At least 29 Nigerien soldiers have been killed by jihadis near the country’s border with Mali, Niger’s junta said, as they struggle to end a spate of attacks.

More than 100 extremists used homemade explosives to target the West African nation’s security forces who were deployed at the border area on a clearance operation, Niger Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Salifou Mody said in a statement late Monday. It’s the second such attack against Nigerien soldiers in a week.

During the month after Niger’s military seized power, violence primarily linked to extremists soared by more than 40%, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. Jihadi attacks targeting civilians quadrupled in August compared with the month before, and attacks against security forces spiked in the Tillaberi region, killing at least 40 soldiers, the project reported.

“This attack unfortunately caused the loss of several of our valiant soldiers,” Mody said Monday. “The provisional assessment of this attack is as follows: on the friendly side, 29 soldiers fell. … On the enemy side, several dozen terrorists were neutralized, fifteen motorcycles destroyed, a large quantity of weapons and ammunition seized.”

The junta, which took over after a July coup against Niger’s democratically elected government, declared a three-day national mourning period for the dead.

It repeated claims made in the past that “destabilization operations” were being carried out by “certain foreign powers with the complicity of Nigerien traitors,” without further details or proof.

Under growing pressure since the coup against Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum, which the military said was carried out because of Niger’s security challenges, the junta promised that “all efforts will be made to guarantee the security of people and their property throughout the national territory.”

Niger has battled a jihadi insurgency linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group for years. And the junta’s capacity to improve Niger’s security has increasingly been questioned recently as attacks have increased since mutinous soldiers toppled in July.

Niger was seen as one of the last democratic countries in Africa’s Sahel region that Western nations could partner with to beat back the jihadi insurgency in the vast expanse below the Sahara Desert. The United States, France and other European countries poured hundreds of millions of dollars into shoring up the Nigerien military.
…

The United Nations’ top official in divided Libya on Monday called for a unified mechanism to lead the reconstruction of a coastal city that was wrecked by devastating floods last month.

U.N. special envoy for Libya Abdoulaye Bathily said in a statement that such a mechanism is required amid “unilateral and competing initiatives” by Libyan actors and institutions on the reconstruction of the Mediterranean city of Derna and other flood-impacted areas.

Devastating rainfall and floods, triggered by Mediterranean Storm Daniel, hit parts of eastern Libya last month. The floods overwhelmed two depleted dams outside Derna on September 11, causing massive waters that washed away residential buildings to the sea and left as much as one-third of Derna’s housing and infrastructure damaged, according to the U.N.’s Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Government officials and aid agencies have given estimated death tolls ranging from more than 4,000 to over 11,000. The bodies of many of the people killed still are under rubble or in the Mediterranean, according to search teams.

As Libya remains divided, with two rival administrations claiming legitimacy and each wanting to oversee the reconstruction of Derna, Bathily called for “a unified national mechanism … required to effectively and efficiently take forward the reconstruction efforts in the flood-affected areas.”

He urged Libyan rival authorities and their international partners to facilitate the establishment of the unified mechanism to ensure “transparency and accountability.”

Following the disaster, many in and outside Libya called for an international investigation, reflecting the deep public mistrust in state institutions. The two dams had not been maintained for decades despite repeated warnings that they were depleted.

Bathily’s call for a unified mechanism quickly gained support from the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany and Italy.

The five governments said in a joint statement that they “strongly support” a proposal to “deliver transparent and accountable relief and response to the reconstruction needs in the wake of the flood disaster.”

The oil-rich North African nation has been in chaos since 2011, when an Arab Spring uprising, backed by NATO, ousted longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, who was later killed. For most of the past decade, rival administrations have claimed authority to lead Libya.

The country’s east and south have been under the control of General Khalifa Hifter and his self-styled Libyan National Army, which is allied with a parliament-confirmed government. A rival administration is based in the capital, Tripoli, and enjoys the support of most of the international community.
…

The World Health Organization on Monday announced the recommendation of a second malaria vaccine, with the aim of giving countries a cheaper and more readily available option to tackle the deadly disease.

Developed by Oxford University with the help of the Serum Institute of India, the new vaccine, known as R-21, will be rolled out in some African countries early next year, and expand into other countries later in 2024, according to WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Research that has not yet undergone the usual process of scientific review suggests the three-dose vaccine to be around 75% effective. Boosters would be available for continued protection.

“Almost exactly two years ago, WHO recommended the broad use of the world’s first malaria vaccine called RTS,S” also known as Mosquirix, Tedros told a briefing in Geneva.

Developed by British pharmaceutical GSK, Mosquirix requires four doses, is only about 30% effective, and fades within months. The WHO says there is not enough data available to confirm whether the newly developed Oxford vaccine will be more effective.

The Serum Institute has said it could produce 200 million doses of the R-21 vaccine per year, while GSK is able to produce only 15 million doses of Mosquirix annually.

The aim of widespread rollout of the vaccine would be to significantly curb infection rates and spread of the disease. However, experts have urged the public not to see vaccines as a replacement for other preventative measures, such as bed nets and the spraying of insecticides.

The WHO also issued a recommendation on a Takeda Pharmaceuticals-produced vaccine against dengue, a disease prevalent in subtropical climates which, like malaria, is spread by mosquitoes.

Takeda Pharmaceuticals’ vaccine was shown to be effective in all four stereotypes of the virus in previously infected individuals, but it showed a lower performance in some stereotypes of people not previously infected.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters. 
…

A Kenyan parliamentary panel called on the country’s information technology regulator on Monday to shut down the operations of cryptocurrency project Worldcoin within the country until more stringent regulations are put in place.

The government suspended the project in early August following privacy objections over its scanning of users’ irises in exchange for a digital ID to create a new “identity and financial network.”

Worldcoin was rolled out in various countries around the world by Tools for Humanity, a company co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. It has also come under scrutiny in Britain, Germany and France.

The project still has a virtual presence in Kenya and can be accessed via the internet, even after the August suspension.

