ABUJA, Nigeria — Security forces swept through large forests in Nigeria’s northwest region on Friday in search of nearly 300 children abducted from their school by motorcycle-riding gunmen in the latest mass kidnapping, which analysts and activists blamed on the failure of intelligence and a slow security response. 

The abduction of the 287 children in Kaduna state, near the West African nation’s capital, is one of the largest school kidnappings in the decade since the kidnapping of schoolgirls in Borno state’s Chibok village in 2014 stunned the world. Analysts and activists say the security lapses that allowed that mass abduction remain. 

The victims of the latest attack — among them at least 100 children aged 12 or under — were surrounded and marched into a forest just as they were starting the school day, said locals in Kuriga town, 89 kilometers from the city of Kaduna. One man was shot and killed as he tried to save the students, school authorities said. 

As Kaduna Gov. Uba Sani and security officials met with aggrieved villagers on Thursday, they pleaded with the governor to ensure the release of the students and secure their town — like many in the area, once a bustling agrarian community but now sparsely populated and where roads are often avoided because of rampant kidnappings. 

“Please stay and help us, please don’t leave us,” one woman cried as the governor’s convoy sped off. 

Kaduna police spokesman Mansur Hassan told The Associated Press that a search operation is taking place in the nearby forests, which often serve as enclaves for armed gangs. 

“All the security agencies are trying their best to ensure the rescue of the children,” Hassan said. 

The school, which had no fencing, was “surrounded from all angles” by the gunmen who arrived on motorcycles just after 8 a.m., said Joshua Madami, a youth leader in the area. 

Security forces did not arrive until several hours later, locals said, prompting concerns from families and analysts that the gunmen might have gone deep into the forest with the children. 

Confidence MacHarry, a security analyst with the Lagos-based SBM Intelligence firm, said such delayed response is common and worsens the situation in hotspots, in addition to the failure to act on intelligence. 

“I am confident that the victims will be rescued,” said Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who was elected last year after promising to end the country’s kidnapping crisis. “Nothing else is acceptable to me and the waiting family members.” 

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but locals blamed it on what they call bandits who carry out frequent mass killings and abductions for huge ransoms in remote villages across Nigeria’s northwest and central regions. 

The bandits are mostly herders who had been in conflict with host communities. They are different from the Islamic extremist rebels who had abducted more than 200 people, mostly women and children, in recent days. 

School abductions across northern Nigeria have reduced since early last year but the structural conditions enabling them remain, said James Barnett, a researcher specializing in West Africa at the U.S.-based Hudson Institute. The bandits, he said, have focused on consolidating their influence over rural communities, often in the form of taxes. 

“Since the start of the year, we’ve seen the bandits being more aggressive,” Barnett said. “This attack may be an attempt by some of the gangs to signal to the government that they can turn back the clock to 2021, when mass kidnappings led to a wave of school closures across the northwest.
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Thousands of Cameroonian women were out on the streets Friday — International Women’s Day — to press for more access to education and economic opportunity, as well as an end to harmful prejudices and practices.

The Central African nation’s Ministry of Women’s Empowerment said about 30,000 women came out to mark this year’s International Women’s Day, many wearing special green and yellow gowns bearing the slogan “Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress.”

The women sang about longing to be free and achieving true equality with men.

Rights activist Muma Bih Yvonne said women want to end the perception that they should be limited to child rearing, domestic chores and farm work.

“Women just want a level playing ground,” she said. “Women want equal opportunities; women want that the gender gap that has been delaying for so long should be bridged. If you have a female and a male child, give them the same responsibilities, level the playing ground.”

Muma said illiteracy among women remains high because many families still prefer to send only boys to school. Protesters said the practice blocks women from positions in public offices in which literacy is a requirement.

They also criticize that men own more than 85% of land in Cameroon and will sell it only to other men or hand it over only to their sons.

In hopes of changing long-established practices, organizers of Friday’s rally invited several hundred men, including traditional rulers who impose what the women describe as inhumane treatment on widows. Some of the practices include forcing women to sleep with the corpses of their late husbands and drink water used in bathing the bodies as a sign they did not kill their spouse.

Ernest Akuofou, an adviser to the traditional rulers of Ndop in Cameroon’s North-West region, said after listening to the demonstrators that he is convinced women should be given the same opportunities as men.

“In my village community it is just recently that women have been admitted to the level of notability. Why is it only now? Even as they are admitted at that level, the treatment given to them is not commensurate,” Akuofou said.

“That is why men are using the stereotypes on them: ‘Why do you go to talk politics [when] you are supposed to be in my kitchen?’” he said. “Those are the stereotypes; those are the things which push women to the background.”

Marie-Therese Abena Ondoa, Cameroonian minister of Women’s Empowerment and Family, said President Paul Biya is committed to improving the conditions of women.

She said the appointment of more women as managers of state corporations and directors of administrative offices shows there is a political will to end prejudices and involve women in decision making.

“Many of them [women] do not know their rights,” Ondoa said. “If they want to progress, they must have the will, and I think the government is doing a lot to allow women to really emerge. Women have proven that they can be in all domains, but we still need to do more to see that all those who enter primary education are not dropped out.”

Ondoa noted that Cameroon currently has over 60 women in the country’s 180-member National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, and about 50 women who are mayors of towns and cities.
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A group of women from small hold farms in Zimbabwe have mobilized resources to build a shelter for expectant mothers who live far from the nearest clinic. It can literally save the lives of pregnant women who cannot reach a clinic in time to give birth. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Mashava, Zimbabwe, south of the capital, Harare.
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KADUNA, Nigeria — Gunmen kidnapped dozens of school pupils in northern Nigeria on Thursday, residents and parents of the missing children said, in what would be the biggest abduction targeting a school since 2021. 

Police in Kaduna state did not immediately comment on the abductions, which happened shortly after morning assembly at the Local Government Education Authority School in the town of Kuriga. 

The number of pupils taken was not immediately clear. 

“As we speak, people are writing down the names of their children that have gone to the school today and are not back. It is after these statistics that we will know exactly the number” of missing, said Salisu Ahmed Kuriga, whose three younger brothers were missing. 

Parents said that on arrival at the school the gunmen started shooting sporadically before abducting dozens of pupils and disappearing into the bush. 

The school was housing primary and secondary school students.  

“We don’t know what to do, we are all waiting to see what God can do. They are my only children I have on Earth,” Fatima Usman, whose two children were among those abducted, told Reuters by phone. 

Another parent, Hassan Abdullahi, said local vigilantes had tried to repel the gunmen but were overpowered. 

