Abuja, Nigeria — At least 15 Catholic worshippers were killed in a Burkina Faso village on Sunday when gunmen attacked a community as they gathered for prayers in the country’s conflict-hit northern region, Church officials said.

The violence in the village of Essakane was a “terrorist attack” that left 12 of the Catholic faithful dead at the scene, while three others died later as they were being treated for their wounds, according to a statement issued by Abbot Jean-Pierre Sawadogo, vicar-general of the Catholic Diocese of Dori, where the attack happened.

No further details were provided about the attack, which no group claimed responsibility for. But suspicion fell on jihadis who have frequently attacked remote communities and security forces, especially in the northern region.

“In this painful circumstance, we invite you to pray for the rest in God for those who have died in faith, for the healing of the wounded and … for the conversion of those who continue to sow death and desolation in our country,” Sawadogo said in a statement.

About half of Burkina Faso is outside government control as jihadi groups have ravaged the country for years. Fighters have killed thousands and displaced more than 2 million people, further threatening the stability of the country that had two coups in 2022.

The country’s junta has struggled to restore peace in violent hot spots. Since the first coup in January 2022, the number of people killed by jihadis has nearly tripled compared with the 18 previous months, according to a report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in August.

In addition to the junta’s limited capacity, the security situation also has been worsened by the country’s porous borders with Mali and Niger, both of which are also run by juntas and which struggle with security crises.
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Cape Town — Nine people were killed in a road crash in South Africa on Sunday after attending an election rally by President Cyril Ramaphosa and his ruling African National Congress party.

The ANC supporters were traveling on a bus back to their home province of Mpumalanga the morning after Saturday’s rally in the eastern city of Durban, the ANC said in a statement. The bus left the road and overturned, police said.

Emergency services said 17 people were hurt in the crash near the small town of Paulpietersburg, around 360 kilometers (223 miles) north of Durban.

The ANC said that some of the injured were in critical condition. Provincial ANC officials were traveling to the crash scene and to the hospitals where the injured had been taken, the party said.

The ANC officially launched its election manifesto at Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday in front of tens of thousands of supporters.

The May 29 national election could be the biggest threat yet to the ANC’s 30 years in government in South Africa, with opinion polls predicting the party could lose its majority for the first time since it came to power in 1994 following the end of apartheid. 
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CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Aid organizations fear a new humanitarian crisis in the restive eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where the armed rebel group M23 is in the midst of a new advance that threatens to cut off a major city and leave millions of people struggling for food and medical help.

Eastern Congo has been beset by conflict for years, with M23 among more than 100 armed groups vying for a foothold in the mineral-rich area near the border with Rwanda. Some have been accused of carrying out mass killings.

There’s been an upsurge in fighting in recent weeks between M23 rebels and Congo army forces, and it comes as the United Nations plans to withdraw peacekeepers from the region by the end of the year.

Tensions are also rising between Congo and Rwanda, with them blaming each other for supporting various armed groups. Congo accuses Rwanda of backing M23.

This weekend, the U.S. State Department condemned what it called the “worsening violence.” A group of aid agencies has estimated that 1 million people have already been displaced by fighting in the last three months.

Who are M23?

The March 23 Movement, or M23, is a rebel military group mainly made up of ethnic Tutsis that broke away from the Congolese army just over a decade ago. They staged a large offensive in 2012 and took over the provincial capital of Goma near the border with Rwanda, the same city they are threatening again.

The conflict has regional complications, with neighboring Rwanda also accused by the U.S. and U.N. experts of giving military aid to M23. Rwanda denies that but effectively admitted on Monday that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo. Rwanda said that is to safeguard its own security because of what it claims is a buildup of Congo army forces near the border. Rwanda has rejected calls from the U.S. to withdraw.

There are also ties to the Rwandan genocide of 30 years ago, with M23 and Rwanda saying separately that they are fighting a threat from a Congolese rebel group that is connected to the Congo army and partly made up of ethnic Hutus who were perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.

Congo-Rwanda tensions

Relations between Congo and its eastern neighbor have been fraught for decades. Hundreds of thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees had fled to Congo, then Zaire, in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. Among them were soldiers and militiamen responsible for the slaughter of 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Two years after the genocide, Rwanda and Uganda invaded eastern Congo to try and root out what remained of those genocide perpetrators, which led to the toppling of then Congo President Mobutu Sese Seko.

Tensions between Congo and Rwanda escalated in 2021 with the resurgence of M23 attacks on Congolese soldiers after nearly a decade of relative inactivity due to a 2013 peace deal. The presence of so many armed groups is believed to be connected to illegal mining, with eastern Congo rich in gold and other minerals.

What’s happened in recent weeks?

M23 launched new attacks late last year and has ramped them up in recent weeks. The group is now threatening to take the key town of Sake, about 27 kilometersmwest of Goma. That could cause food and aid supplies to be cut off from Goma, which had a population of around 600,000 a few years ago, but now holds more than 2 million people, according to aid agencies, as people flee violence in surrounding towns and villages.

The advance of rebels on Sake “poses an imminent threat to the entire aid system” in eastern Congo, the Norwegian Refugee Council said. It said 135,000 people were displaced in just five days in early February.

The violence has also sparked protests from the capital, Kinshasa, to Goma, with angry demonstrators saying the international community is not doing enough to push back against M23 and not taking a hard enough stance against Rwanda.

What’s at stake?

The new fighting could lead to an escalation of regional tensions and involve more countries. As the U.N. winds down its 25-year peacekeeping mission in eastern Congo, a multi-national force under the southern African regional bloc is set to step in. That force will include soldiers from regional power South Africa, Malawi and Tanzania. They will help the Congo army forces, but it might put them in direct conflict with Rwanda.

