Conservationists in Kenya are petitioning the state to enact solutions to avoid the worst impacts from climate change, including record droughts and flooding. Activists say directives such as Kenya’s lifting of a ban on logging is reversing gains made to lessen extreme weather linked to climate change. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi, Kenya. Produced by: Jimmy Makhulo
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The United States imposed sanctions on three Malian officials Monday, including the minister of defense, over accusations they facilitated the deployment and expansion of the Russian Wagner Group’s activities in the country.

The U.S. Treasury Department said it imposed sanctions on Mali’s Minister of Defense, Sadio Camara, who it said made several trips to Russia in 2021 to solidify an agreement between the Wagner Group and the Malian transition government to deploy the mercenary force to the West African country.

Also targeted in Monday’s action was Mali’s Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Alou Boi Diarra, and Malian Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff, Adama Bagayoko, the department said in a statement.

“These officials have made their people vulnerable to the Wagner Group’s destabilizing activities and human rights abuses while paving the way for the exploitation of their country’s sovereign resources to the benefit of the Wagner Group’s operations in Ukraine,” Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said.

Both Russia and Mali have said Russian fighters in the African nation are not mercenaries but trainers helping local troops fight a decade-long insurgency by Islamist militants.

In June, the United States said it was concerned about the Wagner Group’s destabilizing activities in Africa and accused the leader of the mercenary force of helping to engineer the departure of U.N. peacekeepers from Mali.

White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters last month that the U.S. has information indicating Mali’s transition government has paid more than $200 million to Wagner since late 2021.

In May, Washington also said the Wagner Group may be working through Mali and other countries to hide its efforts to acquire military equipment for use in Ukraine.
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Twenty-five people including 10 soldiers were killed in forest fires in Algeria on Monday, in the mountainous regions of Bejaia and Bouira, Algerian authorities said, as a heatwave spreads across north Africa and southern Europe. 

Some 7,500 firefighters were battling to bring the flames under control, authorities said. 

The interior ministry said that it is continuing its firefighting operations in the Boumerdes, Bouira, Tizi Ouzou, Jijel, Bejaia and Skikda regions. 

About 1,500 people have been evacuated so far. 

A major heatwave is sweeping across North Africa, with temperatures of 49 Celsius (120 Fahrenheit) recorded in some cities in neighboring Tunisia. 

In Tunisia, wildfires swept through the border town of Melloula. Witnesses told Reuters that fires that had begun in mountainous areas had reached some people’s homes in the town and forced hundreds of families to flee. 

A civil protection official said that they had evacuated hundreds of the town’s residents by land and by sea, in fishermen’s boats and coastguard vessels. 
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With Sudan’s conflict now at the 100-day mark, advocacy groups are calling on Sudan’s neighbor Egypt to ease entry requirements for refugees, saying displaced Sudanese face a dire situation. 

The Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, have been fighting each other since April 15, triggering a humanitarian crisis inside Sudan and neighboring countries. 

The U.S. State Department said it stands ready to reconvene formal talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia to end the fighting — but only if the warring parties demonstrate their commitment to uphold a May 11 Jeddah Declaration to protect Sudanese civilians and subsequent cease-fires. 

The Jeddah talks refer to the U.S.-Saudi-mediated negotiations that started in early May with the goal of stopping the armed conflicts in Sudan. The United States adjourned the talks on June 21 as senior officials acknowledged, “The format is not succeeding.” 

An estimated 3 million Sudanese have been displaced by the fighting, almost 2.5 million internally. The rest have fled to surrounding countries. At least 250,000 people have sought refuge in Egypt, and another 120,000 are stuck on Sudan’s side of the border awaiting entry, according to a report that advocacy organization Refugees International released on Monday. 

“Instead of facilitating their entry, Egypt disregards refugee law and the Four Freedoms Agreement it signed with Sudan and has erected various entry barriers,” said Abdullahi Halakhe, Refugees International’s senior advocate for East and Southern Africa. 

The Four Freedoms Agreement, signed in August 2004 between Egypt and Sudan, covers matters related to freedom of movement along with working, property ownership and living arrangements. 

Halakhe cited new regulations by Egypt on June 10 requiring all Sudanese citizens to obtain visas from the Egyptian consular office in Wadi Halfa or Port Sudan before crossing the border. Previously, women, children, and elderly members of families were allowed to enter Egypt without a visa.  

Egyptian authorities said the move was to counter the forgery of visas and better manage Sudanese refugees’ entry into Egypt.  

Refugees International called on Egypt “to lift requirements currently in place for Sudanese seeking entry, waive requirements for those who remain in Egypt, and expedite granting refugee status to those who wish to have it.” 

The Egyptian Embassy in the United States has not responded to VOA’s request for comment.   

Sudan’s warring parties continue to violate cease-fires as diplomatic efforts to resolve the conflict through negotiations have not yielded fruit. More Sudanese are predicted to flee to neighboring countries for their safety. 

“The SAF and RSF have not observed their commitments under the Jeddah Declaration, which played a large part in our decision to adjourn the talks in Jeddah,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.   

“We are continuing to closely monitor the conflict and any violations of the Jeddah Declaration throughout Sudan,” said the spokesperson.   

Monday, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) called for an end to the fighting in Sudan amid serious concerns about the rapidly escalating numbers of displaced people.  

“These figures are staggering; civilians who have nothing to do with this conflict are sadly uprooted from their homes and livelihoods on a daily basis,” said Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees. “This has to stop. It is time for all parties to this conflict to immediately end this tragic war. Pending this much needed peaceful dialogue, people must be allowed to leave conflict areas to find safety, whether within or outside the country, and be protected from all forms of violence.”  

As more people continue to flee, displacement sites within the country and in neighboring countries are rapidly becoming overcrowded, UNHCR said. 