The regulatory Communications Authority of Kenya should “disable the virtual platforms of Tools for Humanity Corp and Tools for Humanity GmbH Germany [Worldcoin] including blacklisting the IP addresses of related websites,” the ad hoc panel of 18 lawmakers said in a report.

It also called for the suspension of the companies’ “physical presence in Kenya until there is a legal framework for regulation of virtual assets and virtual services providers.”

Worldcoin’s press office said it had “not seen anything official announced by the Committee directly.”

The panel’s report will be tabled at the National Assembly for consideration and adoption at a later date.

During the suspension of data collection in August, authorities said the project’s method of obtaining consumer consent in return for a monetary award of just over $50 at the time bordered on inducement.

Registering to use the platform involved long lines of people queuing to get their irises scanned. The parliamentary panel’s investigation found that Worldcoin may have scanned the eyes of minors as there was no age-verification mechanism during the exercise, its report said.

The panel also asked government ministries to develop regulations for crypto assets and firms that provide crypto services and called on the police to investigate Tools for Humanity and take any necessary legal action.
…

The Kenyan government says it’s ready to send a thousand members of its police force into Haiti to help tamp down gang violence. While some Kenyans say it’s a good idea, others are expressing concerns about the proposal. VOA’s Nairobi Bureau Chief Mariama Diallo has this story. (Camera: JIMMY MAKULO)
…

Thirty-eight people were injured Monday when a fire erupted at a police headquarters in northern Egypt, according to police.

A police spokesman said some of the injured were treated on site, while others were transported to the hospital.

The cause of the fire at the building in Ismailia was not immediately clear, officials said.

At least 50 ambulances and two airplanes were sent to the scene.

Large fires are not uncommon in Egypt due to lax enforcement of safety and fire codes and regulations.

In August 2022, a fire broke out in a Coptic church in Cairo, killing 41 people.

 
…

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government on Sunday proposed a temporary wage hike for federal workers and more cheap gas-powered public transport among other measures to offset the impact of his economic reforms and convince labor unions to call off a planned national strike.

Speaking in a broadcast to mark Nigeria’s 63rd independence day anniversary, Tinubu’s announcement came after he ended a long-standing fuel subsidy that cost the government billions of dollars a year to keep fuel cheap and also his liberalization of the naira currency.

Government officials say the reforms were needed to revive Africa’s largest economy and investors applauded them, but Nigerians are struggling with a tripling of fuel prices, a sharp naira devaluation and inflation now at 25%.

“There is no joy in seeing the people of this nation shoulder burdens that should have been shed years ago,” Tinubu said. “I wish today’s difficulties did not exist. But we must endure if we are to reach the good side of our future.”

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the two major unions representing industries from aviation workers and nurses to teachers and bankers, had called an indefinite strike for Oct. 3 because they say the government failed to address their concerns.

In his broadcast, Tinubu said the federal minimum wage for the lower-grade public employees would increase by 25,000 naira a month ($32) for the next six months.

Later Sunday, government officials and labor unions met for negotiations, and the government said the temporary wage increase would now apply to “all treasury-paid federal government workers for six months,” according to a presidency statement.

The temporary wage hike was among other offers, it said.

“NLC and TUC will consider the offers by the Federal Government with a view to suspending the planned strike to allow for further consultations,” the statement said.

NLC chief Joe Ajaero told reporters the union would take the government offers to its membership for consultations.

“We’re hopeful that (membership) will have a look at them and give us a fresh mandate,” he said.

Tinubu said the government was also preparing to speed up the introduction of gas-powered buses for public transport, which would lower the costs of transport — one of the main complaints for Nigerians since the fuel subsidy removal.

Social security cash transfers to the poorest Nigerians would also be extended and investments made available for small businesses, he said.

Tinubu — a former Lagos governor elected in February in a highly contested ballot — has promised to bring in more investment and tackle the country’s complex security challenges, from jihadists to bandit militias carrying out mass kidnappings.

The Nigerian leader has also sought to shake up the country’s central bank, whose previous director critics say was responsible for unorthodox monetary policies that kept investors away.

The former central bank director has been replaced and arrested.

The fuel subsidy had been in place for decades and kept petrol prices artificially low in what was seen by many Nigerians as a benefit from their government.

But the measure cost the government billions annually because although Nigeria is a major oil producer, it imports most of its fuel because of a lack of functioning refineries.

The NLC and TUC went on strike in August over the same issues, with many businesses, government offices, markets, banks closed for a day in the capital Abuja. But the call to strike met with more mixed response from businesses in the economic capital Lagos.

 
…

Gabon’s transitional president, who ousted the leader of the central African country at the end of August, received a show of support from neighboring Republic of Congo after he met his counterpart Sunday, aiming to improve relations and ease Gabon’s isolation. 

General Brice Oligui Nguema overthrew Ali Bongo Ondimba, 64, who had ruled Gabon since 2009, moments after he was proclaimed the winner in a presidential election in late August.

The election result was branded a fraud by the opposition and the military coup leaders, who had also accused his regime of widespread corruption and bad governance.

Under the presidency of Ali Bongo, relations between Gabon and neighboring Congo were notoriously tense.

Oligui said his visit was aimed at improving the ties and easing Gabon’s international isolation following the coup.

“I have come to consult, to discuss, to exchange with (the president), who for us is a key in the region, who can relay to global authorities what we have done,” Oligui said after holding talks with Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso.

“It is also to ease the sanctions… we hope to once again take our place among the nations,” Oligui said.

Gabon was suspended from the African Union and the Economic Community of Central Africa States (ECCAS) after the change of government.

ECCAS has also ordered the immediate transfer of its headquarters from Gabon’s Libreville to the Equatorial Guinea capital Malabo.

The Congo president did not address reporters after the talks, but his Foreign Minister Jean-Claude Gakosso hailed Oligui as “a man of humility and reconciliation.”

