Rescuers in Morocco searched Monday for any remaining survivors from the powerful earthquake that killed more than 2,100 people.

The government said search teams from Britain, Spain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates were joining the effort to dig through the rubble in villages in the Atlas Mountains.

The magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck Friday night, injuring more than 2,400 people in addition to the dead. The U.S. Geological Survey said the epicenter of the quake was 72 kilometers southwest of Marrakech.

The United Nations estimated that 300,000 people were affected by the quake, which was the most powerful to hit Morocco in a century. Rescue efforts were slow, and some Moroccans complained on social networks that the government wasn’t allowing more rescue workers into the country to help.

U.S. President Joe Biden told reporters Sunday that his administration stood ready to provide any necessary assistance to Morocco.

Those left homeless by the quake’s destruction slept outside for a third consecutive night Sunday.

King Mohammed VI ordered three days of national mourning starting Sunday as flags were lowered across the country. The army mobilized specialized search and rescue teams, and the king ordered water, food rations and shelter to be provided to those who lost their homes.

The king called for mosques across the kingdom to hold prayers Sunday for the victims, many of whom were buried Saturday amid the frenzy of rescue work nearby.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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A 2022 film highlighting the plight of a person with albinism in Zambia is streaming on Netflix. “Can You See Us” is based on the true story of a boy who becomes a successful musician despite obstacles caused by his genetic condition. Kathy Short reports from Lusaka. VOA footage by Richard Kille.
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Somali government forces have repulsed an al-Shabab attack on a key military base in the southern Lower Shabelle region. 

Hundreds of militants attacked government forces in the key town of Awdhegle on the bank of the Shabelle River early Sunday, officials said.  

The attack sparked heavy fighting between al-Shabab fighters and government forces who have been controlling the town since August 2019 when they removed the militants.

Awdhegle is a strategic town where government forces protect a key bridge that officials say is key to preventing the smuggling of al-Shabab vehicles carrying explosives into the capital, Mogadishu. 

Residents told VOA Somali that the militants “entered” parts of the base before government forces beat them back. 

The governor of the region, Mohamed Ibrahim Barre, told VOA Somali that the militants used explosives in attacking the base. 

“They attacked the town from two directions – the north and west,” he said. 

“The fighting lasted for almost two hours.” 

In a statement, the federal government of Somalia said more than 60 militants were killed. Government officials circulated video clips purportedly showing the bodies of alleged al-Shabab fighters killed in the fighting, but the number of bodies shown appeared to be smaller than the figure mentioned in the official statement. 

Al-Shabab said it killed 59 government soldiers. The al-Shabab statement also acknowledged the loss of seven fighters. Casualty figures have not been independently verified. 

Al-Shabab said Sunday’s incident was part of a “broader campaign of coordinated attacks” against government forces, and the fifth in two weeks. 

One of those five attacks took place in the village of Cowsweyne in Galmudug state where dozens of government soldiers were killed on August 26. The attack forced government troops to retreat from a number of front-line towns in Galmudug. 

Government forces repulsed militants in the other three incidents. On September 1, al-Shabab militants attacked the agricultural town of Qoryoley, west of Awdhegle, briefly entering it. Local forces regained full control after a 90-minute gun battle.
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Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced Sunday that Ethiopia has completed the filling of its Grand Renaissance Dam on the Nile, a source of regional tensions with downstream Egypt and Sudan.

“It is with great pleasure that I announce the successful completion of the fourth and final filling of the Renaissance Dam,” Abiy said in a message on X, formerly Twitter, which comes as negotiation between the three countries resumed August 27.

“There was a lot of challenge, we were many times dragged to go backwards. We had an internal challenge and external pressure. We’ve reached (this stage) by coping together with God,” he said.

“I believe that we will finish what we have planned next,” he said. 

Considered vital by Addis Ababa, the massive $4.2-billion dam has been at the center of a regional dispute ever since Ethiopia broke ground on the project in 2011, with Egypt fearing it will slash its share of Nile water.

The current talks, which resumed after nearly two and a half years, aim to reach an agreement that “takes into account the interests and concerns of the three countries,” Egyptian irrigation minister Hani Sewilam said, urging “an end to unilateral measures.”
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Niger’s military regime, which took power in July, accused France of deploying forces in several West African countries with a view to “military intervention.” 

“France continues to deploy its forces in several ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) countries as part of preparations for an aggression against Niger, which it is planning in collaboration with this community organization,” regime spokesman Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane said in a statement broadcast on national television on Saturday. 

Relations with France, Niger’s former colonial power, degraded swiftly after Paris stood by ousted President Mohamed Bazoum following the July coup. 

The Sahel state is also embroiled in a standoff with the West African bloc ECOWAS, which has threatened to intervene militarily if diplomatic pressure to return Bazoum to office fails. 

On August 3, Niger’s coup leaders renounced several military cooperation agreements with France, which has about 1,500 soldiers stationed in the country as part of a wider fight against jihadis. 

On Tuesday, a Paris defense ministry source told AFP the French army was in talks with the military regime over withdrawing elements of its presence in Niger. 

On September 1, the regime said its chief of staff had “received the commander of French forces in the Sahel … to discuss a plan for the disengagement of French military capabilities.” 
…

A rare, powerful earthquake struck Morocco, sending people racing into the streets and toppling buildings in mountainous villages and ancient cities not built to withstand such force.
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An airstrike in a town in Somalia caused several casualties, including children, said residents and authorities, while three members of an al-Qaida-linked extremist group were killed.

The U.S. military in a statement Friday said, “Unfortunately, civilians were injured and killed” in the vicinity of a military operation by Somali forces in El-Lahelay village Wednesday.