The U.S. Embassy in Khartoum suspended its operations on April 22, and the Department of State ordered the departure of U.S. direct hire employees and eligible family members from the diplomatic mission. 

While Secretary of State Antony Blinken later said the U.S. is exploring ways to return a diplomatic and consular presence to the African country as soon as possible, the State Department has said it cannot provide routine or emergency consular services to U.S. citizens in Sudan due to the current security situation.  

A State Department spokesperson said U.S. Ambassador to Sudan John Godfrey and his team, now based in Washington and other African countries, continue their diplomatic engagements with regional and international partners to work toward a cease-fire and humanitarian access. 

The United States remains the largest single donor of humanitarian assistance to the people of Sudan.   

On June 20, Secretary Blinken announced nearly $172 million in additional humanitarian aid for the people of Sudan and those in neighboring countries who suffer from the ongoing humanitarian crisis.  

The U.S. has provided more than $550 million in humanitarian assistance this fiscal year for Sudan and other countries such as Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic to facilitate the needs of refugees and people affected by conflicts in the region. 
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Cameroon’s President Paul Biya has ordered the demolition of poorly constructed, illegal houses in the port city of Douala, the country’s largest city and economic hub.  The order came after a four-story building collapsed onto a smaller one Sunday killing at least 33 people, including four children. Rescue workers are still digging through the rubble in hopes of finding survivors. 

Scores of rescue workers and military troops use spades to dig through the wreckage of a collapsed structure Monday.

Military bulldozers move and dump scattered pieces of the building onto an empty area near scores of onlookers.  

Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Kadrey is one of the commanders of the Fire Fighting Department of Cameroon’s military. He’s supervising operations for what is hoped for will be rescues and not just the recovery of bodies. 

Kadrey said the building was in an advanced state of degradation before it collapsed Sunday at about 1:00 am local time.  He said the collapsed building no longer constitutes a threat to its surroundings.

The apartment building, which authorities estimate housed 160 people, collapsed onto a two-story one next to it that housed another 60.  

Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, the governor of Cameroon’s Littoral region, where Douala is located, said the hope of finding survivors is lessening by the hour.  

“We want to tell the population that 31 people are in hospitals and the military and also gendarmes are working to make sure that there is no body remaining inside [the wreckage],” he said. “So, the military, they are still working, and we are sure that they are going to make efforts to finish the work today or tomorrow.”

Diboua said the injured are being treated at Douala’s Laquintinie and Dieudo hospitals.

On Monday, the government said President Biya dispatched a delegation led by Cameroon’s Housing and Urban Development minister to Douala to oversee demolition of unsafe housing.

Sunday’s collapse came as Douala’s city council has been trying to demolish unsafe buildings in high-risk zones for floods or landslides. 

The council and Cameroon’s housing ministry last year reported more than 500 buildings in high-risk zones were in danger of collapse.  

Authorities ordered owners to either reinforce or demolish the buildings, but Douala’s city council reports fewer than 40 were repaired and none have been demolished.  

Council officials say the building that collapsed early Sunday was not one of those marked for demolition.

Edward Nfor, a member of the Cameroon Civil Society Group and a building contractor, blamed what he described as a lack of respect by authorities for building safety standards.

“A city like Douala is supposed to be well planned so that each one knows that this area is good to construct or not or these are areas where we have floods or landslides,” he said. “That information is not available. Normally, there are supposed to be some geotechnical surveys approved by the state before you carry out (construct) (multi-)story buildings. That is not done. Everybody is just doing what he or she wants to do and then these are the resultant effects like what just happened.”

Cameroon’s government has not responded to allegations that it does a poor job of policing standards in building construction. 

In June, the government issued a public warning to beware of poor-quality cement and iron rods being sold in the country.
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A civilian plane crashed in eastern Sudan Sunday killing nine people, including four soldiers, according to the military.  

A child survived the crash of the Antonov plane, the military said

The crash comes as Sudan marks 100 days of conflict between the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.  The fighting has forced millions of Sudanese to flee.

“It’s been 100 days of war in Sudan, with a devastating toll on lives and infrastructure, but worse lies ahead,” William Carter, Norwegian Refugee Council’s director in Sudan told the Associated Press.  

“It has the potential to destroy the entire region,” said David MacDonald, the country director for international relief agency CARE.

Some information in this report was provided by the Associated Press
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Heavy casualties have been reported after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest at Mogadishu’s Jaalle Siyaad Military Academy early Monday, sources said.

The bomber targeted military personnel as they lined up after breakfast.

A military officer who asked not to be identified as he was not authorized to speak publicly to the media, told VOA that at least 20 soldiers were killed and dozens of others were injured in the attack. Some of the wounded sustained life-threatening injuries, he said.

The al-Shabab militant group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. In a statement via Telegram Messenger, the group claimed that one of its suicide bombers targeted the troops. Al-Shabab claimed the explosion killed 73 soldiers and injured 124 others, a figure that has not been independently verified.

The bomber was wearing a military uniform, according to the officer.

It is not clear how the bomber managed to enter one of the most secure military bases in the capital.

Many of the soldiers belong to the 14th October Brigade, created in commemoration for the victims of the single deadliest terrorist attack in Africa at Mogadishu’s Zobe junction, which killed nearly 600 people on October 14, 2017.

Somali troops and local fighters have been conducting operations against al-Shabab since August last year. The Somali government vowed to continue the operation into a second phase to further remove the group from more territories in the countryside.

The militant group has been carrying out retaliatory attacks against government as well as civilian sites.
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When Nouhaila Benzina steps onto the field for Morocco’s first match of the Women’s World Cup against Germany, she will make history — and not just as a player for the first Arab or North African nation ever in the tournament. 

The 25-year-old defender will be the first player to wear the Islamic headscarf at the senior-level Women’s World Cup. She and the Atlas Lionesses face two-time World Cup champions Germany in Melbourne, Australia, on Monday. 

