Harare, Zimbabwe — Zimbabwe’s Cabinet decision to abolish the death penalty, announced on Wednesday, is being hailed by human rights advocates, but not all Zimbabweans are in favor of the move.

Amnesty International — one of the rights groups which has pushed for the abolition of capital punishment in Zimbabwe — welcomed the announcement this week by Harare. 

“Zimbabwe has taken the right step towards ending this abhorrent and inhuman form of punishment that has no place in today’s justice system,” said Roselina Muzerengi, campaigns coordinator at Amnesty International in Zimbabwe. “Now that the Cabinet has given its nod, Parliament must ensure the death penalty is truly abolished by voting to pass legislation that will make this a reality. We are happy that the abolition debate is gaining momentum. So, as an organization, we are waiting to see the response by the Parliament of Zimbabwe.”

In a message via WhatsApp, U.N. Special Rapporteur Mary Lawlor, who reports and advises on the situation of human rights advocates, also expressed her support for the move.

“I am delighted that Zimbabwe has decided to abolish the death penalty. The death penalty is always wrong. It has never been shown to be a deterrent and many innocent people around the world have been executed,” Lawlor said.

But not everyone is happy with the decision, given that Zimbabwe’s crime rate is rising as the economy continues to decline. 

A senator for the ruling Zanu-PF party, who asked not to be identified for fear of losing her position, said she is against abolition of the death penalty.

“As a people, as a nation, and are we not perpetuating wanton killing? Life is precious. Life imprisonment in itself is torture,” she said. “We have a parole system, which is there in place, that can review some of these judgments [life imprisonment]. Peace and closure to the affected families can only be achieved if they know that the perpetrator is made the same fate as their relatives.”

Zimbabwe’s information minister, Jenfan Muswere, this week told reporters that the move to abolish the death penalty was made after countrywide consultations.

“The circumstances attracting death penalty options include where murder has been committed against a prison officer, police officer, a minor or a pregnant woman, or it is committed in the commission of other serious crimes. Or where there is pre-meditation,” Muswere said. “In view of the need to retain the deterrent element in sentencing murderers, it is expected that the new law will impose lengthy sentences without violating the right to life.”

Some Zimbabweans, such as Tinei Mukuri, want the death sentence to remain in the statute books.

“There are circumstances when it is really aggravated, it’s gruesome, it’s pure cruelty when someone kills someone. … And then we say that person needs to be rehabilitated, spending the rest of his time in jail surviving on taxpayers’ money, when the best would be just to also to face the same death that would have been inflicted on other people,” Mukuri said.

Vincent Mazilankatha holds a similar view.

“It’s very sad that our government decided to abolish death penalty when there is a rise of premeditated murder cases here in Zimbabwe,” Mazilankatha said. “People are killing each other, people are killing some other people with impunity. Some of them are walking scot free.

Parliament is expected to take up legislation soon that officially bans the death penalty. The bill is expected to sail to approval, as the ruling Zanu-PF party now has a two-thirds majority, and President Emmerson Mnangawa supports abolishment.  
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Cameroon separatist fighters Wednesday claimed responsibility for the killing of four government workers, including a policeman abducted Tuesday in the country’s restive English-speaking North-West region. Government officials say two of the hostages, including a government official the military freed, are responding to treatment in a hospital. The abduction and killing followed renewed separatist attacks that have claimed several dozen civilians within two weeks.

Cameroon on Wednesday said one of its officials who had been abducted Tuesday evening in the restive English-speaking North-West region bordering Nigeria has been freed by government troops.    

Nicholas Nkongho Manchang, the divisional officer for the region’s Bamenda Second District was kidnapped at gunpoint with five others, including a policeman, on their way to an official ceremony in Nkambe town, the government said.     

Deben Tchoffo, governor of the North-West region, told a crowd in Nkambe Wednesday that Manchang and another captive were freed after a swift military operation.   

“The head of state [president Paul Biya] instructed the security services to set free the hostages,” Tchoffo said. “Four hours later, the said administrative authority was freed thanks to the bravery of our military as well as the bravery of the abducted victims. Authorities, living forces (should) continue providing the military with all information to free the hostages that are not yet released.”  

Tchoffo said the divisional officer known locally as the D.O and the other freed captive are responding to treatment in a hospital in Bamenda, where they were rushed to by government troops.  

Christopher Achobang is the spokesperson for the Ambazonia Governing Council, fighting for independence for Cameroon’s English-speaking regions from the French majority country.     

Achobang said Manchang saved his life by escaping. 

“The D.O staged an escape because he fell into a ravine and the fighters were not so ready to get into the ravine to rescue him so they left him there wounded and dying,” Achobang said. “He escaped and walked for a long distance where the Cameroon military then found him and took him to a helicopter which evacuated the D.O to Bamenda.”

Achobang said separatist fighters should have killed the D.O if he did escape.

English speaking separatists say they consider divisional officers, who are heads of districts, to be government troops because they undergo military training and as such constitute a legitimate target to fighters. 

But Cameroon government officials say divisional officers are civil administrators who represent the Yaounde central government and work for the development of their districts. 

Government troops say Manchang drove past the military-led convoy of government officials travelling to Nkambe and fell into an ambush mounted by fighters. Manchang has not explained why he left the convoy.    

Separatists say after Manchang escaped, four companions, including a police officer were killed.  

The Ambazonia Governing Council said that separatist forces killed the captives to send a message to government troops that claims that separatists fighting for an independent English-speaking have been defeated are unfounded.   