The U.S. said that it evacuated injured civilians at the Somali government’s request, but that American forces had not conducted airstrikes or been at the scene of the operation.

The U.S. Africa Command did not respond to questions that included the number of civilians killed and injured. The United States for years has conducted airstrikes in support of Somali forces combating the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab group.

“The claim being spread by al-Shabab that U.S. forces caused the unfortunate harm to civilians is false,” the statement said. The U.S. in the past has acknowledged killing civilians with airstrikes.

Accounts by witnesses and local authorities of Wednesday’s events varied.

Amal Ali, a relative, told The Associated Press that an airstrike targeted a vehicle belonging to al-Shabab when it was passing near the family home in El-Garas town in Galmudug state. A grandmother and five of her grandchildren were killed, she said.

The children’s father, Dahir Ahmed, in a brief phone call confirmed the incident but said he could not immediately give details.

“It was an American airstrike,” Abdifatah Ali Halane, secretary-general of the El-Garas administration, told the AP. “They’ve been providing crucial aerial support throughout our operations against extremists in Galmudug state.”

He said the airstrike killed three people, including two suspected members of al-Shabab, and injured five people, including four children.

Halane said Somali forces quickly came for the wounded, who were evacuated to the capital, Mogadishu, for medical treatment.

Somalia’s deputy information minister, Abdirahman Adala, told journalists that three al-Shabab members were killed in the operation by Somali forces. But he said extremists had placed explosive materials in a nearby home that killed civilians.

Somalia’s government last year launched what the president called “total war” on al-Shabab, which controls parts of rural central and southern Somalia and makes millions of dollars through “taxation” of residents and extortion of businesses.
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The African Union has been granted permanent member status in the Group of 20 top world economies, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Saturday, adding momentum to his drive to give a greater voice to the Global South as host of this year’s annual summit.

The announcement during Modi’s opening speech for the weekend summit of the G20 comes as growing global rifts and the absence of key players threatened to make reaching consensus on the thorniest issues elusive.

There was widespread support, however, for adding the AU to the G20, making it the second regional bloc to become a permanent member after the European Union.

Modi rapped his gavel three times before announcing the move to applause in the room.

He shook hands with the current AU chair, Comoros President Azali Assoumani, and embraced him warmly before inviting him to sit at the table.

“I invite the representative of the African Union to take his place as a permanent member of the G20,” Modi said.

Modi addressed the delegates from behind a nameplate that listed his country not as India but as “Bharat,” an ancient Sanskrit name championed by his Hindu nationalist supporters that his government has been pushing at the G20.

Modi has made giving voice to the Global South a centerpiece of this year’s summit, and adding the AU at the outset was a strong step in that direction.

He told leaders that they must find “concrete solutions” to the widespread challenges that he said stemmed from the “ups and downs in the global economy, the north and the south divide, the chasm between the east and the west,” and other issues like terrorism, cyber security, health and water security.

With much of the world’s focus on the Russian war against Ukraine, India has been working to try and direct more attention to addressing the needs of the developing world at the summit — though it is impossible to decouple many issues, such as food and energy security, from the European conflict.

Modi did make a presumed reference to the war in his opening remarks, though he avoided mentioning the names of any countries involved.

“Friends, after COVID-19, the world is facing problems of trust deficit,” he said. “The war has further deepened this trust deficit. If we can beat COVID, we can also triumph over the trust deficit caused by the war,” he said.

As the summit opened, at least a fifth of G20 heads were not in New Delhi. The leaders of Russia and China opted not to come, ensuring no tough face-to-face conversations with their American and European counterparts over multiple disputes, most acutely the war in Ukraine. Spain’s president couldn’t make it due to COVID-19, and Mexico’s president decided to miss it, too.

A series of preparatory meetings leading to this weekend’s meeting failed to produce agreements due to increasingly fractious rifts among the world’s global powers, largely due to differences over Ukraine. Ending the summit without such a statement would underscore how strained relations have become and tarnish the image Modi has tried to cultivate of India as a global problem solver.

Participants arriving in the Indian capital were greeted by streets cleared of traffic, and graced with fresh flowers and seemingly endless posters featuring slogans and Modi’s face. Security was intensely tight, with most journalists and the public kept far from the summit venue.

Along with the addition of the AU as a permanent member, other major topics on the agenda were issues critical to developing nations, including alternative fuels like hydrogen, resource efficiency, developing a common framework for digital public infrastructure and food security.

Countries were also expected to address reforming development banks like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to help make funds more accessible for lower- and middle-income countries as they seek solutions to combat climate change, among other things.

India’s lead G20 negotiator, Amitabh Kant, told reporters that boosting climate action and climate financing were key priorities, particularly for developing and emerging markets.

“It was critical that we focused on multilateral organizations and how to redefine and reform them,” he said. “Our view was that Global South, developing countries, emerging markets must be able to get long-term financing.”

With so many other issues on the table, Human Rights Watch urged the G20 leaders not to let international disunity distract them at the summit.

“Political differences should not deter agreements on critical issues impacting human rights such as the sovereign debt crises, social protection programs, food security, climate change, or internet freedom,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy director of the organization’s Asia division.

Ganguly added that members should not “shy away from openly discussing challenges like gender discrimination, racism and other entrenched barriers to equality, including with host India, where civil and political rights have sharply deteriorated under the Modi administration.”

The summit comes just days after Russian President Vladimir Putin said a landmark deal allowing Ukraine to export grain safely through the Black Sea will not be restored until Western nations meet his demands on Russia’s own agricultural exports.