“I think that the Gabonese should support him and aside from the Gabonese, the Congolese. Also, our brothers in central Africa,” he told reporters.

“We know that there was a change in Libreville,” Gakosso said. “The main thing is that there was no bloodshed.”

“We have rarely seen this, a forceful change of regime without bloodshed.”

“The Congo and Gabon are in reality the same country. We have to work tirelessly [to] have good relations,” he said.

The visit marked the second overseas trip by Oligui, who was sworn in last month as Gabon’s interim president.

The talks were held near Oyo, in central Congo.

Oligui, wearing green military fatigues and a beret, was greeted by the prime minister and a red carpet when he landed.

Many in Gabon saw Ali Bongo’s overthrow as an act of liberation rather than a military coup.

Oligui has promised to hold “free, transparent and credible elections” to restore civilian rule, but has not given a timeframe.
…

The World Health Organization warns that soaring rates of severe malnutrition, acute hunger, and deteriorating health conditions are threatening the lives and well-being of millions of people in South Sudan with the situation set to worsen as the climate crisis kicks in.

“South Sudan is a country where you see the overlap and compounding impact of conflict, climate crisis, hunger crisis, and disease outbreaks that have been going on for several years,” said Liesbeth Aelbrecht, WHO incident manager for the Horn of Africa. “Three in four South Sudanese need humanitarian assistance this year; two in three are facing crisis levels of hunger,” she said. “And these numbers are only getting worse.”

The United Nations reports 6.3 million South Sudanese are suffering from acute hunger and more than 9 million of the country’s population of 12 million people depend on humanitarian assistance.

As conditions continue to deteriorate, the World Health Organization reports 500,000 more people this year will need international aid. Among the most vulnerable are the children.

Aelbrecht said, “The numbers of children with severe malnutrition needing medical intervention have been higher this year than at any point in the last four years,” adding that almost 150,000 children had been treated for severe acute malnutrition so far this year.

She warned the humanitarian crisis facing South Sudan will worsen with the onset of El Niño, a climate phenomenon that can cause temperatures to rise and excess rains.

“Flooding and hunger and drought will increase hunger even further. But it is also very likely to increase the risk of mosquito-borne diseases, especially malaria and dengue and water-borne diseases,” she said, adding that malaria is one of the five main causes of death in South Sudan.

Aelbrecht recently returned from a mission to South Sudan, where she visited so-called stabilization centers for severely malnourished children in the capital, Juba, and in Bentiu, the capital of Unity State.

Speaking Friday from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, to journalists in Geneva, Aelbrecht said she watched doctors trying to resuscitate babies on life support. In one of these centers, she said she saw a baby pass away in her mother’s arms.

“I quote figures. I give you percentages, but behind those figures there are just faces. I am standing there as a bystander and watching this child die of hunger and of preventable diseases,” she said. “Even after doing humanitarian work for 25 years now, it does remain one of the most difficult things to do.”

She said the international community must not act as a bystander but help South Sudan during this time of immense need. Since conflict in Sudan erupted in April, she said there has been a large inflow of refugees and returnees from Sudan, putting an even greater strain on South Sudan’s overstretched health system.

“In fact, one out of four of all the people who had fled Sudan, 1.2 million people who fled Sudan are being hosted now in South Sudan,” she said.

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, reports humanitarian operations in both Sudan and South Sudan are severely underfunded. It says lack of security in these countries is also a huge hindrance to the delivery of aid to the millions in need.

“South Sudan and Sudan are the world’s most dangerous countries for aid workers,” said Jens Laerke, OCHA spokesman.

Of 71 aid worker deaths recorded so far this year, he said 22 were in South Sudan and 19 in Sudan.

“The victims are overwhelming local humanitarians working on the front lines of the response,” he said.
…

The Malian army said on Sunday that new fighting had broken out in the north between the military and armed rebel groups, the latest in a series of attacks on the army in the troubled West African country.

The army reported on social media “intense fighting” against “terrorists” in the early hours of the morning, in the area of Bamba which separatist rebels claimed to have taken control of.

The rebels said they had seized the northern locality in a social media message published on behalf of the Permanent Strategic Framework, which is dominated by the Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA).

The CMA is an alliance of predominantly Tuareg groups seeking autonomy or independence from the Malian state.

No further details on the fighting were provided by either side.

Tuareg-dominated separatist groups said on Saturday that they had inflicted heavy losses on the Malian military in an attack in the centre of the country, claiming to have killed 81 soldiers.

Since the end of August, the north of Mali has seen a resumption of hostilities by the CMA and an intensification of jihadist attacks against the Malian army.

On September 7, the army was attacked in Bamba in an operation claimed by the Al-Qaeda-linked alliance, the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM).

The escalation in violence coincides with the ongoing withdrawal of the UN stabilisation force MINUSMA, which has been pushed out by the ruling junta.

Mali’s junta, which seized power in 2020, faces a multitude of security challenges throughout the poor and landlocked country.

 
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Libya’s eastern authorities Sunday announced the postponement of a reconstruction conference for the flood-hit city of Derna that had been planned for October 10 but was met with international skepticism.

The event was put off until November 1-2 to “offer time for the submission of effective studies and projects” for the reconstruction effort, the committee charged with planning the meeting said in a statement.

The divided country’s eastern administration last month invited the “international community” to attend the conference in Derna, the coastal city where a September 10 flash flood devastated large areas and killed thousands.

The authorities later said that the conference would draw in international companies, and on Sunday the committee said the postponed event would be held in both Derna and the eastern city of Benghazi.

The North African country has been wracked by fighting and chaos since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed veteran dictator Moamer Kadhafi in 2011.

Libya is now divided between an internationally recognized Tripoli-based administration in the west, and the one in the disaster-stricken east backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar.

‘Separate efforts’ 

The United States on Friday called on Libyans to set aside their political differences and agree on a framework to channel aid to eastern towns.

