Seven miners were confirmed dead, and more than 20 others were missing and presumed dead after heavy rains caused landslides that buried them inside tunnels they had been digging illegally at a copper mine in Zambia, police and local authorities said Saturday.

No bodies had yet been retrieved after the landslides late Thursday, police said. Many of the victims were believed to have drowned.

The miners were digging for copper ore at the Seseli open-pit mine in the copper-belt city of Chingola, some 400 kilometers (250 miles) north of the capital, Lusaka, according to police. The landslides happened sometime between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., police said.

Police gave names or partial names of seven confirmed victims and said all the miners in the tunnels are “suspected to have died.”

Neither police nor government officials could say exactly how many miners were trapped in the tunnels, but Chingola District Commissioner Raphael Chumupi told The Associated Press that there were at least 36.

“We are saddened to hear about the tragic accident at a makeshift mine site in Chingola that has claimed many lives,” Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema said in a post on his official Facebook page. “Our prayers are with the families and loved ones of those who died in the accident. We express gratitude to the rescuers and volunteers working tirelessly to reach those still trapped.”

The victims were buried at multiple sites, police said. Police, a mine rescue team and emergency services were at the mine.

Chumupi said the miners were engaged in illegal mining without the knowledge of the mine owners.

Illegal artisanal mining is common in Chingola, where the open pits are surrounded by huge waste dumps made up of rock and earth that has been dug out of the mines.

Zambia, a southern African nation of 20 million people, is among the 10 largest copper producers in the world.
…

The United Nations Security Council unanimously voted Friday to remove the final restrictions on weapons deliveries to Somalia’s government and its security forces, more than 30 years after an arms embargo was first imposed on the country.

The council put the embargo on Somalia in 1992 to cut the flow of weapons to feuding warlords, who had ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and plunged the Horn of Africa country into civil war.

The 15-member body adopted two British-drafted resolutions: one to remove the full arms embargo on Somalia and another to reimpose an arms embargo on al Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants.

The resolution lifting the arms embargo spells out “for the avoidance of doubt, that there is no arms embargo on the Government of the Federal Republic of Somalia.”

It also expresses concern about the number of safe ammunition storage facilities in Somalia, and encourages the construction, refurbishment and use of safe ammunition depots across Somalia. It urges other countries to help.

“The lifting of the arms embargo enables us to confront security threats,” said Somalia’s U.N. Ambassador Abukar Dahir Osman. “It also allows us to bolster the capacity of the Somali security forces by accessing lethal arms and equipment to adequately safeguard our citizens and our nation.”

Al-Shabab has been waging a brutal insurgency against the Somali government since 2006 to try to establish its own rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic Sharia law.

Somalia’s government had long asked for the arms embargo to be removed so it could beef up its forces to take on the militants. The Security Council began to partially start lifting measures on Somalia’s security forces in 2013.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said last week that Somalia has one year to expel al-Shabab, with the deadline for remaining African Union peacekeepers to leave looming in December 2024.
…

Chad’s opposition and civil society groups are asking France to immediately withdraw troops who arrived in Chad after being ordered to depart neighboring Niger by that country’s military junta.

Ordjei Abderahim Chaha, president of the opposition party Rally for Justice and Equality, said Thursday that military ruler Mahamat Idriss Deby has failed to heed calls to ask French troops to leave.

Speaking at a news conference in the capital, N’Djamena, Chaha said he believes Deby wants French troops to keep Chad’s military junta in power by intimidating or cracking down on civilians who are ready to protest should Deby fail to hand power to civilian rule by November 2024 as agreed.

Opposition and civil society groups have asked Deby to ensure some 1,000 French troops already stationed in Chad — plus those who have arrived from Niger — leave the central African state no later than December 28, Chaha said.

All colonial-era agreements and newly negotiated deals between France and Chad should be canceled, he said, adding that citizens are fed up with France’s overbearing influence in many African nations.

Deby, a general in Chad’s army, was proclaimed head of an 18-month transitional council on April 21 to replace his late father, Idriss Deby Itno, who had run Chad as a dictator for 30 years.

Opposition and civil society groups say Deby cannot be trusted because he failed to hand power to a civilian government in October 2022 as agreed and instead extended the transition period by two years.

Deby insists he will hand power to civilian rule.

The Chadian government says there have been at least six protests against French military presence in Chad this year. In February, there were widespread protests against French troops after civilians accused the foreign military of brutality against civilians.

In early September, a French military medic opened fire and killed a Chadian soldier who reportedly attacked him with a scalpel as he received care in a military base. Anti-French protests then erupted in Faya-Largeau, a northern town, and Chad’s military used live ammunition and injured several people as it struggled to disperse protesters, according to civil society groups.

Koursami Albert, an international affairs lecturer in Chad’s University of N’Djamena, told VOA via a messaging app that civilians are unhappy because French troops restrict or arrest people who come close to their bases — an indication, he said, that the French do not want anyone to know their activities.

He said even Chadian troops are restricted from going near French military bases.

France has always claimed that its troops are in Africa to ensure peace and stability in friendly countries, especially where it was the former colonial power, but people struggle to see what services their troops render, Koursami said.