The original deal had been brokered by the U.N. and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but Russia refused to extend it in July, complaining that a parallel agreement promising to remove obstacles to Russian exports of food and fertilizer hadn’t been honored.

Russia dispatched Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as its top representative to the G20. Erdogan himself was on hand in the Indian capital and others said ahead of the summit that they hoped to be able to find solutions, even as Russia’s military keeps up its attacks on Ukraine’s ports.

European Council President Charles Michel told reporters in New Delhi on Friday it was “scandalous” that Russia was blocking and attacking Ukrainian ports after terminating the grain deal.

“The Kremlin’s war is also unraveling lives far beyond Ukraine, including right here in South Asia,” he said. “Over 250 million people face acute food insecurity worldwide and by deliberately attacking Ukraine’s ports, the Kremlin is depriving them of the food they desperately need.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he hoped to marshal international resources to counteract the impact of Russia’s moves on the global food supply. His government has announced London will host a global food security summit in November in response to Moscow’s actions.

Alternatives could include land routes or taking grain out of Ukraine by river barge.

Sunak’s government has also said Royal Air Force aircraft will fly over the Black Sea as part of efforts to deter Russia from striking cargo ships transporting grain from Ukraine to developing countries.

Hundreds of Tibetan exiles held a protest far from the summit venue to condemn Chinese participation in the event and urge leaders to discuss Sino-Tibetan relations.

Before the meeting got formally under way, Modi met with U.S. President Joe Biden shortly after his arrival Friday evening.

White House aide Kurt Campbell told reporters afterward that there was an “undeniable warmth and confidence between the two leaders.”

Leaders of the U.S., India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were working to finalize a joint infrastructure deal involving ship and rail transit between India and the Middle East to Turkey and beyond, in hopes it could be announced in New Delhi during the summit.

Campbell called the emerging deal a potentially “earth-shattering” project and said that “the strongest supporter of this initiative is India.” In the past, Campbell said, India’s leaders have had “almost a knee jerk reaction” to resist such massive multilateral projects.

“It’s the last moment that’s when things come together or they don’t,” Campbell said. “With huge, enormous ambitious deals it always comes to this place.”

As Biden made his way to New Delhi, U.S. administration officials sought to play down that Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelenskyy wasn’t invited to address the G20.

The Ukrainian leader has made regular appearances, virtual and in-person, at such international forums since the start of the war more than 18 months ago to rally allies to remain committed to support Ukraine.
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A rare, powerful earthquake struck Morocco late Friday night, killing hundreds of people and damaging buildings from the historic city of Marrakech to villages in the Atlas Mountains.

Men, women and children stayed out in the streets, fearing aftershocks.

Morocco’s Interior Ministry said early Saturday that at least 296 people had died in the provinces near the quake. Additionally, 153 injured people were sent to hospitals for treatment. The ministry wrote that most damage occurred outside of cities and towns.

The head of the town of Talat N’Yaaqoub, Abderrahim Ait Daoud, told Moroccan news site 2M that several homes in towns in the Al Haouz region had partly or totally collapsed, and electricity and roads were cut off in some places.

He said authorities are working to clear roads in the province to allow passage for ambulances and aid to populations affected, but said large distances between mountain villages mean it will take time to learn the extent of the damage.

Moroccans posted videos showing buildings reduced to rubble and dust, and parts of the famous red walls that surround the old city in Marrakech, a UNESCO World Heritage site, damaged. Tourists and others posted videos of people screaming and evacuating restaurants in the city as throbbing club music played.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 when it hit at 11:11 p.m. (2211 GMT), with shaking that lasted several seconds. The U.S. agency reported a magnitude-4.9 aftershock hit 19 minutes later.

The USGS said the epicenter was 18 kilometers below the Earth’s surface, while Morocco’s seismic agency put it at 8 kilometers down. In either case, such shallow quakes are more dangerous.

The epicenter of Friday’s tremor was high in the Atlas Mountains, roughly 70 kilometers south of Marrakech. It was also near Toubkal, the highest peak in North Africa and Oukaimeden, a popular Moroccan ski resort.

Earthquakes are relatively rare in North Africa. Lahcen Mhanni, Head of the Seismic Monitoring and Warning Department at the National Institute of Geophysics, told 2M TV that the earthquake was “exceptional.”

“Mountainous regions in general do not produce earthquakes of this size,” he said. “It is the strongest earthquake recorded in the region.”

In 1960, a magnitude 5.8 tremor struck near the Moroccan city of Agadir and caused thousands of deaths.

The Agadir quake prompted changes in construction rules in Morocco, but many buildings, especially rural homes, are not built to withstand such tremors.

Friday’s quake was felt as far away as Portugal and Algeria, according to the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere and Algeria’s Civil Defense agency, which oversees emergency response.
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Experts say it is unlikely that regional leaders in Central Africa and the international community will be enthusiastic in calling for the  reinstatement of deposed Gabon leader Ali Bongo Ondimba.

Gabon’s military leaders announced Bongo’s release from house arrest Thursday, following an apparent coup on August 30. State-run media showed Bongo greeting officials as the military leaders announced that he was “free to travel” abroad.

On the same day, Gabon’s military leaders appointed Raymond Ndong Sima, an outspoken critic of the former president and a former opposition leader who ran against Bongo in this year’s elections, as interim prime minister. Sima, 68, is an economist who previously served as Bongo’s prime minister from 2012 to 2014.

Less than a week after the coup, the military leaders, calling themselves the Committee for the Transition and Restoration of Institutions, named General Brice Oligui Nguema, commander-in-chief of the Gabonese Republican Guard, as transitional head of state.