“We urge Libyan authorities now to form such unified structures –- rather than launching separate efforts –- that represent the Libyan people without delay,” US special envoy Richard Norland said in a statement. 

Despite a wave of nationwide solidarity since the flood, there has been no show of support for the proposed conference from the Tripoli-based government of interim Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibah.

Jalel Harchaoui, a Libya specialist at the Royal United Services Institute, on Sunday said the eastern authorities were facing a “largely predictable setback”, adding that “they will have no choice but to somehow work with the Tripoli authorities”.

On Wednesday, the eastern authorities had announced the creation of a fund for the reconstruction of Derna and other areas affected by the flooding.

They did not indicate how the new fund would be financed, but Libya’s House of Representatives, also based in the east, has already allocated 10 million dinars ($2 million) for reconstruction.

On Friday, the eastern administration announced that they had begun compensating residents affected by the floods, distributing cheques to the mayors of the stricken towns.

During talks with the European Commission, UN envoy Abdoulaye Bathily on Thursday said he had called for funds delivered to Libya to be monitored.

“I… emphasized the need for a joint assessment of reconstruction needs of storm-affected areas to ensure the utmost accountability in the management of reconstruction resources,” he said.

According to the latest toll announced by the eastern authorities on Tuesday, at least 3,893 people died in the disaster. 

International aid groups have said 10,000 or more people may be missing.

 
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The Senegalese Navy said it had intercepted two wooden boats carrying 272 would-be migrants Friday 100 kilometers (60 miles) off the coast of the capital Dakar. 

Seven children and 16 women were among the passengers who were taken back to a navy base in Dakar, it said in an online post Saturday. 

It shared a photo of a brightly painted fishing vessel on the open ocean, overloaded with people with no shelter from the elements. 

Thousands of migrants brave the hundreds of miles of ocean separating Africa from Europe each year in a desperate search for a better life. Summer is the busiest period for crossings. 

At least 559 people died attempting to reach the Canary Islands in 2022, while 126 people died or went missing on the same route in the first six months of this year with 15 shipwrecks recorded, according to the International Organization for Migration. 

In August, only 37 survived after a migrant boat carrying 101 people from Senegal had been adrift in the ocean without fuel for weeks. 
…

A parliamentary investigation in Namibia found that Canadian oil exploration company ReconAfrica violated several of the country’s laws and that its local partner deceived and misled the public about the value of its shareholdings on various international stock exchanges.

Despite the findings, ReconAfrica has been allowed to continue exploring for oil.

Vincent Marenga, a ruling party member of Namibia’s Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources, told VOA that the committee’s investigation found ReconAfrica did not secure the proper permits before it began its oil exploration activities. But he said the violations were minor.

“That is our argument,” Marenga said. “We are not saying that ReconAfrica is an angel that has been doing everything accordingly. They have violated [laws], but it was for permits. They drilled boreholes without permits, and on that one there will definitely be penalties against them.”

Nadia April, one of the petitioners who approached parliament to protest ReconAfrica’s presence in the Okavango Delta — a wilderness area in northeastern Namibia — said their opposition to the presence of Recon was based on the contamination the oil drilling could create, as well as the plight of the indigenous people.

She said the fact that the company was found in violation of the law but still allowed to proceed was a disappointment to her and the group she represents.

“The project started without the proper consultation within the region, and the consultations were done without the indigenous people,” April said. “We were referring to also the U.N. declaration on rights of indigenous people that says there has to be free, prior and informed consent … from indigenous people, so those consultations were not being done.”

Outside of Namibia, ReconAfrica is being sued in a U.S. court for having allegedly misled its shareholders. The Namibian parliamentary committee said it was concerned that ReconAfrica is seeking to raise money using Namibian resources on the basis of a 10% partnership with a local partner, the Namibia Petroleum Corp., or NAMCOR.

Rinaani Musutua, a trustee of the Economic and Social Justice Trust, opposed ReconAfrica’s presence in Namibia on the basis of environmental concerns, such as fracking and water pollution. 

“Some of the activists that are on the ground in the Kavango region have also told us that ReconAfrica has left, and it’s not a surprise to us at all that they have left,” Musutua said. “They have built up quite a bad reputation for themselves. In the end, they started getting sued by investors, first in the Unites States of America and now in Canada, for having given investors misinformation and provided them with information that wasn’t true.”

ReconAfrica’s spokesperson could not be reached despite various attempts by the Voice of America.

The parliament committee that investigated the petitioners’ concerns said the issues in their petitions were not serious enough to warrant the company’s expulsion from the country.

While the protesters want the company to be forced to leave, the parliament committee recommended the company stay but refrain from breaking Namibian laws.
…

How do you cook a meal when a staple ingredient is unaffordable? 

This question is playing out in households around the world as they face shortages of essential foods like rice, cooking oil and onions. That is because countries have imposed restrictions on the food they export to protect their own supplies from the combined effect of the war in Ukraine, El Nino’s threat to food production and increasing damage from climate change. 

For Caroline Kyalo, a 28-year-old who works in a salon in Kenya’s capital of Nairobi, it was a question of trying to figure out how to cook for her two children without onions. Restrictions on the export of the vegetable by neighboring Tanzania has led prices to triple. 

Kyalo initially tried to use spring onions instead, but those also got too expensive. As did the prices of other necessities, like cooking oil and corn flour. 

“I just decided to be cooking once a day,” she said. 

Despite the East African country’s fertile lands and large workforce, the high cost of growing and transporting produce and the worst drought in decades led to a drop in local production. Plus, people preferred red onions from Tanzania because they were cheaper and lasted longer. By 2014, Kenya was getting half of its onions from its neighbor, according to a U.N. Food Agriculture Organization report. 

At Nairobi’s major food market, Wakulima, the prices for onions from Tanzania were the highest in seven years, seller Timothy Kinyua said. 

Some traders have adjusted by getting produce from Ethiopia, and others have switched to selling other vegetables, but Kinyua is sticking to onions. 

