Somali refugees are heading to the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya to register for IDs, in hopes of securing relocation to the U.S. and other Western countries. The rush follows the creation of a program that allows Americans to sponsor refugees arriving through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. Juma Majanga reports from the Dadaab camps.
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South Africa’s energy minister was accused of failing to back the country’s energy transition on Sunday after he “snubbed” a billion-dollar green hydrogen deal launched in partnership with the Netherlands and Denmark.

The country’s biggest opposition party said energy minister Gwede Mantashe had not signed an agreement on the fund, which was approved and launched anyway on Tuesday.

South Africa is facing a power crisis with scheduled outages that last up to 12 hours a day, and the move has sparked a renewed debate on the transition to cleaner energy.

The transition has been mired with infighting among the government, which has a long history of support from labour unions representing mine workers.

According to South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper, Mantashe said he “refused” to sign a memorandum of understanding on the deal.

The opposition Democratic Alliance said it was “unacceptable” and called for the minister’s removal from office.

“Mantashe’s recent decision to snub the top-level meeting… with European leaders to launch a European-funded green-energy initiative is deeply concerning”, the party said.

“We cannot afford a recalcitrant and ideologically compromised minister at the helm of the energy portfolio,” it added, accusing Mantashe of “hindering the much-needed rapid and just energy transition.”

Despite being invited, Mantashe did not attend the deal’s launch at business forum in Pretoria, opting to attend a separate energy summit hosted by a leading trade union federation.

Energy ministry spokesman Nathi Shabangu told AFP the minister’s absence did not signal his disagreement with the deal, insisting that he simply did not sign “because he had not seen the MOU he could not sign on what he had not seen.”

The blended finance fund will “accelerate the development of a green hydrogen sector and circular economy,” the president’s office said earlier this week.

Mantashe has in the past been vocal in his support for the coal lobby, saying last year that ditching coal too quickly was not in the country’s best interests, citing economic damage and job losses.

Since 2021, South Africa, which is one of the world’s top 12 carbon emitters, has secured billions of dollars in international loans and grants to support a green transition.

The coal-rich but energy-starved country generates about 80 percent of its electricity through coal, relying on 15 ageing coal-fired power plants.
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Artillery fire, airstrikes and gun battles rocked Sudan’s capital Saturday, witnesses told AFP.

While fighting rages, relief efforts have stalled after more than two months of conflict between rival generals.

Houses in Khartoum shook from the fighting that continued unabated, residents said, with entire families sheltering in place, running low on vital supplies in the baking summer heat.

The United Nations says nearly 1.5 million people have fled the capital since violence erupted in mid-April, pitting the regular army against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

Entire districts of Khartoum no longer have running water, and those who remain in the city have had no electricity since Thursday, several residents told AFP.

The battle for power between army chief Abdel-Fattah Burhan and his former deputy, RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, has killed more than 2,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

Aid blocked

Two-thirds of health facilities in the main battlegrounds remain out of service, according to the Sudanese doctors’ union. The few hospitals still operating are extremely low on medical supplies and struggling to obtain fuel to power generators.

The U.N. says a record 25 million people, more than half of Sudan’s population, are in need of aid and protection.

Aid has reached at least 2.8 million people, the U.N. said, but agencies report major hurdles to their work, from visas for foreign humanitarians to securing safe corridors.

“The army is … loath to let aid into the capital, fearing that packages will end up in the RSF’s hands” as has happened before, “allowing the paramilitary to hold out longer,” according to think-tank the International Crisis Group (ICG).

The United States, which along with Saudi Arabia sought to mediate between the warring sides and ensure humanitarian aid can reach those in need, said Thursday it had put its efforts on hold.

“Both sides seek to use the humanitarian talks for tactical advantage … with the military demanding that the RSF vacate residential areas and the RSF demanding that the army cease its aerial barrages,” ICG said this week in a report.

Haven for mercenaries

No side appears willing to stand down, exacerbating the risk of prolonged conflict with regional ramifications.

More than 150,000 people have fled Darfur over the border to Chad, according to the International Organization for Migration.

Chad, which already hosted more than 680,000 refugees, needs massive financial and technical support to confront this “unprecedented migratory crisis,” Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo said Saturday.

Dagalo’s RSF have their origins in the Janjaweed militias that former strongman Omar al-Bashir unleashed in response to a rebellion by ethnic minorities in Darfur in 2003, drawing charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

“A collapsed Sudan could create a haven for transnational militants … mercenaries and traffickers who could plague the country’s neighborhood for years to come,” ICG warned.

Maha Abdullah, 50, a tearful Sudanese woman who was able to reach Saudi Arabia for the hajj pilgrimage, sees only one solution: “It needs God’s intervention to change things.”
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Sierra Leoneans voted Saturday in a general election in which President Julius Maada Bio was seeking a second term amid a crippling economic crisis that sparked deadly riots last year. 

One of the world’s poorest countries, Sierra Leone was battered by a brutal 1991-2002 civil war and the Ebola epidemic a decade later.  

