Geneva — The head of the U.N. refugee agency warned on Monday that displacement crises in Lebanon and Sudan could worsen, but said tighter border measures were not the solution, calling them ineffective and sometimes unlawful.

Addressing more than 100 diplomats and ministers in Geneva at UNHCR’s annual meeting, Filippo Grandi said an unprecedented 123 million people are now displaced around the world by conflicts, persecution, poverty and climate change.

“You might then ask: what can be done? For a start, do not focus only on your borders,” he said, urging leaders instead to look at the reasons people are fleeing their homes.

“We must seek to address the root causes of displacement, and work toward solutions,” he said. “I beg you all that we continue to work — together and with humility — to seize every opportunity to find solutions for refugees.”

Without naming countries, Grandi said initiatives to outsource, externalize or even suspend asylum schemes were in breach of international law, and he offered countries help in finding fair, fast and lawful asylum schemes.

Western governments are under growing domestic pressure to get tougher on asylum seekers and Grandi has previously criticized a plan by the former British government to transfer them to Rwanda.

In the same speech he warned that in Lebanon, where more than one million people have fled their homes due to a growing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the situation could worsen further.

“Surely, if airstrikes continue, many more will be displaced and some will also decide to move on to other countries.”

He called for a drastic increase in support for refugees in Sudan’s civil war, saying lack of resources was already driving them across the Mediterranean Sea and even across the Channel to Britain.

“In this lethal equation, something has got to give. Otherwise, nobody should be surprised if displacement keeps growing, in numbers but also in geographic spread,” he said.

The UNHCR response to the crisis that aims to help a portion of the more than 11 million people displaced inside Sudan or in neighboring countries is less than 1/3 funded, Grandi said.

The number of displaced people around the world has more than doubled in the past decade.

Grandi, set to serve as high commissioner until Dec. 2025, said the agency’s funding for this year had recently improved due to U.S. support but remained “well below the needs.”
…

WASHINGTON — The world’s 26 poorest countries, home to 40% of the most poverty-stricken people, are more in debt than at any time since 2006 and increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and other shocks, a new World Bank report showed on Sunday.

The report finds that these economies are poorer today on average than they were on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the rest of the world has largely recovered from COVID and resumed its growth trajectory.

Released a week before World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings get underway in Washington, the report confirms a major setback to efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and underscores the World Bank’s efforts this year to raise $100 billion to replenish its financing fund for the world’s poorest countries, the International Development Association (IDA).

The 26 poorest economies studied, which have annual per-capita incomes of less than $1,145, are increasingly reliant on IDA grants and near-zero interest rate loans as market financing has largely dried up, the World Bank said. Their average debt-to-GDP ratio of 72% is at an 18-year high and half of the group are either in debt distress or at high risk of it.

Two-thirds of the 26 poorest countries are either in armed conflicts or have difficulty maintaining order because of institutional and social fragility, which inhibit foreign investment, and nearly all export commodities, exposing them to frequent boom-and-bust cycles, the report said.

“At a time when much of the world simply backed away from the poorest countries, IDA has been their lifeline,” World Bank chief economist Indermit Gill said in a statement. “Over the past five years, it has poured most of its financial resources into the 26 low-income economies, keeping them afloat through the historic setbacks they suffered.”

IDA normally is replenished every three years with contributions from World Bank shareholding countries. It raised a record $93 billion in 2021, and World Bank President Ajay Banga is aiming to exceed that with over $100 billion in pledges by Dec. 6.

Natural disasters also have taken a greater toll on these countries over the past decade. Between 2011 and 2023, natural disasters were associated with average annual losses of 2% of GDP, five times the average among lower-middle-income countries, pointing up the need for much higher investment, the World Bank said.

The report also recommended that these economies, which have large informal sectors operating outside their tax systems, do more to help themselves. This includes improving tax collections by simplifying taxpayer registration and tax administration and improving the efficiency of public spending.
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DAMASAK, Nigeria — When Boko Haram launched an insurgency in northeastern Nigeria in 2010, Abdulhameed Salisu packed his bag and fled from his hometown of Damasak in the country’s battered Borno state. 

The 45-year-old father of seven came back with his family early last year. They are among thousands of Nigerians taken back from displacement camps to their villages, hometowns or newly built settlements known as “host communities” under a resettlement program that analysts say is being rushed to suggest the conflict with the Islamic militants is nearly over. 

Across Borno, dozens of displacement camps have been shut down, with authorities claiming they are no longer needed and that most places from where the displaced fled are now safe. 

But many of the displaced say it’s not safe to go back. 

Boko Haram — Nigeria’s homegrown jihadis — took up arms in 2009 to fight against Western education and impose their radical version of Islamic law, or Sharia. The conflict, now Africa’s longest struggle with militancy, has spilled into Nigeria’s northern neighbors. 

Some 35,000 civilians have been killed and more than 2 million have been displaced in the northeastern region, according to U.N. numbers. The 2014 kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls by Boko Haram in the village of Chibok in Borno state — the epicenter of the conflict — shocked the world. 

Borno state alone has nearly 900,000 internally displaced people in displacement camps, with many others absorbed in local communities. So far this year, at least 1,600 civilians have been killed in militant attacks in Borno state, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit. 

And in a state where at least 70% of the population depends on agriculture, dozens of farmers have also been killed by the extremists or abducted from their farmland in the last year. 

In May, hundreds of hostages, mostly women and children who were held captive for months or years by Boko Haram were rescued from a forest enclave and handed over to authorities, the army said. 

In September, at least 100 villagers were killed by suspected Boko Haram militants who opened fire on a market, on worshippers and in people’s homes in the Tarmuwa council area of the neighboring Yobe state, west of Borno. 

Analysts say that a forced resettlement could endanger the local population as there is still inadequate security across the hard-hit region. 

Salisu says he wastes away his days in a resettlement camp in Damasak, a garrison town in Borno state of about 200,000 residents, close to the border with Niger. 

Food is getting increasingly difficult to come by and Salisu depends on handouts from the World Food Program and other aid organizations. He longs to find work. 

“We are begging the government to at least find us a means of livelihood instead of staying idle and waiting for whenever food comes,” he said. 

On a visit last week to Damasak, Cindy McCain, the WFP chief, pledged the world would not abandon the Nigerian people as she called for more funding to support her agency’s aid operations. 

“We are going to stay here and do the very best we can to end hunger,” McCain told The Associated Press as she acknowledged the funding shortages. “How do I take food from the hungry and give it to the starving,” she said. 

