Malawi is grappling with an unprecedented rise in the water level of its largest body of water, Lake Malawi. Authorities say nearly 90% of the beach area has been submerged, damaging property and crops. Lameck Masina reports from Mangochi.
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Abuja, Nigeria — Nigerian authorities said Thursday they have arrested the mastermind of a 2022 terrorist attack on a moving train that killed 10 passengers.

Police arrested Ibrahim Abdulahi, who is also known as “Mande,” during a raid in January at the Abuja-Kaduna road flyover near Rido junction, Police Force public relations officer Olumuyiwa Adejobi told journalists.

“The suspect confessed to being the leader of the kidnap syndicate terrorizing Abuja-Kaduna highway,” Adejobi said.

Police had received a tip-off about Abdulahi’s whereabouts, Adejobi said, adding that Mande admitted to participating in several deadly attacks on citizens, including the kidnapping of 20 Greenfield University students in Kaduna in 2021 and the 2022 attack on the train.

On March 28 of that year, armed terrorists bombed the passenger train traveling from Abuja to Kaduna and opened fire on passengers. Ten people were killed, and the attackers abducted at least 61 passengers. The abductees were freed many months later.

The attack sparked fear and widespread criticism of the government. Authorities shut down the train service for nine months and, when they reopened it, provided improved security and escorts on each trip.

Security analyst Senator Iroegbu praised the arrest but said authorities must be more proactive.

“What actually Nigerians want is to be sure that never [happens] again,” Iroegbu said “They [shouldn’t] wait till people get kidnapped before they start taking actions, whether militarily or through ransom payments. Nigerians want the kidnappings to end.”

Insecurity is one of the major problems standing in the way of prosperity in Africa’s most-populous country.

In the past year, gangs have kidnapped more than 4,700 people, according to security consulting firm SBM Intelligence.

Last month, Nigeria’s president said the country would no longer pay ransom to armed gangs to free hostages and pledged that gangs will face the full force of security agencies. Many victims and relatives of those in captivity are hoping the decision does not ruin their chances of rescuing their loved ones.
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Angry youths in Chad are pulling down campaign posters of transitional President General Mahamat Idriss Deby in protest of what they call his attempt to seize power. Deby’s main challengers in the May 6 election, including former opposition leader and current Prime Minister Succes Masra, say several hundred of their supporters have been arrested. Some among the disgruntled opposition are calling for an election boycott.

Several hundred civilians shout as they pull down campaign posters of Chad’s transitional president, General Mahamat Idriss Deby.

The posters have come down in several towns, including Chad’s capital, N’djamena, and Moundou, the central African nation’s second-most-populated city.

In the audio extracted from videos circulating on social media, especially Facebook and WhatsApp, the civilians say they need a leadership change in Chad and an end to what they call a Deby dynasty.

Deby took power as a military ruler in April 2021 after his father, Idriss Deby Itno, who had ruled the country for 30 years, was killed by rebels.

Chad’s opposition and civil society have always condemned what they call Deby’s seizure of power, asking him to hand power to civilians.

The younger Deby told Chad state TV this week that campaigning for Chad’s May 6 polls has faced major hitches, including attacks on his campaign officials and the pulling down of his posters.

Deby says he has asked government troops, the guarantors of peace and security, to restore order and end growing hate speech and preelection violence. He says when he took power three years ago, he vowed to maintain Chad as a peaceful country before handing it to constitutional order after the May 6 presidential polls.

Deby did not accuse his challenges of ordering or allowing their supporters to pull down his campaign posters. But he said civilians who are planning to disturb the elections have been arrested.

Deby’s main election rivals, Prime Minister Masra and Pahimi Padacke Albert, who also served as Chad’s prime minister under Deby from April 2021 to October 2022, say hundreds of their supporters are in jail illegally.

Meanwhile, opposition candidates also accuse Deby of ordering government troops to crack down on his challengers’ campaign caravans.

Masra says Deby wants to crack down on his rivals to maintain his grip on power. He spoke to VOA via a messaging app from N’djamena Friday.

Masra says he and his supporters will not be intimidated into stopping the fight for the rule of democracy in Chad. He says he is committed to making sure that all Chadians have access to electricity, water and security, which are basic needs Deby and his father have not been able to give civilians for more than three decades. And yet, he says, the Deby family wants to stay in power eternally.

Some opposition and civil society groups have intensified their campaign for a total boycott of the election. They assert that Deby controls Chad’s election commission, the National Agency for Elections Management, or ANGE.

Djimet Clemen Bagaou, president of the Democratic Party of Chadian People says ANGE will declare Deby the winner, so there is no point to the elections.

ANGE rejects that line of thinking, saying the country’s more than 8 million registered voters should count on its independence to ensure a free, transparent and credible vote. It is urging Chadians to come out to the polls.

Deby says he will respect the verdict of the ballot and hand over power if defeated.

 
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Nairobi, Kenya — The death toll from flood-related incidents in Kenya has crossed 200 since March, the interior ministry said Friday, as a cyclone barreled towards the Tanzanian coast.  

Torrential rains have lashed East Africa, triggering flooding and landslides that have destroyed crops, swallowed homes, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.   

Some 210 people have died in Kenya “due to severe weather conditions,” the interior ministry said in a statement, with 22 killed in the past 24 hours.   

More than 165,000 people had been uprooted from their home, it added, with 90 others missing, raising fears that the toll could rise further.   