French troops have not intervened in the communal violence and armed conflicts Chad faces, observers say.

On October 19, Colonel Pierre Gaudillière, spokesperson for the French military, announced that the first convoy of French troops that left Niger by land had arrived in N’Djamena.

France did not disclose the final destination of their forces leaving Niger. Chad said the troops were to leave for Paris via N’Djamena International airport, while their equipment was to transit through the Douala Seaport in neighboring Cameroon.

French President Emmanuel Macron in September promised to pull all 1,500 French troops from Niger and end military cooperation with the landlocked western African country.

Nigerien military leader General Abdourahamane Omar Tchiani and junta supporters accused France of failing to resolve the security crisis that has killed thousands and displaced millions across Niger.
…

Kenya has the seventh-highest number of people living with HIV on the continent, at 1.4 million, according to the National Syndemic Disease Control Council. The country has, however, made progress in slowing its spread. As Juma Majanga reports from Nairobi. Camera and edit: Jimmy Makhulo
…

Somalia’s maritime police force on Thursday intensified patrols in the Gulf of Aden following a failed pirate hijacking of a ship earlier this week.

The commander of the maritime force in the semiautonomous region of Puntland, Abdullahi Mohamed Ahmed, told The Associated Press that patrols in the waters had doubled and were on a 24-hour rotation to deter pirates.

“Here now we have many challenges. We had initially dealt with the pirates and stopped their activities, but recently on top of al-Shabab and IS we have had to look out for them again,” he said.

On Sunday, the U.S. military said it had captured five men who had attempted to hijack an Israeli-linked tanker off the coast of Yemen.

U.S. and British militaries said the armed attackers seized the Liberian-flagged Central Park, managed by Zodiac Maritime, in the Gulf of Aden. The pirates had attempted to escape using speedboats but surrendered after being pursued by American destroyer the USS Mason, a statement from the U.S. Military’s central command said.

Yemeni Houthi rebels have conducted recent attacks on commercial vessels on the Gulf of Eden, seen as part of a rise in violence in the region due to the Israel-Hamas war. But the Pentagon said this latest attempt was carried out by Somali nationals.

That is the first in many years and has led the Somali government to appeal for International support to deter a resurgence of piracy in the Horn of Africa.

“Puntland State is all alone in this security effort. No assistance from the African Union Mission in Somalia, the European Union or any international assistance. But we are doing our best,” Mohamed said.

Somalia had for years been blighted by piracy, with the peak being 2011, when the U.N. says more than 160 attacks were recorded off the Somali coast.

The incidents have declined drastically since then, however, largely due to the presence of American and allied navies in international waters.
…

U.S. President Joe Biden hosted the president of oil-rich Angola for the first time Thursday, with the leaders focusing on a $1 billion, U.S.-funded rail development that aims to connect the oil-rich nation’s ports to the continent’s resource-rich interior, and in doing so, perhaps loosen China’s hold on the continent.

The leaders also agreed to hold a dialogue next year “focused on the secure and stable supply of energy and deeper commercial ties while advancing our shared climate goals.” The U.S. has held similar talks with African oil giant Nigeria.

Biden cast this rare Oval Office visit by an African leader as an exemplar of his retooled Africa strategy.

Seated next to President Joao Loureno and in front of a roaring fireplace, Biden said, “As you’ve heard me say before, America is all in on Africa.”

He added that the continent “has 1 billion people. Critically important, how it functions to the whole world.”

In 2023, Africa’s population totaled about 1.4 billion, according to the CIA’s World Factbook.

Details aside, the continent, and Angola in particular, should be seen as a big deal, said Jean-Michel Mabeko-Tali, a Howard University history professor.

“In my opinion it’s an essential partner,” he told VOA. “Of course, it depends on how America wants to look at another African country such as Angola. If it looks at Angola as just another country with which you can only deal on light issues, well, that does not benefit Angola.

“If we remember that it’s a country with a long history of conflict resolution, nationally and regionally, it would be positive and not just as another country with natural resources that America is interested in,” Mabeko-Tali said.

The two leaders’ hourlong meeting Thursday mainly focused on a U.S.-funded rail corridor that would run from Angola’s oil-rich coast deep into the African interior, where China and the U.S. are competing for access to resources. The route cuts through volatile southern Congo, which is rich in rare earth minerals, and dips into copper-rich Zambia.

“The U.S. engagement in the Lobito Corridor in telecommunications and energy, mainly green energy, is an evidence of that support, because infrastructures like those will help the development not only of Angola, but the whole African continent,” Lourenco said.

VOA asked the White House how this corridor, to which Biden has committed $1 billion, can work without peace in Congo, which is part of Lourenco’s work as the African Union’s top peace envoy.

National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby didn’t say what steps the administration is taking to support Lourenco’s efforts in the troubled region, where matters are complicated by a few long-serving leaders with large personalities, well-documented violations of human rights, civil liberties and democratic practices, and a history of interfering in each others’ affairs.

Instead, Kirby pointed to the administration’s efforts through Biden’s Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, widely seen as the U.S.’ counter to China’s much larger Belt and Road Initiative.