Resettlement usually involves the displaced being taken in military trucks back to their villages or “host communities.” The Borno state government has promised to provide returnees with essentials to help them integrate into these areas, supported by aid groups. 

The government says the displacement camps are no longer sustainable. 

“What we need now is … durable solutions,” Borno governor Babagana Zulum told McCain during her visit. 

As the resettlement got underway, one in five displaced persons stayed back in Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, and nearby towns but were left without any support for local integration, the Global Protection Cluster, a network of non-government organizations and U.N. agencies, said last December. 

Many others have crossed the border to the north, to settle as refugees in neighboring Niger, Chad or Cameroon. The three countries have registered at least 52,000 Nigerian refugees since January 2023, according to the U.N. refugee agency — nearly twice the number registered in the 22 months before that. 

A rushed closure of displacement camps and forced resettlement puts the displaced people at risk again from militants still active in their home areas — or forces them to “cut deals” with jihadis to be able to farm or fish, the International Crisis Group warned in a report earlier this year. 

That could make the extremists consolidate their presence in those areas, the group warned. Boko Haram, which in 2016 split into two main factions, continues to ambush security convoys and raid villages. 

Abubakar Kawu Monguno, head of the Center for Disaster Risk Management at the University of Maiduguri, said the best option is for government forces to intensify their campaign to eliminate the militants or “push them to surrender.” 

After not being able to access their farms because of rampant attacks by militants, some farmers in Damasak and other parts of Mobbar district returned to work their land last year, armed with seedlings provided by the government. 

Salisu was one of them. 

Then a major flood struck in September, collapsing a key dam and submerging about 40% of Maiduguri’s territory. Thirty people were killed and more than a million others were affected, authorities said. 

Farms that feed the state were ruined, including Salisu’s. His hopes for a good rice harvest were washed away. Now he lines up to get food at a Damasak food hub. 

“Since Boko Haram started, everything else stopped here,” he said. “There is nothing on the ground and there are no jobs.” 

Maryam Abdullahi also lined up at a WFP hub in Damasak with other women, waiting for bags of rice and other food items she desperately needs for her family of eight. Her youngest is 6 years old. 

The donations barely last halfway through the month, she said, but she still waited in the scorching heat. 

What little money she has she uses to buy yams to fry and sell to sustain her family, but it’s nowhere enough. Her only wish is to be able to get a “proper job” so she and her children would feel safe, she said. 

“We either eat in the morning for strength for the rest of the day or … we eat only at night,” Abdullahi said. 
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Cairo — A locomotive crashed into the tail of the Cairo-bound passenger train Sunday in southern Egypt, killing at least one person and injuring multiple others, authorities said. It is the second train crash in a month in the North African country. 

The collision occurred in the province of Minya, 270 kilometers (about 168 miles) south of Cairo, the railway authority said in a statement, and two railway carriages fell into an adjacent watercourse. The cause of the crash was being investigated, the statement added. 

Footage aired by local media showed the two carriages partially submerged in the watercourse. 

Along with the fatality, the Health Ministry said in a separate statement at least 21 people were taken to hospitals, of which 19 were later discharged after receiving treatment. 

Train derailments and crashes are common in Egypt, where an aging railway system has also been plagued by mismanagement. In September, two passenger trains collided in a Nile Delta city, killing at least three people. 

In recent years, the government announced initiatives to improve its railways. Egyptian  

President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi said in 2018 some 250 billion Egyptian pounds, or $8.13 billion, would be needed to properly overhaul the neglected rail network. 
…

Port Sudan, Sudan — A Sudanese network of volunteer rescuers said on Sunday the military carried out an air strike a day earlier on a marketplace in Khartoum, leaving 23 people dead.  

The market is near one of the main camps in the Sudanese capital, where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have been fighting the military as part of a civil war that has killed tens of thousands of people.  

“Twenty-three people were confirmed dead and more than 40 others wounded” and taken to hospital after “military air strikes on Saturday afternoon on the main market” in southern Khartoum, the youth-led Emergency Response Rooms said in a post on Facebook.  

Fierce fighting has raged since Friday around Khartoum, much of which is controlled by the RSF, with the military pounding the center and south of the city from the air.  

The military is advancing towards Khartoum from nearby Omdurman, where clashes erupted on Saturday, eyewitnesses said.  

World’s largest displacement crisis  

Since April 2023, when war broke out between army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, the paramilitaries had largely pushed the army out of Khartoum.  

The World Health Organization says at least 20,000 people have been killed in the civil war, but some estimates put the toll much higher at up to 150,000.  

The war has also created the world’s largest displacement crisis, the U.N. says.  

More than 10 million people, around a fifth of Sudan’s population, have been forced from their homes, according to U.N. figures.  

A U.N.-backed assessment in August declared a famine in the Zamzam refugee camp in Darfur near the city of El-Fasher.  

The government loyal to the army is based in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, where the army has retained control.   

The RSF meanwhile has taken control of nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur, rampaged through the agricultural heartland of central Sudan and pushed into the army-controlled southeast. 
…

goma, congo — The overcrowded boat that capsized in eastern Congo last week killed eight members of Serge Nzonga’s family along with 70 others. Days later, he was back on the same route that claimed their lives in yet another boat lacking safety measures. 

Nzonga and hundreds of other passengers, including Associated Press journalists, lined up at the seaport in Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city, getting ready to board a locally made boat bound for Bukavu city on the other side of Lake Kivu, a perilous journey they would rather undertake than travel Congo’s treacherous roads. 

On Wednesday, as authorities continued to investigate the accident, families of those killed last week protested at the port of Kituku, accusing officials of negligence in failing to address the insecurity in eastern Congo and of delaying rescue operations. 

The capsizing of overloaded boats is becoming increasingly frequent in this central African nation as more people are abandoning the few available roads for wooden vessels crumbling under the weight of passengers and their goods. 

The roads are often caught up in the deadly clashes between Congolese security forces and rebels that sometimes block major access routes. Hundreds have already been killed or declared missing in such accidents so far this year. 

“This is the only way we can reach our brothers and sisters in the other province of South Kivu,” said Nzonga as his turn to board a locally made boat drew nearer. 

“If we don’t take this journey, there is no other route,” he said. “The road is blocked because of the war and … the roads are not paved in eastern Congo.” 

In the absence of good roads in this country of more than 100 million, the rivers in Congo have been the only means of transport many here have known — especially in remote areas where passengers usually come from. 