Kenya and neighboring Tanzania, where at least 155 people have been killed in flooding, are bracing for cyclone Hidaya, bringing heavy rain, wind and waves to their coasts.   

Tanzanian authorities warned Friday that Hidaya had “strengthened to reach the status of a full-fledged cyclone,” at 3:00 am local time (0000GMT) when it was some 400 kilometers from the southeastern city of Mtwara.    

“Cyclone Hidaya has continued to strengthen further, with wind speeds increasing to about 130 kilometers per hour,” they said in a weather bulletin.  

Kenya’s interior ministry forecast that the cyclone was likely to “bring strong winds and large ocean waves, with heavy rainfall” expected to hit the coast starting Sunday. 

Race against the clock   

Rescuers in boats and aircrafts have raced against the clock in pouring rain to help people marooned by the floods in Kenya.   

In dramatic footage shared on Monday, the Kenya Red Cross rescued a man who said he was stranded by floodwaters and forced to shelter in a tree for five days in Garissa in the country’s east.  

The country’s military also joined search and rescue efforts after President William Ruto deployed them to evacuate everyone living in flood-prone areas.   

Opposition politicians and lobby groups have accused Ruto’s government of being unprepared and slow to respond to the crisis despite weather warnings.  

In the deadliest single incident in Kenya, dozens of villagers were killed when a makeshift dam burst on Monday near Mai Mahiu in the Rift Valley, about 60 kilometers north of Nairobi.  

The interior ministry said 52 bodies had been recovered and 49 people were still missing after that disaster.  

The ministry ordered that anyone living close to major rivers or near 178 “filled up or near filled up dams or water reservoirs” must vacate the area within 24 hours.  

The heavier than usual rains have also claimed at least 29 lives in Burundi, with 175 people injured, and tens of thousands displaced since September last year, the United Nations said.  

The rains have been amplified by the El Nino weather pattern — a naturally occurring climate phenomenon typically associated with increased heat worldwide, leading to drought in some parts of the world and heavy downpours elsewhere.  

Late last year, more than 300 people died in rains and floods in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, just as the region was trying to recover from its worst drought in four decades.  

Cyclone season in the southwest of the Indian Ocean normally lasts from November to April and sees around a dozen storms each year. 

 
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This year’s World Press Freedom Day theme is “journalism in the face of the environmental crisis,” and a South African media outlet called Oxpeckers focuses on exactly that. For VOA, Kate Bartlett spoke to some of its journalists about what drives and challenges them as they report on people and practices that hurt the planet. Camera and edit: Zaheer Cassim    
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Chad’s election on May 6 is almost certain to result in victory for transitional president and military leader Mahamat Idriss Déby, according to analysts. In the run-up to the vote, authorities have cracked down on the media and opposition leaders have been kept off the ballot. Despite that, experts say Chad will remain an important ally for Western security efforts in the Sahel region. Henry Wilkins reports.
Camera: Henry Wilkins
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Nairobi — The number of people who have lost their lives in devastating floods in Kenya since March has risen to 188, with dozens still missing, the interior ministry said on Thursday.

Torrential rains in Kenya and other countries in East Africa have caused deadly havoc, with floods and landslides forcing people from their homes, destroying roads, bridges and other infrastructure.

“As a result, the country has regrettably recorded 188 fatalities due to severe weather conditions,” the ministry said in a statement.

It added that 125 people had been reported injured and 90 people were currently missing, while 165,000 have been displaced.

On Wednesday, nearly 100 tourists were among people marooned after a river overflowed in Kenya’s famed Maasai Mara wildlife reserve following a heavy downpour.

The ministry said rescuers had successfully evacuated 90 people by ground and air in the Masai Mara, where lodges and safari camps were flooded after the River Talek overflowed.

The ministry said rescuers had successfully evacuated 90 people by ground and air in the Masai Mara, where lodges and safari camps were flooded after the River Talek overflowed.

The area is currently inaccessible with bridges washed away, Narok West sub-county administrator Stephen Nakola told AFP, adding that about 50 camps in the reserve have been affected, putting more than 500 locals temporarily out of work.

There are no fatalities but communities living around the area have been forced to move away.

“Accessing the Mara is now a nightmare and the people stuck there are really worried, they don’t have an exit route,” Nakola said, adding that waterborne diseases were likely to emerge.

“I am worried that the situation could get worse because the rains are still on.”

In the deadliest single incident in Kenya, dozens of villagers were killed when a dam burst on Monday near Mai Mahiu in the Rift Valley, about 60 kilometers (40 miles) north of the capital, Nairobi.

The interior ministry said 52 bodies had been recovered and 51 people were still missing after the dam disaster.

Kenyan President William Ruto on Tuesday announced he was deploying the military to evacuate everyone living in flood-prone areas.

Opposition politicians and lobby groups have accused Ruto’s government of being unprepared and slow to respond to the crisis despite weather warnings, demanding that it declare the floods a national disaster.

“Kenya’s government has a human rights obligation to prevent foreseeable harm from climate change and extreme weather events and to protect people when a disaster strikes,” Human Rights Watch said Thursday.

The HRW statement said events such as flooding are “particularly threatening for marginalized and at-risk populations, including older people, people with disabilities, people in poverty, and rural populations”.

The United States and Britain have issued travel warnings for Kenya, urging their nationals to be cautious amid the extreme weather.

The downpours have also left a trail of destruction across other East African countries, including neighboring Tanzania, where at least 155 people have been killed in flooding and landslides.