The government and military have not commented on the alleged killing of the four captives but on Wednesday night separatists shared pictures of four dead bodies on social media including Facebook and WhatsApp. VOA could not independently verify the authenticity of the pictures. 

Civilians, however, say the pictures appear to be those of the abducted government workers. 

Cameroon has within the past two weeks reported that separatists killed several dozen people in northwestern towns including Bamenda, Kumbo and Ndop. 

The government says at least eleven separatists were killed in military raids in Kumbo and Oku, both northwestern towns. 

Separatists acknowledge their fighters were killed and say several governments troops also died in fighting. 

Edward Nfor is a member of the Cameroon Civil Society Group and a road contractor working in the Northwest region. He says the current wave of abductions and killings is either unreported or underreported by local media that fear persecution from rebels and the Cameroon government.

“Killings are on the rise, kidnapping is on the rise. If heavily guarded government officials are kidnapped, then what about the ordinary civilian. People are moving but they can’t move freely,” Nfor said. “These boys [separatist fighters] will go out to the village[es]. get out people and say that they are supporting the military and execute them in public. Let the government try to do something and get this thing [crisis] to an end.”  

Nfor said several dozen people have either been abducted or killed since fresh attacks began in January.    

Separatists on social media say they will not spare anyone who reports fighters hiding in towns and villages to government troops.     

The separatist conflict broke out in 2016 when Anglophone Cameroonians protested discrimination by the Francophone majority.

The United Nations says more than 6,000 people have been killed and the unrest has deprived 600,000 children of education. 
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NAIROBI, Kenya — Burundi’s president on Friday accused Rwanda of funding and training rebels behind an attack last week on the village of Gatumba, close to Burundi’s border with Congo, that killed at least 20 people.

A Burundian armed rebel group known as RED-Tabara and based in South Kivu, eastern Congo, took responsibility for the attack in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The group, which denied having targeted civilians, claimed to have killed nine soldiers and a police officer.

Burundian authorities consider RED-Tabara a terrorist movement. The group first appeared in 2011 and has been accused of a string of attacks in Burundi since 2015.

In a national radio broadcast, President Evariste Ndayishimiye claimed the RED-Tabara “are fed, sheltered, hosted and maintained in terms of logistics and financial means by … Rwanda.”

Ndayishimiye said Burundi has been unsuccessfully negotiating with Rwanda for two years, seeking the extradition of the rebels.

“As long as they have a country that provides them with uniforms, feeds them, protects them, shelters them, maintains them, we will have problems,” he said.

There was no immediate reaction from Rwanda’s government to Ndayishimiye’s accusations, but it has previously said that it cannot extradite people who are under the protection of the U.N. refugee agency.

Relations between the two central African neighbors improved with the ascension to power of Ndayishimiye in June 2020, and borders between them reopened.

Some of those killed in the Gatumba attack — which Burundi has described as an act of terror and said it had contacted Interpol to seek its help in apprehending the perpetrators — were buried on Tuesday.

In August last year, Burundi deployed soldiers to eastern Congo as part of a regional force invited by Congo to tackle the resurgence of the M23 rebel group there. Some observers believed that the Burundi troops from the seven-nation East African Community regional force would be used to crush RED-Tabara.

However, the East African force is currently being withdrawn in phases from the violence-plagued eastern Congo following complaints from locals and authorities that instead of disarming the rebels, the forces were cohabiting with them.
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KINSHASA, Democrataic Republic of Congo — The head of Congo’s election commission on Friday said it would meet a Sunday deadline for the release of full provisional presidential results, dismissing opposition calls for a repeat of the disputed vote as the response of “bad losers.”

The CENI commission has come under fire for its handling of the delay-plagued December 20 presidential and legislative elections and the vote count, which the opposition and independent observers say have compromised the credibility of results.

After a turbulent campaign, the poll in Africa’s second-largest country and a major copper and cobalt producer was chaotic. Logistical mishaps, malfunctioning voting machines and violent incidents held up voting in many places, prompting the CENI to extend the vote — a decision whose legality the main observer mission has questioned.

Despite the unscheduled extension, CENI President Denis Kadima told Reuters the commission was on track for releasing full provisional results from the presidential vote on Sunday as originally planned.

In an interview, Kadima dismissed allegations that the CENI had not been compiling results fully in accordance with electoral law. He said it was the CENI’s legal duty to produce results quickly, which is why it was relying on some results from voting machines rather than just using tallies from paper ballots.

On Thursday, the independent joint vote-monitoring mission of Congo’s powerful Catholic Church and its Protestant Church urged the CENI to publish only results based on correctly consolidated tallies from local centers.

“The results we are releasing reflect [people’s] choices,” Kadima said.

Some of the main challengers of President Felix Tshisekedi — who is running for a second term and comfortably leading in the CENI’s interim count so far — have called for a full rerun of the election due to the extension of voting and the widespread irregularities reported by their own and independent observers.

Kadima says the opposition wanted a new vote because “they know they lost … they are bad losers.”

“We did everything with the necessary transparency,” he said.

He also dismissed reports that CENI agents had mishandled sensitive election materials and conducted some election operations outside official centers — actions that the civil society observer mission said were likely to have distorted results.

“These are limited cases, and it is not done with the blessing of CENI,” Kadima said, adding those found responsible would be sanctioned.

The election dispute threatens to further destabilize Congo, which is already grappling with widespread poverty and a security crisis in eastern areas.

Contested results have fueled unrest in the past. On Wednesday, several people were injured after police cracked down on a banned election march.

The opposition has vowed to hold more protests.

The latest CENI preliminary results, updated on Friday, showed Tshisekedi in the lead with more than 72% of about 15.9 million votes counted so far.