There’s also the humanitarian cost. The International NGO Forum in Congo, a group of non-governmental organizations working in the region, said the escalation in fighting has involved artillery attacks on civilian settlements, causing a heavy toll and forcing many health and aid workers to withdraw.

Eastern Congo already had one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with nearly 6 million people previously displaced because of conflict, according to the U.N. Refugee Agency.

There are concerns a new disaster could largely go unnoticed because of the attention on the war in Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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abuja, nigeria — The West African regional bloc said on Saturday it would lift strict sanctions on Niger as it seeks a new strategy to dissuade three junta-led states from withdrawing from the political and economic union, a move that threatens regional integration. 

Leaders of the Economic Community of West African States met to address a political crisis in the coup-hit region that deepened in January with military-ruled Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali’s decision to exit the 15-member bloc. 

After closed-door talks, ECOWAS said it had decided to lift Niger sanctions including border closures, the freezing of central bank and state assets, and the suspension of commercial transactions immediately. 

In a statement, it said this was done for humanitarian reasons, but the move will be seen as a gesture of appeasement as ECOWAS tries to persuade the three junta states to remain in the nearly 50-year-old alliance. Their planned exit would bring a messy disentanglement from the bloc’s trade and services flows, worth nearly $150 billion a year. 

The bloc “further urges the countries to reconsider the decision in view of the benefits that the ECOWAS member states and their citizens enjoy in the community,” it said. 

It also said it had lifted certain sanctions on junta-led Guinea, which has not said it wants to leave ECOWAS but like other junta states has not committed to a timeline to return to democratic rule. 

ECOWAS Commission President Omar Touray said some targeted sanctions and political sanctions remained place for Niger, without giving details. 

Strategy rethink

Earlier, ECOWAS Chairman and Nigeria President Bola Tinubu said the bloc had to rethink its strategy in its bid to get countries to restore constitutional order. And he urged Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea “not to perceive our organization as the enemy.” 

ECOWAS closed borders and imposed the strict measures on Niger last year after soldiers detained President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and set up a transitional government, one of a series of recent military takeovers that have exposed the bloc’s inability to halt democratic backsliding. 

The sanctions have forced Niger, already one of the world’s poorest countries, to slash government spending and default on debt payments of more than $500 million. 

In its statement, ECOWAS repeated its call for the release of Bazoum and its request for the junta to provide an “acceptable transition timetable.” 

Niger’s coup followed two each in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso over the past three years, leaving a swath of territory in the hands of military governments that have also moved to distance themselves from former colonial ruler France and other Western allies. The military also seized power in Guinea in 2021. 

ECOWAS also imposed sanctions on Mali in a bid to hasten its return to constitutional order, although they were lifted in 2022. 

The three countries have called ECOWAS’s sanctions strategy illegal and grounds for their decision to leave the bloc immediately without abiding by usual withdrawal terms. 

The three have started cooperating under a pact known as the Alliance of Sahel States and sought to form a confederation, although it is not clear how closely they plan to align political, economic and security interests as they struggle to contain a decade-old battle with Islamist insurgents.  
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DURBAN, South Africa — South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday highlighted the achievements of his African National Congress, which has ruled the country for all its 30 years of democracy, as it heads into a tight race in May’s election. 

Ramaphosa delivered the party’s manifesto to thousands of ANC supporters at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Saturday. The rally came as South Africa faces increasing poverty, unemployment and crime and a crippling electricity crisis. 

Party supporters dressed in yellow, green and black party regalia packed the stadium and sang struggle songs praising Ramaphosa and the ANC, while others took advantage of the event to sell food, refreshments and party merchandise to the thousands attending. 

A procession of motorbikes with bikers waving ANC flags was among the first displays to entertain the crowd before Ramaphosa arrived to the delight of supporters. 

However, the tension surrounding this year’s elections was laid bare when some supporters entered the stadium grounds carrying a caricature coffin bearing the name of the uMkhonto we Sizwe political party, a new political organization formed by former ANC President Jacob Zuma. 

The party is set to compete in this year’s elections after Zuma denounced the ANC. 

In what has become somewhat of a popularity contest between parties to show who can pull in the biggest crowds to their election rallies, thousands of ANC supporters were bussed in from various parts of the country to ensure the stadium was full as early as possible. 

The ANC also brought in popular musicians to entertain supporters. They performed after Ramaphosa’s speech, concluding with ANC slogans and colorful fireworks and confetti. 

However, millions of South Africans will likely be more interested in whether the ANC can deliver on its promises and address the many challenges the country faces. These include stagnant economic growth, rising levels of poverty, unemployment, crime and a crippling electricity crisis that has resulted in rolling power blackouts. 

According to Ramaphosa, the ANC plans to create more than 2.5 million job opportunities in the next five years. He said some of these would come from South Africa’s transition from coal-based power generation to cleaner energy. 

“Our strategy will also meet the new global challenges of climate change. A balanced just transition to a cleaner, greener future can lead to new jobs and secure the competitiveness of our exports,” he said. 

Ramaphosa dismissed the opposition parties looking to unseat the ANC in this year’s elections. “We are the only organization that can take South Africa forward,” he said. 

The ANC manifesto attributes some of the challenges faced by the country to the COVID-19 pandemic, the electricity crisis, global political conflicts, the July 2021 unrest and climate change. 

It also points out that the country’s economy has grown since 1994, that the ANC continues to provide social welfare and housing for millions of poor South Africans. 

South Africa’s elections are expected to be highly contested, with some opposition parties joining forces to form a coalition if the ANC receives less than 50% of the national vote. 