The heavy seasonal rains have been amplified by the El Nino weather pattern — a naturally occurring climate phenomenon typically associated with increased heat worldwide, leading to drought in some parts of the world and heavy rains elsewhere.

The disaster in Kenya and other nations has sparked an outpouring of condolences and pledges of solidarity with the affected families from all over the world.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is “deeply distressed” to hear of the loss of lives from heavy flooding in Burundi, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania and other parts of East Africa, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

“The [U.N.] secretary-general is extremely concerned about the impacts of El Nino-triggered extreme weather, which risk further devastating communities and undermining their livelihoods.”
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Istanbul, Turkey & Washington — Activists from an international flotilla carrying humanitarian aid are applying for new maritime flags to sail to Gaza from Turkey after the flags of two of their ships were removed by Guinea-Bissau authorities last week.

“We will take flags of different countries. We will also apply to Turkey. We will also try to get Turkey’s flag,” Behesti Ismail Songur, head of the Mavi Marmara Association, a group that is part of the international flotilla, told VOA.

“So, this will be a litmus test for all states. We will see who will be brave enough to flag the freedom fleet,” Songur said.

The flotilla is organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which consists of several Turkish and international groups, including the Turkish Islamist Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) and the Mavi Marmara Association.

Inspection

The flotilla has three ships, named Vicdan (conscience in Turkish), Anadolu (Anatolia), and Akdeniz (the Mediterranean).

Anadolu, docked at Turkey’s Iskenderun port in the Mediterranean, was set to transport 5,000 tons of humanitarian aid. Meanwhile, the activists were planning to sail to Gaza on the Akdeniz, a ferry, from Istanbul’s Tuzla shipyard. Vicdan, recently acquired by the group, was not part of the planned sailing.

Anadolu and Akdeniz carried Guinea-Bissau flags until last week when the Guinea-Bissau International Ships Registry (GBISR) inspected them and decided to remove the flags.

Flotilla organizers said the GBISR referred to their planned mission to Gaza while informing them about the removal of the flags.

GBISR did not respond to VOA’s request for comment.

The flotilla organizers believe that Guinea-Bissau authorities withdrew their flags because of pressure from Israel, which objects to the refusal of the organizers to allow the ships to be inspected for contraband or weapons. But Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo dismissed these allegations Monday. 

Embalo told the Portuguese LUSA News Agency that he never spoke to his Israeli counterpart “about the flagging of ships,” noting that it is not a matter that he would deal with.

“I do not usually talk to the prime minister of Israel; I talk to the president of Israel, a friend I met many years ago. That’s who I have been talking to, but about the war in the Gaza Strip,” Embalo said, adding that he talked with Israeli President Isaac Herzog Sunday.

Mavi Marmara

On April 22 Israel’s Channel 12 television reported that Shayetet 13, the Israeli army’s elite special forces unit, had been preparing to intercept the flotilla, citing the Israel Defense Forces. 

Shayetet 13 was also involved in 2010 when the Mavi Marmara, carrying pro-Palestinian activists including Turkish Islamist IHH, attempted to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza with a flotilla. Israel views the IHH as a terrorist group.

Israeli units boarded the Mavi Marmara with helicopters in international waters, killing nine activists. At least seven Israeli soldiers were injured as activists attacked them with clubs, knives and pipes. 

According to a report by the Spanish daily El Pais on April 25, the activists, who were set to sail on the Anadolu and the Akdeniz, took basic training in Istanbul in case of an Israeli attack on the flotilla. The training was conducted by Lisa Fithian, an American expert who teaches “peaceful resistance.”

At least 500 international activists were set to sail in the flotilla, including Nkosi Zwelivelile Mandela, the grandson of late South African President Nelson Mandela; Ada Colau, former mayor of Barcelona; and Ann Wright, a former U.S. Army colonel and diplomat who resigned from the State Department in opposition to the 2003 U.S.-led military invasion into Iraq. 

Wright, who also participated in the Mavi Marmara voyage in 2010, accused the U.S. of pressuring the current flotilla to prevent it from sailing.

“The U.S. is very complicit in trying to stop the Gaza flotilla,” Wright said, referring to a letter to U.S. Secretary Antony Blinken signed by 20 members of Congress last week.

In the letter, members of the U.S. House of Representatives said they were “gravely concerned by the reported ‘Freedom Flotilla Coalition,’ which plans to breach the established security perimeter with an unknown number of ships to deliver aid to Gaza.”

“The flotilla, led in part by the Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH) — which has close ties with the Turkish government and has previously raised funds for Hamas — intends to bypass established aid channels and refuse to allow Israeli inspection of their cargo, casting doubt on the nature of the mission,” the letter stated.

The House members also called on Blinken “to engage directly with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish government to prevent or delay the flotilla’s departure and ensure that all shipments to Gaza are vetted and in compliance with international standards for humanitarian assistance.”

Wright hopes Erdogan will support the flotilla. Erdogan and Turkish government officials have not commented publicly on the flotilla.

Erdogan hosted Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Istanbul last month, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced on Wednesday that Ankara has decided to join South Africa’s lawsuit against Israel at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service with contributions by Portuguese Service.
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GENEVA — More than 800 mine action leaders attending a U.N.-sponsored conference in Geneva this week are warning of the ongoing dangers from unexploded ordnance and landmines in countries affected by conflict.