CENI has not yet said how many of Congo’s 44 million registered voters participated. It has processed the results of 52,173 polling stations out of 75,969, according to its latest tally.
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BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA — Argentina formally announced Friday that it won’t join the BRICS bloc of developing economies, the latest in a dramatic shift in foreign and economic policy by Argentina’s new far-right populist president, Javier Milei. 

In a letter addressed to the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — the founding members of the alliance — Milei said the moment was not “opportune” for Argentina to join as a full member. The letter was dated a week ago, December 22, but released by the Argentine government on Friday, the last working day of 2023. 

Argentina was among six countries invited in August to join the group to make an 11-nation bloc. Argentina was set to join January 1. 

The move comes as Argentina has been left reeling by deepening economic crisis. 

Milei’s predecessor, former center-left President Alberto Fernandez, endorsed joining the alliance as an opportunity to reach new markets. The BRICS countries account for about 40% of the world’s population and more than a quarter of the world’s GDP. 

But economic turmoil left many in Argentina eager for change, ushering chainsaw-wielding political outsider Milei into the presidency. 

Milei, who defines himself as an “anarcho-capitalist” — a current within libertarianism that aspires to eliminate the state — has implemented a series of measures to deregulate the economy, which in recent decades has been marked by strong state interventionism. 

In foreign policy, he has proclaimed full alignment with the “free nations of the West,” especially the United States and Israel. 

Throughout the campaign for the presidency, Milei also disparaged countries ruled “by communism” and announced that he would not maintain diplomatic relations with them despite growing Chinese investment in South America. 

However, in the letter addressed to his counterpart Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva in neighboring Brazil and the rest of the leaders of BRICS members — Xi Jinping of China, Narendra Modi of India, Vladimir Putin of Russia and Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa — Milei proposed to “intensify bilateral ties” and increase “trade and investment flows.” 

Milei also expressed his readiness to hold meetings with each of the five leaders. 
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kinshasa, congo — At least 20 people have died following landslides caused by torrential rains that hit the South Kivu region in eastern Congo, officials announced Friday.

That brings to more than 60 the number of deaths caused by flooding and landslides in Congo in the past week alone.

Officials said the landslides swallowed up houses and dwellings Thursday in the locality of Burhiny, in the Mwenga territory.

“The 20 deaths are the direct result of landslides that buried houses,” said territory administrator Walubila Ishikitilo.

The government said Friday that it was deploying emergency assistance to those affected and evacuating residents from the area.

Flooding also affected other parts of the country Friday, including the capital, Kinshasa, on the banks of the Congo River, and parts of Kasai province.

The latest deaths come just about 48 hours after landslides claimed the lives of more than 20 artisanal miners Tuesday in Kamituga, also in the Mwenga territory, according to officials.

On Wednesday, 21 people died from landslides caused by torrential rains in Bukavu, an area in South Kivu.

Observers have blamed the extent of the damage caused by torrential rains, flooding and landslides in South Kivu on the illegal construction of houses in unauthorized locations. Since the beginning of December, at least 100 people have lost their lives.
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KINSHASA, Congo — The government of Congo on Thursday refused opposition calls for a rerun of disputed elections, as the main observer mission reported “numerous irregularities” that could undermine some results.  

Provisional results issued so far from the December 20 general election show President Felix Tshisekedi with a commanding lead, but his opponents have demanded they be annulled, citing widespread issues with the roll-out and tabulation of the vote.  

The dispute threatens to further destabilize Congo, which is already grappling with a security crisis in eastern areas. Congo is the world’s top producer of cobalt and other industrial minerals and metals. 

Mission documented ‘irregularities’

In a new report on the presidential and legislative elections based on feedback from thousands of observers, the independent joint vote-monitoring mission of Congo’s powerful Catholic Church and its Protestant Church, said it had received 5,402 reports of incidents at polling stations, over 60% of which interrupted voting. 

The mission “documented numerous irregularities likely to affect the integrity of the results,” it said. 

In particular, it questioned the legality of the CENI election commission’s decision to extend some voting beyond December 20 and reported that voting was not wrapped up fully until December 27.  

The team of Moise Katumbi, one of Tshisekedi’s main challengers, has ruled out using legal channels to contest results, asserting that state institutions were committed to tipping the vote in the president’s favor. The CENI denies this.  

Katumbi and other opposition heavyweights have called for a rerun, but government spokesperson Patrick Muyaya said on Thursday the opposition should wait until full results are published and challenge them in the courts if necessary.  

He said the government was committed to a fair and transparent election process and dismissed Katumbi’s threat to hold further protests across the country, after police forcibly broke up a banned election march on Wednesday. 

“The contesting of results does not take place in the streets. And we as a government will take steps to ensure that public order is maintained,” Muyaya said. 

Vote-count questions 

The CENI is due to release further provisional presidential results ahead of a December 31 deadline. The latest showed Tshisekedi well ahead of his 18 challengers, with just over 76% of around 12.5 million votes counted so far.  

The CENI has not yet said how many of Congo’s 44 million registered voters participated. It has so far processed the results of 46,422 polling stations out of 75,969, according to its latest tally. 

In addition to the election day issues, the opposition and independent observers say the CENI is failing to follow correct procedure for the tabulation and publishing of results. 

The CENI did not immediately reply to a request for comment. 

Symocel, a local civil society observer mission, wrote a letter to the CENI on December 26 to flag reports from several provinces of CENI agents mishandling sensitive election materials and conducting election operations outside official centers. 

“The rate of this phenomenon … is so high and could irreversibly distort the results of the elections that your institution is gradually announcing,” it said. 