Over the last few weeks opposition parties have also launched their manifestos, promising to create jobs and bring an end to the electricity crisis, among other promises. 
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TUNIS, Tunisia — A court in Tunisia sentenced former President Moncef Marzouki to eight years in prison in absentia as part of the country’s crackdown on opponents of President Kais Saied. 

The charges against Marzouki, who lives in Paris, stemmed from remarks he made that authorities said violated laws against incitement and calling for the overthrow of the government, court spokesperson Mohamed Zitouna told Tunisia’s state news agency TAP on Friday evening. 

His attorney, Samir Ben Amor, told The Associated Press that the sentence illustrates “the hardening of the political line taken by the government against opponents.” 

Marzouki served as the first democratically elected president of Tunisia from 2011 to 2014, after Arab Spring protests led autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down and flee the country. A longtime human rights activist, Marzouki has emerged as a vocal critic of President Kais Saied’s moves to consolidate his own power and revise Tunisia’s post-Arab Spring constitution. 

Marzouki’s statements, which the court did not specify, amounted to fomenting “an attack designed to overthrow the government, inciting people to take up arms against each other and provoking disorder, murder and pillaging on Tunisian soil.” 

He has routinely called on foreign powers to withdraw support to Tunisia amid the ongoing reversal of the country’s democratic gains and called Saied a dictator who needs to be overthrown. 

It’s the second time that Marzouki has been sentenced for remarks made at demonstrations and on social media, following a December 2021 four-year verdict for undermining state security. 

Marzouki is among more than 20 political opponents who have been charged or imprisoned since Saied consolidated power in 2021 by suspending parliament and rewriting the country’s constitution. The president’s opponents, including Marzouki, have likened the moves to a coup — a charge that Saied has denied. Voters approved his constitutional changes in a low turnout 2021 referendum. 

“Is it normal in a democratic country for someone to be prosecuted simply for having expressed an opinion and point of view on his country’s politics?” Ben Amor asked in regard to Marzouki’s sentence. 

Saied has previously called those who make remarks like Marzouki’s “traitors to the nation” and called on authorities to investigate them. Others targeted in his crackdown include Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi, businessman and former presidential candidate Nabil Karoui, and Free Destourian Party leader Abir Moussi, a potential challenger in the country’s 2024 presidential elections. 

“All the achievements of the revolution have suffered setbacks due to (Saied’s) seizure of power,” Ennahda spokesperson Imed Khemiri said in a statement. “Fundamental liberties have deteriorated, restrictions have been imposed on political party activities, opponents have been prosecuted and the independence of the judiciary has been called into question.” 
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ABUJA, Nigeria — Heads of state across West Africa are meeting Saturday to call again on three junta-led nations to rescind their decision to quit the regional bloc and to review sanctions imposed on Niger following a coup there.

The summit of the 15-nation regional economic bloc known as ECOWAS in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, comes at a critical time when the 49-year-old bloc’s future is threatened as it struggles with possible disintegration and a recent surge in coups fueled by discontent over the performance of elected governments whose citizens barely benefit from mineral resources.

Decisions to be made at the summit “must be guided by our commitment to safeguarding the constitutional order, upholding democratic principles and promoting the social and economic well-being of the citizens,” Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, current chairman of ECOWAS, said at the start of the summit.

Top of the agenda is the recent decision by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to leave ECOWAS, or the Economic Community of West African States, over “inhumane sanctions.” That move is unprecedented since the bloc was established in 1975 and grew to become the region’s top political and economic authority.

“We must re-examine our current approach to the quest for constitutional order in our member states,” Tinubu said. “I therefore urge them to reconsider the decision … and not to perceive our organization as the enemy.”

The summit is also expected to review the harsh sanctions imposed on Niger. This week, one of the bloc’s founding leaders and Nigeria’s former military ruler, Yakubu Gowon, urged regional leaders to lift the sanctions, noting that the bloc is “more than a coalition of states [but] is a community established for the good of our people.”

In the past year, however, the bloc has struggled to resolve the region’s most pressing challenge: The Sahel, the vast, arid expanse south of the Sahara Desert that stretches across several West African countries, faces growing violence from Islamic extremists and rebels, which in turn has caused soldiers to depose elected governments.

The nine coups in West and Central Africa since 2020 followed a similar pattern, with coup leaders accusing governments of failing to provide security and good governance. Most of the coup-hit countries are also among the poorest and least-developed in the world.

The sanctions against Niger and the threat of military intervention to reverse the coup were “the likely triggers to an inevitable outcome” of the three countries’ withdrawal from the bloc, said Karim Manuel, an analyst for the Middle East and Africa with the Economist Intelligence Unit.

With their withdrawal, “the West African region will be increasingly fragmented and divided (while) the new alliance between Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger fragments the West African bloc and reflects an axis of opposition to the traditional structures that have underpinned the region for decades,” Manuel added.
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blantyre, malawi — Malawi’s government is not issuing passports, President Lazarus Chakwera said, claiming it is because of a cyberattack. But some observers question whether such an attack occurred.

Chakwera told parliament on Wednesday that a cyberattack had compromised the country’s security and that measures were in place to identify and apprehend the attackers. He said the attackers were demanding millions in ransom but his administration will not pay it.

He said the hackers have prevented the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services system from printing passports for the past three weeks.

However, the immigration department stopped printing passports weeks ago, after it announced in January it was grappling with technical glitches.

The situation has left hundreds of passport applicants stranded. Rights groups have vowed to hold mass demonstrations if the glitch isn’t resolved within days.

Then on Wednesday, Chakwera told parliament the suspension was caused by what he called digital mercenaries who had hacked the system responsible for printing passports.

“This is a serious national security breach,” he said, “and although Malawi is not the first in the modern world to be the target of and suffer this kind of cyberattack, we have taken very decisive steps to regain control of the situation.”