“It’s something we can’t cook without,” he said. 

Tanzania’s onion limits this year are part of the “contagion” of food restrictions from countries spooked by supply shortages and increased demand for their produce, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute. 

Globally, 41 food export restrictions from 19 countries are in effect, ranging from outright bans to taxes, according to the institute. 

India banned shipments of some rice earlier this year, resulting in a shortfall of roughly a fifth of global exports. Neighboring Myanmar, the world’s fifth-biggest rice supplier, responded by stopping some exports of the grain. 

India also restricted shipments of onions after erratic rainfall — fueled by climate change — damaged crops. This sent prices in neighboring Bangladesh soaring, and authorities are scrambling to find new sources for the vegetable. 

Elsewhere, a drought in Spain took its toll on olive oil production. As European buyers turned to Turkey, olive oil prices soared in the Mediterranean country, prompting authorities there to restrict exports. Morocco, also coping with a drought ahead of its recent deadly earthquake, stopped exporting onions, potatoes and tomatoes in February. 

This isn’t the first time food prices have been in a tumult. Prices for staples like rice and wheat more than doubled in 2007-2008, but the world had ample food stocks it could draw on and was able to replenish those in subsequent years. 

But that cushion has shrunk in the past two years, and climate change means food supplies could very quickly run short of demand and spike prices, said Glauber, former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. 

“I think increased volatility is certainly the new normal,” he said. 

Food prices worldwide, experts say, will be determined by the interplay of three factors: how El Nino plays out and how long it lasts, whether bad weather damages crops and prompts more export restrictions, and the future of Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

The warring nations are both major global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other food, especially to developing nations where food prices have risen and people are going hungry. 

An El Nino is a natural phenomenon that shifts global weather patterns and can result in extreme weather, ranging from drought to flooding. While scientists believe climate change is making this El Nino stronger, its exact impact on food production is impossible to glean until after it’s occurred. 

The early signs are worrying. 

India experienced its driest August in a century, and Thailand is facing a drought that has sparked fears about the world’s sugar supplies. The two are the largest exporters of sugar after Brazil. 

Less rainfall in India also dashed food exporters’ hopes that the new rice harvest in October would end the trade restrictions and stabilize prices. 

“It doesn’t look like [rice] prices will be coming down anytime soon,” said Aman Julka, director of Wesderby India Private Limited. 

Most at risk are nations that rely heavily on food imports. The Philippines, for instance, imports 14% of its food, according to the World Bank, and storm damage to crops could mean further shortfalls. Rice prices surged 8.7% in August from a year earlier, more than doubling from 4.2% in July. 

Food store owners in the capital of Manila are losing money, with prices increasing rapidly since September 1 and customers who used to snap up supplies in bulk buying smaller quantities. 

“We cannot save money anymore. It is like we just work so that we can have food daily,” said Charina Em, 32, who owns a store in the Trabajo market. 

Cynthia Esguerra, 66, has had to choose between food or medicine for her high cholesterol, gallstones and urinary issues. Even then, she can only buy half a kilo of rice at a time — insufficient for her and her husband. 

“I just don’t worry about my sickness. I leave it up to God. I don’t buy medicines anymore, I just put it there to buy food, our loans,” she said. 

The climate risks aren’t limited to rice but apply to anything that needs stable rainfall to thrive, including livestock, said Elyssa Kaur Ludher, a food security researcher at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. Vegetables, fruit trees and chickens will all face heat stress, raising the risk that food will spoil, she said. 

This constricts food supplies further, and if grain exports from Ukraine aren’t resolved, there will be additional shortages in feed for livestock and fertilizer, Ludher said. 

Russia’s July withdrawal from a wartime agreement that ensured ships could safely transport Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea was a blow to global food security, largely leaving only expensive and divisive routes through Europe for the war-torn country’s exports. 

The conflict also has hurt Ukraine’s agricultural production, with analysts saying farmers aren’t planting nearly as much corn and wheat. 

“This will affect those who already feel food affordability stresses,” Ludher said. 
…

Dozens of people from around the world lined up on a sunny morning this week in front of a former mental health hospital in Berlin to apply for asylum in Germany.

There were two older women from Moldova. A young man from Somalia sat next to them on a bench. A group of five young Pakistanis chatted loudly, standing behind two pregnant women from Vietnam.

The newcomers are among more than 10,000 migrants who have applied for asylum in the German capital this year, and are coming at a time when Berlin is running out of space to accommodate them.

“The situation is not very good at the moment,” Sascha Langenbach, the spokesperson for the state office for refugee affairs in Berlin, said in an interview this week. “This is much more than we expected last year.”

The former mental health hospital in Berlin’s Reinickendorf neighborhood was turned into the city’s registration center for asylum-seekers in 2019 and can house up to 1,000 migrants.

But it’s full.

Officials have put an additional 80 beds in a church on the premises. Beyond that, there are another 100 asylum shelters in Berlin, but those are at capacity too.

Berlin’s state government says it will open a hangar at the former Tempelhof airport to make space for migrants, put up a big tent at the asylum seekers’ registration center, and open a former hardware store and hotels and hostels in the city to provide another 5,500 beds for more migrants the city is expecting will come through the end of the year.

There are also not enough places in kindergartens and schools. In addition to the asylum seekers, Berlin has also taken in another 11,000 Ukrainian refugees this year who fled Russia’s war.

The lack of space and money for migrants and Ukrainian refugees isn’t unique to Berlin. It’s a problem across Germany, where local and state officials have been demanding more funds from the federal government without success.

More than 220,000 people applied for asylum in Germany between January and August — most of them from Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Moldova and Georgia. In all of 2022, 240,000 people applied for asylum in Germany.

That’s a far cry from the more than 1 million people who arrived in Germany in 2015-16. But Germany has also taken in more than 1 million Ukrainians since the outbreak of the war in 2022. Unlike others who arrive, Ukrainians immediately receive residency status in Germany and the 26 other European Union countries.