“Girls will look at Benzina (and think) ‘That could be me,'” said Assmaah Helal, a co-founder of the Muslim Women in Sports Network said of the hijab. “Also the policymakers, the decision-makers, the administrators will say, ‘We need to do more in our country to create these accepting and open and inclusive spaces for women and girls to participate in the game.'” 

Benzina, who plays professional club soccer for the Association’s Sports of Forces Armed Royal — the eight-time defending champions in Morocco’s top women’s league — hasn’t yet been made available to speak to reporters here at the Women’s World Cup. In recent weeks, she has shared social media posts from others about the history-making nature of her World Cup appearance. 

“We are honored to be the first Arab country to take part in the Women’s World Cup,” Morocco captain Ghizlane Chebbak said on Sunday, “and we feel that we have to shoulder a big responsibility to give a good image, to show the achievements the Moroccan team has made.” 

A choice

Had Morocco qualified for the Women’s World Cup a decade ago, a player who wanted to wear the hijab during a game might have been forced to choose between that and representing her country. 

In 2007, a referee barred an 11-year-old Canadian girl from wearing a hijab during a club match. When the issue reached FIFA, the sport’s global governing body banned head coverings in competitions it sanctioned, except for coverings that exposed the neck. 

FIFA cited “health and safety” concerns, some related to possible choking, with regulations forbidding “equipment that is dangerous to himself or another player.” 

“That really sent a strong message to Muslim women, particularly those who wear hijabs, (that) we don’t belong,” said Helal, an Australia-based operations manager of Creating Chances and Football United. 

Helal was among the social activists, Muslim athletes, and government and soccer officials who worked to overturn the ban. 

In 2012, FIFA granted the Asian Football Confederation a two-year trial period during which players would be allowed to wear head coverings at international competitions. No senior-level World Cups, men’s or women’s, were scheduled during the trial period. 

In 2014, FIFA lifted its ban on head coverings. Two years later, the under-17 Women’s World Cup in Jordan marked the first time Muslim players wore headscarves during an international FIFA event. 

‘Part of our identities’

Maryan Hagi-Hashi, a Melbourne resident who attended Morocco’s public practice session last week, said she is supporting the Atlas Lionesses alongside tournament co-host Australia. She appreciates the representation that the Moroccan team and Benzina provide, she said. 

“There’s a mixture of (Muslim) women that wear hijab and don’t wear a hijab,” Hagi-Hashi said. “I think the world has realized there is diversity.” 

Helal said that since the ban was lifted, she has seen an increase in Muslim girls and women playing soccer, pursuing coaching pathways and leading their own football clubs. 

“I think it’s key to understand that the hijab is an essential part of a Muslim woman, should she choose to wear it,” Helal said. “It’s actually part of our identities.” 
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An international team is set to begin siphoning oil out of the hull of a decrepit tanker moored off the coast of war-torn Yemen this week, a U.N. official said Sunday. It will mark the first concrete step in an operation years in the making aimed at preventing a massive oil spill in the Red Sea. 

More than 1.1 million barrels of oil stored in the tanker, known as SOF Safer, will be transferred to another vessel the United Nations purchased as a replacement to the rusting storage tanker, said Achim Steiner, administrator of the U.N. development program. 

“We have reached a critical stage in this salvage operation,” Steiner told The Associated Press hours after the salvage team on Saturday managed to moor the replacement vessel alongside the Safer tanker in the Red Sea. “This marks, in a sense, the completion of the monthlong preparatory phase.” 

The rusting tanker is a Japanese-made vessel built in the 1970s and sold to the Yemeni government in the 1980s to store up to 3 million barrels of export oil pumped from fields in Marib, a province in eastern Yemen. The ship is 360 meters (1,181 feet) long with 34 storage tanks. 

The tanker is moored 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) from Yemen’s western Red Sea ports of Hodeida and Ras Issa, a strategic area controlled by the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels who are at war with the internationally recognized government. 

The war in Yemen began in 2014 when the Houthi seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country’s north, forcing the government to flee to the south, then to Saudi Arabia. The following year, a Saudi-led coalition entered the war to fight the Houthis and try to restore the internationally recognized government to power. 

Neglected for years

The vessel has not been maintained for eight years, and its structural integrity is compromised, making it at risk of breaking up or exploding. Seawater had entered the engine compartment of the tanker, causing damage to the pipes and increasing the risk of sinking, according to internal documents obtained by the AP in June 2020. 

For years, the U.N. and other governments as well as environmental groups have warned that a major oil spill — or explosion — could disrupt global commercial shipping through the vital Bab el-Mandeb and Suez Canal routes, causing untold damage to the global economy. The tanker carries four times as much as the oil that spilled in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster off Alaska, one of the world’s worst ecological catastrophes, according to the U.N. 

The U.N. has for years campaigned to raise funds for the salvage operation which cost $143 million, including purchasing a new storage vessel to replace the rusting tanker, Steiner of the UNDP said. 

“It is an extraordinarily complex operation in which, first of all, diplomacy was critical, then the logistical ability to mount such an operation and finally to actually be able to be on site with multiple vessels and put in place the conditions, but also the mitigation measures, the contingency plans, the security plans,” Steiner said. 

The funding was a major challenge for the U.N. which resorted to crowd funding to help bridge the gap. But the operation still needs around $20 million to be completed, Steiner said. He criticized the oil and gas industry for not stepping up their contributions. 

“One can sometimes wonder, you know, is it really up to a school class of children in Maryland to contribute to our crowd funding?” he said. 

Five months to finish

The replacement vessel, now named the Yemen, reached Yemen’s coast earlier this month and the salvage team managed to safely berth it alongside the Safer to start the ship-to-ship transfer of oil amid unprecedented measures, including a small flotilla of technical and supply vessels, to avoid missteps during the operation. 