More economic misery followed due to the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which notably increased food prices in the import-dependent West African nation. 

Boubacar Conteh, 27, from Wellington in the east of Freetown, waited since four in the morning to cast his ballot. 

“I want my country to change — I need change,” he said. 

Twelve men and one woman are vying for the top job and incumbent Bio’s main challenger is Samura Kamara of the All People’s Congress (APC) party.  

They could face off for the second time in a row. Bio, 59, of the Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP), narrowly beat Kamara, who is 72 years old, in a runoff in 2018. 

Rising food prices are a key issue for many voters in the nation of eight million people. Year-on-year inflation hit 43% in April. 

Both Bio and Kamara told AFP they would prioritize boosting agricultural production. 

Mohamed Waritay, a 27-year-old security guard, said he was voting for Bio, who had significantly raised spending on education.   

“I never paid a single cent from 2019” on education, he said. 

Waritay said Bio “built a hospital in my village with 100 beds,” adding, “People were suffering, especially the pregnant women who had to take a motorbike to go to the nearest town.”  

Polling stations opened later than the scheduled time of 7 a.m. in the capital Freetown, AFP journalists said, including in the the central Wilberforce Barracks area. They were due to close at 5 p.m. (1700 GMT). 

Some 3.4 million people are registered to vote, 52.4% of whom are under 35 years old, according to an electoral commission spokesman.  

Presidential candidates must secure 55% of valid votes for a first-round win. 

Turnout has ranged between 76% and 87% over the past three elections. 

Voters will also elect members of parliament and local councils in a proportional representation system after a last-minute switch from a first-past-the-post system. 

Under a recently passed gender act, one-third of all candidates must be women. 

A new 11.9% vote threshold will make it difficult for independents and minority parties to secure seats in parliament. 

Many Sierra Leoneans vote based on regional allegiances. 

The majority of people in the south and east normally vote for the ruling SLPP, while most people from the north and west normally vote for the opposition APC. 

Jobs and benefits are commonly perceived to flow to regions whose politicians are in power. 

Bio, a former coup leader in the 1990s, has championed education and women’s rights in his first civilian term. 

Kamara, a former foreign and finance minister, has lambasted the electoral commission for alleged bias in favor of the ruling party. 

He is facing a protracted trial over allegations that he misappropriated public funds as foreign minister, a case he says is politically motivated. 

A June 14 poll by the Institute for Governance Reform (IGR), a partner in the pan-African survey group Afrobarometer, forecasts Bio will win 56% of the vote, with 43% for Kamara. 

Another poll, conducted by the newspaper Sierra Eye and two local data groups, forecasts 38% for the incumbent and 25% for his main challenger. 

The elections are being closely followed in West Africa, a region recently dominated by coups and turmoil. 

A group of foreign ambassadors on Wednesday issued a joint statement calling for peace following reports of election-related “aggression.”  

Security forces clashed with APC supporters Wednesday in the capital, Freetown. 

Last August, riots left at least 27 civilians and six police officers dead. 

Online disinformation campaigns have contributed to the violence. 
…

The United Nations called Saturday for immediate action to stop “wanton killings” of people fleeing El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state, by Arab militias aided by paramilitary forces. 

For more than two months, the Sudanese army headed by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan has been locked in fighting with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) commanded by his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. 

The deadliest violence has raged in Darfur, a vast western region on the border with Chad where the United Nations has warned the conflict has taken an “ethnic dimension.” 

“We are gravely concerned that such wanton killings are ongoing and urge immediate action to halt them,” U.N. rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said in a statement. 

“People fleeing El Geneina must be guaranteed safe passage and humanitarian agencies allowed to access to the area to collect the remains of those killed,” she added. 

The Geneva-based U.N. rights office said people who escaped to Chad had given “horrifying accounts of armed ‘Arab’ militia backed by the Rapid Support Forces killing people fleeing El Geneina on foot.”  

It said witnesses had given “corroborating accounts” of Arab militia targeting men from the non-Arab Masalit people.  

“All those interviewed also spoke of seeing dead bodies scattered along the road — and the stench of decomposition,” it said. “Several people spoke off seeing dozens of bodies in an area referred to as Shukri” about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Sudan’s border with Chad. 

The U.N. rights office said that all but two of the 16 people it interviewed testified that they had witnessed “summary executions” and the targeting of civilians on the road from El Geneina to the border between June 15 and 16. 

The United States said last week that up to 1,100 people had been killed in El Geneina, in a statement that attributed the atrocities “primarily” to the RSF paramilitary force. 

In its statement, the U.N. rights office said El Geneina had become “uninhabitable,” and that essential infrastructure had been destroyed and movement of aid to the city remained blocked. 

It called on the RSF leadership to “immediately, unequivocally condemn and stop the killing of people fleeing El Geneina. 