“Seventeen of the students abducted are my children. I feel very sad that the government has neglected us completely in this area,” Abdullahi said. 

Kidnappings for ransom by armed men have become endemic in northern Nigeria, disrupting daily lives and keeping thousands of children from attending school. 

The last major reported abduction involving school children was in June 2021 when gunmen took more than 80 students in a raid on a school in northwestern state of Kebbi.
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DAKAR, SENEGAL — Senegalese presidential candidates faced a shortened race to election day on Thursday after the Constitutional Council confirmed the delayed vote would be held on March 24, kick-starting a competition that remains wide open.

Uncertainty over the date of the vote has gripped the West African country since early February, when the authorities’ thwarted bid to postpone the February 25 poll by 10 months provoked widespread protests and warnings of democratic backsliding.

Many hope the worst of the crisis is over after the council ruled on Wednesday that the vote must be held before President Macky Sall’s mandate expires on April 2, prompting him to schedule it for March 24 — a date the top court has now approved.

“Like all Senegalese people, today we feel relieved to have resolved this issue that was causing us a lot of divisions,” said doctor Mohamed Diop on a busy thoroughfare in the capital Dakar.

The new date leaves the 19 candidates little more than two weeks to canvas support. It also means that for the first time, campaigning will take place during the holy month of Ramadan, when many in the Muslim-majority country fast.

“This is an unprecedented situation,” said opposition candidate Thierno Alassane Sall in a statement on Thursday, expressing the hope the election would “allow us to close the painful chapter that has just passed.”

The ruling Benno Bokk Yakaar, or BBY, coalition’s candidate, Amadou Ba, sounded a confident note.

“From this evening onwards, I will be devoting myself fully to preparing for the presidential election … to ensure a victory in the first round,” he said in a statement late Wednesday.

There are no public election polls in Senegal, but Ba’s presidential prospects are far from certain.

Even before the postponement dispute, some within the BBY coalition questioned the first-time candidate’s low profile with voters compared with seasoned rivals. Meanwhile the authorities’ push to delay the vote could have undermined BBY’s already shaky support.

With a record number of candidates in the race, the chances are high none of them will win more than 50% of the vote and avoid a second-round head-to-head contest.

The recent political turmoil could also have played out in some candidates’ favor. An amnesty bill proposed by Sall to ease tensions and passed by parliament on Wednesday is likely to lead to the release from detention of Bassirou Faye, a candidate backed by popular opposition leader Ousmane Sonko.
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United Nations — A senior U.S. official urged countries to stop supplying Sudan’s rival generals with weapons for their civil war, saying they are fueling “death, destruction and depravity.”

“A conflict that, as this report details, is being fueled by arms transferred from a handful of regional powers — arms transfers that must stop,” U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters on Wednesday.

She was speaking of the final report of the five-member panel of experts on Sudan, who are mandated by the Security Council to report on the implementation of council sanctions. That report was published this week.

Thomas-Greenfield described the report’s findings as “stomach-churning” and said it detailed “atrocity after atrocity after atrocity.”

Fighting erupted in April last year between Sudan’s army chief, General Abdel Fattah Burhan, and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces. The two generals were once allies in Sudan’s transitional government after a 2021 coup but became rivals for power.

The 52-page report, completed in mid-January, says both the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the rebel Rapid Support Forces had the financial means to fund their war, noting they control most of the gold trade in Sudan.

While the SAF started the war in good economic shape, the panel found the group has lost control of some important economic sectors and companies and now relies in large part on wealthy businessmen to purchase military equipment for its troops.

The RSF funds its operations in part through fees it charges people for safe passage and to protect convoys passing through areas under its control in the Darfur region of Sudan, which has seen much of the fighting.

The RSF has also developed new supply lines for its fighters, smuggling weapons, ammunition, fuel and vehicles into Sudan through eastern Chad, southern Libya and South Sudan.

The panel found that from July onward, the RSF started using several types of heavy and sophisticated weapons that it did not have at the start of the war.

“This new RSF firepower had a massive impact on the balance of forces, both in Darfur and other regions of the Sudan,” the panel wrote. “New heavy artillery enabled RSF to swiftly take over Nyala and El Geneina, while its new anti-aircraft devices helped to counter the main asset of SAF, namely, its air force.”

The panel said that since June, various flight-tracking experts have observed numerous cargo planes originating from Abu Dhabi International Airport in the United Arab Emirates arriving at Amdjarass International Airport in eastern Chad, with stops in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. They said information they gathered substantiated media reports alleging the aircraft carried weapons, ammunition and medical equipment for the RSF.

The experts reached out to the UAE for a response. The government denied any involvement in the transfer of arms and ammunition, and said its flights transported humanitarian assistance for displaced Sudanese.

A similar panel request to Chad went unanswered.

In December, Sudan’s U.N. envoy asked the Security Council to lift sanctions on government forces and impose an arms embargo against rebel forces.

“If you truly wish to safeguard peace and security in Darfur, there is a need to exclude the armed forces from the embargo imposed since 2004,” Ambassador Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed said at the time.

The experts said the SAF has used aerial bombing and heavy shelling in urban areas in Darfur, causing a large-scale humanitarian crisis.

The U.N. human rights office says at least 14,600 people have been killed and 26,000 others injured, although the real toll is likely to be higher. In their report, the experts say at least 10,000 to 15,000 people have been killed in El Geneina alone.

The experts detailed horrific conflict-related sexual violence, particularly in Darfur by the RSF, which was often ethnically targeted against women and girls ages 9 to 75, often from the Masalit community. The panel said RSF snipers also indiscriminately targeted civilians, including pregnant women and young people, and their bodies were often left decomposing on roads for fear of being targeted while retrieving them.

On Wednesday, the World Food Program warned that the war could trigger the world’s largest hunger crisis, with 25 million people across Sudan, South Sudan and Chad “trapped in a spiral of deteriorating food security.”

Humanitarians cannot get enough food to civilians because of the insecurity and interference from the warring parties. WFP says 90% of people facing emergency levels of hunger in Sudan are largely in hard-to-reach areas.

The U.N. secretary-general will brief the Security Council when it meets on Sudan on Thursday. 

Read the U.N. panel’s full report here. 
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CAIRO — Egypt said Wednesday it has reached a deal with the International Monetary Fund to increase a bailout loan to $8 billion. 

Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly announced the news in televised comments on Wednesday. Egypt has for months negotiated with the IMF to increase a $3 billion bailout loan that both parties reached in 2022. 

Madbouly said the new deal will enable the government to receive loans from other financial institutions, including the World Bank. 