“Many thought it would never happen,” the UNDP administrator told the AP from New York, adding the salvage team has up to five weeks to complete the whole operation. 

After transferring the oil, the replacement vessel would be connected to an under-sea pipeline that brings oil from the fields, he said. 

“We will, I think, begin to breathe more easily when we see an empty Safer being towed away” to a scrapyard to be recycled, he said. 
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At least 80,000 people have been displaced in three months of intercommunal violence in a north central Nigerian state, a local official said, as the army reinforced security to end the clashes.   

Since May, Plateau State has seen a surge of attacks among mostly Muslim nomadic herders and Christian farming communities in violence the local state government says has left around 300 people dead. 

Nigeria’s military chief of staff, Major-General Taoreed Lagbaja visited Mangu, in Plateau State, on Saturday to mark the start of special operations to “stamp out” the crisis. 

The clashes are just one of the major security challenges facing new President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Nigeria, where armed forces also battle jihadis, heavily armed bandit gangs and separatist tensions. 

Mangu district has been one of the epicenters of the recent violence with villages ransacked and farmland destroyed. 

“There’s an estimate of 80,000 internally displaced persons, within 11 various camps in the local government area,” said Markus Artu, a top official in the Mangu district.  

About 18,000 of the displaced were being sheltered in one of the camps situated at a primary school in Mangu.  

One of the camp coordinators, Yamput Daniel, gave AFP a similar estimate. 

State emergency response agency officials have delivered aid, but they have yet to give their official report on the number of displaced in the crisis.  

The local cattle herders’ association said some of their communities have also been displaced by attacks. 

Farmland destroyed 

At the school, displaced victims were packed into classrooms, some dilapidated and with broken roofs, surviving on meager supplies and maize donations from local churches. 

“The crisis has rendered us homeless; our farmland has been destroyed and we are left to manage our lives here in this primary school,” said Grace Emmanuel, 70, one of the displaced. “It has not been easy, we have no food to eat, we fetch water from the well to drink, at times the water isn’t enough for [the] thousands of us here.” 

The regional commander of Plateau’s Operation Safe Haven campaign has relocated its headquarters temporarily to Mangu and deployed an extra 300 troops to the district with armored vehicles. 

“Work with the communities. You are the people’s army when they make distress calls you must respond as soon as possible,” army chief of staff General Lagbaja told troops. 

Plateau sits on the dividing line between Nigeria’s mostly Muslim north and the predominantly Christian south and has for years been a flashpoint for tensions. 

It was unclear what triggered the most recent flareup of attacks in Plateau. Tensions between herders and farmers over land and resources often spiral into tit-for-tat village raids by armed gangs who kidnap, loot and kill. 

“We are tired of being here, we appreciate the security coming, but it would be best if the government would deploy most of the security to the villages, so that we can get back,” said Mary Ishaya, another displaced woman in Mangu district. “But we are left here, with our children, no food, no medicine and the children are not going to school.” 
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A recent report by the African Development Bank showed that there is an estimated $42 billion financing gap for female entrepreneurs in Africa. In Nigeria, experts point to the driving factors behind the discrepancy and call for interventions. Gibson Emeka has this report from Abuja, Nigeria.
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At least 16 people were killed and nearly three dozen injured Sunday when a four-story building collapsed onto a smaller one in Cameroon’s largest city, authorities said. 

“The casualty figures may be higher, said Samuel Dieudonne Ivaha Diboua, governor of Cameroon’s Littoral region, where the Douala is located. The city is west of the capital, Yaounde. 

The governor said that “rescue workers, assisted by Cameroon government troops, are still digging the wreckage to see if more bodies can be recovered.” 

The military’s fire brigade has been ordered to join the country’s Red Cross and other rescue services in searching for survivors. 

Residents living in the Ndogbon neighborhood where the incident took place said they are in shock. 

“We heard people screaming … and struggled to help some out of the wreckage, but could not do it with our spades and (garden) hoes,” said Gaspard Ndoppo, who lives near the collapsed buildings. 

Building collapses happen often in Douala, sometimes due to natural disasters such as landslides and other times because of poor construction, locals say. 

Douala’s city council is currently demolishing houses in high-risk zones susceptible to floods or landslides. The building that collapsed on Sunday was not marked for demolition. 
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Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni called Sunday for new, more equal relationships between Europe and migrants’ countries of origin and transit as she convened a summit of some 20 nations, EU officials and international organizations aimed at stanching flows of illegal migration.

The one-day conference is a Meloni initiative that aims to make Italy a leader in resolving issues impacting Mediterranean nations. Chief among them is migration, as Italy sustains hundreds of new arrivals daily on Europe’s southern border, but also energy as Europe looks to Africa and the Middle East to permanently replace Russian supplies.

Human rights groups see the meeting, which includes nations from both northern and sub-Saharan Africa as well as the Middle East, as creating a future roadmap, and worry it will amount to anti-migrant policies that put the onus on Africa to keep Africans out of Europe.

Meloni told the opening meeting that Western arrogance had likely stood in the way of solutions to the migrant issue. She proposed four main prongs for future cooperation: fighting criminal organizations trafficking migrants, better managing flows of migrants, supporting refugees and helping countries of origin.

“The West too often has given the impression of being more interested in giving lessons rather than lending a hand,” Meloni said. “It is probably this diffidence that has made it difficult to make progress on solutions.”

She said if flows were better managed there would be more room for legal migration.

“In an era where so much attention is given to the right to migrate, we are not paying sufficient attention to the right to not be forced to emigrate, to not be forced to flee their own homes, to not be forced to abandon their land and leave family members in search of a new life.”

The conference comes against the backdrop of migrants being pushed back from Tunisia into Libya, where they are stuck in the desert.