Chakwera, who has been president since June 2020, said on Wednesday that he has given the immigration department three weeks to provide a temporary solution and resume the printing of passports. At the same event, he said he had told the hackers never to expect ransom from the Malawi government.

“As long as I am the president, the government will never pay the ransom money you have demanded after hacking the system,” he said, “because we are not in the business of appeasing criminals with public money, nor are we in the business of negotiating with those who attack our country.”

Contract termination

Malawi has faced passport issuance challenges since 2021, when the government terminated its contract with Techno Brain, which had been the supplier of Malawi’s passports since 2019.

In 2023, the government, unable to find a replacement, re-engaged the company on a temporary basis. Still, the immigration department had to scale down production many times because of a shortage of materials or failure to pay outstanding bills.

Sylvester Namiwa is the executive director of the Center for Democracy and Economic Development Initiatives, whose organization is vowing to hold protests if the situation isn’t resolved within days. He told VOA that he doubted the veracity of Chakwera’s statement on the hacking of the system.

The president “should have revealed the identities of the hackers” and could have said more about how communications with the alleged hackers are occurring — “for example, if they are using computers, if they are using phones,” Namiwa said. “Today’s technology is easy to trace.”

Namiwa pointed to reports circulating on social media and a local radio station suggesting that the contractor, Techno Brain, had deliberately shut down the system after noticing improper activity by suspected government agents.

According to local media reports, Techno Brain is demanding millions of dollars in compensation from the Malawi government before it unblocks the system.

When approached for comment, Tiwonge Chipeta, general manager for Techno Brain in Malawi, would not deny or confirm the company’s alleged involvement in the shutdown, saying she could not speak with reporters about the matter.

However, some IT experts working with government agencies, who refused to give their names for fear of reprisals, told VOA that no hackers had demanded any ransom from the government.

Security expert Sheriff Kaisi told VOA that if the passport system had indeed been hacked, Malawi’s government needed to ensure its software has since been made hacker-proof.

“There could be some lapses here and there, but every system by nature would have other software to encounter that,” Kaisi said. “And of course the system used by the government needs to be sophisticated.”

Malawi Information Minister Moses Nkukuyu told a local radio station Thursday that the information Chakwera presented in parliament came from experts working at the immigration department.

Immigration department spokesperson Wellington Chiponde did not respond to calls and texts from VOA.
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Gaborone, Botswana   — Botswana says it will use next week’s U.N. Environment Assembly to lobby against a proposed European ban on importing wildlife trophies from Africa.

This comes as Botswana’s former president visits the U.K. to lobby in favor of the ban, defying his country’s position.

Botswana’s acting minister of environment and tourism, Machana Shamukuni, told Parliament that he would be present when the U.N. Environment Assembly convenes Monday in Nairobi. He said he would be reminding like-minded delegates to continue to lobby against Europe’s efforts to ban trophy hunting.

Trophy hunting is the practice of killing large animals such as elephants, lions and tigers for sport. Hunters often keep the heads or other parts of the animals for display.

In 2022, the European Parliament announced plans to introduce a ban on the import of wildlife trophies. Conservationists are concerned that continued hunting will further deplete wildlife populations, which are declining in many areas from loss of habitat and poaching.

However, Botswana has the world’s largest elephant population at more than 130,000, and the giant animals are often in conflict with humans.

Investigation urged

Siyoka Simasiku is director of the Ngamiland Council of Nongovernmental Organizations, a conservation coalition, and has been involved in the campaign against the proposed wildlife trophy import bans. He said authorities in Europe needed to travel to southern Africa to get firsthand information about how limited elephant hunting helps Botswana.

“This has been the call of the community — to invite European countries, including the U.K., to come directly to their areas to witness what the benefits from this wildlife have actually provided them, and also to see the damages that are also brought about by wildlife within their areas in terms of crop damage, competition for water holes and loss of lives,” Simasiku said. “These are things that are dear to our communities.”

Currently, Botswana issues about 300 elephant hunting licenses per year, generating approximately $3 million for the country, separate from the other revenues the hunters generate.

Meanwhile, former Botswana President Ian Khama this week arrived in the United Kingdom to drum up support for the hunting ban.

While in office, Khama enacted a hunting ban in 2014, but his successor, President Mokgweetsi Masisi, lifted the moratorium in 2019.

Simasiku said wildlife communities in Botswana oppose Khama’s recent actions.

“The Botswana communities strongly oppose this move where the former president advocates for a trophy hunting ban in London,” he said. “They have expressed concerns about the negative impact on their livelihoods and conservation efforts. They argue that a blanket ban overlooks their role in sustainable wildlife management and urge for a more inclusive approach that considers their perspectives and needs.”

No European Union ban on wildlife trophy imports has materialized so far, but the U.K. House of Lords considered a ban that failed to pass, while Germany and France are considering similar prohibitions.

Last month, Belgium succeeded in introducing a ban, amid calls for the rest of Europe to follow suit.
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GENEVA — A report by the U.N. human rights office accuses both of Sudan’s warring parties of committing horrific violations and abuses against the country’s civilian population, “some of which may amount to war crimes and possibly other serious crimes under international law.”

The 16-page report is based on interviews with 303 victims and witnesses, as well as analysis of photographs, videos and satellite imagery gathered between April 15 and December 2023.

The report holds the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces responsible for the killings of at least 14,600 civilians and the forced displacement of more than 8 million people both inside Sudan and as refugees in five neighboring countries.

Authors of the report say the intensity of hostilities between the armed forces and “the significant lack of adherence to international humanitarian law and international human rights law standards are concerning.”