Symocel’s coordinator Luc Lutala confirmed the letter’s authenticity on Wednesday and told Reuters “there are as many problems with the election’s roll-out as with the counting of the vote.” 

In its report, the CENCO-ECC mission urged the CENI to publish only results based on correctly consolidated tallies from local centers.  
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Kinshasa, Congo — As Congo copes with its biggest outbreak of mpox, scientists warn discrimination against gay and bisexual men on the continent could make it worse.

In November, the World Health Organization reported that mpox, also known as monkeypox, was being spread via sex in Congo for the first time.

That is a significant departure from previous flare-ups, where the virus mainly sickened people in contact with diseased animals.

Mpox has been in parts of central and west Africa for decades, but it was not until 2022 that it was documented to spread via sex; most of the 91,00 people infected in approximately 100 countries that year were gay or bisexual men.

In Africa, unwillingness to report symptoms could drive the outbreak underground, said Dimie Ogoina, an infectious diseases specialist at the Niger Delta University in Nigeria.

“It could be that because homosexuality is prohibited by law in most parts of Africa, many people do not come forward if they think they have been infected with mpox,” Ogoina said.

WHO officials said they identified the first sexually transmitted cases of the more severe type of mpox in Congo last spring, shortly after a resident of Belgium who “identified himself as a man who has sexual relations with other men” arrived in Kinshasa, the Congolese capital. The U.N. health agency said five other people who had sexual contact with the man later became infected with mpox.

“We have been underestimating the potential of sexual transmission of mpox in Africa for years,” said Ogoina, who with his colleagues, first reported in 2019 that mpox might be spreading via sex.

Gaps in monitoring make it a challenge to estimate how many mpox cases are linked to sex, he said. Still, most cases of mpox in Nigeria involve people with no known contact with animals, he noted.

In Congo, there have been about 13,350 suspected cases of mpox, including 607 deaths through the end of November with only about 10% of cases confirmed by laboratories. But how many infections were spread through sex isn’t clear. WHO said about 70% of cases are in children under 15.

During a recent trip to Congo to assess the outbreak, WHO officials found there was “no awareness” among health workers that mpox could be spread sexually, resulting in missed cases.

WHO said health authorities had confirmed sexual transmission of mpox “between male partners and simultaneously through heterosexual transmission” in different parts of the country.

Mpox typically causes symptoms including a fever, skin rash, lesions and muscle soreness for up to one month. It is spread via close contact and most people recover without needing medical treatment.

During the 2022 major international outbreak, mass vaccination programs were undertaken in some countries, including Canada, Britain and the U.S., and targeted those at highest risk — gay and bisexual men. But experts say that’s not likely to work in Africa for several reasons, including the stigma against gay communities.

“I don’t think we’ll see the same clamoring for vaccines in Africa that we saw in the West last year,” said Dr. Boghuma Titanji, an assistant professor of medicine in infectious diseases at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.

She said that the gay and bisexual men most at risk of mpox might be fearful of coming forward in a broad immunization program. Countries should work on ways to give the shots — if available — in a way that wouldn’t stigmatize them, she said.

Dr. Jean-Jacques Muyemba, general director of Congo’s National Institute of Biomedical Research, said two provinces in Congo had reported clusters of mpox spread through sex, a concerning development.

There’s no licensed vaccine in Congo, and it would be hard to get enough shots for any large-scale program, Muyemba said. The country is trying to get a Japanese mpox vaccine, but regulatory issues are complicating the situation, he said.

Globally, only one vaccine has been authorized against mpox, made by Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic. Supplies are very limited and even if they were available, they would have to be approved by the African countries using them or by WHO. To date, the vaccine has only been available in Congo through research.

Without greater efforts to stop the outbreaks in Africa, Ogoina predicted that mpox would continue to infect new populations, warning that the disease could also spark outbreaks in other countries, similar to the global emergency WHO declared last year.
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JOHANNESBURG — Renowned South African playwright, producer and composer Mbongeni Ngema, the creator of the Broadway hit “Sarafina!”, has died in a car crash at the age of 68, his family said. 

Ngema was killed in a head-on accident while returning from a funeral in a rural town in Eastern Cape province, the family said in a statement Wednesday. The celebrated playwright was a passenger in the vehicle. 

He was best known for writing “Sarafina!”, which premiered on Broadway in 1988. It was adapted into a musical drama starring Whoopi Goldberg in 1992 and became an international success that was nominated for Tony and Grammy awards. 

“Sarafina!” told the story of a student and how she inspired her peers to fight against racial segregation in apartheid South Africa after her favorite teacher, played by Goldberg, was jailed for protesting against the system. 

The story was based on the events of the 1976 Soweto uprising in South Africa, when thousands of students took part in protests against the apartheid government. 

Apartheid was an institutionalized system that discriminated against non-whites and ensured South Africa was ruled by the minority white population from 1948 until the first all-race democratic elections in 1994. 

Ngema’s body of work also included the lauded theater production “Woza Albert,” which premiered in 1981 and won more than 20 awards around the world. The political satire explored the second coming of Jesus Christ as a black man in South Africa during apartheid. 

Tributes to Ngema poured in, including from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. 

“The many productions he created or to which he contributed inspired resilience and pride among us as fellow South Africans and took South Africa and our continent into the theaters, homes and consciousness of millions of people around the world,” Ramaphosa said in a statement. 

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party and one of its biggest rivals, the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters, both conveyed their condolences. 

The ANC said in a statement: “He was a globally acclaimed playwright, composer and producer. We have lost a true legend, a doyen, and a genuine ambassador of theater.” 