“The president’s very excited about this,” Kirby said. “This is a real landmark effort as part of PGII, helping lower-middle income countries find sustainable investments in their infrastructure that can not only create jobs, but also open up economic opportunities in this case, all across that southern part of sub-Saharan Africa. So it’s very exciting. And we’re going to, we’re going to keep pushing.”

Analysts say the corridor’s success depends on lasting peace in Congo, which votes next month in a contest between the incumbent and the leader of the southern state that will host the corridor. But also, China may have a role to play.

“There’s going to be a need to cooperate while also compete with China in order to make the Lobito corridor a success, and I think that’s sort of what’s happening behind the scenes with China,” Michael Walsh, a senior fellow in the Africa Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told VOA. “The Lobito corridor is both competition, and to some extent, is going to probably be cooperation.”

VOA also asked what Biden wanted to communicate to Lourenco about criticism of his human rights record.

“We never shy away from talking about human rights,” Kirby said. “The president routinely brings that up.”

Lourenco stopped for less than a minute with the gathered press before he left the White House. The meeting, he said, was “better than I expected.”
…

At his farm on the outskirts of Tunis, Karim Daoud is taking steps to accommodate a climate-changed future.

The cows now munching his hay are being phased out and replaced by more sustainable goats and sheep. His olive grove is watered by drip irrigation and ever-scarcer rains and Daoud is diversifying a traditional family business to include agricultural tourism.

“It’s been years since we’ve [been talking] about climate change, but I think today we’re really with our backs to the wall,” said Daoud, who began farming in the 1990s and is a member of Tunisia’s farming union Synagri. “We need to find solutions and change our agriculture, so it respects the resources we have.”

Shaping Daoud’s bleak assessment are five years of drought that have hit agriculture hard in Tunisia — in ancient times a breadbasket of the Roman Empire. The North African country, highly dependent on rains and surface water for its population and industry, has seen its dams shrink to one-third or less of their capacity this year — although recent rains have offered a short-term respite.

The changing climate does not augur well for Tunisia or its Mediterranean neighbors. While September floods deluged nearby Libya, all of North Africa is expected to get hotter and dryer in the coming decades. The fallout, experts warn, could force many to migrate, with those who stay put facing increasing hardship.

Already Tunisia, along with Libya, count among the 25 most water-stressed countries in the world, according to the World Resources Institute, an environmental think tank. By 2050, average temperatures in Tunisia are expected to climb by up to 3.8℃, while rainfall is expected to decrease by at least 4%.

“The problem is very complex,” said Tunisian water management specialist Raoudha Gafrej. “It’s linked to the drought, but it’s also a failure in today’s policies of managing this crisis which is multi-dimensional.”

‘Throwing away’ water

Tunisia’s government has extended water restrictions that were imposed earlier this year. They include water bans for agricultural and green spaces and for washing cars and streets. Authorities are also drafting a 2050 water strategy that calls for more efficient water use and better management of extreme weather events, experts say.

But they note the strategy needs money to become reality — and that action is needed today.

“The water governance model is still to be clarified by the government at a time when urgent actions are needed to sustain water resources,” said Imen Rais, Tunisia freshwater program manager for the environmental group WWF (World Wildlife Fund).

Central to this, many believe, is a major rethink of Tunisian agriculture, notably export-driven irrigated farming, which consumes 80% of the country’s water supplies. Leaky pipes and other aging infrastructure also account for heavy water loss, Gafrej said.

“When you look at what comes from nature and what arrives to citizens, there’s between 30 to 50 percent of water lost,” she said.

At a market in Tunis, fruit seller Mongi Gaigi watches potential customers walk away after seeing the prices of his peaches.

“This year fruit is very expensive,” he said, “because of the drought.”

Tunisian harvests of citrus, peaches, dates and tomatoes also end up in European markets — driven by a water-consuming agriculture the country can ill afford, experts like Gafrej say.

“You’ll go to the markets and see 30 types of fruit — for a country that has no water,” she said.

Gafrej also points to mountains of uneaten couscous and bread scraps that end up in garbage bins.

“We throw away the equivalent of 900,000 loaves daily,” she said. “That’s the equivalent of 170 million cubic meters of water a year, through imported wheat.”

Like other North African countries, Tunisia has turned to desalination plants as one answer. Its 16 plants currently provide 8% of its potable water, with new plants underway. But that is a costly and partial answer, experts say.

Tapping old solutions

In the oases of southern Tunisia, rising temperatures, development and dwindling rainfall are threatening the country’s lucrative — and highly water dependent — date palm industry, with farmers drilling and pumping nonrenewable aquifers, often illegally, according to reports.

While some are turning to more environmentally friendly farming practices, others risk giving up and contributing to a climate migration that experts say will only grow.

“What keeps people in the south in many North African countries are the oases,” said Gafrej. “Palm groves create a microclimate — and without them life would be impossible in the desert. But they also consume a lot of water — without it, people will leave.”

In Tunis’ ancient Medina, social entrepreneur Leila Ben-Gacem is considering ancient answers for her own business, using roof-top pipes and traditional cisterns to capture and store water for the guesthouse she runs.

“This is a system that has been abandoned,” she said. “Today, with climate change, with drought, with all the water shortages we’ve been having, it could be a very important alternative.”