While Germans welcomed asylum seekers with flowers, chocolates and toys when they first arrived in 2015, and many opened their homes to house Ukrainians in 2022, the mood toward new arrivals has profoundly changed since then.

“After two years of the (coronavirus) crisis, then the Ukraine war with its increasing prices for basically everything — heating, gas, also food — it’s sometimes pretty tough to convince people that they have to share places and capacities with people who just arrived,” Langenbach said.

Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, has been successfully exploiting Germans’ hardening attitudes toward migrants. Polling now puts it in second place nationally with around 21%, far above the 10.3% it won during the last federal election in 2021.

AfD’s rise in the polls and the party leaders’ relentless anti-migrant rhetoric, including calls to close Germany’s borders to prevent migrants from entering, have put pressure on the national and state governments and other mainstream parties to toughen their approach toward migrants.

On Wednesday, Germany’s interior minister announced the country would increase border controls along “smuggling routes” with Poland and the Czech Republic to prevent irregular migrants from entering.

In June, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz defended plans to stop migrants from entering the EU altogether until their chances of getting asylum have been reviewed, arguing that the bloc’s existing arrangements on sharing the burden of asylum seekers among the different European countries is “completely dysfunctional.”

Germany has been taking in more migrants than most other European countries, but other countries such as Turkey and Lebanon, which shelter millions of migrants from Syria, have taken in more refugees as a percentage of their population.

Despite the changing sentiment toward migrants in Germany, those who make it and apply for asylum are generally grateful to be here.

Abdullah al-Shweiti, from Homs, Syria, recently arrived in Berlin and was waiting for the results of his medical checkup at the asylum welcome center. He said he was relieved to be “in a safe place.”

The 29-year-old said he had run away from home because his family’s house had been bombed in the war and he didn’t want to fight in the army. He said he’d paid 3,000 euros ($3,180) to smugglers who helped him get from Lebanon to Europe. He took the Balkans route, trekking with other young Syrians north via Bulgaria through forests. They traveled on foot, by taxi and by bus until smugglers dropped them off in the German capital.

Mirbeycan Gurhan, a Kurdish man from Bingol in eastern Turkey, said he’d fled suppression by Turkish authorities. He paid 6,000 euros ($6,360) for smugglers to arrange a flight from Ankara to Belgrade, Serbia, and then a car to Germany.

“I hope I will have a better future here. I hope I can find work,” the 24-year-old said with a shy smile as his uncle, who applied for asylum in Berlin four years ago, stood next to him and translated.

Michael Elias, head of the Tamaja company that runs the asylum registration center in Berlin, said the arrival of migrants from all over the world is simply a reflection of the many crises around the globe, such as climate change and wars, and that Germany needs to be prepared for even more people to arrive.

“Yes, a lot of people are coming here, but look at what’s going on in the world,” Elias said. “We must simply anticipate that we’re not an island of the fortunate here, that things will reach us too.”
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Libya’s prosecutor general has ordered the arrest of four more officials, bringing to 12 the number held as part of an inquiry into this month’s flood that killed thousands. 

Flooding caused by hurricane-strength Storm Daniel tore through eastern Libya on September 10, leaving at least 3,893 people dead and thousands more missing. 

The seaside city of Derna was the worst hit in the flash flood, which witnesses likened to a tsunami. The water burst through two dams and washed entire neighborhoods into the Mediterranean. 

The four additional suspects, including two members of the Derna municipal council, were arrested for suspected “bad management of the administrative and financial missions which were incumbent upon them,” said a statement issued overnight Thursday into Friday by the prosecutor general’s office in Tripoli, western Libya. 

On Monday, the office ordered the arrest of eight officials, including Derna’s mayor, who was sacked after the flood. 

Libya Prosecutor General Al-Seddik al-Sour belongs to the internationally recognized government in the country’s west. A rival administration in the flood-stricken east is backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar. 

The eastern government has said it plans to host an international donors conference in Benghazi on October 10 to focus on the reconstruction of flood-ravaged areas, but its failure to involve the Tripoli government has drawn mounting criticism from donors. 

Libya has been wracked by division since a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. 

‘Separate’ reconstruction plans 

The United States called on Libyans to set aside their political differences and agree a framework to channel aid to eastern towns. 

“We urge Libyan authorities now to form such unified structures — rather than launching separate efforts — that represent the Libyan people without delay,” U.S. special envoy Richard Norland said in a statement Friday.  

“A proposal to hold a reconstruction conference in Benghazi on October 10 would be much more effective if it were conducted jointly and inclusively,” he said. 

Norland echoed concerns expressed by the United Nations that mechanisms need to be put in place to ensure that foreign aid is spent accountably. 

“Libyans need to be assured public funds are used transparently, accountably, and that assistance goes to those in need,” the U.S. envoy said. 

On Thursday during talks with the European Commission, U.N. envoy Abdoulaye Bathily said he had called for funds to be monitored. 

“I … emphasized the need for a joint assessment of reconstruction needs of storm-affected areas to ensure the utmost accountability in the management of reconstruction resources,” he said. 

On Friday, the eastern authorities said they would begin paying compensation to people affected by the disaster, which a U.N. agency has said uprooted more than 43,000 people. 

People whose homes were destroyed would receive $20,500 in compensation, Faraj Kaeem, the eastern administration’s deputy interior minister, said separately. 

He said those with partially destroyed homes would get about half that amount and those who lost furniture or household appliances would be given one-fifth. 

The eastern administration announced on Wednesday the creation of a fund for the reconstruction of Derna. 

The authorities have yet to specify how the new fund will be financed, but the eastern-based parliament has allocated about $2 billion to reconstruction projects. 
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A suicide bomber wearing an explosives vest hit a busy tea shop in Mogadishu on Friday, killing at least five people, a police spokesman told VOA.

Witnesses said the bomber targeted the tea shop inside an internally displaced persons camp, known as Dervish, in Mogadishu’s Wardhigley district, which is close to the premises of the country’s parliament.