David Otto-Endeley, director of the Geneva Center for African Security and Strategic Studies, said that reactions to the leadership appointment from the regional bloc, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), might go only as far as a condemnation.

ECCAS criticized the military’s move a day after the coup, saying in a statement that it planned an “imminent” meeting of heads of state to determine how to respond. The regional bloc did not give a date.

“I think there’s no general desire in a democratic era to see leaders who run in perpetuity in power. This is more or less a dynasty” within “some kind of democratic institution,” Otto-Endeley told VOA’s English to Africa Service. “The international community will be a lot more careful as compared to countries like Niger, where it was clearly a democratically elected president that was overthrown.

“Gabon has been seen as some kind of a handover — from father to son and son to father.”

He said a rule introduced in July, less than two months before Gabon’s national elections, put the main opposition candidates — the Alternance 2023 alliance — at a “disadvantage” because it had not fielded candidates for parliamentary elections.

Otto-Endeley also noted that Saturday’s internet shutdown and a curfew in the aftermath of the election gave troubling signals.

“I think the signs were clearly written on the wall,” he said. “We’re experiencing another coup pandemic. It’s a replica of what we’ve experienced lately in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea and Sudan, but this time, the dynamics are quite different.”

End of dynastic rule

Otto-Endeley said he thought the Bongo dynasty, which has ruled the Central African state since 1967, coupled with the country’s lack of constitutional term limits, validated theories that Ali Bongo “had this coming.”

“The military has been used for regime protection in most of the dynasties that have stayed for long. And now, the military is seeing itself as the only hope that can liberate the country from this dynasty rule,” he said. “It seems the beast that the government has been using to attack the population is now eating its owners.”

Maja Bovcon, senior Africa analyst at the London-based risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, agreed that there was no interest on the global community’s part in seeking a return of Bongo to power.

“The international community and regional bodies are unlikely to go beyond condemning the coup and demanding the restoration of civilian rule,” she told VOA. “They are aware of the lack of public support for President Ali Bongo and the contentious conditions in which the latest elections were conducted.”

Bovcon said that “the putsch in Gabon, along with the spate of coups across the region, will put long-serving autocratic leaders on alert.”

Cameroonian President Paul Biya and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, have reportedly reshuffled their military’s leadership since Gabon’s coup. It is not clear whether the changes were connected to the developments in Gabon.

Andrea Ngombet, founder of the Paris-based Sassoufit Collective, an organization that promotes democracy, human rights and anti-corruption efforts across the continent, told VOA that at the heart of the military takeover in Gabon was the desire to quash the “dynastic reign of the Bongo family.”

He said the coup was a message to multinational companies and international partners who operate in the country that they “cannot continue to do business as usual,” adding that if global condemnation against the military takeover wasn’t measured, there would be a risk of driving the Gabonese people to foreign powers like Russia and China.

“If we condemn the coup — just because it is a coup — we will push [the Gabonese people] away to the likes of the Wagner mercenary group, Russia and China,” he told VOA, because the “fundamental needs” of the Gabonese are restoring democracy and sovereignty and securing social and economic justice.

This report originated in VOA’s English to Africa Service. English to Africa’s Hayde Adams contributed.
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Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa reappointed Kembo Mohadi on Friday as one of his two vice presidents. Mohadi had resigned from the same post two years ago, following media reports he had engaged in improper sexual relationships with married women, including one of his subordinates.

Mohadi and Constantino Chiwenga took the oath of office at the State House to be Zimbabwe’s two vice presidents for the next five years.

After being sworn in, Mohadi said only, “I am here to serve the nation. I have been serving the nation since the coming in of the second republic and will continue to do so.”

Chiwenga said it was a great day for Zimbabweans as a new year is starting.

“We start now a new year for government,” he said, “which we are going to start with zeal, energy and strength to build the Zimbabwe that we want in support of our president and his vision, which he has pronounced to the people of Zimbabwe, to Africa and the world at large: that Zimbabwe will be an upper-middle-income society by 2030.”

Some Zimbabweans took to social media to condemn Mnangagwa for reappointing Mohadi, given his history, but no one was willing to talk with VOA about it.

Linda Masarira, founder of the opposition Labor, Economists and African Democrats, said she was concerned about the absence of a female vice president.

“Consideration should be done especially when appointing executives of this country, taking into consideration that 54 percent of the voting population are women,” she said. “But we continue to structurally undermine women’s rights and women’s participation. … We are just demanding for at least one female president, a gender-balanced cabinet. There is no democracy without women. We will not tire to demand what is rightfully ours and what belongs to the women’s movement in Zimbabwe.”

Harare-based independent political analyst Gibson Nyikadzino said Mnangagwa appointed the two men to ensure that his goals are fulfilled in his final term.

“This is to ensure that the two vice presidents are going to be delegated the agenda to spear[head] the policy and vision of the president so that they pull in one direction,” he said.

Mnangagwa, who defeated Nelson Chamisa of the Citizens Coalition for Change in the disputed August 23 general election, is now expected to appoint ministers to make his cabinet full and lead Zimbabwe in his second and final term.
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Members of the International Radio and Television Union from about 50 countries, meeting this week in the Cameroonian capital, Yaounde, say a lack of infrastructure and human and financial resources remains a major obstacle to the switch from analog to digital broadcasting in public media, especially in Africa.

They are asking governments and funding agencies to assist with digitalization, which they say is necessary in the changing media landscape. More than half of Africa’s media is yet to fully digitalize.

Increasing reports of cross-interference between broadcasting and telecom services is a direct consequence of switchover delays, they said.