In a statement Friday, Volker Turk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said, “For nearly a year now, accounts coming out of Sudan have been of death, suffering and despair, as the senseless conflict and human rights violations and abuses have persisted with no end in sight.”

Since the rival generals plunged Sudan into war on April 15, the report says, armed forces and their allies have indiscriminately attacked civilians in densely populated areas, including sites sheltering internally displaced people, with most attacks occurring in the capital, Khartoum, as well as Kordorfan state and Darfur.

Since April, there have been widespread allegations of sexual and gender-based violence in the conflict-affected hot spots.

As of December 15, the report says, it has received reports that at least 118 people had been subjected to sexual violence, including rape, gang rape and attempted rape, among them 19 children.

The report finds many victims were trafficked “for the purpose of sexual exploitation and forced prostitution, by both parties to the conflict and their allied groups, which are prohibited under international law.”

Seif Magango, the U.N. human rights office regional spokesperson, said the warring parties also have looted property, conscripted child soldiers and otherwise violated the human rights of thousands of helpless, destitute people.

Speaking in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, he said his office just this week received credible video evidence that several students traveling by road in North Kordofan State may have been beheaded by men in SAF uniforms in El-Obeid City.

He says the students were likely killed “based on their perceived ethnicity as being RSF supporters.”

He says the video, which was posted on social media on February 15, “shows troops parading with decapitated heads in the street while chanting ethnic slurs.”

In Darfur, the U.N. report says, thousands of people have been killed in RSF attacks, “some of which were ethnically motivated.” For example, between May and November, it says, the RSF and its allied Arab militia carried out at least 10 attacks against civilians in El-Geneina, the capital of West Darfur, “killing thousands of people, most from the African Masalit ethnic community.”

Magango described the situation in Sudan as very concerning and getting worse. He said it is disturbing that the appalling crimes are taking place out of the international limelight, as Sudan risks becoming a forgotten conflict.

Nevertheless, he said the human rights office continues to document and record multiple cases of killings, injury, displacement and growing cases of sexual violence, among other forms of abuse.

“These violations are incredibly serious under international law,” he said. “The high commissioner has stated in response to this report … that these violations would amount to war crimes and should be promptly and thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators brought to account.”

Commanders of the RSF and the Sudanese Armed Forces have previously denied committing war crimes as they battle for control of the country.

In his statement, High Commissioner Turk said the report makes “more painful reading on the tragedy being needlessly inflicted on the Sudanese people since April 2023.”

He underlined “the dire need to end the fighting and to break the cycle of impunity that gave rise to this conflict in the first place.”

“The guns must be silenced, and civilians must be protected,” he said.
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In Somalia, Hussein Abdurahman has taken it upon himself to feed the neglected dogs and cats he finds on the streets of Mogadishu. The boy’s inspiring mission is a call to action. Jamal Ahmed Osman reports from Mogadishu. Camera: Abdulkadir Zubeyr.
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DOUALA, CAMEROON — Health workers, officials and humanitarians from 15 French-speaking sub-Saharan countries are meeting in Cameroon’s economic capital, Douala, to discuss chronic child malnutrition in the region.

Many of the children in crisis have been displaced from Sudan and other conflict-ridden countries. Their chronic malnutrition, say those at the meeting, has been compounded by climate shocks that make food and safe water increasingly scarce in sub-Saharan Africa.

“All United Nations agencies are very worried that several million children suffering from acute malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa risk dying before they celebrate their fifth birthday,” said Simeon Nanama, UNICEF’s regional nutrition adviser for West and Central Africa. “Close to 7 million children affected by acute malnutrition are in dire need of help to save their lives.”

In December, officials in Cameroon pointed to the mass immigration of women and children seeking to escape communal violence and Boko Haram terrorists who operate in Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria and other countries. 

Last week, Chad’s President Mahamat Idris Deby declared a food and nutritional emergency throughout the central African state. Deby pleaded for international support, especially for children under the age of five, who he said were suffering from acute malnutrition. 

The United Nations says malnutrition is the second-leading cause of death among children after malaria in sub-Saharan African countries. 

The Douala meeting aims to update health and humanitarian workers on U.N. guidelines issued in December about how to prevent and manage acute malnutrition to save the lives of millions of malnourished children. 

“For the first time, WHO is providing guidance on how to prevent malnutrition and also for the first time we have guidance on how to detect earlier those children that are at risk of poor growth and development,” said meeting participant Laetitia Ouedraogo Nikiema, a World Health Organization consultant and former public health, nutrition and research expert with WHO’s Africa region.

Ouedraogo said the new plan envisages more integration of nutrition services into health systems.

The U.N. has said it intends to give more food and health assistance to the governments of countries most unable to care for malnourished children. The U.N. has a goal of eliminating acute malnutrition by 2030. 

The U.N. said the plan faces challenges as the proportion of children with acute malnutrition persists at what it calls worrying levels; at least 216 million African children still suffer from stunting and malnutrition. 
…

Maputo, Mozambique — A new outbreak of unrest in northern Mozambique, scene of a jihadi insurgency, has forced thousands to flee their homes, according to United Nations figures and sources in Cabo Delgado province.

An alert from the U.N. migration agency IOM said recent attacks in the Macomia, Chiure and Mecufi districts had displaced 13,088 people, most of them children, by bus, canoe and on foot.

Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi confirmed there had been new population movements but played down the threat and insisted security forces had the situation under control.

“There are a significant number of people who move from one area to another and complain about support,” he said, after a meeting with military commanders.

“Terrorists try to recruit in this province, which is why we see these movements,” he said.

A recent flight of people from the town of Ocua, he said, was a result of revenge attacks after Mozambican and Rwandan forces had thwarted an attempt to kidnap children.