At his farm, Karim Daoud is also being creative. He is enriching the hay he feeds his cows with food waste from a tomato processing factory and switching to hardier grape and olive varieties.

Workers are retooling the family farm to include rooms for tourists and business seminars as a way to diversify the family revenue. Daoud’s son, who left his job as a chef in Europe, is in charge of the cuisine.

Other farmers are also beginning to shift to more diversified, climate-friendly practices. But bigger changes are essential, Daoud and many others believe.

“We need a new vision when it comes to agriculture,” he said, describing a more holistic strategy shared across the Mediterranean region. “This demands a scientific and logistical support for farmers that currently doesn’t exist, or only a little.”
…

There is potential good news this World AIDS Day (Dec. 1), with a new injection that prevents development of HIV showing excellent results in trials. There are still some obstacles to its further rollout in South Africa however.

South Africa has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world, with over seven million people living with the virus.

While the country has made significant strides in terms of treatment, with millions of people on anti-retroviral medication, there were still about 160,000 new infections last year, according to U.N. data.

A new injectable drug, known as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), offers protection for people at high risk of getting infected. Unlike the already available oral PrEP – which must be taken daily — the shot is only given every two months.

Linda-Gail Bekker, CEO of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation, says a study of its use in women in Africa showed an 89 percent reduction in HIV infections in users of injectable PrEP compared to oral PrEP.

It could be a game-changer for women at risk of contracting HIV, which causes AIDS, because it puts prevention in the hands of the user. Young women are able to take it discreetly, without asking their partner to do anything.

“When the injectable PrEP was compared with oral PrEP it was found to be far superior in its ability to protect women against HIV acquisition. … It is very exciting to have these less frequently dosed, long-acting agents for people who struggle to take treatment daily,” said Bekker.

The drug, Cabotegravir long-acting (CAB LA), has been approved for use in South Africa. While widely available in the United States and Europe, the injectable is still pricy, reportedly costing several thousand dollars a shot.    

“So we’ve got two problems in terms of access, the one is just a limited manufacturing capability and the second is the affordability of this product — the price we believe is going to have to come down quite markedly for most low and middle income countries to be able to afford it,” said Bekker.

Fortunately, the company producing it has shared the license with the Medicine Patents Pool, a U.N.-backed public health organization, and granted licenses to three more companies to produce generic versions of the drug.

Thuli, a transgender woman living in Cape Town who did not want to give her full name, took part in one of the early trials in South Africa — and those participants are able to continue accessing it.  

She said she preferred the injection to the pill.

“I love, I love, I love. I feel that the CAB-LA is actually good for me and it’s been working absolutely so good…. I feel like just the pills is actually a lot of work for me, since I’m taking the hormones as well,” said Thuli.

Dr. John Nkengasong, U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator, told VOA the United States is working with the South African government to introduce CAB-LA.

“We find ourselves at an important point in the fight against HIV, where science continues to evolve, innovation continues to bring new tools into the market, and the long-acting PrEP injectables are just one such example,” said Nkengasong.

Following the first trials and the drug’s approval for use in South Africa, several pilot projects were supposed to be rolled out this year.

Those were delayed but are now expected to get underway in early 2024, Bekker says.
…

A German court on Thursday sentenced a Gambian man to life in prison over his participation in a death squad that assassinated opponents of former dictator Yahya Jammeh, including an AFP journalist.

Bai Lowe was convicted of crimes against humanity, murder and attempted murder for his role as a driver for the hit squad known as the Junglers.

Prosecutors had asked judges at the court in the northern town of Celle to hand a life sentence to Lowe, who denies the charges against him.

The Junglers unit was “used by the then-president of The Gambia to carry out illegal killing orders, among other things” with the aim of “intimidating the Gambian population and suppressing the opposition”, according to federal prosecutors.

The list of alleged crimes includes the 2004 killing of AFP correspondent Deyda Hydara, who was gunned down in his car on the outskirts of the Gambian capital Banjul on December 16, 2004.

Lowe was found to have helped to stop Hydara’s car and drove one of the killers in his own vehicle.

The trial, which began last year, is “the first to tackle human rights violations committed in The Gambia during the Jammeh era on the basis of universal jurisdiction,” according to Human Rights Watch.

The legal principle allows a foreign country to prosecute crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide, regardless of where they were committed.

Journalist killing

Hydara was an editor and co-founder of the independent daily The Point and a correspondent for AFP for more than 30 years.

The father-of-four also worked as a Gambia correspondent for the NGO Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and was considered a doyen among journalists in the tiny West African state.

In The Point, he wrote a widely read column, “Good morning, Mr President,” in which he expressed his views on Gambian politics.

According to investigations by RSF, Hydara was being spied on by Gambian intelligence services just before his death.

As well as having a role in Hydara’s killing, prosecutors accuse Lowe of involvement in the attempted assassination of lawyer Ousman Sillah, and the murder of Dawda Nyassi, a suspected opponent of the president.

Lowe arrived in Europe via Senegal in December 2012, saying he was seeking asylum as a political refugee who feared for his life under Jammeh.

He was detained on the charges in Germany in March 2021.

‘Long arm of the law’

The evidence against Lowe includes a telephone interview he gave in 2013 to a US-based Gambian radio station, in which he described his participation in the attacks, according to police.