Professor Amin Alhassan, director general of Ghana Broadcasting Corp., says most African broadcasters are not serving their audiences and staying as relevant as they should because of the slow pace of digital transformation.

“Public media stations across the world are very old,” Alhassan said. “They have heavy investments in analog media and also analog media expertise. Our staff are used to analog systems, and to translate it into digital ecosystems is a challenge.

“Our challenge is how do you transform our existing staff to have a mindset change to understand the operations of digital media,” he said.

The International Telecommunication Union, or ITU, says digital broadcasting allows stations to offer higher definition video and better sound quality than analog. Digital broadcasting also offers multiple channels of programming on the same frequency.

In 2006, the ITU set June 2015 as the deadline for all broadcast stations in the world transmitting on the UHF band used for television broadcasting to switch from analog to digital. A five-year extension, to June 2020, was given for VHF band stations, mostly used in FM broadcasting, to switch over.

But the International Radio and Television Union says most of Africa missed the deadline, did not turn off analog television signals and is missing the advantages of digital broadcasting.

Mauritius, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are among the first African countries to complete the switch.

South Africa said in 2022 it would switch to digital TV on March 31, 2023. Jacqueline Hlongwane, programming manager of SABC, South Africa’s public broadcaster who attended the Yaounde meeting, said the switchover process is still ongoing after the deadline.

“Towards the end of last year, just before the soccer World Cup, we were able to launch our own OTT platform,” she said, referring to “over the top” technology that delivers streamed content over the internet.

“We are really, really excited about this because it’s been something that we’ve been working on for a very, very long time,” she said. “South African audiences for now can get access to content, which means that as a public broadcaster, we are also moving towards digitization of content.”

Public broadcasters say governments and funding agencies should help them with infrastructure and human and financial resources to increase digital penetration on the continent, which is estimated at between 30% and 43%, below the global average of about 70%.
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At least 49 civilians and 15 soldiers were killed when Islamist militants attacked a military camp and a vessel in northeastern Mali on Thursday, the interim government said.

Many more were wounded, it added in a statement read on national television, noting that the death toll was provisional. 

Insurgents attacked a boat carrying civilians across the flooded plains that separate the towns of Gao and Mopti during the rainy season. The vessel was traveling from Gao when it was hit.

Assailants also attacked a military camp in the Bourem Circle, an administrative subdivision of the Gao region in Mali’s northeast.

Around 50 assailants were killed in response and three days of national mourning declared, the interim government said.

Mali is one of several West African countries battling a violent insurgency with links to al-Qaida and Islamic State that took root in its arid north in 2012.

Militants have gained ground, spreading across the Sahel and to coastal West African nations, despite costly international efforts to support local troops. Thousands of people have been killed and over 6 million displaced across the Sahel region south of the Sahara.

Frustrations about growing insecurity spurred two military takeovers in Mali and two in Burkina Faso since 2020 — four of eight coups to hit West and Central Africa over the past three years.
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A recent Wall Street Journal report said the United Arab Emireates was supplying weapons to the paramilitary group allegedly carrying out many of the atrocities in neighboring Sudan. The UAE denies the accusation. Henry Wilkins reports from Adre, Chad.
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Gabon military leader General Brice Oligui Nguema says former president Ali Bongo, who was toppled in an August 30 coup, has been freed from house arrest.

The junta also announced the creation of a transitional constitutional council.

Colonel Ulrich Manfoumbi Manfoumbi, spokesperson of Gabon’s Committee for the Transformation and Restoration of Institutions, declared on Gabon National Television that, for health reasons, Bongo has been released and can seek medical treatment abroad. 

Bongo had a stroke in October 2018, which left him physically impaired, with difficulty moving his right leg and arm. He frequently visited foreign hospitals for treatment, according to Gabon’s military junta.

The military junta announced Bongo’s freedom after Abdou Abarry, head of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa, met with the deposed leader in Libreville.

Abarry said Bongo is in good health and wants the preservation of peace and social cohesion in Gabon.

Jean Christophe Nang, a secondary school teacher in Bitam, a commercial town on Gabon’s northern border with Cameroon, said military leader Nguema — a first cousin of Bongo who led the ousted president’s security team — should have prohibited Bongo from leaving Gabon. 

Gabon needs Bongo to provide information on the large fortune his family and friends have amassed from the misuse of public funds and corruption in oil exploitation deals, Nang said. He added that Nguema should watch out because Bongo, whose family has ruled for close to 60 years, and his supporters may have plans to destabilize Gabon.

Bongo came to power in 2009 following the death of his father, Omar, who had led the central African country since 1967. 

Gabon’s opposition says the family ruled with an iron fist and confiscated most of the oil-producing nation’s wealth.

Nang said countries should help Gabon recover ill-gotten wealth hidden by the Bongo family.

New constitutional council 

The military junta said a transitional constitutional council has been created, and Dieudonné Aba’A Owono, a civilian magistrate, was appointed as president. Civilians were appointed to govern the nine regions that make up Gabon. The junta also appointed Brigadier General Rapontchombo Judes Ibrahim to manage the Libreville city council during a period of transition.

Nguema said officials of the transitional constitutional council will be officially installed in the days ahead.

Gabon’s dissolved constitutional council was created by Omar Bongo, Ali Bongo’s father, in 1991.

Marie Madeleine Mborantsuo — the country’s top magistrate and the elder Bongo’s one-time romantic partner — served as president of the constitutional council from its creation until it was dissolved by the military junta last week.

Mborantsuo said she welcomes the creation of another constitutional council because Gabon has entered a new era and all of its institutions need to be rebuilt. She added that she spoke with Nguema and is ready to hand over power to the president of the newly created transitional constitutional council.