Among the frequent passengers on the boats and ferries are traders unable to transport their goods along the dangerous roads, some of them spending days or weeks along the rivers. 

However, several others also board them for various other reasons: It is faster than traveling by road, the roads are in bad shape, and families like Nzonga’s can travel at more affordable rates. 

That leaves boats and ferries frequently overcrowded, and safety measures are hardly implemented, analysts say. 

The boat that capsized on Congo’s Lake Kivu last week was trying to dock just meters away from the port of Kituku when it began to sink, witnesses said. 

The boat was visibly overcrowded, “full of passengers (as) it started to lose its balance,” said Francine Munyi, an eyewitness. 

Authorities often threaten harsh punishments to curb overloading, enforce safety measures and punish corrupt officials, but measures promised to stop the accidents are rarely carried out, analysts say. 

“The private sector dominates Lake Kivu … but the boats cannot leave the port without the authorization of the lake commissioner,” said Emile Murhula, an independent analyst, adding that authorities are also supposed to enforce the use of life jackets and remove boats that do not meet the required standards. 

As the Bukavu-bound boat — named Emmanuel 4 — navigated the waters, the passengers cast worried glances at the lake, many of them without life jackets. 

Canoes crisscrossed the lake in search of the bodies of victims still missing after the latest accident. At the seaport, dozens of relatives waited patiently for answers. 

Nzonga, the passenger who lost eight relatives, admits it is dangerous to travel without a life jacket. But even those jackets are not provided by the government. 

“We’re scared, but it’s the only way we have to get to the other province,” he said. “I still have to travel, even though we’re used to it (the accidents).” 
…

KILIFI, Kenya — Dozens rallied against a proposal to build Kenya’s first nuclear power plant in one of the country’s top coastal tourist hubs which also houses a forest on the tentative list of the UNESCO World Heritage site. 

Kilifi County is renowned for its pristine sandy beaches where hotels and beach bars line the 165-mile-long coast and visitors boat and snorkel around coral reefs or bird watch in Arabuko Sokoke Forest Reserve, a significant natural habitat for the conservation of rare and endangered species, according to the United Nations organization. 

The project, proposed last year, is set to be built in the town of Kilifi — about 522 kilometers (324 miles) southeast of the capital, Nairobi. Many residents have openly opposed the proposal, worried about what they say are the negative effects of the project on people and the environment, leading to a string of protesters which at times turned violent. 

Muslim for Human Rights (MUHURI) led the march Friday in Kilifi to the county governor’s office where they handed him a petition opposing the construction of the plant. 

Some chanted anti-nuclear slogans while others carried placards with “Sitaki nuclear,” Swahili for “I don’t want nuclear.” 

The construction of the 1,000MW nuclear plant is set to begin in 2027 and be operational by 2034, with a cost of 500 billion Kenyan shillings ($3.8 billion). 

Francis Auma, a MUHURI activist, told the Associated Press that the negative effects of the nuclear plant outweigh its benefits. 

“We say that this project has a lot of negative effects; there will be malformed children born out of this place, fish will die, and our forest Arabuko Sokoke, known to harbor the birds from abroad, will be lost,” Auma said during Friday’s protests. 

Juma Sulubu, a resident who was beaten by the police during a previous demonstration, attended Friday’s march and said: “Even if you kill us, just kill us, but we do not want a nuclear power plant in our Uyombo community.” 

Timothy Nyawa, a fisherman, participated in the rally out of fear that a nuclear power plant would kill fish and, in turn, his source of income. “If they set up a nuclear plant here, the fish breeding sites will all be destroyed.” 

Phyllis Omido, the executive director at the Center for Justice Governance and Environmental Action, who also attended the march, said Kenya’s eastern coastal towns depended on eco-tourism as the main source of income and a nuclear plant would threaten their livelihoods. 

“We host the only East African coastal forest, we host the Watamu marine park, we host the largest mangrove plantation in Kenya. We do not want nuclear (energy) to mess up our ecosystem,” she said. 

Her center filed a petition in Nov. 2023 in parliament calling for an inquiry and claiming that locals had limited information on the proposed plant and the criteria for selecting preferred sites. It also raised concerns over the risks to health, the environment and tourism in the event of a nuclear spill, saying the country was undertaking a “high-risk venture” without proper legal and disaster response measures in place. The petition also expressed unease over security and the handling of radioactive waste in a country prone to floods and drought. 

The Senate suspended the inquiry until a lawsuit two lawyers filed in July seeking to stop the plant’s construction, claiming public participation meetings were rushed and urging the Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (Nupea) not to start the project, was heard. 

Nupea said construction would not begin for years and environmental laws were under consideration, adding that adequate public participation was carried out. 

The nuclear agency also published an impact assessment report last year that recommended policies be put in place to ensure environmental protections, including detailed plans for the handling of radioactive waste, measures to mitigate environmental harm, such as setting up a nuclear unit in the national environment management authority, and emergency response teams. 
…

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Humanitarian groups in Cameroon are visiting homes and villages in remote areas this week to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month, advising women to go to hospitals for free screening and treatment.

About 60% of the more than 7,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer in Cameroon this year have died because they were late in getting to hospitals, officials say. Breast cancer deaths are highly unreported because families abandon women to die at home.

Thirty-year-old history student Emilie Nadege Atangana told a group of women and girls at the University of Yaounde 1 campus how she was psychologically and emotionally traumatized after receiving a diagnosis of breast cancer in 2020.

Most of her relatives, friends and fellow students said she would not live long and abandoned her, she said.

Atangana said she found hope when medical staff members of the Yaounde Gynaecology, Obstetrics and Pediatrics Hospital told her that 90% of early-stage breast cancers are curable.

Cameroonian government officials and humanitarian groups say cancer survivors such as Atangana have been sent to towns and villages as part of activities marking “Pink Month.”

The World Health Organization designates October as Pink Month, a time to teach people about cancer, including early identification and signs and symptoms.

Forty-two-year-old Mesode Ngwese Agbaw, a cancer survivor, said people should stop hiding cancer patients at home to die because of the false belief that cancer cannot be treated.

“You don’t need to hide alone with your pain,” she said. “Share it with somebody, and the people will be ready to help you. I was operated on and after the operation, I have been following treatment and till now, I am fine.”

This year’s theme for the month in Cameroon is “No one Should Face Breast Cancer Alone and Yes, No One is Expected to Fight Breast Cancer Alone.”