The announcement came hours after Egypt’s Central Bank raised its main interest rate and floated the currency. 

The measures have been among the key demands of the IMF. They are meant to combat inflationary waves and attract foreign investment as the country experiences a staggering shortage of foreign currency. 

Following the currency announcement, the pound began floating and within hours lost more than 60% of its value against the dollar. By early afternoon, commercial banks were trading the U.S. currency at more than 50 pounds for $1, up from about 31 pounds for the dollar. 

The Egyptian economy has been hit hard by years of government austerity, the coronavirus pandemic, the fallout from the war in Ukraine, and most recently, the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. 

The war in Ukraine, which rattled the global economy, hit cash-strapped Egypt where it is financially vulnerable — the most populous Arab country is the world’s biggest importer of wheat and needs to buy most of its food from other countries to help feed its population of more than 104 million people. 
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Nairobi, Kenya — More than 350 delegates from governments, research institutions and seed production companies are gathering in Kenya this week to address challenges in getting good-quality seeds to African farmers. Experts say the lack of good seeds is hampering food production across the continent and contributing to the hunger crisis in many countries.

According to U.N. agencies, more than 280 million people in Africa are food insecure, with over a billion unable to afford healthy diets. 

One of the problems is that quality seeds are inaccessible to many African farmers, leading to higher rates of crop failure.

Daniel Agan works with the African Seed Trade Association. He says the delegates meeting in Mombasa are trying to address some of the challenges.  

“We are talking about Africa, which currently is grappling with issues like fake seeds, and counterfeit seeds,” Agan said. “Some people call it counterfeit seeds. We are talking about plant health. How healthy are those certified seeds to be planted in whichever environment? And then we are also talking about the movement of seeds. And that has been one of the greatest elephants in the room in the sense that for seed to move from one country to another has been a very, very big issue.”

In October 2022, Kenya approved the use of genetically modified organisms after a 10-year ban. However, the lifting of the ban has worried its neighbors who were skeptical of the GMO seeds and products.

Tanzania stated that it would monitor its border to prevent any such food from Kenya from entering the country.

Charles Miller, a board member of the African Seeds Trade Association, says countries would benefit if they harmonized their policies so seeds could be shipped across borders with no issues.   

“We work together as an industry to lobby for that harmonization,” said Miller. “And by having the ability to, for example, produce seeds in Kenya and ship them readily when it’s needed to Tanzania or even to Senegal, under the same rules and regulations, it makes for a much more transparent and clear business model. And it also provides much more security to, to those, the other end of the production scheme.”

Another issue is a lack of seeds that can thrive in harsh conditions like drought. Justin Rakotoarisaona is the secretary general of the association. He says there is not enough money to support researchers to produce more seeds that can overcome Africa’s evolving climate patterns.

“For the research, I mean the development of new varieties, there is less and less budget allocated by the public sector to this section, whereas there is no plant variety protection in Africa,” said Rakotoarisaona. “There is, but it is very difficult to implement it. And that implies the private sector may not be motivated to produce or to develop variety because there is no return on investment.”

Charles Miller is also head of strategic alliance for Solynta, a company that specializes in breeding hybrid potatoes, a cross between two inbred potato lines. His company’s product, he says, is an example of what advanced seeds can do for African farmers.  

“We produce hybrid potatoes and deliver those new genetics through a true seed, which is very innovative,” said Miller. “And unlike the traditional seed tubers, you can store our seed for long periods of time without cold storage. You can transport them very easily… So the work, the effort, the sustainability angle when using our seeds is significantly higher than the traditional system.”

For the time being, seed policies across much of Africa are stuck in the status quo.

The regional bloc COMESA, the Common Market of Eastern and Southern Africa, has introduced rules to harmonize the seed trade, but only seven out of 21 countries have ratified the regulation.
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Port Sudan, Sudan — Sudan’s nearly 11-month war between rival generals “risks triggering the world’s largest hunger crisis”, the United Nations’ World Food Program warned Wednesday.

The war between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, who commands the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, has killed tens of thousands, destroyed infrastructure and crippled Sudan’s economy.

It has also uprooted more than eight million people, in addition to two million who had already been forced from their homes before the conflict — making it the world’s largest displacement crisis.

Now, “millions of lives and the peace and stability of an entire region are at stake”, WFP executive director Cindy McCain said.

“Twenty years ago, Darfur was the world’s largest hunger crisis and the world rallied to respond,” she said, referring to the vast western region of Sudan.

“But today, the people of Sudan have been forgotten.”

The RSF are themselves descended from the Janjaweed militia, which was used by former dictator Omar al-Bashir against ethnic minority rebels in Darfur in the early 2000s.

In the current war, both the RSF and the army have been accused of indiscriminate shelling of residential areas, targeting civilians and obstructing and commandeering essential aid.

The WFP is currently unable to access 90% of those facing “emergency levels of hunger” and says only five percent of Sudan’s population “can afford a square meal a day.”

In crowded transit camps in South Sudan, where 600,000 people from Sudan have fled, “families arrive hungry and are met with more hunger”, the U.N. food agency said.

One in five children crossing the border was malnourished, it added.

Across Sudan, 18 million people are facing acute food security, five million of whom are at catastrophic levels of hunger — the highest emergency classification short of famine.
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Abuja, Nigeria — Nigeria began trials this week for hundreds of people, including members of the country’s electoral commission, accused of committing offenses related to last year’s general elections.

Trials for 190 people, including electoral body officials and members of the major political parties, opened in courts across the country on Monday.

Lawyers from Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC, are serving as the prosecutor at the trials, with attorneys with the Nigerian Bar Association providing the defense.

The INEC says the trials will serve as deterrents in future elections.

Godbless Otubure, founder of the pro-democracy nonprofit Ready to Lead Africa, said civic society groups welcome the trials but hope they are not just for show.

“It shows that the recommendations that the [civil society organization] community has been making to INEC to ensure that the sanctity and integrity of the electoral process is protected, is sort of gaining ground,” Otubure said. “A bit slow, but this is a welcome development. What we want to see is beyond just the announcement of trials, it’s securing convictions. We’ll continue to monitor it closely and see what the end product is.”

Defendants are facing charges such as vote buying, stealing and destroying election materials, disorderly conduct at election venues, willful neglect of duty, possession of firearms and election-related violence.

Such infractions are common in Nigeria before, during and after the polls. In last year’s general elections, police say more than 20 people were killed in election-related violence.

Emmanuel Njoku of the nonprofit Connected Development said he hopes some of the main perpetrators will be brought to justice.