Despite the appointment of civilians and the apparent popularity of Nguema, the United Nations, the African Union, the Economic Community of Central African States, and the Central African Economic and Monetary Community continue to call on Gabon’s military junta to hand over power to civilian rule.
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It has been nearly five months since civil war erupted in Sudan. The U.N. refugee agency estimates that by year’s end, 1.8 million people will have fled to neighboring countries. VOA’s Nairobi Bureau Chief Mariama Diallo reports on a group of Sudanese artists who came together recently to deal with the trauma of the war by showcasing their work in the Kenyan capital
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Civil society organizations in Ethiopia on Wednesday called for a peaceful resolution to conflicts in the country that have caused thousands of deaths over the past 12 months.  

Dan Yirga, executive director at the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, said this request was directed to all stakeholders in the country’s peace-building process.

He said that most of the conflicts were started or aggravated because of a long-standing culture of using force to settle tensions. To create a lasting solution for this problem, a nationwide peace convention that includes all members of society needs to create a road map for solving current conflicts and avoiding new ones.

The call by the organizations highlighted the past year’s many clashes, as well as encouraging steps toward peace building.

Over 1,000 political conflicts have been reported over the past year, according to data from the Ethiopian Peace Observatory, a local data collection project run by the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

Meseret Ali, from the Association for Human Rights in Ethiopia, said fighting had displaced a lot of people from their homes. Civilians have died. Women and children have been raped. In the Benishangul-Gumuz region, elections were bypassed for a sixth time.

Armed opposition in the country’s Oromia and Amhara regions, referendums held for the creation of new regional states, and protests over a schism in the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church were some of the conflicts that took place.

The civil society organizations also addressed the government’s common response to these conflicts, such as partial or full internet shutdowns; widespread, unlawful arrests; and restrictions on the rights and freedoms of citizens.

In April, Ethiopian government officials attended peace talks in Tanzania with members of the Oromo Liberation Army, a rebel faction. The talks ended with no agreement reached.
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The Africa Climate Summit has ended in Kenya with leaders calling on the global community to act urgently to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, fulfill its obligations and keep financial promises to fight climate change.

Speaking on behalf of the other African heads of state present at the Africa Climate Summit, Kenyan President William Ruto said the agreement reached at the conference shows the seriousness of African states to help solve the climate change crisis.

“The Africa Climate Summit is both a demonstration of the unwavering collective commitment of the people of Africa to their vision to make humanity’s first home here in Africa, a land of abundant potential, limitless opportunity, and the possibility of shared prosperity,” he said. “It also showcases our determination to mobilize a global coalition of emergency responders to ensure that the industrialization necessary to drive future economic transformation restores our planet’s vitality and ecological balance.”

The summit, which began Monday and ended Wednesday, focused on green growth in Africa and finding financing solutions to support the programs aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change, which affects the continent’s estimated 1.3 billion people.

African leaders underscored they are committed to developing and implementing policies, regulations and incentives to attract local, regional and global investment in the push for green growth.

The Nairobi declaration, leaders said, will serve as the foundation for Africa’s united position in the global climate change initiative.

Kenyan youth leader Raphael Chesori said leaders and delegates at the summit demonstrated their willingness to fight climate change.

“What I have witnessed is a demonstrated effort by the heads of state in Africa and, of course, with the global partners on how they can really have grassroots initiatives in the fight against climate change. And there are also commitments in terms of climate financing and consensual financing, and what also came out is that the non-state actors are also willing to partner with the governments to see that there is participation of the people at the grassroots level,” said Chesori.

Michael Otitoju, a delegate from Nigeria, said Africa has demonstrated it can solve the crisis by relying on its resources and a young population.

“Discussions around energy transition to renewable energy sources I think all of that is giving us hope that Africans can solve our problems with our own resources, with our own human capacity, so I think there is hope for Africans,” he said.

Andrew Monari, a community worker in Kenya, said he learned how vulnerable communities can access the climate change fund to support their mitigation programs.

“I have attended the site meetings in terms of climate change finance. For example, we have concluded one in a hotel today where vulnerable people and minority people affected by climate change have been discussed regarding financing. So, we have a global person who is in charge of the funds and has been telling us how to access the funds,” he said.

According to the United Nations, African countries spend 5%-15% of its GDP to combat climate change despite being the lowest contributor to global warming.

Developed countries have promised to give at least $100 billion annually to fight the impacts of climate change, a fund many say has been hard to come by. At the summit, U.N. chief Antonio Guterres said an additional $20 billion is needed to help mitigate Africa’s unpredictable weather patterns.

President Ruto said Africa needs access to global finances to support communities and pay its debts.

“We demand a fair playing ground for our countries to access the investment needed to unlock the potential and translate it into opportunities. We further demand to adjust multilateral development finance architecture to liberate our economies from odious debt and onerous barriers to necessary financial resources,” he said.

African leaders emphasize that for the continent to undergo economic transformation, it needs to increase renewable generation capacity. They also say Africa needs access to technology and trade mechanisms that enable products from the continent to compete on fair and equitable terms.
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After hitting several resets, restoring historic treasures to former colonies, downsizing its military presence and striking new ties elsewhere on the continent, France’s Africa strategy seems at an impasse, some experts say.

Coups in half a dozen former French colonies in West and Central Africa over three years — including two, in Niger and Gabon, in just over a month — are sparking fresh soul searching about what went wrong and how, if possible, to put longstanding relations and interests back on track. 

Yet many suggest Paris can no longer call the shots, as some African governments cut ties altogether and carve new ones with foreign rivals, including Russia. 