In a statement read out to the court, however, Lowe said he had merely repeated what other people had told him about the facts of the case to illustrate the cruelty of Jammeh’s government.

Jammeh ruled Gambia with an iron fist for 22 years but fled the country in January 2017 after losing a presidential election to relative unknown Adama Barrow.

He refused to acknowledge the results but was forced out by a popular uprising and fled to Equatorial Guinea.

“The long arm of the law has caught up to Bai Lowe in Germany… as it will hopefully soon catch up to Jammeh himself,” said Reed Brody, a lawyer with the International Commission of Jurists who works with Jammeh’s victims.

Lowe is one of three alleged accomplices of Jammeh to be detained abroad, alongside former interior minister Ousman Sonko, under investigation in Switzerland since 2017, and another alleged former Jungler, Michael Sang Correa, indicted in June 2020 in the United States.

The Gambian government itself said earlier this year it was working with the regional ECOWAS bloc to set up a tribunal to try crimes committed under Jammeh.
…

A South African company will make vaginal rings that protect against HIV, which AIDS experts say should eventually make them cheaper and more readily available.

The Population Council announced Thursday that Kiara Health of Johannesburg will start making the silicone rings in the next few years, estimating that 1 million could be produced annually. The devices release a drug that helps prevent HIV infections and are authorized by nearly a dozen countries and the World Health Organization.

The nonprofit council owns the rights to the rings, which are now made by a Swedish company. About 500,00 rings are currently available to women in Africa at no cost, purchased by donors.

Ben Phillips, a spokesperson at the U.N. AIDS agency, said the advantage of the ring is that it gives women the freedom to use it without anyone else’s knowledge or consent.

“For women whose partners won’t use a condom or allow them to take oral (preventive HIV) medicines, this gives them another option,” he said.

HIV remains the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age in Africa and 60% of new infections are in women, according to figures from WHO.

The ring releases the drug dapivirine in slow doses over a month. It currently costs $12 to $16, but experts expect the price to drop once it is widely produced in Africa. Developers are also working on a version that will last up to three months, which should also lower the yearly cost.

WHO has recommended the ring be used as an additional tool for women at “substantial risk of HIV” and regulators in more than a dozen African countries, including South Africa, Botswana, Malawi, Uganda and Zimbabwe have also given it the green light. WHO cited two advanced studies in its approval, saying the ring reduced women’s chances of getting HIV by about a third, while other research has suggested the risk could be dropped by more than 50%.

Last year, activists charged the stage in a protest during last year’s biggest AIDS meeting, calling on donors to buy the silicone rings for African women.
…

At least 40 civilians were killed last weekend by al-Qaida-linked rebels trying to take control of a besieged town in Burkina Faso’s hard-hit northern region, the United Nations’ rights office said, calling the attack a war crime.

In one of the largest clashes in recent years in the West African nation under threat from fighters linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, a large number of fighters tried to take control of Djibo near Mali’s border.

The town, located 210 kilometers (130 miles) from the capital, Ouagadougou, has been under blockade by rebels for more than a year, often struggling to provide essential services.

The militants in the latest attack, which happened on Sunday, also wounded 42 people and set fire to three camps for internally displaced people, U.N. Human Rights Office spokesperson Seif Magango said in a statement on Tuesday that blamed the attack on JNIM, an umbrella coalition of armed groups aligned with al-Qaida.

“Deliberately targeting civilians or individuals not taking direct part in hostilities constitutes a war crime,” the U.N. department said, citing reports from its workers on the ground.

The Associated Press couldn’t reach witnesses or survivors in the area, which has frequent internet cuts and where the military government is known to crack down on civil society.

State-run RTB Television ran images — which The Associated Press couldn’t verify — that showed large groups of people riding motorcycles as they appeared to flee aerial bombardment.

“Attacks on civilians are inexcusable and must stop, and those responsible must be held to account following thorough, impartial and independent investigations by the authorities,” the U.N. statement added.

Around half of Burkina Faso’s territory remains outside of government control. The landlocked country has been ravaged by jihadi attacks. Fighters have killed thousands and displaced more than 2 million people, further threatening the stability of the country that had two coups last year. 
…

The European Union has canceled its election observation mission for the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Dec. 20 general elections, saying it would not be able to deploy people across the country for security reasons.

“Due to technical constraints beyond the control of the EU, we are forced to cancel the EU election observation mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),” the EU said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The EU mission had planned to deploy long-term observers in most provinces of the DRC, but this is now no longer possible,” it said.

EU spokesperson Nabila Massrali told Reuters on Tuesday that election observers were already in Kinshasa and were supposed to be deployed across the country on Nov. 21, but that they were not able to go for security reasons.

Tensions are running high in the run-up to presidential, legislative and regional elections in Africa’s second-largest country, which is also struggling to contain a myriad of armed groups in its mineral-rich east.

A youth activist was killed on Tuesday by stones pelted during an opposition campaign rally in the city of Kindu.

Opposition candidates have also expressed concerns about the fairness of the vote, alleging irregularities that play in favor of the ruling coalition during voter registration. The electoral commission has denied this.

The electoral commission and Congolese authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.