A focus of the conference is on the war in Gaza, which the United Nations Mine Action Service, or UNMAS, says “has resulted in explosive ordnance contamination on a scale unprecedented for Gaza.”

The agency has been working in Gaza for over a decade providing services to lessen the threat of explosive ordnance to civilians and enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid.

“After October 7, the program has undergone a rapid evolution. We have become an enabler of the humanitarian response into Gaza,” said Charles Mungo Birch, chief of the UNMAS mine action program in the Palestinian territories.

He told journalists Wednesday, “We support humanitarian convoys going north and do explosive hazard assessments of humanitarian sites which allow humanitarian work to continue.”

For example, he said that in December, UNMAS Explosive Ordnance Disposal officers accompanied a World Health Organization convoy along a dangerous route to Shifa hospital.

“That convoy evacuated over 30 premature babies, which we returned to southern Gaza, and only one of them died,” he said.

UNMAS estimates there are 37 million tons of rubble in Gaza, amounting to 300 kilos (660 pounds) per square meter of surface. This, it says, is more rubble than in Ukraine.

“To put this in perspective, the Ukrainian frontline is 600 miles long and Gaza is 25 miles long,” Birch said.

“This rubble is likely heavily contaminated with UXO [unexploded ordnance].  Clearance of this will be further complicated by other hazards in the rubble,” he said, noting that about 800,000 tons of asbestos is estimated to be in the rubble.

Paul Heslop, program manager for mine action, UNDP Ukraine, said a significant amount of contamination from UXO is found on both sides of the frontline of that conflict — however, mine clearance experts are unable to access Russian-occupied areas.

“So, we have not had any work on that side of the conflict zone,” he said. “There has been an extensive use of all types of munitions by both sides in this conflict. We are seeing a level of contamination that we have not seen in Europe since the Second World War.”

UNMAS reports 60 million people around the world are affected by the threat of land mines, leftover ammunition and explosive devices every day. It says the legacy of contamination from these weapons continues decades after a conflict ends, killing and maiming thousands of people.

The agency cites Syria, Yemen, West Africa and the Sahel region, including Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, among the most-contaminated countries in the world.

“Most of the problem in the Sahel is the IUDs, improvised unexploded devices that are homemade, similar to what we have seen in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Somalia,” said Heslop, who was involved in projects in the Sahel for the past 10 years.

“Obviously, they are very low-cost and fairly easy to make.  So, I think the scourge of the Sahel is the use of IUDs in a fairly indiscriminate way,” he said.

UNMAS officials said a mine clearance program the agency ran for many years in Sudan “was incredibly successful.” Therefore, they said, it is “very distressing” to see Sudan once again being contaminated by these lethal weapons, many of which now are in urban areas where the current war is raging.

Last year, UNMAS recorded 1,500 victims of explosive ordnance in the Tigray and Afar regions in northern Ethiopia, with men and young boys accounting for 80% of the victims.

Francesca Chiaudani, chief of the UNMAS mine action program in Ethiopia, said casualties are likely to remain high because the agency has received only 2% of the $10 million needed for mine clearance activities.

Another problem, she said, is difficulty in getting accreditation for nongovernmental organizations to conduct surveys and clearance activities in conflict-affected areas.

“At the moment, some limited or clearance activity has been conducted by the Ethiopian national defense forces. But there is no humanitarian clearance happening in the county because of not having authorization for organizations to do so,” she said.

However, she said, “Accreditation for international NGOs is currently in process, and we are very hopeful that at least four will be accredited in the next month.”
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Hundreds of thousands of workers across Cameroon are observing International Labor Day on May 1 by marching against abuses they say include illegal dismissals and failure to pay the $70 monthly minimum wage, even as the cost of living increases.

Trade unions say tens of thousands of trained teachers, doctors and nurses have fled the country in the past year because of unemployment and tough working conditions, with monthly salaries at half the minimum. 

Celestin Bama, secretary general of the Confederation of Cameroon Workers Trade Union, or CSTC, addressed workers gathered at the May 20 Boulevard in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde. 

Bama said the government of Cameroon has not done anything substantial within the past 30 years to improve the conditions of workers. Thirty years ago, Cameroon imposed a 70 percent salary cut on government workers, Bama said, adding that there is a growing need to increase wages as prices of basic commodities have spiked 40 percent.

Cameroon trade unions say a 20 percent fuel price hike imposed by the government in February without a corresponding salary increase has also made living very difficult.

Anong Jacob, a member of the Cameroon Teachers Trade Union, or CATTU, said some private school owners pay teachers as little as $50 a month.   

“What do you expect from a teacher who earns 40,000 or 30,000 francs in a town like Yaounde or Douala or Bamenda, Bafoussam? What quality of shoe or dress would you expect them to put [wear] and come to school? You see the poor teacher with twisted shirts, with twisted shoes and all of that. Sometimes they don’t have money to pay electricity bills. They suffer a lot of humiliation,” Anong said. “I think the government should put some policies [in place] to see that proprietors and proprietresses respect the minimum wage.”  

Cameroon’s agreed minimum wage is $70 per month. Hilary Mbuwel, a teacher and social critic, said private employers do not respect the minimum wage because the government does not police private companies.  

“Proprietors know that if they do not respect the minimum wage, nobody calls them to account and so, since there is nobody to call them to account, nobody to punish them, they do it with impunity,” Mbuwel said. 

The government says there has been a 10 percent pay raise since 2023, but workers say with inflation so high, the raise is negligible. The government says the inflation rate is about 8 percent.  