“The last month recorded significant movements by non-state armed groups towards the southern districts of Cabo Delgado” a spokesperson from the U.N.’s refugee agency, UNHRC, told AFP.

“This wave of attacks has essentially been characterized by a high level of destruction, namely residences, churches and social infrastructures as schools and health centers.”

Forces from Rwanda and countries of the Southern African Development Community, deployed to Mozambique in July 2021 after years of jihadi attacks.

They have helped the country retake lost territory in Cabo Delgado, but unrest continues.

One civil servant in Cabo Delgado confirmed to AFP that the situation had deteriorated. He spoke anonymously on government orders.

“It seems they have returned with great fury,” he said, of the armed groups behind the attacks.

Tobias Miguel, a researcher following the crisis, said those displaced seem to be seeking refuge in the northern town of Pemba or crossing out of the province to neighboring Nampula.

“We have received reports that terrorists have stopped some cargo transport vehicles to demand monetary payments,” he said.

The secretary of state for Nampula Province, Jaime Neto, confirmed that the National Institute for Disaster Management was seeking to open a transit center to accommodate displaced people.  
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Zimbabwe has launched an emergency polio vaccination campaign to contain a new outbreak, even as it fights a cholera outbreak that has claimed close to 500 lives. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Harare. Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe.
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cairo — Egypt’s economy is facing serious hurdles after revenue from the country’s most strategic asset — the Suez Canal — has dropped by nearly half. Attacks by the pro-Iranian Houthi militia group on ships passing by Yemen has made merchant ships avoid the Red Sea and the canal.

The Greek-flagged grain ship Sea Champion was slightly damaged Wednesday by two ballistic missiles fired by the northern Yemen-based Houthi group, which says it is attacking Western ships in solidarity with Hamas militants fighting Israel.

Because of such attacks, many ships that normally pass by Yemen, headed to or from the Suez Canal, now avoid the area and take the longer route around the Horn of Africa.

That is cutting deeply into Egypt’s revenue from ships passing through the canal and is just the latest challenge to the country’s economy, Egyptian President Abdel Fatteh el-Sissi said.

First, el-Sissi said, were the two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then the Russia-Ukraine conflict added to economic issues, as well as pressure from conflicts in border countries of Libya, Sudan and Gaza. Now, el-Sissi said, Egypt is seeing Suez Canal revenue of approximately $10 billion a year decline by nearly 40% to 50%.

Said Sadek, a professor of political sociology at the Egypt-Japan University of Science and Technology in Alexandria, said Egypt isn’t the only country affected by fewer ships transversing the canal.

“If the conflict continues,” he said, “supply chains all over the world will be affected, especially since many of the cargoes that pass through the canal are oil and gas ships heading to Europe, and that will make the European economy suffer a lot.”

Joshua Landis, who heads the Middle East studies program at the University of Oklahoma, tells VOA the conflict in Gaza has had repercussions on many Middle East fault lines, in addition to the Red Sea conflict affecting world shipping.

“It’s ratcheted up the war between Iran and the U.S., it’s increased violence in countries like Iraq and Syria, along borders that had become stalemates,” he said. “It’s increased instability from one end of the Middle East to the other. It’s like throwing a firecracker into the middle of a beehive.

Landis said that Iran, which controls many of the proxy militias that are participating in far-flung corners of the Gaza conflict, “has the United States by the short hairs,” pulling it into conflicts, not only with the Houthis in Yemen, but also with Shi’ite militias in Iraq and Syria.

Paul Sullivan, a Washington-based Middle East and energy analyst at the Atlantic Council, warns the Houthis are not deterred by any of the U.S. and British retaliatory airstrikes that have been made against them. He said that may indicate “that they have more sources of financing, training and weapons than was previously known.”

“Yemen,” Sullivan added, “has been at war for a good part of its history [and] many of those involved with the attacks are battle-hardened. They also live by a mountain code, which rules out not responding to threats like many others have.”
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Nairobi, Kenya — Kenya’s government says it is committed to building the economy by increasing revenue collection, reducing government spending, and ensuring the country is able to repay its debt and live within its means.

The government announcement comes days after the African Development Bank, in its outlook report for 2024, said many nations continue to grapple with higher commodity prices, citing weak domestic currencies and slow economic activities in countries that import more than they export.

The financial institution warned that the high cost of essential food items in some African countries like Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Nigeria will likely cause civil unrest. 

Speaking to journalists Wednesday, Kenyan President William Ruto said his government has done just enough to reduce the economic burden on Kenyans. 

“The strategy we have put in place over the last one year has seen the cost of living come down, whether you talk about the cost of food, whether you talk about inflation, and what we have done with the management of the debt situation in the country,” he said. 

Ruto blamed the previous government for burdening the country with foreign debt and failing to collect enough revenue to balance the country’s accounts. 

The government removed fuel subsidies which were meant to cushion Kenyans from the high prices of food as part of its economic reform agenda. That reform, the African Development Bank said, could cause unrest. 

According to AfDB research, 19 African countries recorded double-digit inflation rates last year. Earlier this month, The Central Bank of Kenya’s Monetary Policy Committee warned citizens to brace for high food prices due to soaring inflation and expensive imports because of the depreciation of the local currency. 

Kenya has also witnessed protests over high food prices, but people continue to express their displeasure with the country’s economic status in public gatherings and on social media networks. 

Samuel Nyandemo, economics lecturer at the University of Nairobi, says some Kenyans are losing patience with Ruto’s 18-month-old government. 

“Kenyans, their patience is eroding unless some of these issues are addressed with urgency. There will be some animosity whether you like it or not,” Nyandemo said. “You can even see it in political meetings. People are now so courageous they are shouting at the president. What does that show you? It shows you that people are getting disgusted. We better start addressing key issues first and the first thing is reducing the cost of living.” 