“When the long-distance observers were due to be deployed, the authorities began to raise a whole series of problems relating to the use of satellite equipment and to impose other conditions that did not allow the observers to work in a secure and independent manner outside Kinshasa,” said a European diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The EU said it was exploring other options with the Congolese authorities, including the possibility of maintaining a mission of electoral experts to observe the electoral process from the capital.
…

An elevator suddenly dropped around 200 meters (656 feet) while carrying workers to the surface in a platinum mine in South Africa, killing 11 and injuring 75 — 14 of them critically, the mine operator said Tuesday.

It happened Monday evening at the end of the workers’ shift at a mine in the northern city of Rustenburg. All the injured workers were hospitalized.

Mine operator Impala Platinum Holdings CEO Nico Muller said in a statement it was “the darkest day in the history of Implats.” He said an investigation had begun into what caused the elevator to drop and the mine had suspended all operations on Tuesday.

Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Gwede Mantashe said there would be a government investigation into the tragedy. He visited the mine and was briefed, the government said.

All 86 workers killed or injured were in the elevator, Implats spokesperson Johan Theron said. Some of the injured had “serious compact fractures,” he said. Theron said the elevator dropped approximately 200 meters, though that was an early estimate. He called it a highly unusual accident.

The huge elevator has three levels, each with the capacity to hold 35 workers, Implats said. The mine shaft is approximately 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) deep.

South Africa is the world’s largest producer of platinum. The Impala Rustenburg mine has nine shafts and was the world’s largest platinum mine by production last year.

The country had 49 fatalities from all mining accidents in 2022, down from 74 the year before. Deaths from South African mining accidents have steadily decreased from nearly 300 in the year 2000, according to government figures.
…

A former child refugee from Somalia has been named as this year’s winner of the prestigious UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award.

Abdullahi Mire, 36, was recognized for bringing 100,000 books to his compatriots languishing in sprawling camps in Kenya.

“Last year, 2022, Angela Merkel, the former Federal Chancellor of Germany, won the award and today a young refugee from Dadaab. The sky is not the limit,” Mire told VOA Somalia.

Speaking ahead of the award announcement, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi honored Mire with a statement that called him “a living proof that transformative ideas can spring from within displaced communities.”

“He has shown great resourcefulness and tenacity in strengthening the quality of refugee education,” Grandi said.

From war to refugee camp to award

Mire was born in southern Somalia in 1987 and lived in Dadaab in the 1990s when his family fled from Qoryooley in the Lower Shabelle region due to Somalia’s civil war.

“I fled from Qoryooley in the Lower Shabelle region in 1991 with my mother and grew up and lived in the Dadaab refugee camps for 23 years,” Mire told VOA Somali Service.

The complex in northeastern Kenya today has a population of more than 240,000 registered refugees, most from Somalia.

Mire finished elementary and secondary schooling while residing in the camp, and later earned a degree in public relations and journalism.

“After a lot of hurdles and challenges with the help and the encouragement of my mother, I eventually went on to graduate with a diploma in journalism and public relations in 2013 from Kenya’s Kenyatta University, to become a voice for my vulnerable population,” Mire said.

With his degree, he then worked for the United Nations International Organization for Migration in Mogadishu and the southern Somali cities of Baidoa and Kismayo.

His childhood in Dadaab and subsequent professional experience made him realize the importance of his education, and he ultimately dedicated his professional life to helping his fellow refugees.

In early 2018, he founded an organization called Refugee Youth Education Hub. The organization employs two full-time staffers and six volunteers and focuses on refugee education and youth development.

Mire said he had briefly resettled in Norway for a couple of years but went back to Dadaab, where he was not a stranger, to help.

“I had a yearning to serve my community that drew me back to the camp,” he said.

A young woman who was learning medicine in the camp inspired him to collect books for the refugees, he said.

“During one of my regular visits back to the camp, I was approached by a young stranger refugee girl, requesting me if I could send a medical book from Nairobi,” Mire said. “She told me about 20 girls normally shared one biology book. That inspired me to use social media for a book collection and donation campaign till we reached 100,000 books.

Mire is not the only Somali who has won the Nansen Refugee Award, named after the Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen. The 2012 award was given to Hawa Aden Mohamed for her exceptional work for Somalia’s refugee and displaced girls and women.
…

At least 120 people have died, and the members of almost 90,000 households have been displaced by flooding in Kenya, officials there said Tuesday.

Kenya, along with its neighbors, Somalia and Ethiopia, have been hit with flash floods made worse by the natural weather phenomenon of El Nino. In Somalia, nearly 100 people have died and more than 700,000 have been forced to flee their homes, the government there said. In Ethiopia, at least 43 have died, the U.N. humanitarian agency said. 

The recent floods have put large amounts of farmland underwater, drowned tens of thousands of livestock and left hundreds of thousands of people without homes.

The floods follow the country’s worst drought in four decades that left many people hungry.

Four counties in eastern Kenya — Tana River, Garissa, Wajir and Mandera — have been most severely affected by the floods according to Interior Minister Raymond Omollo.

“All major dams are being monitored but Kiambere has a meter remaining to overflow,” Omollo said in a statement, referring to the Kiambere Hydroelectric Power Station in Tana River. “We call on those downstream to move to higher ground even as government enhances power generation to mitigate the challenge.”