Pope Francis, in his traditional Sunday blessing, called on leaders in Europe and Africa to find a solution to the thousands of people who are blocked at borders in North Africa.

“Thousands of them have been experiencing indescribable suffering for weeks, and have been trapped and abandoned in deserts,” the pontiff said. “May the Mediterranean no longer be a theater of death and inhumanity,” the pope said, calling for a sense of “fraternity, solidarity and welcoming.”

The Rome summit comes a week after one of the key participants, Tunisian President Kais Saied, signed a memorandum of understanding for a “comprehensive strategic partnership” in a meeting that included Meloni and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Financial details weren’t released, but the EU has held out the promise of nearly 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to help restart Tunisia’s hobbled economy, and 100 million euros ($111 million) for border control as well as search and rescue missions at sea and repatriating immigrants without residence permits.

Migrants pay traffickers thousands to make the perilous journey across Africa’s deserts. Many report suffering torture and other abuse along the way. And hundreds drown each year at sea trying to reach Italy in fragile boats.

More than 1,900 migrants have died or gone missing and are presumed missing in the Mediterranean so far this year, bringing the total of dead and missing since 2014 to 27,675, according to the International Organization for Migration. A further 483 are dead or missing in Africa this year.
…

HARARE, Zimbabwe — In a large hall at the headquarters of Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party, women responded with roaring cheers when President Emmerson Mnangagwa described them as the party’s “backbone” whose votes are vital to victory in elections scheduled for August.

At a recent opposition rally, women with the face of their male party leader emblazoned on dresses and skirts sang, danced and promised to vote for change — never mind that the election again represents a status quo where women are largely limited to cheerleading.

It appears worse this year because the number of women candidates has plummeted, despite women constituting the majority of the population and, traditionally, the biggest number of voters.

“We have some of the best laws and policies on gender equality and women representation, but that’s just on paper. The reality on the ground is that the role of women in politics is restricted to being fervent supporters and dependable voters,” said Marufu Mandevere, a human rights lawyer in the capital, Harare.

The shortage of women candidates puts Zimbabwe at odds with trends on the continent. According to a report released in March by the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the number of women in national parliaments in sub-Saharan Africa increased from 10% in 1995 to about 27% in 2022. The IPU describes itself as a global organization of national parliaments established in 1889.

In Zimbabwe, a patriarchal southern African nation of 15 million people, gender-based biases are still rampant. Men have historically dominated the political, economic, religious and social spheres. The Aug. 23 election suggests that change could be beyond the horizon, despite vigorous local campaigns and global pressure for increased female participation in decision-making.

In the last election, in 2018, there were four female candidates for the presidency, a record. When registration closed on Jun. 21 this year, there were 11 male candidates — and no women.In the end, one woman did manage to qualify for the ballot, but only just. Elisabeth Valerio was one of two women, along with Linda Masarira, who were rejected because they had failed to pay the $20,000 registration fee on time, up from $1,000 in 2018. In July, Valerio successfully challenged the decision in court.

For the National Assembly, there are 70 women candidates against 637 men in 210 constituencies. This represents 11% of candidates, down from 14% in 2018.

Parliamentary candidates must pay $1,000 to register, compared to $50 in the previous election — and that’s before the huge amounts necessary to compete in a country where vote-buying is rampant.

“Women have historically been squeezed out of the economic arena … That deprivation is now being used to elbow us out of the race for public office,” lamented Masarira. “Political leadership is a preserve of rich men.”

Many women chose to stay away rather than try to raise such “exorbitant fees,” she said.

Pressure groups are disappointed, especially after campaigning hard ahead of party primaries.

In February, major political parties signed a “Women Charter”, pledging action to increase the number of women candidates under a #2023LetsGo5050 campaign driven by a coalition of women’s rights groups.

When candidate registration closed, the biggest political parties had fielded less than 12% women candidates each for the National Assembly, said Women’s Academy for Leadership and Political Excellence or WALPE, a local non-governmental organization.

WALPE described the numbers as a “slap in the face,” accused the parties of “tokenism” and threatened to campaign against them “as the only way” to demonstrate women’s determination for a seat at the table. The group is now running a campaign urging women voters to elect fellow women where they appear on the ballot.

Those women who do run for public office also endure derogatory stereotypes.

Take Judith Tobaiwa, an opposition politician, and the first female MP for a politically volatile constituency in central Zimbabwe. She is seeking re-election. But for her opponents, gender seems to trump the 35-year-old’s track record.

“What is so special about Judy … How different is she from other girls?” thundered a ruling party campaigner during a recent rally in her constituency. “If it’s about being a prostitute, we also have prostitutes in ZANU-PF,” he said to applause for the comments captured on video and later widely criticized by activists.

Yet, according to Mandevere, the human rights lawyer, females have proven to be effective leaders through many decades of multiple crises in Zimbabwe. These range from the HIV/AIDS pandemic that killed millions, to the coronavirus outbreak that left many women and girls as household heads, and a prolonged and debilitating economic meltdown that catapulted women to the forefront of fending for families.

“That’s the sad part. We are fine with women taking care of us at home during times of crisis, but we frown upon their ambitions when it comes to national politics,” he said.
…

Since fighting between rival generals began on April 15, millions of Sudanese have fled northeast from Sudan’s capital, Khartoum, to the city of Atbara. Sidahmed Ibraheem has the story, narrated by Salem Solomon. Camera: Sidahmed Ibraheem.
…

Doctors Without Borders in Sudan warned Friday that it may end operations at a hospital in the capital, Khartoum, after 18 of its workers were “aggressively assaulted,” as conflict rages in the country.

The medical aid group, commonly known by its French acronym MSF, said the team was transporting medical supplies to Turkish Hospital in southern Khartoum Thursday when unidentified armed men attacked its staff, “physically beating and whipping them,” the aid organization said in a statement.