“The thing that would achieve the most impact is not just trying these faceless people, there are very popular faces that were caught on live video threatening people not to come out to vote,” Njoku said. “If we can see such people arrested, tried and convicted on the basis of available evidence, that in itself will go a very long way.”

According to the Afrobarometer survey conducted before the polls, less than a fourth of Nigerian citizens had trust in the electoral process. Analysts say irregularities during the polls made matters worse.

Otubure said if the trial results in convictions, it could change the negative public opinions.

“It’s about cause and effect,” Otubure said. “If people part away with ballot boxes, disrupt the electoral process and they go scot-free, you reduce overall public trust. If people get involved in electoral offenses and they are tried and jailed, you begin to build public trust again. It will not solve the age-long challenge of mistrust but it will begin a reconstruction process.”

For now, civil society organizations and observers will be watching to see what happens.
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Harare, Zimbabwe — There are mixed feelings among Zimbabwe’s political class after the U.S. removed sanctions against many Zimbabweans and companies on Monday but imposed new ones on President Emmerson Mnangagwa and a few senior leaders.

The sanctions list was introduced in 2001 for alleged election rigging and human rights abuses. At the same time, Washington imposed fresh sanctions on Mnangagwa and other senior leaders, condemning what it called a campaign of rights abuses and corruption in the southern African nation.

On social media, Zimbabwe government spokesman Nick Mangwana praised the removals, calling it a “great vindication” of Mnangagwa’s foreign policy.

But, he said, since Mnangagwa and some companies remain under sanctions, all of Zimbabwe “remains under illegal sanctions.”

But Rutendo Matinyarare, chairman of Zimbabwe Anti-Sanctions Movement — an organization that has been leading calls for sanctions removal — posted a video hailing the changes.

“This is very important,” he said. “The government of Zimbabwe can go and borrow money, Zimbabwean businesses can borrow money, they can buy machinery, they can make payment clearances. We are happy, the most pertinent, the most evil of these sanctions are removed.”

He said there is still work to do, however.

“Now what are we going to do about the sanctions on the president, a number of businesspeople and some ministers?” he said. “We will say and urge the president of the country plus the businessmen there that join us and we will undertake legal action to have these said sanctions removed. We have proved that legal pressure works, and it has worked better than re-engagement because if re-engagement [worked], our president, our vice president and members of our government wouldn’t be under sanctions.”

Zimbabwe’s government blames sanctions for the struggle of the country’s economy since their imposition in the early 2000s.

But critics attribute the decline to corruption and bad policies by Harare.

Lloyd Damba, spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said removal of most sanctions will expose the shortcomings of the ruling ZANU-PF party.

“It is a good thing that these sanctions have been removed, and now we want to see how the economy is going to perform,” he said. “Because you know that these people are corrupt, we know that these people are not competent. We know that these people will never abandon the way of doing things, especially when it comes to looting and stealing. Those things that [have] nothing to do with sanctions.”

Tafadzwa Manenji, an independent international relations commentator based in Harare, argues that keeping the president under sanctions will affect the whole country.

“Those people on the list are the government, so you cannot sanction individuals who are in charge and … say the rest must not be affected by those sanctions,” he said.

In announcing changes to the sanctions regime Monday, President Joe Biden also terminated the official U.S. state of emergency regarding actions and policies of the Zimbabwe government, first imposed in 2003.
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Geneva — U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk warns the potential spillover of dozens of conflicts around the world is threatening global peace and causing human rights violations to surge in all regions.

Türk, who presented an update about the situation of human rights around the world at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva Monday, painted a frightening picture of a world where proliferating conflicts are devastating the lives of millions of civilians.

“Rarely has humanity faced so many rapidly spiraling crises,” he said, noting that 55 conflicts around the world are “battering people’s lives, destroying economies, and profoundly damaging human rights” by subjecting millions of people to widespread violations and “upending hopes for multilateral solutions.”

He said displacement and humanitarian crises have reached an unprecedented scale, legitimate governments are being toppled and those in power choose war to resolve national and international problems.

Türk warned all these conflicts are having a serious regional and global impact.

“Overlapping emergencies make the specter of spillover conflict very real,” he said. “The war in Gaza has explosive impact across the Middle East. Conflicts in other regions including in the Horn of Africa, Sudan and the Sahel could also escalate sharply,” adding that increasing militarization on the Korean Peninsula raises threat levels.

He said, “The war in Gaza already has generated dangerous spillover in neighboring countries and I am deeply concerned that in this powder keg, any spark could lead to a much broader conflagration. This would have implications for every country in the Middle East, and many beyond it.”

In zipping through the existing situations of dozens of countries, Türk provided a grim snapshot of prevailing conditions on the African continent. He called the deteriorating security crisis in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo alarming.

While commending Ethiopia for the steps it has taken in ending military operations against the Tigray Peoples Liberation Front, he said the humanitarian situation in the northern region remained very serious and “persistent human rights violations in areas still under the control of Eritrean and Amhara forces, remain obstacles to durable peace.”

He called the human rights situation in both Mali and Burkina Faso very worrying, noting that military operations have intensified in these countries, with armed groups committing grave human rights violations against their civilian populations.

Elections could entrench autocrats

The High Commissioner reports more than 60 countries, where nearly half of the world’s people live, are holding elections this year. Unfortunately, instead of being a landmark for democratic principles, he said many of these elections are cementing autocratic rule, licensing corrupt practices, and depriving “people who are poor and dispossessed of their rights to determine their future.”

“In many parts of the world, many politicians are deliberately inflaming antagonism and xenophobia to garner support, particularly in electoral period,” he said. “In this headlong rush to abandon the common good for short-term personal benefit, they are tearing up the fundamental human rights principles that can unite us all.”

Türk also expressed concern by the prospect of intense disinformation campaigns in the context of elections, fueled by generative artificial intelligence. “There is an acute need for robust regulatory frameworks to ensure responsible use of generative AI, and my Office is doing its utmost to advance them,” he said.

He highlighted several countries that were holding elections to legitimize their authoritarian rule.

“In the Russian Federation, the authorities have further intensified their repression of dissenting voices prior to this month’s presidential election. Several candidates have been prevented from running, due to alleged administrative irregularities. The death in prison of opposition leader Alexei Navalny adds to my serious concerns about his persecution,” he said.

He added that since Russia invaded Ukraine, thousands of politicians, journalists, human rights defenders, and others have been criminally charged simply for speaking out against the war.

He blasted Iran’s legislative election three days ago which “took place in a country that has been deeply divided by the government’s repression of the rights of women and girls. He said the election was Iranians’ first opportunity to vote since country-wide protests broke out following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini on September 16, 2022, while in police custody. She was arrested for allegedly wearing her veil improperly.