“Those responsible for the killings and other violence must be held accountable,” it said. “We urge the immediate establishment of a humanitarian corridor between Chad and El Geneina, and safe passage for civilians out of areas affected by the hostilities.” 
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Nigeria’s state security service has warned the public of possible terrorist attacks on houses of worship ahead of the June 29 Islamic celebration of Eid-al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice. The Department of State Services says operations this week against armed men recovered improvised explosive devices, indicating plans to launch attacks before and during festivities.

The security advisory was contained in a statement released by Nigeria’s secret police Thursday evening.

It’s the first such warning by the Department of State Services, or DSS, since Nigerian President Bola Tinubu assumed office in May.

The DSS said the warning was based on the intelligence and recovery this week of improvised explosive devices found during counterterrorism operations in the central Kogi and Nasarawa states near the capital.

DSS officials said operatives killed a notorious gang leader and arrested a gun dealer during the raids Monday and early Thursday.

Secret police spokesperson Peter Afunanya did not respond to requests for further comments, but retired DSS officer Mike Ejiofor said the threat should be taken seriously.

“It’s an advisory from the state security service for people to be on the watch out and, you know, such advisories are based on intelligence gathered or available to the service, so it’s important that people are conscious of their environment,” he said.

The security agency said it will work with the military and police to disrupt the terrorists’ plans. Security issues have created major problems for past administrations.

Nigeria has been battling an insurgency that has lasted nearly 14 years, along with armed gangs who often kill or kidnap for ransom. Worship centers are often targets of terror attacks.

During his inauguration on May 29, Tinubu promised his government will prioritize restoring security. Monday the president fired all service chiefs and the head of the police and appointed new ones.

Ejiofor said it is a step in the right direction.

“To me it was a very welcome development,” he said. “Security is paramount, there’s need for them to also meet immediately and start strategizing on methods of handling the security challenges in the country.”

In June 2022, heavily armed men invaded St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church in Owo, a town in southwest Nigeria, and killed 41 worshippers. Authorities blamed the attack on the Islamic State West Africa Province, or ISWAP.

A month later, ISWAP claimed responsibility for a massive jail break near Abuja that freed hundreds of inmates including terrorism suspects.

Security experts say threats of terror have increased since the incident.

Kabir Raji, national youth secretary of the Nasrul-Lahi-il Fathi Society of Nigeria, a Muslim prayer group, said the society is already undertaking additional security measures at various mosques.

“A meeting is going on on this now; the various zonal security secretaries have been engaged, security checks, inviting the police [and] the DSS to every worship center before the Eid, [and] during [the Eid], ensuring proper car parking, scanning machines and checks, we all have this in our various locations,” Raji said.

For now, many citizens will be more vigilant as they attend celebrations.
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Islamic extremists killed eight farmers and abducted 10 in an attack in northeastern Nigeria, officials said Friday — the latest in a volatile region that is a key part of the country’s breadbasket and where militants have threatened food supplies. 

The farmers were ambushed in the bush in the Borno state’s Mafa district Thursday. The attackers slit their throats, authorities said. 

Babagana Zulum, the state governor, said the attack was an attempt to “sabotage the successes of the government” as it struggles to have those displaced in Borno return to their villages and rebuild their lives. 

He said the security forces need to rise to the challenge but also urged residents to take individual precautions. 

“We must rise to our responsibility and address the situation,” Zulum said. “I’ve told the people to be resilient, and they should be security-conscious and avoid remote locations.” 

Islamic extremist rebels launched an insurgency in Borno in 2009 to establish their radical interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, in the region. At least 35,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced because of the violence by the militant Boko Haram group and a breakaway faction backed by the Islamic State group. 

Borno’s farming communities have been frequently targeted in recent months, raising fears of extreme hunger as U.N. agencies continue to warn of famine. 

On Friday, local villagers are mourning the slain farmers while also decrying inadequate security measures in remote and volatile areas. 

Modu Ibrahim, a resident, said there were no security forces where the farmers’ bodies were found. The extremists spared one teenager whom they asked to “deliver the message” about the attack to other villagers, Ibrahim said. 

The Islamic insurgency in the northeast has also overstretched Nigeria’s security forces as they continue to battle other crises across the country, including continuing clashes between nomadic cattle herders and farming communities in northwest and central regions of the West African nation.
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Somalian President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has urged the U.N. Security Council to lift an arms embargo on the nation, saying it no longer serves its purpose.

Some analysts, however, say Somalia is still struggling to ensure arms meant to provide security don’t end up in the hands of terrorists.

Mohamud told the Security Council on Thursday that his government had put in place sufficient measures to counter the illicit flow of arms. He said the government had established legislation to control the possession, manufacture, storage and use of firearms.

“I implore you distinguished delegates to support our call for the complete lifting of the arms embargo in Somalia,” he said. “By doing so, you will empower us to assert our sovereignty, effectively combat terrorism and build a peaceful and prosperous future for our nation.”

He noted the situation in Somalia had improved significantly, adding the Somalia of 2023 is not that of 1992, when the Security Council imposed the arms embargo.