Cameroon Minister of Labor and Social Security Gregoire Owona said the fragile world economy and several armed conflicts that the government has to manage make it impossible for the state and private investors to satisfy the needs of all workers. 

Owona said limited financial resources make it difficult for the government of Cameroon to solve the myriad problems affecting workers. He added that Cameroon President Paul Biya has ordered officials to make sure the wages of all government workers are paid regularly and as agreed in their employment contracts, while the possibility of improved workers’ rights, decent working conditions and fair compensation are being examined.  

Owona said the Cameroon government has instructed police and the National Insurance Fund to investigate and punish private employers who neither register their staff members to social security schemes nor respect the minimum wage. 

The government says respecting agreed wages and providing retirement benefits and disability income to qualified workers and their families will reduce the current massive migration of workers for lucrative jobs elsewhere, especially in Europe and North America. 

Cameroon says at least 10,000 trained professionals have fled the central African state within the past year because of unemployment, poor pay or poor working conditions.  
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Kigali — Hate speech fueled Rwanda’s tragic 1994 genocide against the Tutsis, resulting in the loss of around 800,000 people. Today, a new generation – including some very determined Generation Z members in Rwanda – is leading the charge to stop hate speech from spreading again and working towards a future of unity and understanding.

In a quiet dark room, Clara, a young Rwandan, tearfully confronts her mother. Born long after a genocide forced her family to flee, she seeks the truth about her roots.

Clara is a fictional character in a stage play presented by the Rwandan youth organization Peace and Love Proclaimers, or PLP.

She represents a majority of Rwandan Gen Z’s, said the group’s head, Israel Nuru Mupenzi.

Over 100 days in 1994, Hutu extremists massacred some 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus in what is known today as the Rwandan Genocide against Tutsis.

Thirty years on, a new generation feels lost in a broken society, said Mupenzi.

“We were not there, but we are now facing the aftermath. We are seeing our parents and our neighbors closing doors to each other because of lack of trust. Some couples are breaking up because of that. They say, ‘My parents said they can’t, he can’t allow me to be married to that family,” said Mupenzi.

Parents haunted by the past are reluctant to share why.

“They kinda try to hide it. ‘Dad, you don’t want to talk about this? But you know you have to tell me about this so I can know what to do,” said Mupenzi.

So, they go to the internet and social media for answers. But social media influencer Noella Shyaka said the space is very unhealthy. She explained that perpetrators of the 1994 crimes fled the country and continue to use social media to spread hate.

Their goal, she said, is to radicalize the youth against each other. 

“So, we get attacked. Certain groups, they target you, they always come in your comments, they call you names, ‘Slut’ ‘Tutsis’, yeah, we are not comfortable,” said Shyaka.

Many youths are angry, according to Rwandan artist and PLP creative director Colin Kazungu. He said some youth react to these hate speeches by writing songs and poems about violence and revenge.

To help, he is using entertainment, arts, and sports to dispel the hate and also create a safe space for genocide conversation.

“Art has a way to your heart even when a speech or a president’s speech cannot go straight to your heart. But I can talk to your heart with music even before a government official gets a platform to talk to you. Because many people follow music than they follow political things,” he said.

Kazunga said the toxicity around genocide conversations drives most youths away from the topic, but through art, entertainment and other fun events, PLP has seen them re-engage.

“People are now starting to understand that we need to take part in this journey, in this journey to fight genocide ideology, in this journey to say never again, to make never again a reality,” he said.   

The Peace and Love Proclaimers together with youth artists in Rwanda continue to raise awareness through community and school engagements. They have about 60 partner schools where they organize entertainment and education events, including peace walks all year round.
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Mai Mahiu, Kenya — Kenyan President William Ruto on Tuesday deployed the military to evacuate everyone living in flood-prone areas in a nation where 171 people have been killed since March by torrential rains. 

Seasonal rains, amplified by the El Nino weather pattern, have devastated the East African nation, with floodwaters engulfing villages and threatening to unleash even more damage in the weeks to come. 

In the worst incident, which killed nearly 50 villagers, a makeshift dam burst in the Rift Valley before dawn Monday, sending a torrent of water and mud gushing down a hill and swallowing everything in its path. 

The tragedy in Kamuchiri village, Nakuru county, was the deadliest episode in the country since the start of the March-May rainy season. 

Ruto, who visited the victims of the Kamuchiri deluge after chairing a Cabinet meeting in Nairobi, said his government had drawn up a map of neighborhoods at risk of flooding. 

“The military has been mobilized, the national youth service has been mobilized, all security agencies have been mobilized to assist citizens in such areas to evacuate to avoid any dangers of loss of lives,” he said. 

People living in the affected areas will have 48 hours to move, he said. 

“The forecast is that rain is going to continue, and the likelihood of flooding and people losing lives is real. Therefore, we must take preemptive action,” Ruto said. 

“It is not a time for guesswork, we are better off safe than sorry.” 

The Kamuchiri disaster — which killed at least 48 people dead — cut off a road, uprooted trees and destroyed homes and vehicles. Some 26 people were hospitalized, Ruto said, with fears the death toll could rise as search and rescue operations continued. 

The Cabinet warned that two dams — Masinga and Kiambere — both less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) northeast of the capital, had “reached historic highs,” portending disaster for those downstream.  

“While the government encourages voluntary evacuation, all those who remain within the areas affected by the directive will be relocated forcibly in the interest of their safety,” a statement said. 

