunda said.  For Tanzanian human rights activist Aika Peter, appointing more women leaders is positive but there must be a rotation to allow others to show their leadership skills. “We really need to see new faces in these positions — when you see the same people being recycled every day it gives the impression there are people who are so good at this job, there are no others who can be good at it,” Peters said.  Tax’s appointment brings the number of women who hold ministerial positions in Hassan’s government to eight.    
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High-level African officials met virtually this week to discuss the challenges Africa faces in trying to manage a growing population amid climate change. The conference was aimed at identifying ways African governments can manage these pressures to minimize or avoid conflict.Africa generates about 3% percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the lowest of any continent. But it’s more vulnerable than any other region in the world, since Africans depend so heavily on their natural environment for food, water and medicine.Speaking at a virtual conference Tuesday on climate, conflict and demographics in Africa, Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said African governments need to keep the climate in mind as they try to boost their economies.“Our first obligation for us and for African countries must always be to ensure the well-being of our people through access to development services, including electricity, health care, education, safe jobs and a safe environment, including access to clean cooking fuels. We must prioritize solutions that align the development and climate agenda, and that is absolutely important,” said Osinbajo.The Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, based in Brussels, says that in 2019, Africa recorded 56 extreme weather events compared to 45 in the previous year.The extreme weather patterns affected the lives of 16.6 million people in 29 countries. At least 13 million of them were from five countries: Kenya, Mozambique, Somalia, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.West Africa had fewer weather-related catastrophes but is feeling the effects of global warming just the same.Ghana environment minister Kwaku Afriyie explains how climate change has impacted agricultural lands in the country.”The harsh and deteriorating climate conditions in northern Ghana undoubtedly energized region-growing food insecurity and seasonal north-to-south migration. And besides, increasing of floods and protracted drought lead to displacement of people.  Statistics show that over the last few years, there has been a new internal displacement which has occurred in Ghana due to climate-induced disasters and even beyond our borders,” he said.The U.N. special representative to the African Union, Hannah Tetteh, said the continent needs to improve cross-border information-sharing and cooperation to handle climate-related crises.“The challenge has not been that we haven’t developed yet these structures. The challenge has been we have not utilized them yet effectively, and that goes to issues of national sovereignty and the unwillingness of member states to have others, as it were, take an active interest and maybe recommend the things that need to be done in order to respond to a particular crisis. And if we recognize we are all in this together, then that certainly has to change,” she said. As for specific suggestions, Osinbajo suggested governments encourage greater use of natural gas and plant more trees to maintain forests that can soak up carbon dioxide and prevent it from warming the atmosphere.
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An explosion from suicide bombing has killed at least 11 people Tuesday in the Somali capital, witnesses and officials said.Witnesses said a suicide bomber walked into a teashop made of corrugated tin and detonated an explosive vest. 
 
The attack occurred near a checkpoint manned by Somali government security forces in Wadajir district, which is next to both Mogadishu’s airport and the headquarters of the Africa Union forces known as AMISOM. 
 
Soldiers as well as civilians are among the dead according to a Somali government official who requested anonymity because he is not allowed to speak to the media. 
 
The al-Shabab militant group claimed responsibility for the attack. 
 
The prime minister of Somalia, Mohamed Hussein Roble, condemned the “barbaric act” by al-Shabab. FILE – Somalia’s Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble speaks at the parliament in Mogadishu, Somalia, Sept. 23, 2020. “I condemn today’s bombing by al-Shabab terrorists at a teashop in Wadajir district, which resulted in the death and injury of innocent people,” he said in a Twitter post. “May God have mercy on the dead and heal the wounded.” 
 
Roble said the attack shows that al-Shabab are “thirsty for the indiscriminate bloodshed of the Somali people.” 
 
Thousands of Somali civilians have been killed in the fighting involving al-Shabab since 2006. The group is fighting to overthrow the international supported government of Somalia. Al-Shabab Attacks Killed 4,000 in Past Decade, Says Data-Gathering GroupMajority of deaths occurred in Somalia, according to records compiled by the independent group Armed Conflict, Location and Event Data Project, or ACLEDAbdulkadir Mohamed Abdulle contributed to this report.  
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