“People who participated in the protests have been persecuted, imprisoned on long sentences and in some cases, put to death,” he said. “I have urged immediate reforms to uphold the rights of all Iranians.”

He expressed concerns about deteriorating human rights related to elections in a bevy of other countries around the world including Chad, Rwanda, Somalia, India, Bangladesh, Mexico, Venezuela, and Poland.

Türk criticized some practices in the United States of America and called on the U.S. government “to ensure that suffrage is non-discriminatory, equal and universal.”

“A 2021 presidential executive order acknowledges that disproportionate and discriminatory policies and other obstacles have restricted the right to vote for people of African descent and emphasizes the need to overturn them.”

Despite this, he noted at least 14 states passed laws last year making voting more difficult. “In a context of intense political polarization, it is important to emphasize equal rights, and the equal value of every citizen’s vote,” he said.

The High Commissioner deplored escalating attacks against LGBTQ+ people and their rights, noting that discriminatory legislation and policies recently have been expanded, adopted, or are under consideration in several countries.

Among those he called out for rebuke are Belarus, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Lebanon, Niger, Nigeria, the Russian Federation, Uganda, and several states within the United States.

“Recognizing the rights of LGBTQ+ people goes to the meaning of equality, and the right of everyone to live free from violence and discrimination,” he said.
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Washington — The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa and other senior leaders, denouncing what it said was a campaign of rights abuses and corruption. 

The sanctions, which will block any U.S.-based property and block any unofficial travel to the United States, replace a broader, two-decade-old sanctions program against Zimbabwe. 

“The changes we are making today are intended to make clear what has always been true: our sanctions are not intended to target the people of Zimbabwe,” Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo said. 

“We are refocusing our sanctions on clear and specific targets: President Mnangagwa’s criminal network of government officials and businesspeople who are most responsible for corruption or human rights abuse against the people of Zimbabwe,” he said. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the new measures were part of a “stronger, more targeted sanctions policy” on Zimbabwe as he voiced concern over “serious cases of corruption and human rights abuse.” 

“Key individuals, including members of the government of Zimbabwe, bear responsibility for these actions, including the looting of government coffers that robs Zimbabweans of public resources,” Blinken said in a statement. 

“Multiple cases of abductions, physical abuse, and unlawful killing have left citizens living in fear.” 

Mnangagwa, whose party has been in power for more than four decades, was declared the winner of a new term in an election in August that international observers said fell short of democratic standards. 

He is the second consecutive Zimbabwean leader to face U.S. sanctions following veteran president Robert Mugabe. 

Hopes of a thaw briefly surfaced after Mnangagwa pushed Mugabe out of power in 2017, but Western powers and rights groups say that the new leadership has also clamped down on the opposition and protests.

President Joe Biden in a declaration on Monday ended an earlier sanctions program on Zimbabwe imposed in 2003 under George W. Bush, who had advocated for a broader global push of sanctions on the country under Mugabe.
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Nairobi, Kenya — The whereabouts of Haiti’s prime minister, Ariel Henry, were not known Monday, three days after he signed a bilateral accord in Kenya to pave the way for a possible multinational force to help restore security in the troubled Caribbean nation. A fierce battle between police and armed gangs took place in Haiti over the weekend, and a gang leader there has called for Henry’s ouster.

Haiti’s government declared a 72-hour state of emergency after an intense battle between the country’s police against powerful armed gangs over the weekend.

Macharia Munene, a professor of history and international relations at USIA-Africa in Nairobi, told VOA the upheaval is concerning. 

“With [gang leader] Barbecue and his team saying they want Prime Minister Henry out, it’s a revolution,” Munene said. “We don’t know if they have been inspired by what is going on in the Sahel … the government was already incapacitated in Haiti, but this makes it even worse. That they can go to a jail, open up everything and release almost 4,000 people [prisoners].”

Barbecue, also known as Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer and the leader of a powerful gang alliance, says the goal is to block Henry from returning to the country. 

Henry traveled overseas last week to drum up support for an international security force to intervene in Haiti, the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country. 

In Kenya, he and President William Ruto signed a long-awaited bilateral accord that paves the way for 1,000 Kenyan police officers to lead a proposed multinational, U.N.-backed force that would help restore security in Haiti. Ruto said the urgency of the mission could not be overstated. 

“It is a mission for humanity,” he said. “It is a mission for solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Haiti.”

Henry thanked Ruto.

“We did this appeal, and you stepped up,” he said. “You said, we want to help Haiti … thank you president, we appreciate it.”

Munene said the signing of the document doesn’t legalize the deployment of Kenyan police given that a Kenyan court had deemed such a move unconstitutional in a recent ruling. 

Ekuru Aukot, a constitutional lawyer and one of the petitioners who brought the matter to the Kenyan court, said on social media that the signing was “very misleading,” that Henry was imposed on the Haitian people and had no capacity to commit Haiti to any treaty.”

The Kenyan government has not commented on Henry’s whereabouts since the Friday signing ceremony, even after repeated inquiries by VOA. 

Munene said the Haitian prime minister should try to go back to show he’s in charge.

“We don’t know whether he is still in the country or has gone to another country,” Munene said. “We don’t know for now where he is but it’s clear that in Port-au-Prince, the Barbecue has said he wants to barbecue the prime minister once he gets there. That may not be a good indicator.”

Munene said what happened this weekend in Haiti may complicate matters, not just for Kenya but for the other countries that have volunteered to participate in the intervention.

“How they will be received … they will not be given tea and coffee to welcome them; instead they might have to defend themselves in a very rough way,” Munene said. “So, the developments are not very flattering for the countries that are supposed to send police officers to keep the peace.”

While some Kenyans support the mission in Haiti, Munene said there are many others who still wonder why their country wants to lead the multinational force given that other countries are more powerful and better equipped but have not been willing to step forward. 

Sandra Lemaire contributed to this report.
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For students with a disability, career options can appear limited. But in Ghana, one journalist is using photojournalism to encourage students at a deaf school to broaden their horizons. For VOA, Senanu Tord reports from Savelugu, Ghana.
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Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso — Around 170 people were “executed” in attacks on three villages in northern Burkina Faso a week ago, a regional prosecutor said on Sunday as jihadist violence flares in the junta-ruled country.   

On that same day, February 25, separate attacks on a mosque in eastern Burkina and a Catholic church in the north left dozens more dead.   

Aly Benjamin Coulibaly said he had received reports of the attacks on the villages of Komsilga, Nodin and Soroe in Yatenga province on February 25, with a provisional toll of “around 170 people executed.” 