Monday’s tragedy came six years after a dam accident at Solai, also in Nakuru county, killed 48 people, sending millions of liters of muddy water raging through homes and destroying power lines. 

The May 2018 disaster involving a private reservoir on a coffee estate also followed weeks of torrential rains that sparked deadly floods and mudslides. 

Opposition politicians and lobby groups have accused Ruto’s government of being unprepared and slow to respond to the crisis despite weather warnings, demanding that it declare the floods a national disaster. 

Kenya’s main opposition leader, Raila Odinga, said Tuesday the authorities had failed to make “advance contingency plans” for the extreme weather. 

“The government has been talking big on climate change, yet when the menace comes in full force, we have been caught unprepared,” he said. “We have therefore been reduced to planning, searching and rescuing at the same time.” 

Environment Minister Soipan Tuya told a press briefing in Nairobi that the government was stepping up efforts to be better prepared for such events. 

“We continue to focus on the need to invest in early warning systems that prepare our population — days, weeks and months ahead of extreme weather events, such as the heavy rainfall we’re experiencing.”  

The international community, including the United Nations and African Union Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat, have sent condolences and pledged solidarity with the affected families. 

The weather has also left a trail of destruction in neighboring Tanzania, where at least 155 people have been killed in flooding and landslides. 

Late last year, more than 300 people died in rains and floods in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, just as the region was trying to recover from its worst drought in four decades. 

El Nino is a naturally occurring climate pattern typically associated with increased heat worldwide, leading to drought in some parts of the world and heavy rains elsewhere. 
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Gaborone — Botswana’s diamond trade is on the rise despite industry uncertainty over efforts to sanction Russian stones. De Beers has relocated its auctions headquarters from Singapore to Botswana, while the secretariat of the Kimberley Process, a trade regime that certifies rough diamond exports to eliminate trade in conflict gems, also moved to the African nation.

De Beers, which has a long-standing sales agreement with Botswana, sells 10 percent of its diamonds through auctions.

De Beers’ Executive Vice President Paul Rowley said the relocation of its auctions office is part of an effort to streamline its business operations and facilitate the further development of Botswana’s diamond sector.

“The auction platform coming across, it will bring some additional customers and also auction sales will also enable us sell to small players and perhaps some Botswana nationals will be able to register and engage in that platform. That will be very exciting from that perspective,” he said.

The relocation comes as the diamond industry reels from effects of a traceability initiative introduced by the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries, or G7, in a bid to sanction Russian diamonds.

Under the arrangement, all diamonds entering G7 markets are routed through Antwerp, Belgium, to ascertain their origin.

The tracking system, however, has caused disruptions to the supply chain, according to Rowley.

“Obviously there have been the G7 issues in the past few months. We continue to work closely with the G7 and try to find a solution that works for the industry as well as for the G7. We obviously all support [Russian] sanctions; it’s absolutely understandable. What we are concerned about are the unintended consequences of perhaps having a single node, which we think is very inappropriate,” he said.

The relocation of De Beers’ auctions office coincides with the Kimberley Process secretariat commencing its operations in Botswana. 

The Kimberley Process is a global initiative by the diamond industry to eliminate trade in conflict gems.

In mid-May, the Kimberley Process will hold its intersessional meeting in Dubai, where the G7’s tracking system is expected to come under intense debate.

The G7 countries and Russia are all members of the Kimberley Process. 

World Diamond Council President Feriel Zerouki told VOA that the G7 traceability scheme needs to be reviewed.

“The WDC believes that mechanisms for assuring a diamond’s provenance should be efficient, effective and equitable. However, we don’t believe that the approach of a single Antwerp entry point meets this test. Antwerp is not the source of any diamonds, so it’s basically not the best place to certify where a diamond has originated from,” she said.

Botswana’s minister of minerals, Lefoko Moagi, meanwhile, hailed the establishment of the Kimberley Process secretariat in Gaborone.

“The Kimberley Process is an international and multi-stakeholder organization whereby we aim to increase ethical conduct in diamond trade and to prevent conflict diamonds from entering legitimate trade in rough diamonds. Therefore, this is very key for us; we will protect our diamonds with everything that we have,” said Moagi.

Botswana is the world’s second-largest producer of diamonds after Russia and is leading calls for the G7 traceability initiative to be revised.
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South Africa’s treatment of its big cats has long tarnished its reputation for conservation, from allowing captive-bred lion hunting to selling lion bones to East Asia for their purported “medicinal” qualities. But now, the country is ending all that. Kate Bartlett reports from Lionsrock Sanctuary in Free State province. Camera and video editing by Zaheer Cassim.
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Gabon’s opposition is divided over a measure proposed at the country’s national dialogue to suspend close to 200 political parties until further notice and bar members of ousted President Ali Bongo’s Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG) from taking part in elections for three years.

Backers of the measure say it eliminates parties created for reasons of corruption and personal ego, and prevents alleged vote-buying by PDG officials. Opponents say it will snuff out democracy.

Leaders of the talks, billed as Gabon’s Inclusive National Dialogue, say they have given a wide range of recommendations to the transitional president, General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema.  

The resolutions and recommendations were handed to Oligui on Tuesday in the presence of Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera. Touadera is the regional mediator for Gabon’s planned return to civilian rule following an August 30 bloodless coup that ousted Bongo. 

The Bongo family had ruled the oil-producing nation for 57 years before the military takeover. 