The men also threatened to kill an MSF driver before releasing him and taking off with the vehicle.

Christophe Garnier is MSF’s emergency manager for Sudan. Speaking to VOA Friday, he denounced the attack as “unacceptable” and “very concerning.”

He said the aid group may be forced to end services at the hospital in order to protect its staff.

“If an incident like this happens again and if our ability to move supplies continues to be obstructed, then, regrettably, our presence in the Turkish Hospital will soon become untenable,” Garnier said in a statement.

He said that the armed men who attacked the aid workers appeared drunk and that it wasn’t clear which of Sudan’s warring parties they belonged to.

Forces from the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have been battling for control of the country since hostilities erupted on April 15.

Sudanese authorities say over 3,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

As the humanitarian situation continues to worsen, the United Nations said as of July 14, more than 3 million people have been displaced, including 2.4 million within Sudan.

MSF’s Garnier called on officials to avoid targeting humanitarian workers and civilians. He said they are not a party to the conflict and “shouldn’t be involved in the conflict,” urging all sides to guarantee the safety of aid workers and ensure access to vulnerable populations.

The Turkish Hospital in southern Khartoum is one of the few hospitals still administering medical care in the country. 

This story originated in VOA’s English to Africa Service. 
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In its annual report this month, the state-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission urged officials to pay closer attention to the tensions and violence in the Oromia region.

The commission said there have been attacks in 13 of the 20 zones in the Oromia region, leading to an alarming number of casualties and an extremely concerning overall situation. 

The Ethiopian government blames a rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), for the violence. But the commission said the response of government forces has also resulted in rights abuses.

Deputy Commissioner Rakeb Melese said the rights commission is emphasizing the need for peaceful negotiations. 

“The retaliation measures taken by government equally incurs human rights violations because civilians are affected, people are displaced, because of the retaliatory measures,” Rakeb said.

Attempts to call and text a spokesperson for the Oromo region went unanswered.

Fighting between the federal government and the OLA has caused thousands of deaths and displaced millions of people in the region over the past four years.

A former resident and teacher in the Horo Guduru Welega Zone, who wanted to remain anonymous, said school has been disrupted for the past two years where he used to live.

“I have taught for a long time there — for 26 years,” he said. “But because of the security problems there, I left. I am now in Addis Ababa. Even the way we left was in special circumstances, we walked 90 kilometers on foot — those of us who were able to leave.”

The resident said that the attacks are being carried out by militias, known as Fano, from the neighboring Amhara region.

“We know very well that it’s the armed fighters, Fano. They are the ones stealing, killing and displacing people,” he said. “Everyone knows this, including government bodies. They are creating major problems.”

In April, federal government orders to integrate Amhara special forces, including Fano, into the federal military or the police triggered widespread protests.

More recently, Amhara and Oromo militias have been targeting each other’s neighborhoods, one example of Ethiopia’s long-simmering ethnic conflicts. 

Amanuel Adinew, executive director at the Center for Development and Capacity Building, which works in Oromia, said the conflicts have created mistrust in the community.

“The state of anarchy created around these areas of conflict is behind increasing levels of cruelty. It has eroded the trust that people had in one another,” Amanuel said.

In addition, he added, many social institutions aimed at helping people in need are no longer functional.

Peace talks between the Ethiopian government and the OLA took place in April, but ended without any agreements. 
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The BRICS group of fast-developing economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — has positioned itself as an alternative to the Western-dominated global order. BRICS officials say that spirit has sparked the interest of some 40 countries in joining as the bloc gears up for a summit in August.

Current BRICS chair South Africa is hosting the three-day meeting in Johannesburg next month and says BRICS expansion will be high on the agenda.

Argentina, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are among the countries looking to join, South Africa’s BRICS ambassador, Anil Sooklal, told journalists, adding that it demonstrated the confidence Global South nations have in the organization. 

“Twenty-two countries have formally approached BRICS countries to become full members. There’s an equal number of countries that has been informally asking about becoming BRICS members,” Sooklal said.

BRICS is seen as “a powerful force,” said Sooklal, who added that measured by purchasing power parity it now accounts for 31.7% of global GDP, having overtaken the G-7 — a forum of advanced democracies that includes the U.S. 

But analysts differ in their assessment of what concrete achievements BRICS has made since its inception in 2009.

“The New Development Bank, which has done a substantial amount of lending … is the most prominent achievement. It’s also led to some increased trade between the countries, it’s won some international attention,” said Daniel Bradlow, a University of Pretoria professor who has studied the bloc.

However, he said the group had a “mixed record” and it was yet to be seen whether its potential would be realized in the future.

But Mikatekiso Kubayi, a researcher at the Institute for Global Dialogue at the University of South Africa, says he thought BRICS had achieved a fair amount, contrary to expectations.

“You will recall that from the onset BRICS was an outfit that was easily dismissed by many, particularly in the West, seen merely as some concept,” Kubayi said. “It has achieved a lot, you know, in the 15 years that it’s been around.”

He points to the fact the bloc founded an international development finance institution, as well as how it’s been looking at alternative ways of conducting trade and promoting local currencies, as some of those achievements. 

However, Aly-Khan Satchu, an economic analyst, says for a long time the body was indeed primarily conceptual in nature. 

“I think if we’re looking for a silver-bullet type thing that’s come out of it so far, I don’t think that’s clear, but I think in the long run, what we’re seeing is a serious pole develop, and you know the main issue is the increased multi-polarity of the world and I think BRICS continues to represent that,” Satchu said.

Except for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who can’t travel to South Africa because he’s wanted by an international court for war crimes in Ukraine, all the BRICS heads of state will be attending the summit in person next month.  
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DADAAB, KENYA — Abdikadir Omar was trapped in an extremist-controlled town in Somalia for years until May, when he slipped out to make a 12-day journey with his wife and seven children to neighboring Kenya in search of food and safety.