Ruth Amin, a public health specialist and project manager at the Yaounde-based Lifafa Research Foundation, said that sending people suspected of having breast cancer to hospitals would prevent many of the deaths caused because the women were abandoned or got to a hospital too late.

“We are calling on the men to support their spouses, to support their mothers, to support their sisters in raising awareness, in carrying them to the hospitals to be clinically examined by professionals,” she said.

“Women should speak up,” she said. “Women should go toward the health facilities to get examined because the earlier they are being diagnosed, the easier it would be for them to be treated.”

Amin spoke to VOA via a messaging app from Buea, a southern commercial city where humanitarian caravans were educating residents about breast cancer on Saturday.

Cameroon says it has equipped all hospitals with qualified medical staff members and equipment to diagnose breast cancer.

The World Health Organization estimates that Cameroon has about 20,000 new cancer cases, including breast cancers, each year, with 65% related deaths.
…

Maputo, Mozambique — Mozambique’s electoral body extended voting until Saturday in some areas and in one overseas location because material didn’t arrive on time.

Most of the country completed voting Wednesday and now awaits results.

National Electoral Commission spokesperson Paulo Cuinica told reporters on Friday that voting did not take place in some districts of Zambezia province, in central Mozambique,  partly due to problems getting voting materials in time. 

“As a result of this fact, 23 polling stations did not open in the province of Zambezia, [or in the coastal circle of Zambezia], with 4 in Maganja da Costa and 19 in the district of Gilé,” Cuinica said.

Voting outside the country also had hiccups, he said, noting that 670 Mozambicans living in Germany in were unable to vote.

He said voting materials were shipped to Germany on September 27th, but were held up in Cologne and did not reach Berlin until Thursday, the day after the election.

As a result, Cuinica said voting is being extended in affected areas. He said voters can cast ballots from 7 am to 6 pm Saturday in the districts of Gilé and Maganja, and from 9 am to 9 pm in Germany.

Meanwhile, election monitors in Mozambique gave preliminary assessments of the process. Laura Valerin, a member of parliament from Spain and chief observer of the European Union election mission, told VOA monitors observed about 800 polling stations.

While she praised the peaceful campaign and orderly voting, she said there were issues. 

“We saw the counting phase,” she said. “Our observers saw the processes were in many times very long, really slow with some difficulties foreseen by polling staff, with some doubts about how the process had to take place.”

She said that before election day, the EU team’s engagement with political parties, media and civil society indicated that there is widespread mistrust about the independence of the electoral bodies.

Succès Masra, a former prime minister of Chad and head of the observer mission for the U.S.-based International Republican Institute, said his organization had teams from 20 countries, including 12 in sub–Saharan Africa, deployed across Mozambique. 

Masra praised the democratic spirit of Mozambicans but said his teams had reservations about the electoral process. 

“Citizens were not deterred from exercising their right to determine their future,” he said. “Our observations show delayed accreditation for observers and party agents, late changes to electoral laws and the misuse of state resources during the campaign. These issues raised concerns about public confidence in the process and independence of institutions.”

Masra said he hopes that Mozambicans can address the issues to strengthen their democratic institutions. 

Now Mozambique awaits the results from this, the country’s seventh general elections since the advent of multiparty democracy 30 years ago.   The first official results from the National Electoral Council could come as early as Saturday. 
…

…

YAOUNDE, cameroon — Cameroon has outlawed any discussion about the health of 91-year-old President Paul Biya, a letter shared by the interior ministry said, after Biya’s prolonged absence fueled widespread speculation he was unwell.

Earlier this week, the authorities put out statements saying the president was on a private visit to Geneva and in good health, dismissing reports he had fallen ill as “pure fantasy.”

In the letter to regional governors dated October 9, Interior Minister Paul Atanga Nji said discussing the president’s health was a matter of national security.

From now on, “any debate in the media about the president’s condition is therefore strictly prohibited. Offenders will face the full force of the law,” Nji said.

He ordered the governors to set up units to monitor broadcasts on private media channels, as well as social networks.

Cocoa and oil-producing Cameroon, which has had just two presidents since independence from France and Britain in the early 1960s, is likely to face a messy succession crisis if Biya became too ill to remain in office or died.

Cameroon’s media regulator, the National Communication Council, could not immediately be reached for comment.

The move faced criticism as an act of state censorship.

“The president is elected by Cameroonians and it’s just normal that they worry about his whereabouts,” said Hycenth Chia, a Yaounde-based journalist and talk show host on privately owned television Canal2 International.

“We see liberal discussions on the health of Joe Biden and other world leaders, but here it is a taboo,” he told Reuters.

Press freedom advocacy group Committee to Protect Journalists said it was gravely concerned.

“Trying to hide behind national security on such a major issue of national importance is outrageous,” said Angela Quintal, head of the CPJ’s Africa Program.

Biya has not been seen in public since attending a China-Africa forum in Beijing in early September. His failure to appear as scheduled at a summit in France last weekend further stoked public discussion about his health. 
…

Kenya’s national airline is producing diesel fuel made from plastic waste. Authorities say the goal is to provide cheaper fuel and to reduce plastic waste pollution. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi. Camera: Jimmy Makhulo.
…

Yaounde, Cameroon — The condition and exact whereabouts of Cameroon’s President Paul Biya remain unclear Thursday, two days after the government was forced to announce Biya was alive in Geneva, Switzerland, in response to rumors on social media that he had died.

Biya has not been seen in public for more than five weeks, since he attended the Africa-China forum in Beijing in early September. 

Cameroon’s Territorial Administration minister Paul Atanga Nji told residents of Massock, a village near the Atlantic coast, that Biya dispatched him to provide humanitarian assistance to victims of floods sweeping across the central African state.  

Nji, like many Cameroon senior state functionaries, told civilians that Biya is in good health, and that information circulating on social and mainstream media about the 91-year-old president’s death is being spread by people who want to see Cameroon devolve into chaos. 

“The president of our nation Cameroon cannot be dead,” Gregory Mewano, a member of Biya’s Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement party, said Thursday on Cameroon state radio. “And you find the prime minister in Germany with a whole entourage, the minister of interior taking care of internal politics and the minister of public works inspecting projects.” 

Officials say Biya will return to Cameroon soon, but they have not said when. There was no indication he was unwell in Beijing. He was scheduled to attend a meeting of French and African leaders in Paris afterward, but he did not appear, and no reason was given for his absence.  