Call for international help

Mohamed El-Amine Souef, chief of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), echoed calls to lift the embargo. He noted there was a need for concerted international efforts to protect gains made over the years and ensure sustained pressure against al-Shabab.

“We must support SSF [Somalia Security Force] leadership, hold liberated areas and take over FOBs [forward operating bases],” he said. “These forces require resources to fight al-Shabab and stabilize newly liberated areas. This calls for the lifting of the arms embargo on Somalia.”

Somalia is in the middle of a military operation against al-Shabab. The federal government has said it is on course to launch the second phase of the offensive dubbed Operation Black Lion. Unlike the first phase, which involved the Somali army and clan militia, the second phase will enlist the support of additional troops from Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti following an agreement among the countries in January.

Matt Bryden, chairman of Sahan, a policy and security research organization on the Horn of Africa, said that while the lifting of the embargo would be a positive step for Somalia as it tries to affirm its sovereignty, there is no concrete evidence it will change the security dynamics in the country.

“It’s not clear that lifting the arms embargo would actually change the situation or allow the government to improve its military position,” he said. “There are already exemptions for the government to receive military assistance, and there are only a few remaining restrictions on the types of weapons that it can procure.”

Skepticism on lifting embargo

Bryden said the Somali government couldn’t afford high-caliber weapons, even if the embargo was lifted. He added that despite the expression of opposition to the embargo by countries such as Kenya and Ethiopia, they remain apprehensive that weapons could still fall into the wrong hands. He noted that even at the Security Council, where Africa is represented by three countries, the position of the African Union is still against the removal of the embargo.

“I think the concerns of regional countries, the neighbors, Somalia’s neighbors, about lifting the arms embargo are principally that the federal government doesn’t control either the land borders or the maritime borders of Somalia,” he said. “And so, there is a concern that weapons would continue to enter Somalia freely, as they do even under the terms of the arms embargo.”

Samira Gaid, an independent security analyst in Mogadishu, told VOA the removal of the arms embargo was more critical at the moment, as Somalia battles al-Shabab militants.

“The country is in war against a terror group. It needs all the capacities that it can achieve to take on this group and fight this group and eliminate it from Somali territory,” she said. “So, the prevailing situation, really security situation, argues for a lifting of this arms embargo.”

But Gaid said the Security Council was not likely to lift the embargo soon. She argued that unless a clear road map was developed between Somalia and the council, the embargo would still be in place for some time.

Political questions

Analysts also have raised concerns about political disputes in Somalia and how they could work against an appeal for the lifting of the arms embargo.

Ismail Omar Dalmar, a political analyst with Linking Governance, a policy strategy consultancy in Mogadishu, said that while Mohamud has expressed a political will, political disputes, especially in Puntland and Somaliland, could undermine the president’s plea to the Security Council.

The council imposed the embargo on Somalia in 1992 following the collapse of the central government and subsequent civil war. In March 2013, the council, through Resolution 2093, relaxed the embargo to allow the Somali government to acquire a specific caliber of weapons for the development of its security forces and protection of its citizens.

The embargo, now in its third decade, has been described as the longest-running arms restriction in the history of the Security Council.
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In May, the World Health Organization certified that the countries of Benin and Mali eliminated trachoma as a public health problem, the fifth and sixth African countries to do so. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, while the Carter Center is celebrating the milestone in Mali, its work in eliminating and eradicating trachoma in Ethiopia, Niger, South Sudan and Sudan continues.
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In Cameroon, hundreds of women made widows by the country’s separatist conflict are protesting what they call the government’s lack of support. The widows say they have been left vulnerable to violence and abuse in the conflict, which has claimed more than 6,000 lives, and they are struggling to support their families.

The song “Veuve” in the French language, which translates to widow in English, by Cameroonian singer Giselle Otabela, blasts through speakers at a courtyard in the Yaounde 3rd district council in Cameroon’s capital.

Otabela sings that conflicts are increasing the number of poor and desperate widows in Cameroon.

The Cameroon Anglophone Crisis Widows Association says it organized a 1-kilometer peace walk to protest the Cameroon government’s neglect of widows.

Thirty-six-year-old Asu Ebangha is the president of the Widows Association and says several hundred widows agreed to come out and make their voices and grievances heard on International Widows Day on June 23.

“I am a widow, and I champion the course for widows. The widows are so poor, they are maltreated, they cannot take care of their children and it is a whole lot of trauma,” said Ebangha. “You will not be happy to see your children moving around from door to door, begging for food, begging for clothes. They can’t go to school and all of this.”

Ebangha said she lost her husband in 2019 during violent clashes between Cameroon government troops and separatist fighters in Menji, an English-speaking southwestern town. She says she escaped to Yaounde with her three children and was homeless for six months before the Catholic Women Association gave her a room for lodging.

Ebangha said several hundred displaced widows are homeless and hungry.

Since 2017 Cameroon’s military has been battling separatists fighting to carve out an independent, English-speaking state from Cameroon and its French-speaking majority.