To his surprise, “I found peace but no food,” the 30-year-old told The Associated Press. He stood near the withered maize he tried to plant around his family’s makeshift shelter of branches and plastic sheeting outside one of the world’s largest refugee camps.

As global food insecurity suffers another shock with Russia’s termination of a deal to keep grain flowing from Ukraine, the hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have fled climate change and insecurity offer a stark example of what happens when aid runs low.

Omar, a farmer, was forced to give most of his produce as tax to al-Shabab, the al-Qaida-linked extremists who have controlled parts of Somalia for years, and the little that remained wasn’t enough to feed his family during Somalia’s worst drought in decades. The final blow came when al-Shabab, under pressure from a Somali military offensive, killed his younger brother.

Omar and his family joined a new wave of Somalis on the run. They were among 135,000 new refugees who arrived at Dadaab in recent months and eventually were allowed to access food aid when the Kenyan government resumed refugee registrations in February at the camp located 90 kilometers from the Somali border.

Dadaab is home to more than 360,000 registered refugees and many unregistered ones. The camp was established in the 1990s, its permanence reflected in the neat rows of corrugated iron homes in its older sections.

Food rations, however, are more fragile. They have been cut from 80% of the minimum daily nutritional requirement to 60% due to reduced donor funding, according to the World Food Program. Traditional donors have been quick to bring up hunger in places like Somalia when criticizing Russia for ending the grain deal, however they have focused their giving elsewhere, including Ukraine. In May, a high-level donors’ conference for Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia raised less than $3 billion of the $7 billion that organizers wanted for humanitarian aid.

Refugee camps like Dadaab, especially in Africa, will see further cuts in aid because of Russia’s action, the WFP’s executive director, Cindy McCain, told the AP on Tuesday. Under the recently ended deal, WFP was procuring 80% of its global wheat supply from Ukraine.”There are going to be some serious shortages and, in some cases, none at all as a result of this,” she said, adding that it was too soon to predict what those cuts would be.

Already, “families that used to prepare probably three meals a day have now reduced to prepare either two meals or a meal a day, and that’s quite extreme,” the WFP head of programs at Dadaab, Colin Buleti, told the AP at a food distribution center during a visit last week.

Families receive monthly rations of sorghum, rice, beans, maize and vegetable oil, alongside a cash transfer for buying fresh produce that has been halved to $3.

Aid workers say the reduced rations are likely to worsen malnutrition. In one of Dadaab’s three sections, Hagadera, 384 malnutrition cases were reported in the first half of the year, already exceeding the 347 reported there all of last year, according to the International Rescue Committee, which provides health services.

The malnutrition ward in Hagadera is filled beyond capacity with crying babies. It is meant to handle 30 patients and is currently at 56.

Dool Abdirahman, 25, arrived with her malnourished baby daughter in November. The family fled Somalia when the infant developed hydrocephalus, or a buildup of fluid on the brain. Until then, the family had struggled to hold out at home, Abdirahman said.

The International Rescue Committee’s health manager in Dadaab, Barbara Muttimos, said that even the nutrient-dense peanut paste used to treat children who are acutely and severely malnourished is threatened by reduced funding and the growing number of hungry people.

But for mothers like Mabina Ali Hassan, 38, the conditions in Dadaab are better than the nonexistent services back home, where conflict has destabilized the country over the past three decades.

“I regret going back to Somalia in 2016 when I heard it was safer,” the mother of eight said. “This baby was born there and couldn’t get health care because the hospitals were not equipped.” She said she returned to the refugee camp when her son, now a year old, became malnourished.

Maryan Mohamed, 30, said she was lucky to be among the newly registered refugees. The former teashop owner and her six children arrived at Dadaab in March and for four months lived off food handouts from friends who were already registered.

“While stability welcomed me here, I’m still striving for the life I dreamed of,” she said.

The threat of insecurity remains, even for the refugees. Al-Shabab this month attacked a Somali military base just 12 kilometers from the Kenya border. Somali forces are under pressure to assume security responsibilities as an African Union peacekeeping force continues its withdrawal from the country.

Kenya’s government is now in discussions with the United Nations on how to integrate the hundreds of thousands of refugees into host communities in the future. The U.N. refugee agency says such integration is the best way to host refugees as donor funding shrinks.
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NAIROBI – Protesters were out in the streets in Kenya again Thursday demonstrating against the high cost of living and recent tax hikes. This comes after opposition leader Raila Odinga called for a three-day demonstration that started Wednesday.

Protesters showed up for a second day in a row in some parts of Nairobi and elsewhere in the country, demonstrating against what they say is a cost of living that’s been drastically going up each and every day.

The three-day demonstrations that started Wednesday, led by opposition leader Raila Odinga, have seen 300 people reportedly arrested, including several senior opposition leaders.

Some were in court Thursday to respond to accusations of looting, assaulting police and destroying property.

David Omwoyo, head of Kenya’s Media Council, said one police officer masqueraded as a reporter to arrest a protester.

“What we saw was a policeman in civilian clothing who was amongst the press corps during the demonstrations at one of the suburbs in Nairobi,” he said. “And then suddenly he put his camera or phone in his pocket and jumped across, grabbed one of the protesters and another police officer immediately joined him. I think it was a setup. Then, they put the protester into their police vehicle.”

Omwoyo told VOA the incident is the first of its kind and it’s scary for members of the media. If protesters or the public believe police are impersonating journalists, he said, it could be dangerous for members of the media as clashes between police and protesters continue.

Kenyan President William Ruto, addressing residents of Isiolo County on Thursday, urged residents to maintain peace, saying that destruction of property during the demonstrations will affect development of the country.

“Every part of Kenya has said we cannot sabotage our economy, using violence and destruction of business, destruction of property,” he said. “Kenya is the only place we have to call home, and we must protect it by all means.”