Cameroon opposition and civil society groups say they are concerned about Biya’s absence and health, and ask government officials to present Biya to civilians instead of simply saying he is alive. 

With elections only a year away, some groups say it is time to begin thinking about a new, much younger candidate who could take the country forward. 

“We have had to make it clear to both national and international opinions that a number of opposition political parties are … consulting with regards to the happenings of Cameroon, and this rumor [about Biya’s death] is not an exception,” said Michael Ngwese Eke Ekosso, president of the opposition United Socialist Democratic Party. “Decisions will be arrived at with regards to the upcoming presidential elections.” 

Some opposition political parties have proposed uniting behind Akere Muna, an English-speaking anti-corruption lawyer and good governance crusader, as a candidate in the October 2025 presidential election.  

Muna, who is 72, said if elected, he would launch a three-year transitional period to lift Cameroon from Biya’s iron-fisted 42-year rule.   

“Our profound reflection is that a non-renewable transition is essential,” Muna said. “The vision we are proposing is to strengthen democracy and governance, adopt a new constitution that incarnates the present and future aspirations of the people of Cameroon, and promote free and fair elections.”  

If elected, Muna would be Cameroon’s first leader from the western regions where English is the primary language.  

His supporters say having a president from that area may help end a seven-year insurgency by English-speaking armed groups, who say English-speakers in Cameroon are marginalized by the French-speaking majority.  

Opposition parties blame Biya for not being able to solve the crisis. 

Meanwhile, Cameroonians of all parties wait anxiously for concrete signs that Biya is alive and will be returning to his country.
…

The power of simple prayer to heal illness is not clear, according to scientists, and is difficult to study. Whatever your faith, when you’re sick, you should seek treatment from a doctor. But in Nigeria, some people choose spiritual healers and miracle cures over orthodox medicine and hospitals. That creates some dangerous situations. Timothy Obiezu reports from Abuja.
…

…

Harare, zimbabwe — The international human rights organization Amnesty International says three sub-Saharan African countries considering ending the death penalty should do it now and pave the way for others around the world to follow in their footsteps.

There hasn’t been an execution in Gambia, Kenya or Zimbabwe in over a decade, Amnesty has said, and all three nations have commuted multiple death sentences during that time.

Lucia Masuka, head of Amnesty in Zimbabwe, said most countries in the world are moving away from the death penalty, and she urged African countries to follow suit.

“It’s time for all countries to move away from this cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment once and for all,” Masuka said. “Zimbabwe’s president himself was sentenced to death for terrorism, as a young man, due to his involvement in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle. He narrowly avoided execution. He was below the age of 21 at the time, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison instead.

“The president knows what it is like to be facing the death penalty, and he now has the opportunity to ensure that no one else goes through that.”

Addressing Parliament this month, President Emmerson  Mnangagwa stuck to his 2017 promise that he would not allow the death penalty to stand in Zimbabwe.

“Parliament has an obligation to expedite the enactment of all bills that, for one reason or another, are outstanding from previous sessions,” he said. “You can carry the burden.” Bills relating to death penalty abolition “should be passed.”

Casten Matewu, a legislator from the country’s main opposition party, the Citizens Coalition for Change, and a member of the justice, legal and parliamentary affairs committee, said Mnangagwa should not be worried about the death penalty abolition bill.

“I am for the abolition of the death penalty, and this must be abolished before December,” Matewu said. “This is going to sail through seamlessly through Parliament, because there is a majority of parliamentarians, both from both sides of the house, who are actually in support of this bill.”

But not everyone agrees. Zachariah Choga, an attorney who formerly practiced in South Africa and is now practicing law in Harare, said the death penalty “should not be abolished.”

“I’ve had the privilege to practice in the South African legal system,” he said. “If you look at statistics since 1994, when the death penalty was abolished in South Africa, the increase has been a super-increase in heinous crimes, violent crimes and crimes of passion. So I’m actually of the opinion that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime. I think the fear of one losing their life can assist, or can be a deterrent, when one considers committing a crime.”

Amnesty International’s Masuka has a different opinion.

“Countries that still retain the death penalty in their laws often resort to the death penalty, believing the punishment can make their people and communities safer,” she said. “However, that is a misconception. The death penalty does not have a unique, deterrent effect, and it violates the right to life, as proclaimed in the universal declaration of human rights. The small minority of countries that insist on using this punishment must move with the times and abolish the death penalty once and for all.”

According to Amnesty International, 24 countries across sub-Saharan Africa have abolished the death penalty for all crimes, while two countries have abolished it for ordinary crimes only. Zimbabwe’s last known execution was in 2005, though courts continue to impose death sentences. All of the condemned were sentenced to life imprisonment by Mnangagwa’s amnesty in April this year.
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Addis Ababa, ethiopia — The head of the U.N. International Organization for Migration, or IOM, is calling for safe migration to and from the Gulf countries as the dangerous eastern Horn of Africa route claims more lives.

The so-called eastern route runs from the Horn of Africa to Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf by way of Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia and Yemen. Migrant workers, mainly from Ethiopia but also from other East African countries, travel over the route in search of jobs and economic opportunities.

At least 48 people died and 75 others were missing or presumed dead after smugglers forced migrants off two boats on October 1 in the Red Sea, off the coast of Djibouti. Almost all of the migrants were Ethiopians.

Speaking at the IOM’s regional review of the Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration held Wednesday in Ethiopia, Director-General Amy Pope said more people were being harmed on the eastern route than on any other migration route in the world, though it does not get a lot of attention.

“What it demonstrates is that we need to build up safe and regular ways for people to move because we know, for example, within the Gulf, there are tremendous opportunities for people to go and live and work, whether they’re going in low-skilled sectors or they’re going in higher-skilled sectors,” she said, commenting on the recent deaths off the Djibouti coast.

“There should be no reason for people to have to move through a smuggler, through a trafficker, a route that will subject them to exploitation and often abuse,” she said.

Pushed into the sea

Frantz Celestin, IOM regional director for East, Horn and Southern Africa,  told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service that smugglers forced migrants on two fully loaded boats to jump into the sea about 3 a.m. on October 1.

In an email, Celestin said the first boat, which had two pilots, was carrying 100 migrants voluntarily returning from Yemen to Djibouti who had paid for and planned their trip.

“The two pilots forced them off the boat, even though they had not reached the shore. There were 99 migrants who survived, and one woman died. The pilots were able to flee the arrival of the coast guard and return to Yemen,” he said.

