Gaborone, Botswana — Botswana has awarded a 15-year license to a Canadian firm, Giyani Metals, to mine manganese, a metal used in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles.  

According to a statement from Giyani Metals, the K-Hill project will produce battery-grade manganese. Mining will take place in Kanye, 90 kilometers (56 miles) southwest of Gaborone.  

Minister of Foreign Affairs Lemogang Kwape, the area’s member of parliament, told VOA he expects good things from the project.  

“It is a project that envisages to mine a product that will revolutionize clean power. It is also a project that will develop Kanye and Botswana,” Kwape said. “Giyani management promised that there will be some processing that will be done in situ. By doing processing, you are adding value, which is in line with the president’s objective of adding value to products from Botswana.”  

The Ministry of Energy and Minerals granted Giyani Metals the mining license, which is subject to multiple renewals. 

In a country heavily reliant on diamonds for its economy, Minister of Energy and Minerals Lefoko Moagi said the government is accelerating research-based exploration of minerals. 

“The ministry continues to advance mineral discoveries through research in order to grow and expand the country’s economic status through exploration, mining, manufacturing and processing of various mineral commodities,” Moagi said. 

The Botswana manganese project has a net value of $984 million, with an estimated project life span of 57 years. 

Tshepiso Masilonyane, programs officer at the Botswana Climate Change Network, said manganese will play a key role if the world is to move away from fossil fuels.  

“The manganese project is extremely important for the green energy transition,” Masilonyane said. “It is a critical component in battery technology, particularly in the production of lithium-ion batteries that are used in electric vehicles but also in grade-level electricity distribution, particularly the energy storage systems.” 

Masilonyane urged Botswana to play a bigger role in the green energy value chain. 

“By becoming a key supplier of battery-grade manganese, Botswana can position itself as an important player in the renewable energy value chain helping to power electric vehicles, the solar energy storage technologies, as well as other green technologies,” Masilonyane said. “But we think beyond extraction, it is going to be very important for us to focus on value addition as early as now.”  

According to the International Energy Agency, global electric car sales reached 14 million in 2023, a 35% increase from 2022. 

As a result, metals such as manganese are in high demand – and Botswana is in position to benefit from the boom. 
…

KAMITUGA, Congo — Slumped on the ground over a mound of dirt, Divine Wisoba pulled weeds from her daughter’s grave. The 1-month-old died from mpox in eastern Congo in August, but Wisoba, 21, was too traumatized to attend the funeral.

In her first visit to the cemetery, she wept into her shirt for the child she lost and worried about the rest of her family. “When she was born, it was as if God had answered our prayers — we wanted a girl,” Wisoba said of little Maombi Katengey. “But our biggest joy was transformed into devastation.”

Her daughter is one of more than 6,000 people officials suspect have contracted the disease in South Kivu province, the epicenter of the world’s latest mpox outbreak, in what the World Health Organization has labeled a global health emergency. A new strain of the virus is spreading, largely through skin-to-skin contact, including but not limited to sex. A lack of funds, vaccines and information is making it difficult to stem the spread, according to alarmed disease experts.

Mpox — which causes mostly mild symptoms like fever and body aches, but can trigger serious cases with prominent blisters on the face, hands, chest and genitals — had been spreading mostly undetected for years in Africa, until a 2022 outbreak reached more than 70 countries. Globally, gay and bisexual men made up the vast majority of cases in that outbreak. But officials note mpox has long disproportionately affected children in Africa, and they say cases are now rising sharply among kids, pregnant women and other vulnerable groups, with many types of close contact responsible for the spread.

Health officials have zeroed in on Kamituga, a remote yet bustling gold-mining town of some 300,000 people that attracts miners, sex workers and traders who are constantly on the move. Cases from other parts of eastern Congo can be traced back here, officials say, with the first originating in the nightclub scene.

Since this outbreak began, one year ago, nearly 1,000 people in Kamituga have been infected. Eight have died, half of them children.

Challenges on the ground

Last month, the World Health Organization said mpox outbreaks might be stopped in the next six months, with governments’ leadership and cooperation.

But in Kamituga, people say they face a starkly different reality.

There’s a daily average of five new cases at the general hospital, which is regularly near capacity. Overall in South Kivu, weekly new suspected cases have skyrocketed from about 12 in January to 600 in August, according to province health officials.

Even that’s likely an underestimate, they say, because of a lack of access to rural areas, the inability of many residents to seek care, and Kamituga’s transient nature.

Locals say they simply don’t have enough information about mpox.

Before her daughter got sick, Wisoba said, she was infected herself but didn’t know it.

Painful lesions emerged around her genitals, making walking difficult. She thought she had a common sexually transmitted infection and sought medicine at a pharmacy. Days later, she went to the hospital with her newborn and was diagnosed with mpox. She recovered, but her daughter developed lesions on her foot.

Nearly a week later, Maombi died at the same hospital that treated her mother.

Wisoba said she didn’t know about mpox until she got it. She wants the government to invest more in teaching people protective measures.

Local officials can’t reach areas more than a few miles outside Kamituga to track suspected cases or inform residents. They broadcast radio messages but say that doesn’t reach far enough.