The Economic Freedom Fighters party described him as “more than just an artist; he was a cultural icon and a beacon of hope during some of our darkest times.” 

Zizi Kodwa, South Africa’s minister of sports, arts and culture, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that Ngema’s work “touched and moved audiences around the world and made an important contribution in telling the South African story.” 
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Central Africa has, for months, been plagued with acute fuel shortages that have stifled regional economic growth, disrupted local businesses, and contributed to rising food prices and social unrest. The shortages are partly blamed on increased demand coupled with disruptions in supply, and on illegal trade in conflict zones.

Officials in several central African states say vehicle owners, truck drivers and motorcyclists in major cities wait for several hours, sometimes days, to fill their tanks as pumps have been regularly running dry since fuel shortages started several months ago.

Cameroonian officials partly blame ongoing disruptions to stormy weather off the Atlantic coast, stranding cargo ships at the regional hub port of Lome, Togo.

The landlocked Central African Republic, which receives fuel supplies through Cameroon’s Douala seaport, also reports disruptions. Aid agencies in the country, which has been hit by sectarian violence, say if nothing is done to stop the fuel crisis, delivery of needed humanitarian aid will be affected.

A severe fuel crisis is also stirring social unrest in Chad. Officials there report protests in the capital, N’djamena, and in towns including Bongor, Moundou, Faya-Largeau and Abeche, where the military this week said it dispersed protesters with tear gas.

Chad’s military government said this week that its troops seized hundreds of containers of fuel illegally transported to the border with Sudan. Chad says contraband fuel trade increased on its border with Sudan since ferocious fighting broke out in Sudan’s civil war in April.

Amina Ehemir Torna, director General of Chad’s Downstream Sector Regularization Authority, which is responsible for the regulation, control and monitoring of standards of petroleum operations there, said merchants should immediately stop illegal exports to neighboring countries that are also facing severe fuel shortages. Torna said gasoline and diesel fuel are highly combustible and should not be stored in jerry cans and buckets at home with the hope of selling to illegal vendors at exorbitant rates should the ongoing fuel shortage persist.

Sudan’s fighting shut down businesses and forced civilians and fuel merchants to flee the northeastern African state. Chadian officials say Sudanese civilians who brave the fighting, as well as troops of Sudan’s national army and a rival national paramilitary force, rush to Chad’s porous 1,400-kilometer border for fuel regularly.

Salisu Yunissa, president of Chad’s Consumers Union in Adré, a town in Ouaddai province that is home to about 210,000 Sudanese refugees, said the shortage has plunged host communities and refugees into deeper poverty and is causing unprecedented increases in the prices of rice, onions, corn, millet and sorghum. He said a 30-kilogram bag of onions that sold at $40 had tripled in price to about $120 within the past two months.

Yunissa said the price hikes, environmental disasters, and armed conflicts make living very difficult for a majority of civilians who are not sure of a meal each day.

There is some hope the situation will change soon in the region. Chad, Cameroon and the CAR this month regulated fuel sales to 20 liters per motorist with the aim of stabilizing supply and demand. Chad says its shortage will improve when a refinery in N’Djamena that closed in April for maintenance reopens, although it did not say when that would happen.

Cameroon says besides the liberalization of petroleum products imports, it is importing what it calls enough quantities to meet the country’s increasing demand for fuel.
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Monrovia, Liberia — More than 40 people were feared dead when a tanker truck exploded after crashing in central Liberia, the country’s chief medical officer told local media Wednesday.

The tanker carrying gasoline crashed and tipped into a ditch along a road in Totota, about 130 kilometers from the capital, Monrovia.

Dr. Francis Kateh told local broadcaster Super Bongese TV it was difficult to determine the number of victims because some had been reduced to ashes, but he estimated that more than 40 people were killed in the incident.

“We have our team going from home to home to check those that are missing,” he told AFP.

Police earlier put the death toll at 15 and said at least 30 people were injured as locals gathered at the scene.

“There were lots of people that got burned,” said Prince B. Mulbah, deputy inspector general for the Liberia National Police.

Another police officer, Malvin Sackor, said that after the crash, some locals had begun to take the leaking gas when the tanker exploded, killing some and wounding others.

He said that the police were still gathering the total number of injured and killed.

An eyewitness from Totota, Aaron Massaquoi, told AFP that “people climbed all on top of the truck taking the gas, while some of them had irons hitting the tanker for it to burst for them to get gas.”

“People were all around the truck and the driver of the truck told them that the gas that was spilling they could take that,” Massaquoi said.

“He told them not to climb on top of the tanker and that they should stop hitting the tanker…. but some people were even using screwdrivers to put holes on the tank.”
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Bukavu, Democratic Republic of Congo — At least 40 more people have died in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local authorities said, after heavy downpours overnight Tuesday unleashed floods and landslides that left residents digging through the mud to find bodies.

In the city of Bukavu, onlookers gathered to watch on Wednesday as a group of men hauled a car out of the mud to recover a woman’s body from underneath, a Reuters witness said.

At least 20 people died in Bukavu and at least 20 more were killed in the village of Burinyi, 50 kilometers from Bukavu, according to officials in the two places.

Bukavu resident Yvonne Mukupi, who was able to stay clear of the deluge, said her neighbor was swept away by the flood waters.

“We have managed to recover three bodies under the trees, but others have not been found yet,” she said.

Poor urban planning and weak infrastructure make communities like Mukupi’s more vulnerable to extreme rainfall, which is becoming more intense and frequent in Africa because of warming temperatures, according to United Nations climate experts.