“We were just in our daily routine. We were having tea and talking about sports when a man wearing an explosive vest rushed into the tea shop, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ [God is great], then he blew himself up,” Mohamed Sheikh Abdi, an eyewitness who survived the attack, told VOA.

According to residents familiar with the area, the tea shop is frequented by some government soldiers and civil servants.

In an interview with VOA, Sadiq Adan Ali Dodishe, spokesperson for the Somali police, said civilians were the target of the attack and that no government soldier or staff was harmed.

“An al-Shabab suicide bomber targeted civilians chatting and enjoying at a tea shop, killing five people and six others wounded,” he said. “It is not new to us; it is something the militants have been doing for years.”

Friday’s attack came a day after militants killed at least six people and wounded more than 15 in a car bombing in Somalia’s central Hirshabelle state.

The perpetrator targeted a busy meat market in Bulobarde town, 220 kilometers north of Mogadishu.

In a separate incident on Thursday, security forces prevented double suicide car bomb attacks targeting Dhusamareb, a town 280 kilometers to the north, killing the drivers of two vehicles loaded with explosives, officials said.

Days before, an explosives-laden vehicle detonated at a security checkpoint in the central Somalia city of Beledweyne, killing at least 18.
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For years, Nigerian journalist Philip Obaji Jr. has investigated the actions of Russian mercenary group Wagner in Africa. It’s a beat that comes with challenges. VOA’s Cristina Caicedo Smit reports.
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September 30 marks exactly 30 days since Gabon’s military seized power and ended the nearly 60-year rule of the Bongo family. But the military junta is dealing with daily protests from disgruntled trade unions, workers and students who are now demanding better living conditions in the oil-producing West African country.

Gabon’s state TV on Friday reported people living with HIV or AIDS protesting at the Center for HIV/AIDS Treatment in the capital, Libreville, this week.

Alain Oyono, a spokesperson for the demonstrators, said patients are suffering from a drastic shortage of antiretroviral drugs and that people living with AIDS no longer receive regular funding from Gabon’s government.  Oyono also said people living with AIDS in Gabon want an end to the stigma and maltreatment they have been going through for several years, and that Gabon should pay attention to their plight because living with AIDS is not a death sentence.

Magistrates also protested this week, demanding an increase in pay.

Germain Nguema Ella, the president of the magistrates’ union, said military ruler General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema met with the striking magistrates this week.

Ella said that after an hour of negotiations, Nguema made commitments to improve the working conditions of magistrates within the shortest possible period of time, and Nguema asked them to exhibit patriotism by calling off the protest immediately.

Meanwhile, teachers, students, nurses and laboratory technicians, civil servants and hundreds of workers in Nkok, a special economic zone in Gabon, have also been protesting low pay and poor working conditions.

Several hundred youths this week stormed the presidential palace in Libreville asking to be recruited into the civil service. The military junta said in a statement that it is not planning to recruit for now.

Gabon’s military junta says their first 30 days in power have not been easy, but that the protests indicate how disgruntled civilians were under the rule of ousted president Ali Bongo, who led Gabon for the past 14 years, and his father Omar, who ruled for over 40 years before his death in 2009.

Since seizing power on August 30, the military junta has tried to convince civilians, the international community, the opposition and rights groups that the coup saved Gabon from a civil war.

It says the opposition was ready to take arms after ousted president Bongo falsely declared himself winner of the August 26 presidential election.

Prime Minister Raymond Ndong Sima said local businesses are asking military leaders to pay an internal debt of about $5 billion.

Sima said he is “pleading with Gabon citizens to be of good faith and stop exerting unnecessary pressure on the government.” He said civilians have a right to express their needs, but the military junta has limited resources. He says the next 24 months will be very delicate as the government will intensify its drive to recover ill-gotten wealth and attend to Gabon’s development needs.

The junta recently announced creation of a transitional constitutional council and the appointment of civilians to lead the nine provinces that make up Gabon. General Nguema also appointed a civilian as prime minister and new members of the National Assembly and Senate.

Gabon’s military junta says it needs time to restore stability and ensure sustainable economic development. So far, it has not said how long the process will take.
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More than 2,500 migrants died or went missing while trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe so far in 2023, a U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees official said Thursday.

“By September 24, over 2,500 people were accounted as dead or missing in 2023 alone,” Ruven Menikdiwela, director of the UNHCR New York office, told the U.N. Security Council.

That number marked a large increase over the 1,680 dead or missing migrants in the same period in 2022.

“Lives are also lost on land, away from public attention,” she added.

The land journey from sub-Saharan African countries, where many of the migrants hail from, to departure points on the Tunisian and Libyan coasts “remains one of the world’s most dangerous,” Menikdiwela said.

The migrants and refugees “risk death and gross human rights violations at every step,” said Menikdiwela.

In total, some 186,000 people arrived by sea in southern Europe from January to Sept. 24, landing in Italy, Greece, Spain, Cyprus and Malta. 

The majority, over 130,000 people, arrived in Italy, marking an increase of 83% compared to the same period in 2022. 

As for departure points, between January and August of this year it is estimated that more than 102,000 refugees and migrants tried to cross the Mediterranean from Tunisia and 45,000 from Libya. 

An estimated 31,000 people were rescued at sea or intercepted and disembarked in Tunisia, and 10,600 in Libya, Menikdiwela said. 
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A publisher in Kenya is using artificial intelligence to help make education more accessible and affordable. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi.
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At least a dozen Niger soldiers were killed in connection with an attack by hundreds of armed insurgents on motorbikes in the country’s southwest on Thursday morning, the West African nation’s defense ministry said in a statement.  

Seven soldiers were killed in combat while five others died in an accident while driving to reinforce the unit that had come under attack, the statement said.  

The attack took place in Kandadji, about 190 kilometers from the capital, Niamey, near the tri-border zone of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger that has been the epicenter of Islamist insurgencies in the Sahel region in the last few years.  