Kenyan President William Ruto chaired an emergency Cabinet meeting Monday on the disaster and has pledged to designate millions of dollars to affected areas.

The heavy rainfall is expected to continue until at least January 2024, according to the Kenya Meteorological Department forecast. 

Kenya, along with its neighbors in the Horn of Africa, have been on the forefront of the climate crisis, which has placed 57 million people — nearly half of which are children — into acute food insecurity or worse in 12 countries vulnerable to climate change, according to Save the Children.

Some Information in this report came from Reuters and Agence France Presse.
…

Sudanese women of various backgrounds recently gathered in Nairobi to discuss the brutal war that has ravaged their country the past seven months. With no end in sight, they feel their voices have been silenced and they yearn to contribute to resolving the conflict that has killed thousands and displaced millions since April 15. VOA Nairobi Bureau Chief Mariama Diallo was there and has this report. Camera: Amos Wangua
…

Niger’s junta said Monday that it had revoked an anti-migration law that helped reduce the flow of West Africans to Europe, but that was reviled by desert dwellers whose economies had long relied on the traffic. 

The law, which made it illegal to transport migrants through Niger, was passed in May 2015 as the number of people traveling across the Mediterranean Sea from Africa reached record highs, creating a political and humanitarian crisis in Europe where governments came under pressure to stop the influx. 

Niger’s junta, which took power in a July coup, repealed the law on Saturday and announced it Monday evening on state television. 

The junta is reassessing its relations with former western allies who condemned the coup, and is seeking to shore up support at home, including in the northern desert communities that had benefited most from migration. 

The number of migrants moving through Niger, a main transit country on the southern fringe of the Sahara Desert, dropped sharply over the years because of the law, but the change drained the lifeblood from towns and villages that had fed and housed migrants and sold car parts and fuel to traffickers. 

In return, the European Union launched the nearly $5.5 billion Trust Fund for Africa in 2015, aimed at eradicating the root causes of migration, but many felt it was not enough. Unemployment soared in places like the ancient city of Agadez, a popular gateway to the Sahara. 

How European leaders greet the news and what the impact will be on migration to Europe are yet to be seen. 

But some people welcomed it. Andre Chani used to earn thousands of dollars a month driving migrants through the desert before police impounded his trucks in 2016. He plans to restart his business once he has the money. 

“I’m going to start again,” he said via text message from Agadez on Monday. “We are very happy.”
…

Kenya will start its privatization drive by offering stakes in 11 companies including the state oil pipeline, the finance ministry said Monday.

The 11 firms are among more than 35 companies that are slated for sale to partially help the government raise revenue in the face of growing debt repayments.

Apart from the Kenya Pipeline Company, which is wholly owned by the government, investors can buy stakes in one of the main convention centers in Nairobi, a textbook publisher, agribusiness firms and industrial companies, the ministry said.

The pipeline firm, which is profitable, has a monopoly on the transport of gas and white oil products, the ministry said in a notice, which also invited the public to share its comments on the plan by Dec. 11, as required by the constitution.

“Privatization and restructuring is geared towards the government’s efforts for fiscal consolidation and spurring economic development,” the ministry added.

The East African nation last privatized a state-owned company in 2008 with an initial public offering of a 25% stake in telecommunications firm Safaricom SCOM.NR.

The government revised the law governing the sale of state companies last month to the eliminate bureaucracy that had made the process grind to a halt, the president said last week.
…

German missionary Father Hans Joachim Lohre who was kidnapped in Mali’s capital Bamako last year has been freed by his captor, a church official told Reuters on Sunday.

Patient Nshombo of the Missionaries for Africa told Reuters by telephone that Lohre had been released.

“Yes, he has been freed, but we have to wait for further details from the authorities,” Nshombo said.

The government of Mali did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the German foreign office declined to comment.

Lohre, who had been living in Bamako for 30 years, was meant to celebrate Mass on a Sunday morning in the Malian capital last year when his colleagues noticed that his car remained parked in front of his house and his telephone was switched off.
…

The Malawi government has partnered with the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF, and a mobile service provider to help students in rural Malawi learn how to use the latest digital technology. Through the Connect-a-School project, public schools are equipped with high-definition smart TVs, tablets and free internet connectivity to promote digital learning among students. However, some schools say a shortage of some gadgets presents a challenge. Lameck Masina reports from Dedza District in central Malawi.
…

Sierra Leone’s President Julius Maada Bio declared a nationwide curfew Sunday after gunmen attacked the military’s main and largest barracks in the West African nation’s capital, raising fears of a breakdown of order amid a surge of coups in the region.

The unidentified gunmen attacked the military armory within the Wilberforce barracks in the capital, Freetown, early morning, Bio said in a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that they were driven back by security forces and “calm has been restored.”

“As the combined team of our Security Forces continue to root out the remnant of the fleeing renegades, a nationwide curfew has been declared and citizens are encouraged to stay indoors,” he wrote.

The country’s Ministry of Information and Education also said in a statement the government and security forces are “in control” of the situation.

No details have been immediately given about the gunmen or the reason for the attack.