“When rain falls, the main waterway gets clogged sometimes because of the waste, so it gets flooded and it affects the houses,” Bukavu official Emmanuel Majivuno Kalimba told Reuters at the scene, as residents worked to salvage belongings from their damaged homes.

The overnight devastation follows the deaths of at least 22 people in Kasai-Central province on Tuesday when a landslide swallowed houses, churches and roads, killing entire families and leaving people homeless.
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ABUJA, NIGERIA — The death toll in Nigeria’s Christmas Eve attacked by armed gangs has risen to 150, Plateau state officials said Wednesday, while survivors and observers expressed outrage at the government’s reaction.

Plateau authorities say the unknown gunmen overran more than 17 local villages across Bokkos and two other districts, burning down houses in the attack.

A local district head in Bokkos said search teams were still combing nearby bushes for missing people. Thousands have been displaced from their homes.

Shelong Gabriel said she last spoke to two of her male cousins on Christmas Eve.

She said that the two brothers — ages 45 and 58 — told her they had joined a local vigilante group because of a warning of a possible attack. Later that night, she said, assailants attacked the village, killing the men and their mother.

“These people came on motorbikes, and they had so much machineries” Gabriel said. “I lost three of my family.”

No group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack, but locals blame herders. Plateau state is embroiled in a decades-old ethno-religious conflict between predominantly Muslim herders and Christian farmers.

The attack has sparked outrage and criticism of the government.

Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International’s country director for Nigeria, called on authorities to investigate.

“It is really sad and unfortunate that these kinds of things continue to happen, and the authorities cannot do anything apart from sympathizing with the victims, which shows helplessness on their side,” Sanusi said. “Rural communities have been allowed to live in the last 10 years or so at the mercy of gunmen.”

Plateau resident Mangai Luka said people have been afraid since the attack.

“People are at home; nobody is going anywhere,” Luka said. “With the situation … you can’t go far from the house because you can’t tell what will happen next. Even [last] night we heard gunshots; we couldn’t sleep.”

Nigerian authorities have condemned the attack and promised to hold the perpetrators accountable.

Insecurity is a big problem for the government of President Bola Tinubu, who came to power promising to address the problem.

Vice President Kashim Shettima visited the affected villages Wednesday.

Some observers, including security analyst Chukwudi Victor Odoeme, remain critical of the government’s efforts.

“I think the government is not doing enough,” he said. ”There’s still the absence of political will. It’s an indictment on our government and security forces.”
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Yaounde, Cameroon — Chad’s Supreme Court will on Thursday declare definitive results of the country’s constitutional referendum that paves the way for a return to civilian rule.

Chad’s military leader said he will respect the verdict, which is likely not going to be different from provisional results published on Sunday indicating the central African state’s new constitution was approved by 86% of voters.

Some opposition leaders challenge the figures, saying the constitution approved in a referendum does not guarantee that the military leaders are ready to hand power to civilians.

Chad’s transitional military government said the large turnout of voters in the central African state’s constitutional referendum indicates that civilians overwhelmingly adhere to General Mahamat Idriss Deby’s plans to hand power to civilian rule by December 2024.

Deby spoke on Chad’s National Television this week after provisional results of the constitutional referendum were announced.

He congratulated civilians, political actors and civil society activists who helped Chad’s constitutional referendum to unfold peacefully from Nov. 25, when the campaign was launched, through Dec. 17, when the referendum took place, up to Dec. 24, when the National Commission Charged with the Organization of the Constitutional Referendum, CONOREC, announced provisional results.

According to the provisional results, the new constitution was approved by 86% of voters.

CONOREC reports that more than 63% of the more than 8.3 million voters took part in the Dec. 17 referendum. 

But Chad’s opposition leaders and civil society groups say a majority of voters did not turn out to vote.

Opposition parties, including the Union of Democrats for Development and Progress, report that several million voters did not even collect their voter cards. 

Before the referendum, CONOREC reported that it had launched a campaign for several million voters to collect their voter cards to be eligible to vote in the referendum.

Many opposition leaders and civil society groups described the referendum as a sham to prepare for an eventual election of Deby, a 39-year-old military general.

Deby assumed power in April 2021 following the death of his father, General Idriss Deby Itno, who took power in a 1990 coup.

Chad’s opposition and civil society say the younger Deby started showing his intention to hold onto power after he failed to organize elections within 18 months from April 2021 as he had promised. He instead extended his rule until November 2024.

Saleh Kebzabo is Chad’s civilian transitional prime minister, appointed by Deby,

He said opposition parties and civil society groups that claim that Deby is doing everything possible to illegally continue his family’s 31-year autocratic rule are ill-intentioned.

He said it would be better for political parties and civil society groups to prepare for elections that will hand power to civilians by December 2024 instead of wasting their time in unnecessary political quarrels.

Kebzabo said the referendum is key for a return to civilian rule by 2024. The opposition argued it does not bar Deby from running for president.

Chad’s military rulers said voters in the referendum also decided that Chad would continue as a decentralized system of government, with the country’s 23 regions to have greater financial autonomy with elected regional officials. 

Chad’s Supreme Court has until Thursday to examine provisional results and declare definitive results of the Dec. 17 referendum. 

The opposition, CONOREC, military government and civil society groups said they do not expect any changes from the provisional results declared on Sunday.

 
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Kinshasa, Congo — Flooding triggered by heavy rains in central Congo killed at least 22 people, including 10 from the same family, a local official said Tuesday. 

The hourslong rainfall in the district of Kananga in Kasai Central province destroyed many houses and structures, the province’s governor, John Kabeya, said as rescue efforts intensified in search of survivors. Five more deaths were confirmed later on Tuesday in addition to the initially reported death toll of 17, he said. 