Earlier on Thursday, three sources including a senior military officer, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, told Reuters that at least 10 soldiers had been killed.  

Neither the sources nor the defense ministry would say which group was responsible. Local affiliates of al-Qaida and Islamic State are active in the region and frequently attack soldiers and civilians.  

The defense ministry statement said about a hundred insurgents had been killed and that their motorbikes and arms had been destroyed. It gave no further details. 

Two security sources said the army responded to the attack with ground troops as well as helicopters, one of which was hit but was able to return to its base.  

Niger is run by a military junta that seized power in a coup in July, partly out of discontent at the worsening security situation. Neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso have each had two coups in the last three years.  

However, security analysts say attacks had been falling in Niger under ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, who had tried to engage with Islamists and the rural communities where they are rooted. 

At least 17 soldiers were killed in another attack in southwestern Niger in mid-August.  

France said on Sunday that it would withdraw its 1,500 troops from Niger before the end of the year, after weeks of pressure from the junta and popular demonstrations against the former colonial ruler, which had forces there to fight the insurgents. 

On Thursday, several hundred pro-junta supporters gathered again in front of the French military base in Niamey to demand that the troops leave. 
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At least six people were killed and more than 10 injured in a car bombing Thursday in the central Hirshabelle state in Somalia, according to officials.

The perpetrator targeted a busy meat market in Bulobarde town, some 220 kilometers north of Mogadishu.

Saadaam Cabdi Iidow, the town’s mayor, said the suicide bomber came under fire from security forces before reaching his goal but detonated explosives near a police checkpoint.

“About six people were killed and more than 10 others injured, including children and members of the security forces. The blast destroyed an entire business area and some residential buildings,” Iidow said. “The checkpoint is near a meat market.”

Meanwhile, security forces prevented double suicide car bomb attacks targeting Dhusamareb, a town some 280 kilometers to the north, killing the drivers of two vehicles loaded with explosives, officials said.

Dhusamareb District Commissioner Abdirahman Ali Ahmed told VOA that the security forces had been tipped off about the vehicles carrying explosives and were ready to fend them off.

“The security forces were waiting when the first car tried to enter the town around 5:30 a.m. local time. They forcibly stopped it with heavy machine guns and then it went off. The terrorist driver died on the spot. The second car bomb tried to enter the town 10 minutes after the first one, and our forces foiled it, killing the driver,” Ahmed said.

Both Bulobarde and Dhusamareb are important and strategic towns that have been the focal point of efforts to mobilize the local population against al-Shabab amid an ongoing Somali military campaign to defeat militants who followed Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud’s declaration of a “total war” against the al-Qaida-linked militants shortly after being elected last year.

Thursday’s blast comes days after an explosives-laden vehicle detonated at a security checkpoint in the central Somalia city of Beledweyne, killing at least 18.

Al-Shabab has threatened violence against clans mobilizing against them in the past.

Abdiaziz Barrow and Abdiwahid Isaq contributed to this report.
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Environmental experts are ringing alarm bells, saying decades-long climate and environmental changes in Sudan have exacerbated social and political instability, fueling the monthslong conflict in the country centered around access to land, water and other vital resources.

The current conflict in Sudan, rooted in global geopolitics and the historical legacy of the previous leadership of now-deposed authoritarian leader Omar al-Bashir, is increasingly being attributed to climate change.

In a May report, Practical Action, a Britain-based international development organization, highlighted the impact of climate change in Sudan, which includes the encroachment of the desert southward and a stark reduction in rainfall.

Akinyi Walender, Practical Action Africa director, underscored the consequences of climate change in Sudan, including heightened drought, extreme rainfall variability, depletion of water sources and desertification spanning millions of hectares of land.

Speaking to VOA via WhatsApp, Walender said the conversion of migratory routes and pastureland into farmland has significantly disrupted “the natural balance” and accelerated desertification.

The United Nations says desertification is the persistent degradation of dryland ecosystems by climate change and mainly human activities — unsustainable farming, mining, overgrazing and clear-cutting of land.

The U.N. Convention to Combat Desertification says approximately 65% of Sudan’s land is affected by desertification.

Walender said climate change and conflict in Sudan are caught in a destructive cycle, potentially worsening the situation in the East African nation.

“The effects of war, such as the destruction of infrastructure, displacement of communities, and the use of airstrikes and heavy artillery, intensify the environmental damage in Sudan,” she said.

The International Organization for Migration, the U.N.’s migration agency, says nearly 7.1 million people are internally displaced within Sudan, 3.8 million being newly displaced due to the country’s monthslong conflict between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Force.

Awadalla Hamid, an environmental conservation manager at Practical Action in Sudan’s North Darfur State, said human activities have taken a toll on natural resources and ecosystems, intensifying environmental degradation.

Hamid said the displacement of communities in Sudan has led to further environmental damage.

“As people are forced to flee their homes, they often settle in temporary camps or new areas, leading to uncontrolled land-use changes, overexploitation of resources and increased pressure on fragile environments,” Hamid said. “The influx of displaced populations can also result in deforestation, soil erosion and pollution.”

The U.N. Environment Program says environmental destruction during conflicts has a direct impact on public health due to air and water pollution. The use of airstrikes and heavy artillery, while causing immediate destruction, also results in long-term environmental consequences, the U.N says.

Walender said addressing the environmental consequences of conflict requires a holistic approach —peacebuilding, conflict resolution and sustainable environmental practices.

Swar Adam, who fled violence in South Darfur and currently resides in Kosti, White Nile State, Sudan, told VOA his displacement has left him unable to tend to his livestock, which is his livelihood.

“It is very difficult at the moment to go and identify your cattle in such a situation,” Adam said. “I am not sure if they are now being fed on good grazing land or not. This is the situation I am in now.”

This story originated in VOA English to Africa’s South Sudan In Focus Program.
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