The International Crisis Group estimates that six years of fighting has killed about 6,000 people and displaced more than 750,000.

Cameroon also is facing Boko Haram attacks that began in Nigeria’s Borno state in 2009 before spreading to neighboring countries, including Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.

The United Nations says the Islamist insurgency has left more than 36,000 people dead, mainly in Nigeria, and displaced 3 million.

The Global Fund for Widows, or GFW, says that because of the crises, several thousand of Cameroon’s estimated 800,000 widows are at an increased risk of violence, discrimination, ill health and rights abuses.

Marie Therese Abena Ondoua is Cameroon’s minister of Women’s Empowerment and the Family. She says the government is assisting widows but state resources are limited.

“We should really do everything to improve their well-being. After the husband’s departure [death], she should not suffer,” said Ondoua. “When you have rampant poverty, things are even worse, but the widows should know that when they ask for help, our services do their best to give assistance to those widows, and we work with the civil society because the government cannot do it all [alone].”

Ondoua says civilians should stop disinheritance, discrimination and other .harmful

traditional practices targeting widows. He said harmful widowhood rites, including forcing women to sleep with the corpses of their late husbands and to drink water used in bathing the bodies as a sign they did not kill their spouses, should be stopped.

The GFW says the average Cameroonian widow registered with its local partner has three children, with some having as many as 12. The GWF says widows are in unthinkable situations because they face extreme poverty, starvation and a lack humanitarian aid.
…

Libyan authorities have dismantled a crypto mining operation in the country’s west, the prosecution in Tripoli said Thursday, adding that 50 Chinese nationals had been detained.  

Interior ministry agents searching a farm in Zliten, some 160 kilometers east of the capital, found “minors exploiting significant material capacity to generate virtual currencies with the help of 50 Chinese nationals” who were taken into custody, prosecutors said in a statement.  

A video shared on the Facebook page of the Tripoli prosecutor’s office showed several structures without any windows but dozens of industrial fans, with large quantities of computers and hardware.  

On Wednesday, prosecutors announced authorities had dismantled another illegal crypto-mining farm in the port city of Misrata, adding it was operated by 10 Chinese nationals.  

Such sites, which normally operate around the clock, require strong servers, a stable internet connection and expensive equipment.  

But war-ravaged Libya experiences regular power cuts and irregular internet speeds.  

According to tech watchdog Digiconomist, mining for bitcoin — the world’s most popular cryptocurrency — requires about 1,150 kWh of electricity.  

Many countries worldwide have banned crypto mining including China, which had been a global leader in manufacturing virtual currency before forbidding it in June 2021.  

Libya’s central bank banned any transaction in cryptocurrency in 2018, pending legislation to regulate its use in the North African country which is divided between two rival administrations.
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Saturday marks the anniversary of an attempt by approximately 2,000 sub-Saharan African migrants and refugees to cross over from Morocco to Spain. At least 37 people died in the attempt, and 76 are still unaccounted for.

Amnesty International Friday accused Morocco and Spain of conducting a cover-up of their racist practices at the border.

The group said Spain failed to open an independent investigation after Spanish prosecutors dropped their investigation because they said they had not found any criminal misconduct by Spanish security forces. Morocco never opened a probe, the group said.

“At the Moroccan side of the border, and as a result of the cooperation between the two countries, Moroccan authorities continue preventing Black sub-Saharan Africans from reaching Spanish territory to apply for asylum at the border post,” AI said in a statement.

“What happened in Melilla is a salutary reminder that racist migration policies aimed at fortifying borders and restricting safe and legal routes for people seeking safety in Europe have real and deadly consequences,” Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnès Callamard said in the statement. “It is hard to escape the racialized element of what happened in Melilla and the dehumanizing way in which Black people are treated at Europe’s borders, when they are living, missing or dead.”

The organization said 22 bodies from the incident remain in a morgue in Morocco.
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Residents of the city of Kadugli in southwestern Sudan began fleeing the city Thursday as tensions escalated between the army and a powerful rebel group, threatening to open another area of conflict in the country’s ongoing war, witnesses said.

Mobilization around Kadugli, capital of South Kordofan state, and an escalation of fighting in Darfur come after nearly 10 weeks of fighting focused in the capital, Khartoum, between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

The United States and Saudi Arabia adjourned talks they had been facilitating in Jeddah, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Molly Phee said at a congressional hearing in Washington.

“The format is not succeeding in the way that we want,” she said, after a series of violated ceasefire agreements.

Since mid-April the war has uprooted more than 2.5 million people from their homes and threatened to destabilize neighboring countries suffering from a combination of conflict, poverty and economic pressures.

In the fighting between the army and the RSF, army air strikes on Thursday morning hit areas of southern Khartoum and Omdurman, and the RSF responded with anti-aircraft weaponry, residents said.

Escalation in the west

The army on Wednesday accused the SPLM-N rebel group led by Abdelaziz al-Hilu, which controls parts of South Kordofan state, of breaking a long-standing cease-fire agreement and attacking an army unit in the city. 