“French influence in the Sahel has collapsed,” wrote France’s influential Le Monde newspaper this past week. “Elsewhere on the continent, it is on the defensive, and nothing Paris says can restore it.” 

That assessment comes as the paper and other media report that discussions between Paris and Niger’s military are under way about the withdrawal of some military elements from the African country.

Until now, French authorities have refused to recognize the military junta that seized power in Niger in late July, dismissing calls for its ambassador and 1,500 French troops stationed there to depart. 

The power grab in Niamey followed a now-familiar playbook. Not so long ago, Niger, along with neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali, cooperated closely with Paris in a broader Sahel alliance fighting a jihadist insurgency. All three since have seen civilian leaders toppled by their militaries, followed by protests, sprinkled with Russian flags and slogans calling for the ouster of French forces and diplomats. 

The latest coup last week in oil-rich Gabon — once a staunch and long-standing ally of Paris — has taken a different path. Unlike in Niger, there have been no planeloads of French expatriates returning home or massive anti-French rallies. Although Paris suspended military cooperation — even though it has 400 troops in Gabon — it offered a muted reaction to the toppling of long-term leader Ali Bongo by his reported cousin, following disputed presidential elections. 

Junta leader Gen. Brice Oligui Nguema has restored the transmission of French broadcasters France 24 and Radio France International, cut under Bongo — while the three Sahel coup countries, Burkina Faso, Mail and Niger,  continue to keep those news organizations off the air. 

Listening to Africans? 

Berges Miette, an Africa research associate at Sciences-Po Bordeaux University in France, Miette takes the long view of simmering anti-French sentiment. In the late 1980s, he says, France continued to support some hardline regimes that held onto power, despite a wave of political uprisings. 

African youth, Miette says, have now “stopped dreaming,” pinning their hopes instead on heading to Europe. 

While so far staying silent on Gabon, French President Emmanuel Macron has decried an “epidemic of putsches” in the Sahel. Two other coups — in Guinea and Chad — have also taken place since 2020, with a mixed response from France. The French have maintained ties with Chad, a strong military ally in the Sahel, drawing accusations of having a double standard. 

In a lengthy interview in Le Monde, Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna defended France’s Africa strategy. She differentiated the ousting of Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum, with the situation in Chad, where she said Paris counted on N’Djamena’s military government delivering on its promise to restore civilian rule. 

“One cannot see our relations with the continent through the single prism” of the Sahel crises, Colonna added. “It’s not 3,000 or 5,000 people demonstrating in a stadium in Niamey … that can resume our relations with 1.5 million Africans.”

France’s position, she said, “is to listen to Africans, not to decide in their place.” 

For a while, Macron — born after France’s last colony in Africa, Djibouti, gained its independence — seemed the right man for the job. 

“I am of a generation that doesn’t tell Africans what to do,” he told cheering students in Burkina Faso, shortly after his election six years ago. 

Macron pledged to return looted colonial-era artifacts, although only a fraction has been shipped back, and sought new ties elsewhere, including with Kenya, South Africa, Ethiopia and Angola. Like his recent predecessors, he maintained that the tangle of post-colonial business and political ties dubbed Francafrique was long dead. 

In February, Macron promised to draw down French forces in Africa and create a new “security partnership,” with bases on the continent transformed depending on African needs, and jointly managed with African staff. 

A coherent policy

Skeptics say Macron hasn’t always walked his talk. They point to many enduring trappings of French influence — from thousands of troops still stationed in Africa to a raft of longstanding mining concessions benefitting French companies, and the CFA franc, requiring West and Central African members to deposit half their foreign exchange reserves with the French treasury. 

Anti-French sentiment is on the rise in more stable countries, like Senegal, due to a youthful population untethered to the past, but very aware of the challenges of getting visas to France. 

Critics point to what they consider a series of French missteps, too, in the Sahel. Despite early wins, France’s decade-long counterterrorism operation there lost local trust, they say, and finally was shuttered last year amid a spreading Islamist insurgency. Even as France promotes democracy, skeptics describe a tacit acceptance of some authoritarian governments like Chad. 

“France needs to have a coherent policy,” says Sciences-Po researcher Miette, who argues anti-French sentiment is not the real threat to Paris, but rather “a profound questioning of France’s Africa policy.”

He counts among those who believe it is not too late for Paris to hit the reset button yet again. With other authoritarian regimes potentially at risk of falling — in Congo Brazzaville, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea — the sooner, the better. 

“France has everything to win in changing its Africa policy,” Miette says. “It needs to go beyond talk and be concrete.” 
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China pledged to help South Africa with its crippling energy crisis during the recent BRICS summit in Johannesburg. At the same time, South Africa said it wants to correct a trade imbalance with China and export more finished products — but manufacturing in South Africa is currently hampered by the unreliable power grid. Kate Bartlett spoke to business owners in Johannesburg about the challenges they face. Video editor: Zaheer Cassim
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Gabon civilians are celebrating the military junta’s liberation Tuesday of several political prisoners jailed for years without trial by ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba. Coup leader Brice Nguema also received his first ever foreign delegation led by Central African Republic President Faustin-Archange Touadera, dispatched by central African leaders to negotiate a return to civilian rule after suspending Gabon from their regional bloc.

Gabon’s military junta says it has freed several people held without trial by the government of ousted President Ali Bongo. Included in the release was Jean-Remy Yama, leader of the Coalition of Gabon State Workers Trade Unions, who was detained in February 2022.