The second boat, with three pilots, had 220 migrants on board who were forced to return from Yemen to Djibouti. They were being brought back either from prison or from several other places in Yemen, Celestin said. Two or three of the migrants were returning voluntarily.

“They forced, pushed or threw the migrants into the sea far from the shore. The pilots abandoned their boat and fled by land,” Celestin said. “The Djiboutian coast guard brought many survivors from the sea point back to shore.”

One of the survivors, who did not want to be identified for safety reasons, told VOA Horn of Africa that the pilots asked them to “get out.”

“They asked us to get out of the boat into the seawater,” the survivor said, adding that the Yemeni pilot told them how to get to land. “But all of us could not make it as it was dark and lack of swimming experience.”

“We are peaceful people who want to work and help our families back home,” a second survivor said.

Root causes

At the regional review, Pope called on the international community to address the root causes of migration, including conflicts, development and climate shocks.

“The drivers of migration are really complex; some of it is about peace. We see, for example, the situation in Sudan, where there are millions of people who have been pushed out of their homes. The solution, the root cause of that, is the conflict, and until there’s peace in Sudan, then people will continue to move,” she said.

“In other cases, it’s the impact of poverty and the lack of economic opportunity for people at home, and the answer to that is about development and governance,” Pope said, adding that countries need to assume responsibility and address climate change, which she identified as one of the drivers of migration.

“On the one hand, it means that governments need to take seriously their obligations to mitigate the impact of climate change, but importantly, that is just not going to be enough, because we know people are being forced to move now,” she said.

“So, working with communities to adapt to climate change and ensuring there are resources to help people who’ve already been displaced by climate change will be critical moving forward.”

Pope urged governments to work together to ensure people vulnerable to exploitation — especially people who are being recruited by smugglers and traffickers — can migrate safely and obtain the information they need to access a regular pathway for migration.

This story originated in VOA’s Horn of Africa Service.
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Nairobi — Kenya’s National Assembly has impeached the country’s deputy president over accusations of corruption and abuse of office. Lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to remove Rigathi Gachagua from office in the vote Tuesday night. The fate of the deputy president now rests in the hands of the Senate. 

The process to consider removal of Kenya’s deputy president from office moved to the Senate Wednesday after parliamentarians approved a motion to do so Tuesday night.

Ahead of the vote, embattled deputy president Rigathi Gachagua and his allies presented his defense to the National Assembly for more than 90 minutes.

But the lawmakers were not swayed, and 281 of them approved a motion to remove Gachagua from office. Forty-four others voted against the motion, and one abstained.

Gachagua was accused of acquiring properties through corrupt means, though he argued the assets belonged to his late brother.  He is also accused of practicing ethnic politics and acting to undermine the government.

The impeachment comes after Gachagua’s fell out with President William Ruto.

The deputy president has denied all the allegations against him, calling them outrageous and saying they are propaganda meant to tarnish his name.

Political commentator Martin Andati said the way in which Gachagua works with other politicians and the people cost him his job.

“His fate is sealed. He antagonized the MPs, he antagonized the Senate by talking badly about the chambers and the speakers, and generally, he is not a pro-people person. He has poor people management skills,” he said.

Some members of parliament, like Robert Mbui, who is also deputy leader of the minority, were against the impeachment. He said the house should concentrate on public issues instead of debating one man.

“The cost of living has gone too high, people have no jobs, Mr. Speaker. Those are the things that this house should passionately deal with, but for a whole day, even the last two or three weeks to deal with one matter, I think we are losing direction. It’s important that we deal with things that are affecting our people,” he said.

In the past four months, Kenya has witnessed a wave of protests aimed at President Ruto’s government over allegations of corruption by some politicians and government officers. Kenyans also protested high taxes and parliament’s alleged failure to act independently from the president.

Some politicians have accused the deputy president of helping to organize anti-government protests, an accusation Gachagua denies.

Kenyan political expert Harman Manyora said the parliament is setting a dangerous precedent that threatens the country’s political future and ethnic cohesion.

“[It] should not surprise us. In the future, we can have governments fall in the manner in which governments come and go in parliamentary democracies like India, Israel, the UK, and Italy, which I doubt we can withstand. From a political front, this is also a country with a lot of flashpoints. It is an ethnically charged country, and a move like this has the potential of negatively impacting the country by causing division, and you can never know where it can lead us,” said Manyora.

The debate and voting about Gachagua’s conduct will continue next week. After that, some believe the issue may go to court, where he could seek legal help to either keep his job or clear his name of the allegations against him.
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Maputo — Mozambicans vote Wednesday between the party that has dominated their country’s political landscape for nearly 50 years or something different. Whoever wins will inherit major challenges, including an insurgency in the oil and gas-rich area of Cabo Delgado.

Voters braved morning rain in Maputo to line up as early as 7:00 am to cast their ballots.

They have four candidates to choose from; Daniel Chapo, the ruling Frelimo party leader; Ossufo Momade, the candidate of one main opposition party that came in second in the last presidential election; Lutero Simango, the leader of the Mozambique Democratic Movement and Venancio Mondlane, an independent who seems popular among youth.

Aslak Ore, a researcher on Mozambique at the Christian Michelsen Institute in Norway, said that while supporters of Mondlane have shown excitement, he still faces stiff challenges.

“There’s been a lot of enthusiasm about his candidature, however he doesn’t have the electoral organization of either Renamo or Frelimo. The question is if he’s going to be able to convert that obvious enthusiasm among the population… into the votes,” he said.

At a polling place at the Josina Machel secondary school in Maputo, 22-year-old Augusto Paz said he waited about an hour, but he had to make sure to vote.

“As a young Mozambican man, I feel like this is important because it might be the choice that would change things in our country. I am talking about healthcare, education, and development in general,” he said.

After casting his ballot, Sergio Pantie, a member of parliament and Frelimo supporter, told us he is confident his party will win.

“People continue to love and highly consider Frelimo as an option to continue running this country… the results will prove, once again, that Frelimo is loved and esteemed by the Mozambican people,” he said.

Two of the candidates, Momade and Simango, voted at the same polling place where outgoing President Filipe Nyusi casts his ballot.

Former St. Lucia prime minister Dr. Kenny Anthony, who arrived in Maputo on October 2nd, heads the Commonwealth International Observers’ delegation. He told VOA his group was still visiting other polling stations and getting reports from other parts of the country. Meanwhile…

“There seems to be some optimism that this is going to be a better administered election than previous elections. Whether that will be the case, I don’t know… we’ve just visited this polling station, and all seem to have gone on very well here,” he said.