In addition to the idea of indefinitely suspending political parties and temporarily banning PDG leaders from elections, officials say the dialogue recommends that legislation be enacted to avoid what it calls the proliferation of political parties for egoistic reasons. 

However, some dialogue participants say suspending political parties would allow Oligui to cruise to victory in the August 2025 elections. 

Joel Ngouenini, president of the political party Seven Wonders of Gabon’s People, or 7MP, said Tuesday on Gabon state TV that the country should not attempt to behave as if it were inventing a strange form of democracy.

Democracy, he said, means people should be given the right to express themselves through the ballot and it is not the duty of a government to decide if civilians love a political party or not. Ngouenini warned that Gabon will sink to a dictatorship should Oligui accept a recommendation that silences political freedom. 

Noel Bertrand Boundzanga, who heads the commission that recommended suspending all political parties, said he has received many petitions from opposition and civil society groups describing the proposal as highly undemocratic. 

He maintains that the move will benefit the country in the long run.

He said the recommendation was made unanimously by members of the political commission for the sake of democracy and the general well-being of all citizens. Boundzanga added that such a suspension would show politicians who created political parties in order to illegally obtain favors that Gabon has entered a new era. 

On other matters, dialogue officials recommended that the two-year period for transitioning to democratic rule should be maintained but could be extended for a maximum of 12 months in case of a crisis or unforeseen circumstance. 

Under the recommendations, Gabon would move from a semi-presidential to a presidential system, with a directly elected president presiding over the executive branch, which has separate powers from the legislative and judicial arms of government.   

Officials also proposed a seven-year presidential mandate renewable once from August 2025, when presidential polls are expected. No recommendations would prevent Oligui from running for president. 

The month-long dialogue wrapped up Tuesday with Oligui saying a new constitution will be prepared, taking the dialogue’s recommendations into account. He said a referendum on the new charter will be held in June. 
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Human Rights Watch has released crucial archives from the 1994 genocide against Tutsis in Rwanda, revealing ignored warnings that could have saved lives. These warnings by rights defenders highlight their vital role in safeguarding communities. Thirty years on, civil society groups are intensifying efforts by training more youth advocates to protect human rights in Rwanda. Senanu Tord reports from Kigali, Rwanda.
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new york — A senior U.S. official warned Monday that more than 2 million people in El Fasher, in Sudan’s western Darfur region, are under imminent threat of a “large-scale massacre” from a paramilitary group’s attack and urged the international community to pressure the warring parties to de-escalate.

“There are already credible reports that the RSF and its allied militias have razed multiple villages west of El Fasher,” U.N. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters at the United Nations. “And as we speak, the RSF is planning an imminent attack on El Fasher.”

The RSF is the Arab-dominated Rapid Support Forces, the paramilitary group that is made up of elements of the Janjaweed fighters who carried out a genocide in Darfur in the early 2000s.

The head of the RSF has been locked in an armed power struggle with the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces for just over a year. The fighting has spread from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, to other parts of the country, and now looks ready to engulf North Darfur and the civilians trapped there.

The U.N. Security Council met behind closed doors to discuss the situation Monday and was briefed by U.N. political and humanitarian officials.

“A crisis of epic proportions is brewing, and to avoid further death, destruction and suffering, five things need to happen, immediately,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “First, the RSF must end its siege and buildup of military forces in El Fasher and swear off any attack on the city. All parties to the conflict must take urgent steps to de-escalate.”

She also called for protection of civilians and respect for international law; for external actors to stop providing the combatants with weapons; and for safe and unimpeded aid access. She also demanded the parties return to the negotiating table.

“Because this conflict will not be solved on the battlefield, it will be solved at the negotiating table,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

“The last thing that Sudan needs is a further escalation on top of this conflict that’s been going on for a whole year,” British Deputy U.N. Ambassador James Kariuki told reporters after the meeting. “The council is concerned about the humanitarian crisis — about the scale of the famine risk — and it is concerned about the displacement of people.”

In a statement Saturday, the 15-members of the U.N. Security Council repeated their call for an immediate cessation of hostilities, leading to a sustainable cease-fire. They also reminded countries of their obligations to comply with a U.N. arms embargo on Sudan.

Alarm bells

The U.N. began raising the alarm on the situation in El Fasher earlier this month, warning that fighting there could “unleash bloody intercommunal strife throughout Darfur.”

El Fasher is also a long-established humanitarian hub, and fighting there would further complicate aid deliveries.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Monday that the security situation has already effectively cut off humanitarian access to El Fasher.

In a statement, OCHA said more than a dozen aid trucks with supplies for 122,000 people are stranded in neighboring Northern State. The trucks cannot continue to El Fasher because of the insecurity and lack of guarantees for safe passage.

The U.N. says 330,000 people are dealing with acute food insecurity in El Fasher — many of them displaced persons who moved there seeking safety. The World Food Program reached 40,000 of them in the past month.

On Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ office said his special envoy for Sudan, Ramtane Lamamra, is engaging with the parties to try to de-escalate tensions in El Fasher.

Analysts at the Yale University Humanitarian Research Lab have also been tracking the situation and warned in a report on April 19 that the RSF likely already control the north, east and west roads into the city and have essentially trapped the Sudanese Armed Forces in El Fasher with no resupply or escape route.

That means civilians are also trapped, including tens of thousands of African Zaghawa, Masalit, Fur and other non-Arab ethnic groups, whose communities were victims of the genocide two decades ago.