The attacks left others wounded and caused material damage, the prosecutor for the northern town of Ouahigouya added in a statement, without apportioning blame to any group.   

He said his office ordered an investigation and appealed to the public for information.   

Survivors of the attacks told AFP that dozens of women and young children were among the victims.   

Local security sources said the attacks were separate from deadly incidents that happened on the same day at a mosque in the rural community of Natiaboani and a church in the village of Essakane.   

Authorities have yet to release an official death toll for those attacks but a senior church official said at the time that at least 15 civilians were killed in that attack.   

Burkina Faso has been grappling with a jihadist insurgency waged by rebels affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group that spilled over from neighboring Mali in 2015.   

The violence has killed almost 20,000 people and displaced more than two million in Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries situated in the Sahel, a region wracked by instability.   

Anger at the state’s inability to end the insecurity played a major role in two military coups in 2022. Current strongman Ibrahim Traore has made the fight against rebel groups a priority. 

 
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N’DJAMENA, CHAD — Chad’s interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby said Saturday he plans to run in this year’s long-awaited presidential race.  

Deby’s confirmation came at the end of a chaotic week in which opposition politician Yaya Dillo was shot and killed in the capital, N’Djamena. 

Dillo’s death on Wednesday in disputed circumstances has further exposed divisions in the ruling elite at a politically sensitive time as the Central African country prepares for the promised return to democratic rule via the ballot box. 

The Chadian government has said Dillo was killed in an exchange of gunfire with security forces and has accused members of his party of also attacking the internal security agency. 

On Friday, the government confirmed that Deby’s uncle, General Saleh Deby Itno, had been arrested in the wake of Wednesday’s events. 

Itno had recently defected to Dillo’s opposition Socialist Party Without Borders, or PSF. 

“He has now been charged by the public prosecutor, and his life is in no danger,” government spokesperson Abderaman Koulamallah said, without specifying what charges Itno faces. 

Chadian rebel group the Front for Change and Concord in Chad, or FACT, and the CNRD opposition party have described Dillo’s death as an assassination. 

The URT opposition party said Dillo “democratically opposed the dangerous trajectory of the military transition in Chad.” 

In a statement on Saturday, the URT said recent events were “a dangerous and deliberate move to muzzle the political opposition.” 

Addressing supporters and state officials, Deby announced his candidacy for the May-June election in a speech that made no reference to Dillo’s killing or his uncle’s arrest. 

“It is … with a mixture of honor, humility, responsibility and gratitude that I accept this nomination,” he said. 

Deby initially promised an 18-month transition to elections after he seized power in 2021, when his long-ruling father was killed in clashes with rebels. 

But his government later adopted resolutions that postponed elections until 2024 and allowed him to run for president. 

The electoral delay triggered protests that were violently quelled by security forces with around 50 civilians killed. 
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WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA — Reactions have been mixed on Namibia’s call last month for an international boycott of Israeli goods and companies in response to Israeli policies and practices in the Palestinian territories.

If implemented, such a boycott could harm Namibia’s economy, as Israel is a key trading partner with the nation’s diamond mining industry.

Diamonds are Namibia’s largest export earner, bringing in at least 10% of the country’s gross domestic product. Trade figures from 2022 show Namibia exported $59 million worth of goods annually to Israel, mostly diamonds. The same year, Namibia imported $3.8 million in goods from Israel, mainly diamond-polishing equipment.

A Namibian businessman involved in the diamond trade, who did not want to use his name so that he could speak candidly about the industry, questioned the efficacy of such sanctions.

“You have to … ask, ‘[Does] that business directly support or in any way affect the support of IDF or that regime in what they are currently doing?’” he said, referring to the Israeli Defense Forces. “I mean, where do you even start to find that type of connection.”

Some analysts express concern over the impact of international sanctions against Israel on African nations.

Benji Shulman, director of public policy at the South African Zionist Federation, a pro-Israel umbrella organization, said African nations derive many benefits from trade with Israel.

“If Namibia were to follow a path [of sanctions], it would only hurt Africans who stand to benefit from Israeli innovations in water, health care, agriculture and technologies,” Shulman said.

Political analyst Rakkel Andreas said Namibia could rely on other buyers for its diamonds.

“I do not necessarily see Namibian diamonds not getting other buyers just because Israeli companies can no longer buy diamonds from Namibia,” Andreas said.

“I think there is no country that has ever supported the issue of sanctions on another country and not considered its own national interests and counted the cost,” she said. “If that’s the cost Namibia should carry in order for Palestine to be free, for the war to end … for the carnage to end, then so be it.”

The call for sanctions came at a hearing at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands. Namibia is among 52 countries that sought a nonbinding advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israeli policies and practices in the Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem. 
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GENEVA — A United Nations report finds nearly 11 months of conflict in Sudan has resulted in mass killings, displacement, destruction of property and rampant human rights violations that have caused immeasurable harm and distress to millions of people, whose plight has been all but forgotten by the rest of the world.

“The crisis in Sudan is a tragedy that appears to have slipped into the fog of global amnesia,” Volker Turk, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said during an interactive dialogue on the situation in Sudan at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Friday.

Turk presented a blistering and bleak assessment of life in Sudan since rival generals of the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces plunged the country into “a ruthless, senseless conflict” on April 15.

“They have manufactured a climate of sheer terror, forcing millions to flee,” he said. “And they have consistently acted with impunity and a distinct lack of accountability for the multiple violations that have been committed.”

He said the report highlights a range of gross violations and abuses committed by Sudan’s warring parties, noting that “many of these violations may amount to war crimes or other atrocity crimes.”

Since the war began, the United Nations reports, at least 14,600 people have been killed and 26,000 others injured. The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, reports the war has uprooted 8.1 million people from their homes — 6.3 million within Sudan and 1.8 million as refugees in five neighboring countries — making Sudan the largest displacement crisis in the world.

“Sudan is today facing one of the direst humanitarian crises in the world as a direct result of the armed conflict that started on 15 April,” said Hanna Serwaa Tetteh, U.N. special envoy for the Horn of Africa, adding that “18 million people face acute hunger and 25 million need humanitarian assistance.”

“The Sudanese population is bearing the brunt of a conflict at the heart of the military and security apparatus, that is, between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces,” she said.

High Commissioner Turk said the war in Sudan was not being waged with just the use of fighter jets, drones, tanks and other heavy artillery.