The army said it had fought back the incursion but sustained losses. 

South Kordofan has Sudan’s main oil fields and borders West Darfur State as well as South Sudan.  

The SPLM-N, which has strong ties to South Sudan, also attacked the army in the South Kordofan city of al-Dalanj on Wednesday, as did the RSF, residents said. 

Residents of Kadugli said the army had redeployed forces to protect its positions in the city Thursday, while the SPLM-N was gathering in areas on the outskirts.  

There were electricity and communications outages as well as dwindling food and medical supplies, they said.  

The war has also brought an eruption of violence in Darfur, with the West Darfur city of El Geneina worst hit. 

In Al Fashir, capital of North Darfur, the army and the RSF clashed violently, including around the main market, after having deployed across the city Thursday, witnesses said.

Nyala, capital of South Darfur and one of Sudan’s largest cities, has also seen clashes between the army and RSF in recent days, amid electricity and communications blackouts. Both cities had been relatively calm after locally negotiated truces.
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The departure of a U.N. peacekeeping mission from Mali will strike a “fatal blow” to a peace accord and threaten stability across the region, a coalition of armed groups in the north of the country has warned. 

But Mali’s junta has asked the peacekeeping force, known as MINUSMA, to leave “without delay,” a demand that followed years of fraying relations between the U.N. and Bamako’s military leadership. 

“The departure of MINUSMA without a credible alternative would constitute a threat to security in Mali and the whole region,” the coalition, called the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP-PSD), said in a statement on Wednesday. 

A spokesman for the junta did not respond to a request for comment. 

It is not clear if or when MINUSMA will leave. The force has been in the West African country since 2013 after a Tuareg-led separatist insurgency was hijacked by Islamist groups that have gone on to kill thousands of people and control large parts of northern and central Mali.

MINUSMA has struggled to contain the Islamist violence, but it has played a role in placating the separatists, who halted their offensive in 2015 with the Algiers Accord. 

Still, the signatories have been at odds with the junta that consolidated power in two coups in 2020 and 2021. In December, CSP-PSD pulled out of talks, saying it would come back to the table only in a neutral country under international mediation. 

MINUSMA’s mandate runs out on June 30, and it was in talks to extend it before Mali’s announcement. Security experts say an orderly departure of 13,000 troops and equipment could take a year at least. 

There are fears the country – which has burned bridges with Western allies since the coups and turned to Russian private military contractor Wagner Group for help – could slide deeper into chaos if separatist sentiments resurge.
…

With journalists covering the election campaign harassed and security concerns blocking some female reporters from covering events in Sierra Leone, media associations are calling for better protections and greater support. Senanu Tord reports from Freetown. Camera: Senanu Tord.
…

The head of the United Nations’ World Food Program warned Thursday that conflict and climate change are pushing millions of Somalis to the brink of hunger, as the agency is running out of funds to help them.

“Somalia was hauled back from the abyss of famine in 2022, because the international community saw the warning signs flashing red and raced to respond,” Cindy McCain told the U.N. Security Council in her first briefing since taking over the agency’s leadership in April.

“But now we are in danger of losing the precious gains we have made since those dark days last year,” she said.

Last year, a famine was averted after increased international funding, led by the United States, helped scale up humanitarian assistance. But the country still suffered severely, with the U.N. estimating that 43,000 people died, most likely due to the drought.

The WFP projects this year that some 6.6 million Somalis will face crisis levels or worse of food insecurity, and 1.8 million children under age 5 will suffer acute malnutrition.   

“This includes 40,000 people fighting for survival in famine-like conditions,” McCain said.

The country is suffering its longest drought on record. Recent rains brought floods to parts of the country. Climate shocks have wiped out crops and scores of livestock and displaced 1.7 million people from their homes.

Like most U.N. aid programs, the WFP is suffering a serious cash shortfall for its operations in Somalia. McCain said at the end of April, the agency had to reduce the number of people it assists from 4.7 million each month to 3 million and it may have to make further cuts.

“Without an immediate cash injection, we will have to cut our distribution lists again in July, to just 1.8 million [people] per month,” she said. “That’s almost 3 million women, children and men who will be denied the assistance they desperately need, simply because we do not have the money to feed them.”
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Palorinya refugee settlement in Uganda is reporting high numbers of suicides and suicide attempts by the people who live there. Organizations and individuals who work with the refugees say denial of food and a failure to meet basic needs are the main causes. Halima Athumani reports from Obongi District, Uganda. Camera: Francis Mukasa
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Kenyan video gamers are joining forces to advocate for bringing to Africa more world-class gaming servers that provide greater stability and control. Apart from South Africa, many African countries lack servers, placing players at a disadvantage and discouraging many from joining esports. Mohammed Yusuf has more from Nairobi.
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The World Bank chief will announce a raft of measures on Thursday to aid countries hit by natural disasters, including a pause in debt repayments to the lender, as world leaders gather in Paris to give impetus to a new global finance agenda.