Videos online, that went viral, reportedly showed soldiers patrolling Freetwon’s empty streets and captured the loud blasts of gunshots.

West Africa’s regional economic bloc of ECOWAS — of which Sierra Leone is a member — described the incident as a plot “to acquire arms and disturb the peace and constitutional order” in the country. “ECOWAS reiterates its zero tolerance for unconstitutional change of government,” the bloc said in a statement.

Sierra Leon’s president was reelected for a second term in June in a disputed vote in which the main opposition party the electoral commission of conspiring with his party to rig the results.

It was the country’s fifth presidential election since the end of a brutal 11-year civil war — more than two decades ago — which left tens of thousands dead and destroyed the country’s economy.

Bio continues to face criticism because of debilitating economic conditions. Nearly 60% of Sierra Leone’s population of more than seven million are facing poverty, with youth unemployment being one of the highest in West Africa.
…

The number of people killed by floods from heavy rains in Somalia has risen to nearly 100, state news agency SONNA said Saturday.

“Somalia’s flood death toll climbs to 96,” SONNA said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, adding the figure had been confirmed by Mahamuud Moallim, the head of the country’s disaster management agency.

Like the rest of east and Horn of Africa, Somalia has been battered by relentless heavy rains that began in October, caused by the El Nino and Indian Ocean Dipole weather phenomena.

Both are climate patterns that impact ocean surface temperatures and cause above-average rainfall.

The flooding has been described as the worst in decades and has displaced about 700,000 people, according to the United Nations.

The intense rains have unleashed widespread flooding across the country, triggering displacement and exacerbating an existing humanitarian crisis caused by years of insurgency.

In neighboring Kenya, the floods have killed 76 people so far, according to the Kenyan Red Cross, and also unleashed widespread displacement, destruction of roads and bridges and left many residents without shelter, drinking and food supplies, according to the charity Doctors Without Borders. 
…

An Islamist group linked to al-Qaeda claimed to have seized a military base in the north of Mali, inflicting heavy losses on the country’s military. 

The Malian army, however, said it had repulsed attacks on bases in the Timbuktu region Friday. 

Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) took control of the Niafunke camp Friday with the help of a suicide-bomb vehicle, the group said on its Al-Zallaqa Foundation media platform. 

That statement was verified Saturday by SITE, a U.S. organization that follows radicalized groups. 

Tens of soldiers were killed or wounded in the battle, and two captured, JNIM claimed. 

It released photos showing five armored vehicles it claimed to have captured, along with weapons and ammunition.  

It said that dozens of soldiers had been killed or wounded and two had been taken prisoner. It was not possible to immediately verify the information. 

JNIM often abandons camps they capture after a few hours. 

The group also claimed to have hit another army camp, a few miles away in Goundam, with mortar fire. 

The Mali military said on social media that the attacks had been “energetically repelled.”  

“After artillery fire on the two camps, the assailants tried in vain to occupy them and were routed,” it said. 

Verifying claims by either side is complicated because access to the region is difficult and dangerous. 

Since 2012, Mali has been ravaged by groups affiliated to al-Qaeda and Islamic State, as well as by self-declared self-defense forces and bandits. 

The north in particular has seen intensified military clashes following the recent withdrawal of United Nations forces at the demand of the ruling junta, which set off fighting between the military and Islamist and separatist forces to control the area.   
…

Democratic Republic of Congo’s Denis Mukwege, a Nobel-winning gynecologist, staged a rally in his hometown Saturday, promising to tackle corruption and conflict if elected president next month.

Addressing supporters in the eastern city of Bukavu, the renowned doctor said he would use political power to “put an end to war, put an end to famine” and to fight graft.

“Today it is normal to steal in the Congo, it is normal to corrupt,” said the 68-year-old in Swahili.

Mukwege founded the Panzi hospital and foundation in conflict-torn eastern DRC after witnessing the horrific injuries and diseases suffered by rape victims.

In 2018, he was jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize alongside Yazidi activist Nadia Murad for efforts to end sexual violence as a weapon of war.

The doctor announced a presidential bid in October — ending months of speculation over his political ambitions.

The DRC, an impoverished central African nation of about 100 million people, is scheduled to hold presidential and parliamentary elections on December 20.

Incumbent President Felix Tshisekedi, 60, is running for reelection. The official campaigning season kicked off on November 19.

Mukwege chose his hometown of Bukavu to host his first large campaign rally, to which thousands of people came on Saturday, according to an AFP correspondent.

“During my five-year term of office, [I am going] to give the Congolese people back their dignity, their rights,” he said, criticizing the country’s dependence on foreign aid, including foreign military aid.

“Internationally, we are going to do everything we can to ensure that foreign armies leave Congolese soil, and that the Congolese people learn to take responsibility for their own security,” Mukwege said.

Dozens of armed groups are active in eastern DRC, a legacy of regional wars that flared during the 1990s and 2000s.

One such group, the M23, has seized swaths of territory in the region since launching an offensive in late 2021, triggering a vast humanitarian crisis with more than 1 million people driven from their homes.

Eastern Congo is also home to an array of foreign military forces, including United Nations peacekeepers of various nationalities, and troops deployed the East African Community.
…