“The collapse of a wall caused 10 deaths, all members of the same family in Bikuku,” Kabeya said. 

There was significant material damage caused by the floods, according to Nathalie Kambala, country director of The Hand in Hand for Integral Development nongovernmental organization.  

Flooding caused by heavy rainfall is frequent in parts of Congo, especially in remote areas. In May, more than 400 people died in floods and landslides brought on by torrential overnight rains in eastern Congo’s South Kivu province. 

Among the structures damaged in the latest flooding was the Higher Institute of Technology of Kananga, as well as a church and a major road that was cut off, said Kabeya, who added that urgent action would be requested from the national government. 

Heavy rains triggered a landslide in eastern Congo late Sunday, killing at least four people and leaving at least 20 missing. 
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Lusaka, Zambia — Zambian Foreign Minister Stanley Kakubo resigned Tuesday, the president’s office announced, hours after he was embroiled in a social media frenzy over alleged dealings with a Chinese businessman. 

Kakubo, who had been foreign minister since September 2021, said in a letter he was quitting because of “malicious claims over a business transaction.” 

Earlier, a video showing two people counting wads of cash stacked on a table spread quickly on Zambian social media accounts. 

An image of a signed handwritten note, dated July 8, 2022, was also put online. The note named a Chinese mining firm and a Zambian mining firm and said they had “exchanged $100,000.” 

Though the names of Kakubo and a Mr. Zang were on the note, it was not immediately possible to verify the details. 

President Hakainde Hichilema has accepted Kakubo’s resignation, an official statement said. 

It gave no reason for the resignation but added: “The president acknowledges the commendable work and leadership” of Kakubo in the government. 

Kakubo, 43, quickly followed the announcement by releasing his own letter. 

He said he had resigned “in view of the matter that is currently in the media regarding malicious claims over a business transaction between my private family business and our business partner with whom we still have good relations.” 

He added: “This decision is to ensure that our government is not distracted from continuing to look for solutions for bettering the lives of our people.” 

Kakubo could not be reached for further comment on his resignation or the video. 

Chinese enterprises are heavily involved in the Zambian mining industry, a bedrock of the southern African nation’s economy. China is a major importer of Zambian copper. 

Kakubo, a member of parliament since 2016, said he would remain loyal to the government. And the president’s statement said Hichilema implores the former minister “to continue to serve diligently in his capacity as member of parliament.” 

The Chinese embassy said in 2022 that more than 600 Chinese businesses had invested more than $3 billion in Zambia. 

China has also been a major player in international efforts to restructure Zambia’s foreign debt. Zambia defaulted on its sovereign debt in 2020 as the COVID-19 crisis grew. 
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WASHINGTON — Arnong Mungoei has farmed rice in Thailand’s Khon Kaen province for half a century.  

Working land some 500 kilometers northeast of Bangkok never made her rich, but it provided a dependable livelihood.  

But since February 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine, global geopolitical tensions and weather conditions elsewhere have upended the rice markets and by 2023, worldwide rice prices had exploded.  

Yet Arnong said she made less than she has in years. 

“The mills [that buy rice] don’t increase the price. What can I do? I bring rice there to sell. Whatever they offer us, we have to sell it. We won’t take the rice back because we had to pay for the truck,” said Arnong, 68.

In 2023, the prices of wheat and grains such as oats and corn declined 20% to 30% as stocks were replenished, according to an annual report from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

But according to the FAO report, rice prices remained high throughout the year due to a persistent La Niña in March, followed by an El Niño anomaly in June and India imposing restrictions on non-basmati rice in July due after a late monsoon raised fears of a production shortfall.

India’s export control removed 9 million metric tons of grain from the international market and ignited global prices. India is responsible for 40% of global rice supplies after overtaking Thailand as the world’s largest rice exporter in 2011.

The countries most reliant on India’s rice include the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam in Southeast Asia, and Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal in West Africa.

“Rice is tough, because there are just not a lot of other suppliers,” Joseph Glauber, a senior fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, told Bloomberg in November, adding that India’s export-control policy leaves “a big hole to fill.”

The World Bank predicted, “Rice prices will remain high into 2024, assuming India maintains its export restrictions. The outlook assumes a moderate-to-strong El Niño.”

The bank’s commodity report published on Oct. 30 said rice prices had reached their highest point in the third quarter of 2023 since the 2007-2008 food crises due to the Hamas-Israel conflict and El Niño.

While India’s controls benefit its own consumers, for the billions elsewhere in Asia and in Africa who depend on a stable rice supply, continued high prices could increase food insecurity. 

In Nigeria, the cost of rice increased 61% from September through November. The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast the nation would import 2.1 million metric tons of rice in 2024. 

In the Philippines, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. imposed a price cap Sept. 5 after the cost of rice hit a 14-year high in September. Marcos, who blamed the soaring prices on “smugglers, hoarders and price manipulators,” removed the cap Oct. 13 as concerns over tight supply eased.

Alfie Pulumbarit, national coordinator at MASIPAG, a Philippine-based network of farmers, scientists and nongovernmental organizations working on farmer empowerment, told VOA Thai that rising food prices significantly affected the people in the island nation with “a lot of families now going hungry.”

Citing official information, Pulumbarit said that while it takes a person at least 79 pesos or about $1.50 dollars per day to survive in the Philippines, rice now costs $1.10 dollars per kilogram.

Continued Indian controls coupled with farmers “already leaving rice production in the Philippines” could lead to “a food crisis of epic proportions,” he said.