Kasindi Mwenyelwata goes door to door describing how to detect mpox — looking for fevers, aches or lesions. But the 42-year-old community leader said a lack of money means he doesn’t have the right materials, such as posters showing images of patients, which he finds more powerful than words.

ALIMA, one of the few aid groups working on mpox in Kamituga, lacks funds to set up programs or clinics that would reach some 150,000 people, with its budget set to run out at year’s end, according to program coordinator Dr. Dally Muamba.

If support keeps waning and mpox spreads, he said, “there will be an impact on the economy, people will stop coming to the area as the epidemic takes its toll. … And as the disease grows, will resources follow?”

Vaccine vacuum

Health experts agree: What’s needed most are vaccines — even if they go only to adults, under emergency approval in Congo.

None has arrived in Kamituga, though it’s a priority city in South Kivu, officials said. It’s unclear when or how they will. The main road into town is unpaved — barely passable by car during the ongoing rainy season.

Once they make it here, it’s unclear whether supply will meet demand for those who are at greatest risk and first in line: health staff, sex workers, miners and motorcycle taxi drivers.

Congo’s government has budgeted more than $190 million for its initial mpox response, which includes the purchase of 3 million vaccine doses, according to a draft national mpox plan, widely circulating among health experts and aid groups this month and seen by The Associated Press. But so far, just 250,000 doses have arrived in Congo and the government’s given only $10 million, according to the finance ministry.

Most people with mild cases recover in less than two weeks. But lesions can get infected, and children or immunocompromised people are more prone to severe cases.

Doctors can ensure lesions are clean and give pain medication or antibiotics for secondary infections such as sepsis.

But those who recover can get the virus again.

Lack of understanding

Experts say a lack of resources and knowledge about the new strain makes it difficult to advise people on protecting themselves. An internal report circulated among aid groups and agencies and seen by AP labeled confidence in the available information about mpox in eastern Congo and neighboring countries low.

While the variant is known to be more easily transmissible through sex, it’s unclear how long the virus remains in the system. Doctors tell recovered patients to abstain from sex for three months, but acknowledge the number is largely arbitrary.

“Studies haven’t clarified if you’re still contagious or not … if you can or can’t have sex with your wife,” said Dr. Steven Bilembo, of Kamituga’s general hospital.

Doctors say they’re seeing cases they simply don’t understand, such as pregnant women losing babies. Of 32 pregnant women infected since January, nearly half lost the baby through miscarriage or stillbirth, hospital statistics show.

Alice Neema was among them. From the hospital’s isolation ward, she told AP she’d noticed lesions around her genitals and a fever — but didn’t have enough money to travel the 30 miles (50 kilometers) on motorbike for help in time. She miscarried after her diagnosis.

As information trickles in, locals say fear spreads alongside the new strain.

Diego Nyago said he’d brought his 2-year-old son, Emile, in for circumcision when he developed a fever and lesions.

It was mpox — and today, Nyago is grateful health care workers noticed his symptoms.

“I didn’t believe that children could catch this disease,” he said as doctors gently poured water over the boy to bring his temperature down. “Some children die quickly, because their families aren’t informed.

“Those who die are the ones who stay at home.”
…

Niamey, Niger — A series of ambushes and explosions across military-run Niger killed at least 12 soldiers and wounded 30 others recently, the army announced on state-run television Wednesday.  

In the first attack, in western Tillaberi region on Sunday, “a horde of criminals who arrived in their hundreds” killed five soldiers and wounded 25 more, according to the army.  

The ground and air response killed “more than 100” attackers, the army said, without giving further details about them. 

On Monday, in the restive southwest Diffa region where there are frequent attacks by Boko Haram and the West African branch of the Islamic State group, five patrolling soldiers were killed by an improvised explosive device. 

A “surgical strike” in retaliation “killed several terrorists” responsible, the army said. 

In the latest attack, militants from a new resistance group called the Patriotic Movement for Freedom and Justice (MPLJ) claimed an operation against a military outpost in the Agadez region in the north.  

The army said two soldiers were killed and six wounded in Tuesday’s attack. 

“A pursuit operation was immediately launched to track down the fleeing assailants, who were heading for the Libyan border,” the army added.  

The MPLJ claimed to have killed 14 soldiers and two gendarmes in the attack, and to have lost two of its own fighters. 

Created in August, the MPLJ is an offshoot of the Patriotic Liberation Front (FPL) armed group, which is fighting the junta for the release of ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.  

Democratically elected Bazoum was overthrown in a coup in July 2023 and has since then been held at the presidential palace. 

While the military justified its power grab by citing the deteriorating security situation, violence persists.  

According to the independent Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project, about 1,500 civilians and soldiers in Niger have been killed in militant attacks over the past year, compared with 650 between July 2022 and 2023 when Bazoum was in charge.
…

united nations — A senior United Nations official warned Wednesday that “immediate action” is needed to halt the fighting in the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur region, where hundreds of thousands of civilians are at risk.

“We urge members of the Security Council to employ their collective leverage to help protect the population caught in the crossfire,” Martha Pobee, U.N. assistant secretary-general for Africa, told council members.