“Sexual violence as a weapon of war, including rape, has been a defining and despicable characteristic of this crisis since the beginning,” he said, underscoring that his office has documented 60 incidents of conflict-related sexual violence, involving at least 120 victims across the country, mostly women and girls.

“These figures are sadly a vast underrepresentation of the reality. Men in RSF uniform and armed men affiliated with the RSF were reported to be responsible for 81% of the documented incidents,” said Turk.

He expressed concern about a rise in ethnically motivated killings, the fate of thousands of civilians held by both parties and their affiliates in arbitrary detention, and the conscription of child soldiers.

“My office has recently received reports of the RSF recruiting hundreds of children as fighters in Darfur and the SAF doing likewise in eastern Sudan,” he said.

He said he has received troubling reports of civilians themselves mobilizing under the new Popular Armed Resistance movement. “There are real fears this may result in the formation of an armed civil militia with no defined control, increasing the chances of Sudan sliding into a spiral of protracted civil war.”

These concerns were echoed by Special Envoy Tetteh, who said, “The most serious risk threatening Sudan is a de facto partition between the territories controlled by RSF and SAF.

“The international community should avert this risk of a de facto partition by supporting and facilitating a Sudanese-owned and Sudanese-led process addressing the root causes of the conflict,” she said, emphasizing the impossibility of two competing military forces co-existing.

Sudan’s minister of justice was clearly annoyed that the U.N. report seemed to equate the actions of the Sudanese Armed Forces with those of the Rapid Support Forces.

Justice Minister Moawia Osman Mohamed Khair Mohamed Ahmed said the SAF did not instigate the conflict but responded to an attack by rebels against a sovereign state.

“This was a conspiracy that took the national army off-guard,” he said. “This militia tried to take over the power by launching a full-scaled armed attack against the country using looting and burning of buildings.”

He accused the RSF of committing multiple atrocities across the country, saying that what they have done in Darfur “is beyond words.”

Ahmed said his government has started an investigation of crimes allegedly committed by the rebel forces, “particularly related to crimes of genocide, crimes of war, crimes against humanity and other crimes related to killings, rape and robbery.”

He appealed for international help to reinforce Sudan‘s “serious legal procedure in order to achieve justice and provide redress to the victims through the national mechanisms and international mechanisms.”

High Commissioner Turk said the international community also has a critical role to play to alleviate the suffering endured by the people of Sudan.

“Decades of turmoil and repression in Sudan preceded this crisis,” he said, “but nothing has prepared the people of Sudan for the level of suffering they face today.

“The fighting parties must agree to return to peace, without delay. The future of the people of Sudan depends on it.”
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WASHINGTON — French journalist Antoine Galindo, who was detained for a week in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, was released Thursday ahead of his scheduled second appearance in court Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said.

Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, told VOA that Galindo, a reporter for Paris-based news site Africa Intelligence, left for France immediately after his release.

“Unfortunately, the local politician whom he was interviewing when he was arrested remained in jail and appeared in court today,” Quintal said.

Galindo was arrested February 22 while interviewing Bate Urgessa, a political officer for the opposition party, the Oromo Liberation Front, and they were both charged with “conspiracy to create chaos.”

Two days later, Galindo was brought before a judge who granted a one-week investigation period for police “to search the journalist’s mobile phone and apprehend other ‘suspects’ who were ‘complicit.’ ”

Sources who attended Friday’s hearing and asked to remain anonymous because of fear for their safety told VOA that police told the court that Galindo was released on bail and asked for an additional five days of investigation.

However, Quintal said, “If he was released on bail, he would not have been allowed out of the country,” adding that French diplomatic efforts may have helped gain Galindo’s early release.

CPJ Africa program coordinator Muthoki Mumo said in a statement, “His unjust detention was a stark reminder of the danger of practicing journalism in today’s Ethiopia.”

“Ethiopian authorities must now release all journalists — eight others, at least — who have suffered months of imprisonment under very difficult conditions,” Mumo said, adding that the government should also allow international journalists to report without fear of retaliation.

Stressing that Galindo’s arrest showed there was no press freedom in Ethiopia under the current government, Quintal sought to use the momentum of his release to draw international attention and advocate for the release of all Ethiopian journalists in prison.

Quintal said, “You can’t have one standard for a foreign journalist and another for a local. The vast majority of journalists in jail in Africa are actually local journalists.”

According to CPJ, Ethiopia is the second-worst jailer of journalists in sub-Saharan Africa with at least eight journalists behind bars. Four of them were arrested since the declaration of a state of emergency in August 2023, Quintal said, and they were never formally charged.

Galindo, 36, traveled to Addis Ababa to cover an African Union summit and other political news, according to his employer. The publication added he had a journalist visa and the proper accreditation from the government’s Media Authority.
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MOANDA, DR Congo — The oil drills that loom down the road from Adore Ngaka’s home remind him daily of everything he’s lost. The extraction in his village in western Congo has polluted the soil, withered his crops and forced the family to burn through savings to survive, he said.

Pointing to a stunted ear of corn in his garden, the 27-year-old farmer says it’s about half the size he got before oil operations expanded nearly a decade ago in his village of Tshiende.

“It’s bringing us to poverty,” he said.

Congo, a mineral-rich nation in central Africa, is thought to have significant oil reserves, too. Drilling has so far been confined to a small territory on the Atlantic Ocean and offshore, but that’s expected to change if the government successfully auctions 30 oil and gas blocks spread around the country. Leaders say economic growth is essential for their impoverished people, but some communities, rights groups and environmental watchdogs warn that expanded drilling will harm the landscape and human health.

Since the French-British hydrocarbon company, Perenco, began drilling in Moanda territory in 2000, residents say pollution has worsened, with spills and leaks degrading the soil and flaring — the intentional burning of natural gas near drilling sites — fouling the air they breathe. And the Congolese government exerts little oversight, they say.

Perenco said it abides by international standards in its extraction methods, that they don’t pose any health risks and that any pollution has been minor. The company also said it offered to support a power plant that would make use of the natural gas and thus reduce flaring. The government did not respond to questions about the proposed plant.

Congo’s minister overseeing oil and gas, Didier Budimbu, said the government is committed to protecting the environment.

Congo is home to most of the Congo Basin rainforest, the world’s second-biggest, and most of the world’s largest tropical peatland, made up of partially decomposed wetlands plant material. Together, both capture huge amounts of carbon dioxide — about 1.5 billion tons a year, or about 3% of global emissions. More than a dozen of the plots up for auction overlap with protected areas in peatlands and rainforests, including the Virunga National Park, which is home to some of the world’s rarest gorillas.

The government said the 27 oil blocks available have an estimated 22 billion barrels. Environmental groups say that auctioning more land to drill would have consequences both in Congo and abroad.