Whoever wins these elections will inherit many challenges starting with the economy and debt repayments, Ore said.

“It’s between 12 and 14 billion dollars in external debt. Recently they have been able to pay back much of that debt, but they have done so by way of accumulating a lot of domestic debt. The state takes up loans from the banking system and institutions locally, so they are accumulating debt at the same time as they are paying back the external debt,” said Ore.

In addition to debt challenges, the government has been battling an insurgency in the gas- and oil-rich Cabo Delgado province, where about 4,000 people have been killed and about 1 million displaced since 2017, hindering multibillion-dollar oil and gas projects.

Some countries, including Rwanda, have stepped in recently to help quell the insurgency — an act that Adriano Nuvunga, a social activist and director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Mozambique, disagrees with.

“Mozambique, big as it is, massive as it is… 33 million people… but it needs to import soldiers from Rwanda to protect its sovereignty… Rwanda, a tiny country of 13 million people to protect us here,” said Nuvunga.

Ruling party candidate Chapo said if he wins, securing the Cabo Delgado area will be his top priority because without security, there is no development he recently told supporters.

Nuvunga said while Frelimo was seen as a liberation movement 50 years ago, times have changed.

“The people here, they have nothing to do with what people did five decades ago. It’s about today; are you able to put in place credible policies and put in place a credible system of governance that would work for the people,” said Nuvunga.

More than 17 million people are registered to vote.
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Yaounde, Cameroon — Cameroon government officials said the central African state’s 91-year-old president, Paul Biya, is in good health, contrary to information circulating on social and mainstream media.

Biya has not been seen in public since his official visit to China more than 1 month ago. Citizens say they want proof that their longtime leader is well.

Biya is in excellent health, according to a statement issued Tuesday by Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, director of the Civil Cabinet.  

Ayolo said Biya is in Geneva, Switzerland, where he has been granting audiences and working for the development of Cameroon.   

The statement comes after social media reports on Tuesday said Biya was dead but gave no details as to where and when the long-serving leader had died. 

Biya was last seen in Beijing over a month ago during a China-Africa leaders forum. In the meantime, some citizens said they do not believe Biya is alive.   

One of those is Gloria Wirkom, a businessperson in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.  

“He is our president, and if there is something wrong with him, we have the right to know,” she said. “So we are pleading with the government of Cameroon to let us know the health state [state of health] of our president.” 

Wirkom said she does not trust government officials’ declarations that Biya is in good health. Wirkom said she will believe Biya is alive only when she sees him.

On Cameroon State TV, government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi said he unequivocally affirms that the rumors of Biya’s death are pure imagination. 

Sadi said the day after the China-Africa summit, Biya stayed briefly in Europe, and that wherever he might be, Biya is attentive to the well-being of Cameroonians. 

Akongnwi Neba, a merchant, said it is wrong for the government to wait until a rumor spreads before explaining where Biya is.  

“We are asking the government to prove to us where he [Biya] is,” said Neba. “We need to know his whereabouts, whether he is alive or dead. It is our right as citizens of the country to know where our president is.” 

Cameroon officials have not said whether Biya will appear in public in Geneva. VOA could not independently confirm whether Biya was in the Swiss city.    

Biya is the oldest leader in the world. He has ruled Cameroon for more than four decades, and his supporters have been holding public rallies asking him to be a candidate in elections expected in October 2025. Biya has not said whether he will run for president again.  
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washington — Authorities in Burkina Faso on Monday suspended Voice of America for three months over comments made by one of the network’s journalists. 

The junta also temporarily banned local news outlets from using any international media reports, the reports said.  

Burkina Faso’s superior council for communication, also known as CSC, accused VOA of demoralizing troops in Burkina Faso and nearby Mali in a broadcast on September 19, according to media reports. The interview was later aired by a privately owned local radio station, according to Reuters.  

In the communique that banned local news outlets from using any international media reports, the CSC said it noted the “dissemination of information of a malicious and biased nature” by national outlets using international media reports.  

In the communique, which did not specifically mention VOA, the CSC said such reports tend to “insidiously apologize for terrorism.”  

The phone number listed online for the CSC was not working. VOA attempted to request comment via an online form on the CSC website, but it returned an error message.  

VOA and its parent organization, the U.S. Agency for Global Media, did not immediately reply to requests for comment. Burkina Faso’s Foreign Ministry did not reply to VOA’s email requesting comment for this story.  

Earlier suspension  

This would not be the first time VOA has been suspended in Burkina Faso.  

Authorities suspended VOA and the BBC in April following the broadcast of news stories about a Human Rights Watch report accusing the Burkinabe army of abuses against civilian populations.

“VOA stands by its reporting about Burkina Faso and intends to continue to fully and fairly cover events in that country,” VOA’s then-acting director John Lippman said in a statement about the April suspension.  

Military leaders in Burkina Faso seized power in a coup in September 2022. Since then, media watchdogs have documented a decline in media freedoms, with media outlets suspended and foreign correspondents expelled.  

In 2021, Burkina Faso ranked 37 out of 180 countries on the World Press Freedom Index, where 1 shows the best media environment. This year, Burkina Faso ranked 86.  
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GENEVA   — Human rights experts warn the human rights situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, already troubled for decades, is on a downward spiral again as armed clashes, attacks on schools and hospitals, sexual violence and other forms of abuse escalate. 

Kicking off a discussion of the DRC at the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged the international community to pay more attention to the plight of Congolese civilians victimized by a “volatile mix of escalating violence, regional and international interests, exploitative businesses and weak rule of law.”

He said the number of victims of human rights violations is growing, with armed groups fighting in the eastern provinces responsible for most of these violations, including “deadly attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals.” 

He said sexual violence is spreading despite efforts to prevent and investigate cases.

“The armed groups take people prisoners, subject women and girls to sexual slavery.  Many of them have been killed after being raped. These cases, of course, have not all been reported. This is atrocious,” he said.

“Human rights violations committed by the defense and security forces during their military operations against armed groups, also remain of concern,” he said noting that hate speech and other incitement to discrimination and violence “are fueling the conflict and increasing political tensions across the country.”

Türk appealed to countries of influence to use their power to ensure the fighting stops, stating that “any role played by Rwanda in supporting the M23 in North Kivu, and by any other country supporting armed groups active in the DRC, must end.” 