Some 40 leaders, including about a dozen from Africa, China’s prime minister and Brazil’s president, will be joined in the French capital by international organizations at the “Summit for a New Global Financial Pact.”

It aims to boost crisis financing for low-income countries, reform post-war financial systems and free up funds to tackle climate change by getting top-level consensus on how to progress several initiatives currently struggling in bodies like the G20, COP, IMF-World Bank and United Nations.

Leaders are set to back a push for multilateral development banks like the World Bank to put more capital at risk to boost lending, according to a draft summit statement seen by Reuters.

In a speech to be delivered on Thursday, new World Bank president Ajay Banga will outline a “toolkit”, including offering a pause in debt repayments, giving countries flexibility to redirect funds for emergency response, providing new types of insurance to help development projects and helping governments build advance-emergency systems.

While the new World Bank measures are designed to give developing nations some financial breathing space, there was no discussion of multilateral lenders offering debt writedowns — so-called haircuts.

China — the world’s largest bilateral creditor — has been pushing for lenders like the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund to absorb some of the losses.

Those institutions and many developed nations, notably the United States, are resisting, arguing that acceding to Beijing’s demand would be tantamount to a bailout for China. Chinese Prime Minister Li Qiang is due to speak at the summit on Friday.

New vision

Citing the war in Ukraine, climate crisis, widening disparity and declining progress, leaders said the World Bank and other multilateral financial institutions needed a new vision.

The global financial architecture is outdated, dysfunctional and unjust, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.

“It is clear that the international financial architecture has failed in its mission to provide a global safety net for developing countries,” he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron, hosting the summit, said it was time to act or trust would be lost.

The summit aims to create roadmaps that can be used over the next 18-24 months, ranging from debt relief to climate finance. Many of the topics on the agenda take up suggestions from a group of developing countries, led by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, dubbed the “Bridgetown Initiative.”

The coronavirus pandemic pushed many poor countries into debt distress as they were expected to continue servicing their obligations in spite of the massive shock to their finances.

Africa’s debt woes are coupled with the dual challenge faced by some of the world’s poorest countries of tackling the impacts of climate change while adapting to the green transition.

Wealthy nations have yet to come good on climate finance that they promised as part of a past pledge to mobilize $100 billion a year, a key stumbling block at global climate talks.

Though binding decisions are not expected, officials involved in the summit’s planning said some strong commitments should be made about financing poor countries.

Nearly eighty years after the Bretton Woods Agreement created the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), leaders aim to squeeze more financing from multilateral lenders for the countries that need it most.

In particular, there should be an announcement that a $100 billion target has been met that will be made available through the International Monetary Fund for vulnerable countries, officials said.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, whose country is the World Bank’s biggest shareholder, said multilateral development institutions should become more effective in the way they use their funds before thinking of injecting more money into them.

Some leaders are expected to lend their weight to long-stalled proposals for a levy on shipping industry emissions ahead of a meeting next month of the International Maritime Organization officials said.
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At the home of James Tole Mwambela, the family says a prayer for their brother Nelson Kimbichi Mwambela. They say it is all they can do. It has been months since they saw him.

It all began when the family noticed he had stopped taking his children to school. His unusual behavior led them to wonder about his well-being, his brother James Mwambela said.

“By that time, people didn’t know about [Pastor Paul] Mackenzie’s teachings, many would assume, but my brother kept saying that the world is ending, and Jesus is coming back,” James said. “We all differed with him, including my mother and father.”

Mackenzie, leader of the Good News International Church, offered doomsday warnings, calling life in the West “evil,” and medicine, education, food, sports and entertainment as “useless.”

Nelson then quit his job and secretly moved his wife and six children to the Shakahola farm owned by Mackenzie. His whereabouts were a mystery. Nelson’s mother, Janet Mwambela, noticed earlier that something was wrong.

“It seems like they started training the kids slowly on how to fast. At one point, I asked my son if he was eating — he had lost a lot of weight,” she told VOA.

Officials say Mackenzie told his followers to starve to death in order to meet Jesus. Investigators are still trying to determine how many people lost their lives while following the cult-like sect. As they continue to unearth shallow graves on the property, the death toll has risen to more than 300.

They also found personal belongings, including a Bible belonging to “Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Kimbichi Mwambela.” It is the only proof the family now has that Nelson and his family were in Shakahola. No remains have been identified as theirs.

Mackenzie is currently in police custody facing charges of preaching dangerous beliefs that led to the starvation deaths of hundreds of his followers. One of his aides, Joseph Juma Buyuka, died this week in police custody after a hunger strike.

Last month, Kenyan President William Ruto said his government took responsibility for the deaths.

When news broke about the discovery of mass graves in the town of Malindi in Shakahola forest, James made his way there to search for Nelson and his family. What he learned was shocking.