“Any new oil and gas project, anywhere in the world, is fueling the climate and nature crisis that we’re in,” said Mbong Akiy Fokwa Tsafak, program director for Greenpeace Africa. She said Perenco’s operations have done nothing to mitigate poverty and instead degraded the ecosystem and burdened the lives of communities.

Environmental activists said Congo has strong potential to instead develop renewable energy, including solar, as well as small-scale hydropower. It’s the world’s largest producer of cobalt, a key component for batteries in electric vehicles and other products essential to the global energy transition, although cobalt mining comes with its own environmental and human risks.

Budimbu said now is not the time to move away from fossil fuels when the country is still reliant on them. He said fossil fuel dependency will be phased out in the long term.

Rich in biodiversity, Moanda abuts the Mangrove National Park — the country’s only marine protected area. Perenco has been under scrutiny for years, with local researchers, aid groups and Congo’s Senate making multiple reports of pollution dating back more than a decade. Two civil society organizations, Sherpa and Friends of the Earth France, filed a lawsuit in 2022 accusing Perenco of pollution caused by the oil extraction; that suit is still pending.

During a rare visit by international media to the oil fields, including two villages near drilling, The Associated Press spoke with dozens of residents, local officials and rights organizations. Residents say drilling has inched closer to their homes and they have seen pipes break regularly, sending oil into the soil. They blame air and ground pollution for making it hard to cultivate crops and causing health problems such as skin rashes and respiratory infections.

They said Perenco has responded quickly to leaks and spills but failed to address root problems.

AP journalists visited drilling sites, some just a few hundred meters from homes, that had exposed and corroding pipes. They also saw at least four locations that were flaring natural gas, a technique that manages pressure by burning off the gas that is often used when it is impractical or unprofitable to collect. AP did not see any active spill sites.

Between 2012 and 2022 in Congo, Perenco flared more than 2 billion cubic meters of natural gas — a carbon footprint equivalent to that of about 20 million Congolese, according to the Environmental Investigative Forum, a global consortium of environmental investigative journalists. The group analyzed data from Skytruth, a group that uses satellite imagery to monitor threats to the planet’s natural resources.

Flaring of natural gas, which is mostly methane, emits carbon dioxide, methane and black soot and is damaging to health, according to the International Energy Agency.

In the village of Kinkazi, locals told AP that Perenco buried chemicals in a nearby pit for years and they seeped into the soil and water. They displayed photos of what they said were toxic chemicals before they were buried and took reporters to the site where they said they’d been discarded. It took the community four years of protests and strikes before Perenco disposed of the chemicals elsewhere, they said.

Most villagers were reluctant to allow their names to be used, saying they feared a backlash from a company that is a source of casual labor jobs. Minutes after AP reporters arrived in one village, a resident said he received a call from a Perenco employee asking the purpose of the meeting.

One who was willing to speak was Gertrude Tshonde, a farmer, who said Perenco began dumping chemicals near Kinkazi in 2018 after a nearby village refused to allow it.

“People from Tshiende called us and asked if we were letting them throw waste in our area,” Tshonde said. “They said the waste was not good because it spreads underground and destroys the soil.”

Tshonde said her farm was behind the pit where chemicals were being thrown and her cassava began to rot.

AP could not independently verify that chemicals had been buried at the site.

Perenco spokesperson Mark Antelme said the company doesn’t bury chemicals underground and that complaints about the site near Kinkazi were related to old dumping more than 20 years ago by a predecessor company. Antelme also said Perenco hasn’t moved operations closer to people’s homes. Instead, he said, some communities have gradually built closer to drilling sites.

Antelme also said the company’s flaring does not release methane into the atmosphere.

Perenco said it contributes significantly to Moanda and the country. It’s the sole energy provider in Moanda and invests about $250 million a year in education, road construction, training programs for medical staff and easier access to health care in isolated communities, the company said.

But residents say some of those benefits are overstated. A health clinic built by Perenco in one village has no medicine and few people can afford to pay to see the doctor, they said.

And when Perenco compensates for oil leak damages, locals say it’s not enough.

Tshonde, the farmer, said she was given about $200 when an oil spill doomed her mangoes, avocado and maize eight years ago. But her losses were more than twice that. Lasting damage to her land from Perenco’s operations has forced her to seek other means of income, such as cutting trees to sell as charcoal.

Many other farmers whose land has been degraded are doing the same, and tree cover is disappearing, she said.

Budimbu, the minister of hydrocarbons, said Congo’s laws prohibit drilling near homes and fields and oil operators are required to take the necessary measures to prevent and clean up oil pollution. But he didn’t specify what the government was doing in response to community complaints.

Congo has struggled to secure bidders since launching the auction in July 2022. Three companies — two American and

one Canadian — moved on three methane gas blocks in Lake Kivu, on the border with Rwanda. The government said in May that they were about to close those tenders, but did not respond to AP’s questions in January about whether those deals were finalized.

There are no known confirmed deals on the 27 oil blocks, and the deadline for expressions of interest has been extended through this year. Late last year, Perenco withdrew from bidding on two blocks in the province near where it currently operates. The company didn’t respond to questions from AP about why it withdrew, but Africa Intelligence reported that Perenco had found the blocks to have insufficient potential.

Perenco also didn’t respond when asked whether it was pursuing any other blocks.

Environmental experts say bidding may be slow because the country is a hard place to operate with rampant conflict, especially in the east where violence is surging and where some of the blocks are located.

Local advocacy groups say the government should fix problems with Perenco before bringing in other companies.

“We first need to see changes with the company we have here before we can trust other(s),” said Alphonse Khonde, the coordinator of the Group of Actors and Actions for Sustainable Development.

Congo also has a history of corruption. Little of its mineral wealth has trickled down in a country that is one of the world’s five poorest, with more than 60% of its 100 million people getting by on less than $2.15 a day, according to the World Bank.

And some groups have criticized what they see as lack of transparency on the process of offering blocks for auction, which amounts to “local communities being kept in the dark over plans to exploit their lands and resources,” said Joe Eisen, executive director of the Rainforest Foundation UK.

Some communities where the government has failed to provide jobs and basic services say they have few options but to gamble on allowing more drilling.

In Kimpozia village, near one of the areas up for auction, some 150 people live nestled in the forest without a school or hospital. Residents must hike steep hills and travel on motorbike for five hours to reach the nearest health clinic and walk several hours to school. Louis Wolombassa, the village chief, said the village needs road-building and other help.

“If they come and bring what we want, let them drill,” he said.
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