Kenya’s government says it has managed to lower food prices, and the economy is improving despite spending much of its revenue repaying loans. 

Ruto says Kenya needs to reduce its reliance on food imports to strengthen the currency and reduce food prices. 

“The 500 billion Kenya shilling we spend every year to import food into Kenya will only go down the day we produce that food in Kenya. That’s a step we are taking and we made a commitment as a government that we want to reduce imports by 50 percent in the next five years,” he said. 

Nyandemo the economist says the shilling’s loss of value against the dollar and other currencies will impact the country’s food prices and economy. 

“All macroeconomic valuables have shown red lights. We should not be fooled that the shilling is going to stabilize soon. A shilling cannot stabilize because of some mischievousness through the Euro bond,” Nyandemo said. “I think it is a short-lived phenomenon. And as long as the shilling is not going to be stable, as long as the interest rates are going to be very high, businessmen are not going to be able to source loans for investments. In any case, you can see from the Kenya Revenue Authority the revenue being collected is not in line with the targets.” 

Africa’s economic growth is expected to grow at 3.2 percent. The African Development Bank urged African countries to build resilience in a world of rising uncertainty and geopolitical competition. 
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — A U.S. delegation met with the military ruler of Gabon on Tuesday and reiterated the need for a quick return to constitutional order six months after the nation’s August 30 coup.

Even so, the U.S. ambassador to Gabon who led the delegation, Vernelle Trim FitzPatrick, said economic and diplomatic relations with the Central African state will be reinforced despite sanctions imposed on Gabon’s coup leaders.

Military ruler General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema pleaded for U.S sanctions to be lifted.

Speaking later on Gabon’s state television, FitzPatrick said the United States finds it important to discuss strengthening trade and commercial relations with Gabon to gain the support of the U.S Congress in fostering ties with the nation.

FitzPatrick, who has been ambassador to Gabon for about a month, also said the United States will assist with the transition to civilian rule but did not say how.

Gabon’s military, led by Nguema, ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba in a bloodless coup on August 30. The military accused Bongo of rigging Gabon’s August 26 elections and ruining the country’s economy.

After the coup, Washington suspended most nonhumanitarian aid and asked for a quick return to constitutional order. Gabon’s military leaders said elections would be held in August 2025, after an inclusive national dialogue this April.

Nembe Patrice, an economic adviser at Alternance 2023, a group of opposition parties created in 2023 to fight for political change in Gabon, said civilians want Nguema to organize elections and hand power to democratically elected officials.

He also said he hopes the United States will advise Nguema not to be a candidate.
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United Nations — The U.N. Security Council designated six individuals for sanctions Tuesday for their destabilizing activities in Congo, where violence has escalated in the east this year, intensifying an already dire humanitarian situation.

Those sanctioned are a general in the Rwandan-backed Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR); two senior leaders in the Ugandan armed group Allied Democratic Forces (ADF); the military spokesman for the Rwandan-backed M23 rebel group; the leader of the National Coalition of the People for the Sovereignty of Congo (CNPSC), a Mai-Mai group; and a commander in the armed group Twirwaneho.

“These individuals are responsible for numerous abuses,” U.S. Deputy U.N. Ambassador Robert Wood said in the council. “But to counter the flow of funds and arms to those who fuel conflict in the DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo], sanctions need to be kept up-to-date and fully implemented.”

Wood urged the international community to take immediate steps to end the fighting in the eastern Congo and de-escalate tensions between Congo and Rwanda. Each country blames the other for the instability.

The United Nations has expressed grave concern about the deterioration in North Kivu province since a cease-fire expired at the end of December between Rwandan-backed M23 rebels and the Congolese army, known as the FARDC.

“Since 28 January, fighting between the M23 and the FARDC has intensified in several areas, and the M23 has expanded further south, leading to further displacement of populations towards Goma and South Kivu,” said Bintu Keita, the head of the U.N. mission in Congo, MONUSCO.

The M23 has its eye on Goma, the capital of North Kivu and a city of 2 million people where the U.N. estimates that 135,000 displaced people have fled this month. The rebels are now reported to be in the hills outside Sake town, 25 kilometers from Goma.

MONUSCO’s Keita says the fighting is complicating the humanitarian situation. Displacement sites are severely overcrowded, cholera and measles are on the rise, and Goma’s isolation is disrupting food production and supply chains and causing prices to rise for basic commodities.

The U.N. appealed Tuesday for $2.6 billion to assist nearly 9 million of the most vulnerable Congolese this year. Overall, there are more than 25 million people in need, including 8.4 million people affected by acute malnutrition – most of them children.
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Abuja, Nigeria — The African Development Bank is warning that the rising cost of energy, food and other commodities in several African countries, including Angola, Ethiopia and Kenya, could trigger social unrest. Already, people in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, have been marching to protest the high cost of living, prompting the government to release grain from the national reserves.

The African Development Bank’s notice was contained in its biannual Africa Macroeconomic Performance outlook publication released last week.

The bank said in its 2024 forecast that energy and food price increases — along with a currency depreciation in Angola, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria — could spark internal conflict, despite Africa showing overall economic growth.

The bank also said conflicts in eastern Europe and the Middle East could trigger supply chain disruptions, exacerbate inflation across the world, and make Africa’s situation more precarious.

This, as protests over hunger and the cost of living grow in Nigeria.

Hundreds protest food prices

On Monday, hundreds of people demonstrated in southwestern Oyo state, asking authorities to take steps to bring down the cost of food or resign from office.

Security analyst Senator Iroegbu agrees with the African Development Bank’s projections.