The United Nations has called on the parties to allow civilians safe passage out of the city.

Since the war began last April, more than 8 million people have been forced from their homes in search of safety. Nearly 2 million of them have fled Sudan to neighboring countries. Of those who remain, 18 million are facing acute hunger, with 5 million a step away from famine.
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U.S. officials are negotiating the removal of American troops from Niger after the country’s military junta ended a longstanding pact. Niger is the latest Sahel country to eject Western forces and replace them with Russian troops. Analysts say similar moves have not improved military security for Niger’s neighbors Mali and Burkina Faso. Henry Wilkins reports.
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Nairobi, Kenya — More than 40 people have died in southwestern Kenya after a dam burst Sunday night following heavy rains which spawned devastating flooding across the country. Earlier, several people went missing after their boat capsized in a river in eastern Kenya.

Kenyan rescue teams are searching for survivors swept away by floods  in the Mai Mahiu area of Nakuru County.

John Karungu, who lives near the dam, said it broke around 2:30 in the morning and that  people on the downstream side pleaded for help as the rushing water engulfed their homes. Karungu and his neighbors managed to rescue several children, but some were swept away.

According to residents, at least 16 homes were swept away in the area.

Kenyan Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen and Nakuru County Governor Susan Kihika visited the flood zone to assess the damage and mobilize authorities and agencies for rescue operations and aid distribution to the victims.

Naivasha Police Commander Stephen Kirui told VOA they have recovered dozens of bodies, and some of the survivors were admitted to hospitals in the area.

“So far, we have retrieved 45 bodies. We have not identified the gender of adults and children. Almost three villages have been swept [away], and a large number of people, 110 persons, have been admitted to several hospitals within Naivasha Sub-County,” Kirui said.

Kirui said it was still raining in the area.

Last week, the Kenya Red Cross warned of more rains, called on Kenyans to brace for more flooding, and urged the population to take precautions.

Kirui said they have managed to clear the roads, but the flooding threat persists.

“The situation is now coming to a [sense of] normalcy, and the roads are passable,” Kirui said. “We are trying to remove the trees that have barricaded the roads, and now the roads are passable. I want to advise the members of the public within these areas that they should keep off from the floods. They should move to higher ground whereby they cannot be swept away by the water because there is heavy rain coming, and it may not be good.”

Kenyan media reports that flooding has claimed the lives of more than 100 people since the rainy season began in mid-March.

The death toll is expected to rise after a boat capsized in the Tana River in eastern Kenya over the weekend. The Kenyan Red Cross said it rescued 23 people from the boat, but more than a dozen were still missing.

The flooding has prompted the Kenyan government to delay the reopening of schools until next week.
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Lome, Togo — Togolese began voting in legislative elections on Monday after a divisive constitutional reform that opponents say allows President Faure Gnassingbe to extend his family’s decades-long grip on power.

The ballot comes after lawmakers this month approved the reform creating a new prime minister-style post opponents believe is tailored for Gnassingbe to avoid presidential term limits and stay in office.

In power for nearly 20 years, Gnassingbe succeeded his father Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for almost four decades himself following a coup in the small coastal West African state wedged between Benin and Ghana.

“This is the first time I am voting, because I lived in a neighboring country before. I came out early to avoid crowds,” said Koffi Ohini, a farm technician, 24, who cast his ballot in the capital Lome.

“I want to vote because these elections are important.”

Early turnout at polling stations in the capital was scattered but the streets were calm.

Monday’s vote will elect 113 lawmakers and 179 regional deputies from the country’s five districts who, along with municipal councilors, will elect a newly created senate.

For Gnassingbe’s ruling UNIR party this makes Togo more representative, but opposition parties have mobilized supporters to vote against what they say is an “institutional coup.”

Gnassingbe, 57, has already won four elections, all contested by the opposition as flawed. He would have only been able to run one more time as president in 2025 under the previous constitution.

With a population of nearly 9 million, Togo’s economy is mainly agrarian, though Lome has one of the busiest deep seaports in West Africa, helping the country weather the fallout of the Ukraine war and the pandemic.

The government has focused on developing infrastructure and expanding access to electricity, but poverty levels are still around 40 percent, according to the World Bank.

Like its Gulf of Guinea neighbors, Togo also faces a growing risk of spillover from jihadist conflicts to its north in the Sahel. Officials reported 30 deaths from “terrorist” incidents in the country’s north last year.

New post, new power

According to the new constitution adopted by lawmakers on April 19, Togo’s president becomes a mostly ceremonial role elected by parliament, and not the people, for a four-year term.

Togo’s shift from a presidential to a parliamentary system means power now resides with the new president of the council of ministers, a sort of super-prime minister, who automatically will be the leader of the majority party in the new assembly.

Gnassingbe’s Union for the Republic, or UNIR party, already dominates parliament. If the ruling party wins on Monday, Gnassingbe can assume that new post.

Results from the ballot are expected to be released within six days. 

Regional West African body ECOWAS said it would send a team of observers to Togo for the vote. The run up to the election has seen a tightening of controls.

Opposition attempts to organize protests of the reforms were blocked by authorities.

Togo’s Electoral Commission refused to allow the Togolese Bishops’ Conference to deploy election observers across the country, according to a document seen by AFP.

Togo’s High Authority for Audiovisual and Communication (HAAC) also temporarily suspended all accreditation for the foreign press to cover the elections. 
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