Responding to Türk’s comments, DRC Minister of Human Rights Chantal Shambu  Mwavita said her government has made great progress in protecting human rights, in spite of challenges posed by the war in the east. 

Alluding to Rwanda, she pointed her finger at so-called “negative forces” supporting the armed groups from the outside. She “called on the international community to condemn these actions strongly and to impose targeted sanctions on Rwanda for its destabilizing role.”   

Mwavita said the war in the eastern provinces is closely linked to the seizure and illegal exploitation of her country’s natural resources by Rwanda and other countries. 

She also demanded the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of Rwandan troops from DRC territory.  

North Kivu and surrounding provinces of the eastern DRC have been wracked by violence for decades, as armed groups battle for control of the region’s rich natural resources.

Rwanda has denied supporting the M23 rebels, with Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe renewing that denial on Saturday. The minister, who was attending a two-day “Francophonie” summit in Paris, accused his Congolese counterpart of refusing to sign “an agreed deal” to resolve the M23 rebel conflict in the DRC.

On Tuesday, Rwanda’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, James Ngango, also expressed concern about the escalation of abuse and human rights violations in the eastern DRC, “particularly sexual violation and violation against children in the region affected by armed conflict and inter community conflicts,” he said.

He said Rwanda remains committed to dialogue and the regional peace processes. He said, “No military solution can address the root causes of the conflict in eastern DRC.”

It is unclear whether the DRC’s demand for the withdrawal of Rwandan forces will be met, nor is it clear if and when MONUSCO, the U.N.’s peacekeeping force, will withdraw from the country as demanded by the government of Felix Tshisekedi.

The U.N. says the peacekeepers, who were supposed to leave by the end of the year, apparently have been given a reprieve. Several thousand soldiers remain in North and South Kivu and Ituri provinces.

Bintou Keita, special representative of the secretary-general in the DRC and head of MONUSCO, made little reference to the potential consequences for the stability of the DRC once U.N. peacekeepers leave the country.

However, she painted a worrying picture of human rights in the DRC due to “the deteriorating security situation” in the eastern provinces from attacks on civilians, “causing loss of human lives and mass displacements of peoples towards Kinshasa and Kisangani.”

“The M23, in the quest for territorial gains, extended its hold on territories towards Lubero Kanyabayonga, which was captured in late June after intense fighting. Hospitals and IDP sites were deliberately targeted by M23. Several civilians fled their homes, further exacerbating the humanitarian crisis,” she said.

She affirmed that MONUSCO “will continue to provide its support to the DRC … in strict conformity with the U.N. human rights due diligence policy, including support for the establishment of the human rights compliance framework.”

Keita added, “The return of peace to the DRC will come about through pooled military and non-military efforts to find lasting solutions, both national and regional.”

Conflict in the DRC has come at a high price. The United Nations said the country is struggling with twin humanitarian crises — an internal displacement crisis and a food crisis. It reports that 7.2 million people currently are internally displaced, and nearly 26 million face acute hunger.
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Washington — The United States on Tuesday announced sanctions against a senior leader in war-torn Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for his role in obtaining weapons for the paramilitary organization.

Tens of thousands of people have died and millions have been displaced since war broke out in April 2023 between Sudan’s army and the RSF after their head generals refused a plan to integrate.

Algoney Hamdan Daglo Musa was sanctioned “for his involvement in RSF efforts to procure weapons and other military materiel that have enabled the RSF’s ongoing operations in Sudan,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

His actions have fueled war in Sudan “and brutal RSF atrocities against civilians, which have included war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing,” Miller said.

The U.S. Treasury said that as a result of such sanctions “all property and interests in property of the designated persons… that are in the United States or in the possession or control of US persons are blocked and must be reported.”

The United States has led diplomatic efforts to stop the fighting in Sudan but has seen limited success and leverage, with RSF commanders unlikely to hold major assets in the West that would be affected by sanctions.
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Mbabane, Eswatini — The main opposition party in Eswatini is compiling a “hit list” of game rangers in response to what it says are state-sanctioned murders of suspected poachers. Communities have been urged to assist in identifying rangers involved in the killings. As tensions mount over poaching-related deaths in Eswatini, the fear of violence looms large. 

Although there is no definitive count of suspected poachers killed in Eswatini’s game parks, the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs estimates that dozens are slain each year. 

However, Eswatini’s opposition parties allege hundreds of families have been impacted by these deaths and have called for a compilation of a game ranger “hit list.” 

Velephi Mamba, treasurer general of main opposition party PUDEMO, one of the groups calling for possible violence against the rangers, said the news of the list of game rangers that was announced a week ago still stands. In fact, he said, it’s an ongoing issue. Mamba said his party request that all Swazis compile a list of the names of game rangers that are killing our people.

Amid the growing controversy, legislators and human rights activists in Eswatini recently demanded an urgent review of the Game Act of 1991. They say the law allows game rangers in the southern African kingdom to shoot suspected poachers in national parks with little or no consequence.

Human rights lawyer Sibusiso Nhlabatsi is among those calling for revision of the law. He said game rangers need to make greater efforts to arrest suspected poachers and bring them to court, rather than killing or torturing them.

“The game rangers themselves should understand that they should prioritize the use of non-lethal methods for the apprehension when dealing with suspected poachers,” Nhlabatsi said. “The use of excessive force, in my view, does not only violate human rights but also undermines the credibility of the conservation efforts.”

Mandla Motsa, a game ranger in Eswatini, defended his colleagues’ actions, saying there is an urgent need to protect endangered species in the parks from extinction, and that rangers face a formidable threat from well-armed poachers. There have been multiple reported incidents of rangers and poachers exchanging gunfire. 

“We are getting a lot of pressure from poachers who are always armed and attacking the rangers on duty, while we have got organizations who feel like the poachers should be allowed to do whatever they are doing, which is against the work the rangers are doing,” Motsa said.

Meanwhile, Eswatini government spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo condemned the calls for a “hit list” and urged citizens to shun requests to provide names. He emphasized the importance of following due process and the rule of law for achieving justice.

“Nobody should heed to such calls because they are going to lead into an escalation of violence in our communities around the country, and we know that that is the kind of atmosphere they want to create around the kingdom of Eswatini,” Nxumalo said.

Legislators have begun discussing reforms to the Game Act of 1991 but so far there have been no amendments proposed, and no votes scheduled as of yet.
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