“One of the survivors told me about my niece Janet and [the survivor’s] brother called Sylvester, who was later baptized to be called Paul,” James said. “He said that this family was said to be living very close to Pastor Paul Mackenzie and unfortunately, all six children including, their mother, had died.”

VOA could not independently verify this claim.

Janet Mwambela said she misses her son.

“He was a very good boy. He was very quiet and very soft spoken. In fact, his younger brother was louder and more talkative, but not him,” she said.

The Mwambela family has relocated 182 kilometers from their home in Taita to Malindi to be closer to the investigation and give DNA samples to a government chemist to help identify the bodies. The number of missing people is still far greater than the recovered bodies, says Hassan Musa, regional manager of Kenya Red Cross.

“We have registered 618 missing people,” Musa told VOA. “These are people that have been reported by their family members that, in one way or another, they are either in Shakahola forest or at the Malindi sub county morgue.”

The Mwambelas say they just want answers.

This report originated in VOA’s English to Africa Service.
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More than 30 migrants were feared dead after a small boat headed for Spain’s Canary Islands sank Wednesday, two migration-focused organizations said, as they criticized Spain and Morocco for not intervening earlier to rescue the vessel’s passengers.

The groups, Walking Borders and Alarm Phone, said the boat held around 60 people. Spain’s maritime rescue service confirmed the deaths of two of the dinghy’s occupants, a child and an adult man, and said a Moroccan patrol boat had rescued 24 people.

Neither Spanish nor Moroccan authorities would confirm how many people had been on board the vessel or how many might be missing.

Walking Borders spokesperson Helena Maleno said in a tweet that 39 people had drowned, without giving further details, while Alarm Phone, which operates a trans-European network supporting rescue operations, said 35 people were missing.

The tragedy sparked criticism from migrant rights activists who said the boat was in Spain’s search-and-rescue region under international law, meaning Madrid should have led the operation instead of Rabat.

At the time of its sinking, the dinghy was in waters off the coast of Western Sahara. Although Morocco administers a majority of the former Spanish colony, its sovereignty remains under dispute and the United Nations lists it as a non-self-governing territory.

Spain’s state news agency EFE reported that a Spanish rescue service ship, the Guardamar Caliope, was about 46 kilometers, about an hour’s sail, away from the dinghy Tuesday evening.

The Guardamar Caliope did not aid the dinghy because the operation had been taken over by the Moroccan Rescue Coordination Centre in Rabat, which dispatched a patrol boat that arrived on Wednesday morning, about 10 hours after it had been spotted by a Spanish rescue airplane, EFE added.

The EU has said it and member states have been intensifying efforts to establish an “effective, humanitarian and safe” European migration policy.

Morocco’s Interior ministry has not responded to a Reuters request for comment and Morocco has not made any official communication about what happened.

The Canary Islands off the coast of West Africa have become the main destination for migrants trying to reach Spain, with a much smaller share trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea to the Spanish mainland.

The Atlantic migration route is one of the deadliest in the world. Attempts to reach the Canary Islands’ shores saw at least 559 people, including 22 children, die in 2022, according to data from the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration.

The migrants using the route are typically from several countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
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At least seven people were killed Wednesday when two cars loaded with explosives detonated outside a military training camp in the southern Somali town of Bardhere. 

“The militants targeted regional military recruits with two car bombs. Seven recruits were killed and at least 18 injured,” Osman Nuh Haji, the deputy Gedo region governor in charge of security, told VOA.

In an interview with VOA Somali, Bardhere District Commissioner Mohamed Wali Yusuf said regional security forces prevented the suicide car bombs from reaching the recruitment camp.

“We had security tips about possible attacks, and that helped us foil the attacks and prevent the suicide vehicles from reaching their point,” said Yusuf. “They [the militants] were close to the base, but did not hit it exactly.”

Al-Shabab extremists claimed responsibility for the attack, saying they targeted the camp “because Ethiopian and Somali officials were meeting there.” Regional authorities denied the claim.

In March, a similar car bomb attack on the town’s regional guesthouse killed several soldiers and injured 10 others.

Bardhere is a strategic agricultural town about 450 kilometers south of Mogadishu. It sits near the Middle Juba region, the only area in Somalia fully controlled by al-Shabab militants.

Wednesday’s attack came a day after violence across Somalia that included heavy fighting in the semiautonomous state of Puntland and bomb explosions in the country’s Lower Shabelle region that killed at least 36 people.
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Giraffes are considered endangered, and in Kenya, the population of the world’s tallest animal is declining. Officials say four to five giraffes are being lost daily because of relentless poaching for meat and the harsh realities of climate change. Ahmed Hussein reports from Wajir County, Kenya.
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Weeks after the discovery of mass graves on land owned by cult leader Pastor Paul Mackenzie, some families are still searching for news about their loved ones in Kenya. One family has been relying on accounts and clues from survivors to try to piece together the whereabouts of their lost brother. Saida Swaleh met this family from Mombasa and has this report. Camera: Moses Baya Produced by: Saida Swaleh
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