Yama was accused of embezzlement and abuse of confidence, a charge trade union leaders in Gabon describe as unfounded. Gabon’s trade unions say Yama was a vocal critic of  Bongo’s refusal to improve conditions of state workers in the oil producing nation.

Renaud Allogho Akoue, former director general of Gabon’s National Social Insurance and Health Fund, who was arrested in December 2019 and given a 10 year jail sentence for misappropriating public funds, was released, as was Léandre Nzué, former mayor of Gabon’s capital, Libreville.

Sixty-two-year-old Nzué, who is a former politburo member of Bongo’s Gabon’s Democratic Party, told Gabon’s national television Tuesday the military junta has saved him from the mental and psychological torture he was going through at the Libreville Central Prison.

He said he is very thankful to Gabon’s military and junta leader Brice Oligui Nguema for ordering his release from the central prison in Libreville, where he was incarcerated for three years illegally without trial. He said he is ready to work with Nguema for a return to democracy, normal life and the development of Gabon.

Gabon state TV showed images of scores of people, including opposition supporters, celebrating the liberation of the prisoners.

Nzué has always claimed he wanted Bongo to serve Gabon, accusing him instead of serving his family. Bongo accused Nzué of stealing public funds.

During his swearing-in as interim president on Monday, coup leader Brice Oligui Nguema promised amnesty for people he described as prisoners of conscience. He did not give the number of such prisoners, but Gabon’s opposition says there are many.

Nguema also promised to facilitate the return of all Gabon citizens exiled abroad.

Arsele Moro Ngui is a researcher and political analyst at Omar Bongo University in Gabon’s capital, Libreville. He spoke via a messaging app from Libreville.

He said the liberation of three prisoners is a promise made by Nguema and civilians expect the military leader to liberate many other political prisoners who are languishing in detention centers. He said Nguema, who has made Gabon to regain its freedom, should now consider the return of exiles as the military leader promised during his swearing-in on Monday.

On Tuesday, Central African Republic President Faustin Touadera was the first foreign president to visit Gabon after last week’s coup. Toudera, who was appointed by the 12-member Economic Community of Central African States – ECCAS — to mediate Gabon’s transition to constitutional order, held closed-door talks the with junta leader in Libreville.

No statements were made after the meeting. ECCAS on Monday suspended Gabon from the regional bloc and promised further sanctions should Gabon fail to hand over to civilian rule.

Nguema during his swearing in on Monday said he was committed to handing over power to civilians by organizing free, transparent and credible elections. But he did not say when. The military junta has also announced an imminent appointment of a transitional government of what it calls experienced and seasoned people.

ECCAS says Toudera will meet Bongo to be updated on his state of health and the well-being of the ousted president’s family. 
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An appeals court in Nigeria was to rule Wednesday on whether President Bola Tinubu’s election victory in February was legitimate — a highly anticipated decision that has put Africa’s most populous country on edge.

The election results were challenged by the opposition, which claimed that Tinubu, who has now been in office for 100 days, was not qualified to run because he, among other things, allegedly did not have a required high school certificate or a college or university diploma.

Security was tight in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, where five judges at the Court of Appeal were to hand down their ruling. Under the law, the tribunal is empowered to either uphold Tinubu’s election win, declare someone else the winner, annul the vote or order a new election. Its decision can be appealed before Nigeria’s Supreme Court.

The opposition has hinted at possible protests if the court rules in favor of Tinubu.

Analysts say Wednesday’s ruling will be significant for this country of more than 210 million people. If the February presidential election is annulled, it would be a first in Nigeria’s history. If upheld, the ruling would boost the role of the election commission, which the opposition claims violated the law. It could also open a path for the body to decide on its own when and how election results are announced in the future.

Under the law, a presidential election can be annulled only on evidence that the national electoral body did not follow the law and acted in ways that could have changed the result.

On Tuesday, police in Abuja issued a statement warning citizens “to be cautious in their actions and statements,” saying security forces would not “condone activities capable of inciting violence or causing a descent into anarchy.”

The 71-year-old Tinubu won the election with less than 50% of the vote, also a first in Nigeria’s history. The election results are being contested by three opposition candidates, including Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former vice president who came in second, and Peter Obi of the Labor Party, who finished third.

Both opposition candidates filed separate petitions arguing that Tinubu was not qualified to become president and claiming the electoral commission did not follow due process in announcing the winner. The delays in uploading and announcing election results could have given room for the ballots to be tampered with, critics say.

The opposition has also alleged that Tinubu was indicted for drug trafficking in the United States, that he is a citizen of Guinea which disqualifies him to run in presidential elections in Nigeria, and that his academic qualifications were forged.

Tinubu has denied all the allegations. Since taking office, he has introduced measures that he said would reform the ailing economy but that have over the past months further squeezed millions of poor and hungry Nigerians.

On Tuesday, Nigeria Labor Congress workers launched a two-day “warning strike” to protest the growing cost of living due to the removal of gas subsidies, threatening to “shut down” Africa’s largest economy if their demands for improved welfare are not met.

It was their second strike in over a month.

Since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, all presidential elections but one have been contested in court. None has been overturned.
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At a refugee encampment in eastern Chad, Sudanese children say Janjaweed militias in Darfur have made them orphans in recent months. As media and rights organizations continue to report atrocities, reporter Henry Wilkins speaks to the children who are left to fend for themselves in a foreign country with little help.
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An education crisis is once again looming in Kenya as hundreds of nonlocal teachers demand transfers from the predominantly Muslim region in the country’s northeast after a series of deadly attacks by al-Shabab militants. Schools reopened August 28, but most students have not yet resumed classes. Ahmed Hussein reports from Wajir County, Kenya.
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