“It’s obvious for even the blind to see that there will be social unrest because [of] the three basic needs of life, food, shelter and clothing. The most important is feeding,” said Iroegbu. “Nobody can survive without food and that is the level Nigerians are heading to, so people are becoming restless. In fact, if one-tenth of what happens in Nigeria happens in another place, there will be serious unrest but the elasticity of that is being tested.”

The African Development Bank said Africa has several rapidly growing economies, such as Ivory Coast, Libya, Niger, Rwanda and Senegal.

But the bank said performance varies from country to country depending on economic policies.

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu embarked on bold economic reforms including the scrapping of expensive fuel subsidies and floating of the country’s currency, upon taking office last May.

While authorities say the policies are bound to pay off, the immediate shocks are having an impact on the economy.

Last week, Nigeria’s inflation hit 29.9% — its highest mark since mid-1996. In response, authorities ordered the release of 102,00 metric tons of grain, including rice and maize, to lower food prices.

Government ‘not sleeping,’ says official

On Tuesday, Nigeria’s chief of defense staff, Major General Christopher Musa, spoke to journalists in Abuja about the situation.

“The entire world is feeling the heat; it’s not only peculiar to Nigeria,” said Musa. “We’ve had a few riots here and there. Why I’m happy is that the government too is not sleeping, it’s stepping up to ensuring that they address these challenges. You’ve seen that grains have been released, measures are being put in place to bring succor all over the country. The issue of dollar and exchange rate, everything is tied to it and that’s why we’re having these issues.”

The African Development Bank says economic growth in Africa is expected to average 3.8% and 4.2% in 2024 and 2025, respectively — higher than projected global averages in the same period.

But protesters say unless they can afford food and life’s basics, they will continue to march in the streets.
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Dakar — Senegal’s Constitutional Council on Tuesday published an amended list of candidates for a presidential election delayed from Feb. 25 to a yet undecided date, removing just one candidate from the initial list because she withdrew her application. 

The council last week overturned a bill that delayed the vote to December — a move that had plunged the West African country into unchartered constitutional territory and stoked public anger against the government. 

President Macky Sall, who said the postponement was needed due to a dispute over the candidate list, later pledged he would abide with the court’s decision and hold consultations to organize the vote as quickly as possible.  

The new candidate list was almost unchanged from the original list for the Feb. 25 vote apart from removing opposition contender, Rose Wardini, bringing the number of candidates down to 19 from an initial 20. 

The council said Wardini had withdrawn her application without providing further detail. 

Prominent opposition figures including the firebrand jailed politician Ousmane Sonko and Karim Wade, the son of former president Abdoulaye Wade, remained excluded. 
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Kenyan companies, facing economic challenges, are turning to artificial intelligence to reduce production and advertising expenses. That’s causing anxiety among artists and ad agencies, who fear reduced income and job losses if AI can replace the work they’ve always done. Mohammed Yusuf reports from Nairobi.
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mogadishu, somalia — Tensions between Somalia and Ethiopia escalated over the weekend following allegations by Somalia’s president that Ethiopian security forces tried to bar him from attending the African Union summit in Addis Ababa.

The incident came amid a dispute between the countries involving the breakaway region of Somaliland.

Speaking to journalists before cutting short his trip, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said the actions of the Ethiopian forces were part of a grand scheme by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to annex part of Somalia.

“This morning when I prepared myself to attend the closing session of the summit, the Ethiopian security blocked my way,” Mohamud said Saturday, adding that he wasn’t allowed “to come out of the hotel and go on with my cars and entourage.”

Ethiopia, he said, wanted “to annex part of Somalia to Ethiopia and to disrespect the African Union summit participants like me.”

The Somali president eventually gained access to the meeting, entering with the security team of Djibouti President Ismael Omar Guelleh.

The Ethiopian government rejected Mohamud’s claim and said the Somali leader and his delegation declined to be accompanied by a security detail assigned to him.

Hard to place blame

Matt Bryden, co-founder of Sahan Research, a policy and security think tank, said he thought it wasn’t easy to apportion blame, because there could have been a breakdown in security protocol.

“Either the Ethiopians unreasonably denied access to the president and his security detail, or the Somali security personnel escorting the president were trying to bring weapons into a location into which they were not permitted,” Bryden said.

The claims by Mohamud escalated tensions that were already running high because of an agreement signed New Year’s Day between Abiy and Somaliland President Muse Bihi.

The memorandum of understanding would grant landlocked Ethiopia access to the Gulf of Aden to build a naval base. In exchange, according to Somaliland, Ethiopia would recognize it as an independent state. Ethiopia, however, said it would merely consider that possibility.

Somalia, which still considers Somaliland part of its territory, is insisting the agreement be canceled.

The African Union has called for dialogue to resolve the issue, but a former Somali government minister, Abdullahi Godah Barre, said that wasn’t the right move now.

Barre said dialogue is always good, but Ethiopia has to retract the deal so that the dialogue will be without conditions. No one, he said, will accept negotiations based on annexation.

Ethiopia has not explicitly rejected Somalia’s annexation claim, but Abiy said this month that “Ethiopia does not wish to harm Somalia.”

According to Bryden, the issue is complicated by Somalia’s dependence on Ethiopian troops for security in southwestern parts of the country.

“Somalia has still not called for Ethiopian troops to leave southwestern Somalia, which would be disastrous, because presumably, places like Beletweyn, Bulobarde, Baidoa and other towns would fall into the hands of al-Shabab if Ethiopia were to do so,” he said.

Ethiopia and Somalia have a long history of tensions and have even gone to war with each other. However, in recent years, the two countries have enjoyed relatively friendly relations. Ethiopia currently deploys its troops into Somalia within and outside the African Union framework.
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