On Thursday, veteran opposition leader Odinga wrote on Twitter, “the voice of the people must be heard,” and insisted the peaceful protests continue.

Vincent Kimosop, an economic policy and governance expert based in Nairobi, said it’s important to analyze the impact of recent events.

“If you look at the impact of the disruptions that were brought by the war in Ukraine . . .  the disruption of the global supply chain with COVID-19, and for close to two years, we shut the engines of economic production while at the same time pushing into subsidies, allowing people to access money,” he said. That means “the monies that have been pushed to facilitate people through sad situations. Of course, when you shut down economic engines, what happens, you are basically preparing for inflation.”

The protests are expected to continue Friday.
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At least nine people were killed and a dozen wounded when a bomb went off in a village in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, a local official said Thursday. 

The bomb exploded in the eastern territory of Rutshuru on Wednesday evening, according to Isaac Kibira, a deputy to the province’s governor. A local self-defense fighter — part of a militia to protect the community — was trying to identify an object on the ground when it detonated in the village center, instantly killing him and eight civilians nearby. 

It was not immediately known who planted the bomb, though officials said it was found in an area where armed rebels recently have made incursions. 

“Emergency first aid was provided by elements of the regional forces of the East African Community deployed in the area,” said Kibira. Local health officials said they admitted the wounded to a clinic for treatment. 

Fighting in eastern Congo has been simmering for decades as more than 120 groups fight for power, land and valuable mineral resources, while others try to defend their communities. But it spiked in late 2021 when the rebel group M23, which was largely dormant for nearly a decade, resurfaced and started capturing territory. Earlier this week, the United Nations raised the alarm about a surge in violence in the country’s northeast. 

M23 rose to prominence 10 years ago when its fighters seized Goma, eastern Congo’s largest city on the border with Rwanda. It derives its name from a March 23, 2009, peace deal that it accuses the Congo government of not implementing. The Congolese government and the U.N. have accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebels, allegations Rwanda denies. 

M23 and a local self-defense group have been fighting for control of the village. Youth militia groups called Wazalendo (“patriots” in Kiswahili) have formed across northeastern Congo to protect their communities from encroaching armed groups. 

Wednesday’s deaths came less than a week after M23 was accused of killing nearly a dozen people in a different village in the same area. 
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The restoration of diplomatic relations between Turkey and Egypt in early July is raising hopes for ending conflicts across the Middle East and Africa. For VOA, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Clashes between Kenya’s opposition-led anti-tax protesters and police this month have left scores dead, including a prominent boxer who was shot earlier this month in Nairobi. Kenya’s boxing fraternity organized an exhibition bout to honor 35-year-old Raphael Shigali, who was the capital’s reigning Bantamweight champion. Francis Ontomwa reports from Nairobi, Kenya. Camera: Amos Wangwa
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African leaders are to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg at the end of this month for a summit, billed as strengthening cooperation in peace, security, and development.

But the second Russia-Africa Summit comes as Moscow continues to wage war against Ukraine. Russia’s invasion has led to higher food and oil prices for many African nations – and prices could rise further after Russia this week pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, a U.N.-brokered deal that allowed Ukrainian food exports to reach international markets.

International summits involve an element of political theater, analysts say, and African attendance will be a measure of success for the St. Peterburg gathering, according to Steven Gruzd, who leads the Africa-Russia project at the South African Institute of International Affairs in Johannesburg.

“I think there will be a lot of focus on who attends … and last time in 2019, when the world looked very different before the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, there were 43 African heads of state that went to Sochi [Russia] for the 2019 summit,” Gruzd told VOA.

Mvemba Dizolele, who directs the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said this will be a high-stakes discussion.

“They [Russia] are under a lot of pressure with what’s happening in Ukraine and the ramifications of the conflict there in terms of commodity prices, particularly for Africans — and also what’s happening with Wagner and so on — so this an opportunity for Russia to try to assert its place on the global stage as well,” Dizolele told VOA.

Trade likely will be discussed.

“I think there would be talk about trade … Russia’s trade with Africa is really negligible. China and the EU are by far much bigger trading partners with Africa,” Gruzd noted.

Russia is also looking to get around sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies.

“No African countries have imposed sanctions on Russia, so it’s a lucrative market,” said Gruzd. “We saw a similar pattern after the invasion of Georgia in 2008, and the first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, as Western markets closed to Russia business, they sought markets elsewhere and of course Africa, Latin America, Asia were areas where they did seek to expand.”

The U.N. General Assembly in February passed a resolution demanding that Russia end the war and leave Ukrainian territory. While 141 countries voted in favor, two African countries voted against it and 15 abstained.

“Russia benefited from that in the sense that it showed them they have some friends,” Dizolele said. “It’s simply an awakening on the African part. They are particularly sending a message to the rest of the world, ‘we also have our own foreign policies, and those reflect our national interest.’”

He said the reality is that every country has done what it needed to do.

“The French president went to Russia and tried to negotiate something that was very different than what the Americans were trying to negotiate. We see various leaders of Europe … go to Russia. Italy did not have the same position and France didn’t have the same position as Germany. It’s totally normal that people have different positions. All that is based on their interest. I think we need to accept that of Africans,” Dizolele said.

The United States, Turkey, China, France, and other countries have convened similar summits of African leaders. Dizolele said the optics of one country summoning the leaders of an entire continent undermines Africa’s efforts to assert itself on the global stage.

“Africa is a big place. Africa is a critical component and critical member of the global community. It has a lot to offer from … natural resources, mineral resources but most importantly the youth. It’s the youngest continent with the median age of 19,” he said.

“So, if that’s the case, it’s important that Africans start demanding that people come to them. You can’t be important and going to everyone all the time, it reduces your value,” he notes.
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