Climate is one of the key factors in analyses for rice production and price in the coming year.

The U.S. National Weather Service forecasts that the Northern Hemisphere, home to major rice producers like China, India, and Southeast Asia nations, will likely be affected by El Niño April through June, right around sowing season for rice across Asia.

An Asian Bank Development analysis recommends that the private sector should assume a bigger role in rice trading to help stabilize domestic production loss in importing countries. It also encourages policymakers to consider more sustainable rice production.

“Rice paddy is responsible for 12% of global methane emissions and 1.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In Asia, rice irrigation consumes more than half of freshwater resources,” according to the analysis.

As the COP 28 meeting at Dubai was concluding, the FAO suggested stakeholders should seek out climate-friendly cultivating techniques ranging from using fertilizers that can reduce methane emission to growing plants that create rhizobacteria, which may promote producing oxygen in soil.

Smanachan Buddhajak contributed to this report.
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The toll marked a sharp rise from the initial figure reported by the army Sunday evening of just 16 dead
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KINSHASA — Heavy rains triggered a landslide in eastern Congo overnight that killed at least four people and left at least 20 others missing, a local official said.

The landslide happened late Sunday near the town of Kamituga in the South Kivu province, according to Deputy Mayor Alexandre Ngandu Kamundala.

About 25 people, mostly miners, were sheltering from the rains in a cabin when the landslide struck their shelter, sweeping them into a fast-flowing river below, Kamundala said.

“Five people were narrowly saved and 20 others were swept away by the waters. Four lifeless bodies were found,” Kamundala said. A search and rescue effort is said to be underway to find those who are still missing.

In 2020, at least 50 people in the same town of Kamituga died in a landslide that hit the site of a gold mine in the area.

Deadly accidents are common in Congo’s many unregulated mines, with many going unreported due to their remote locations in hills and forests.
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Al-Jazira state — On a countryside road in battle-ravaged Sudan, the hum of a passing vehicle turns villagers’ blood cold, fearing the arrival of paramilitaries plundering their way south in their war against the army.

“They’ve created a state of total panic,” said Rabab, who lives in a village north of Wad Madani, the Al-Jazira state capital and latest site of fierce battles between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

Like others AFP spoke to, she requested to be identified by first name only out of fear of retaliation from fighters who have consistently targeted civilians during more than eight months of war.

On Saturday at least eight people were killed by RSF fighters in a village in Al-Jazira state, witnesses told AFP, saying they had been shot after trying to stop their looting.

Just south of Khartoum, more than half a million people had sought shelter in Al-Jazira after the fighting overwhelmed the Sudanese capital.

This month, however, paramilitaries pressed deeper into the state and shattered one of the country’s few remaining sanctuaries, forcing more than 300,000 people to flee once again, the United Nations said.

Those who remain — unable or unwilling to leave — have found themselves in what the Red Cross has called “another death trap.”

Since April 15, Sudan has been gripped by a war pitting army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

By the end of November, at least 12,190 people had been killed in the fighting, according to a conservative estimate from the Armed Conflict and Location Event Data project.

The United Nations says more than seven million people have been displaced by the war. At least 85,000 had sought refuge in Wad Madani.

In the village of Aykura, 30 kilometers (19 miles) north of Wad Madani, one resident told AFP by phone that “the RSF has taken everything — the cars, the trucks, the tractors.”

He, too, stressed the need for anonymity to protect him from paramilitary violence.

‘At war with us?’

Before the war, Al-Jazira was a key agricultural hub.

However, as the RSF has moved southwards from Khartoum it has taken over swathes of agricultural land and terrorized the farmers that till it.

By Saturday, RSF fighters were seen north of Sennar, about 140 kilometers south of Wad Madani, according to witnesses.

The RSF has become notorious for looting property, with civilians who fled watching in horror as fighters posted videos of themselves on social media taking joyrides in stolen cars and vandalizing homes.

In the market of Hasaheisa, a town 50 kilometers north of Wad Madani, an AFP correspondent saw shop doors flung open with the merchandise looters had not wanted strewn on the ground.

Omar Hussein, 42, stood in the wreckage of his family business.

Every store and vehicle they owned was destroyed. “Is the RSF at war with the army or with us?” he said.

On Saturday, fellow Hasaheisa resident Abdin found “seven men in RSF uniform carrying machine guns” at his door.

They questioned him about the car in his driveway, “and took it at gunpoint.” 

When Rabab was robbed, she did not receive the courtesy of a knock.

“They fired their guns in front of the house, stormed in and left no room unsearched,” she said.

Free rein

Home invasions have been a hallmark of RSF takeovers — as have sexual assaults. 

According to Sudan’s Combating Violence Against Women Unit, most sexual violence occurs “inside homes, when gunmen — whom survivors describe as wearing RSF uniforms — break in and assault women and girls.”

Both the RSF and the army have been accused of a range of systematic violations including indiscriminate shelling of residential neighborhoods, arbitrary detention of civilians and torture.

In Tambul, halfway between Khartoum and Wad Madani, witnesses said RSF members rampaged through one of the state’s main markets, shooting into the air at random.

And many who tried to flee the onslaught were unable to.

Activists, who risk their lives to document the horrors, said the RSF had set up checkpoints across the state, stopping civilians as they tried to flee and ordering them to turn back.

Three days into the RSF’s assault on Wad Madani, the army said it opened an investigation into “the retreat of forces from their positions” in the city. 

Burhan warned every “negligent and complacent person” would be held to account after the RSF — accused of committing atrocities in the Darfur war where it fought on behalf of the army — had free rein. 
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