A round of large-scale fighting erupted on September 12 between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who advanced on the capital of El Fasher from multiple directions, and the Sudanese Armed Forces, who are positioned inside the city.

El Fasher is the only capital in the Darfur region that has not yet fallen to the rebel paramilitary.

Civilians inside the large city, including an estimated 700,000 people displaced from other parts of Sudan, have been under siege for months with little outside assistance.

Pobee urged exploring the possibility of local cease-fires.

“Prior to the deterioration of the situation in El Fasher, a local cease-fire protected the city’s population for close to a year,” she said. “A return to such an arrangement in El Fasher and similar short-term solutions in other locations must continue to be pursued.”

War causes humanitarian crisis

Sudan is experiencing a massive humanitarian crisis because of the war between two rival generals that began in April 2023. More than 10 million people have fled their homes in search of safety, and last month, international monitors confirmed famine in North Darfur. According to the United Nations, 26 million people are in crisis levels of hunger across the country.

In June, the 15-nation Security Council adopted a resolution calling for “an immediate halt to the fighting and for de-escalation in and around El Fasher,” but it has been totally ignored.

During a news conference Wednesday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres expressed his frustration with the intransigence of Sudan’s warring generals.

“I mean, the truth is that you have two generals, and you have two groups, one army and one paramilitary institution, that are fighting each other, without any consideration for the needs and the dramatic impacts of their people,” he said. “The level of hunger is spreading terribly in Sudan. The number of people killed and maimed is increasing dramatically. And as a matter of fact, all this is done with total impunity.”

On Tuesday, U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement that both sides must pull back their forces, facilitate unhindered humanitarian access and re-engage in negotiations to end the war.

The United States, Saudi Arabia and other partners have pressed for peace for months. While the U.S. and its partners have been successful in opening up some routes for humanitarian relief into Sudan, they so far have failed to silence the guns.

Diplomats continue seeking solutions

Next week, the head of the Sudanese Armed Forces and chairman of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, General Abdel Fattah Burhan, will be in New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly meetings.

Diplomats say there will be multiple meetings on the sidelines of the General Assembly gathering to discuss the situation in Sudan, including a ministerial-level meeting to be hosted by the United States, France, Germany and the European Union.

Burhan said Wednesday that the government “remains resolute and fully committed to ending the suffering of our citizens” and is open to all constructive efforts aimed at ending the war. He said he looks forward to discussing it further during his trip to New York.
…

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia — One of the hurdles to improving health care systems for African countries is the shortage of scientists and lack of meaningful medical research on the continent, experts say.

An organization hopes to change that by enabling researchers and policymakers in three large African countries to develop more extensive and relevant research.

According to a 2017 report by the World Economic Forum, Africa is home to 15% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s disease burden — but produces just 2% of the world’s medical research.

The report said of the medical research that does occur, much of it fails to prioritize diseases or health problems most pressing for Africans.

A group of African health researchers and institutions are now pushing for the continent’s medical research to be more focused on the continent’s own medical problems.

The African Population and Health Research Center is bringing together scientists, academics, policymakers and government officials from Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria.

Their goal is to strengthen African leadership in research and development, ensuring that the findings from these researchers are relevant and accessible to decision-makers, leading to better health care systems across the continent.

Catherine Kyobutungi, head of the organization, said African-led research can help solve health problems on the continent much more easily and quickly.

“If we want the research to be done by Africans in Africa on African issues, that is [how] the priorities for what research should be done are defined, not just by academics, but by the people who are going to use that research for decision-making,” she said.

“What we are trying to achieve is to shift what research is and what it is for and to create an army of African scientists that do research to solve African problems in real time, not after 50 years,” Kyobutungi said.

Dr. Hadiza Galadanci, a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Bayero University in Nigeria, said her country accounts for about 28% of maternal deaths worldwide each year.

She and researchers from four African countries, Birmingham University in the United Kingdom and the World Health Organization published research on the best way to save women who were dying from postpartum hemorrhage, or excessive bleeding after childbirth. Their innovation — a calibrated obstetric drape, which is placed beneath a birthing mother — allows physicians to collect and precisely measure blood and fluid loss.

“The drape is just put under … the woman when she’s going to deliver. And then, as soon as she delivers, any blood that comes out goes to the drape. So, we have an objective assessment,” Galadanci explained, saying that the process allows for more specific treatment.

“When we did this, we found out that we could reduce the rate of severe [postpartum hemorrhage] leading to maternal death by 60%.”

African researchers face challenges ranging from a lack of reliable data and funding to poor infrastructure to cultural and religious issues.

With the support of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Africa Research Connect was developed to connect and enhance the visibility of scientists, institutions, policymakers and donors.

Jude Igumbor, an associate professor at Wits School of Public Health in South Africa, wants to improve the visibility of African scientists and their work.

“What we give African scientists is they are able to find each other for collaboration,” he said.

The African Population and Health Research Center is calling on donors to fund African institutions and researchers directly instead of going through other organizations, saying that doing so helps the money create opportunities and hone the skills of researchers on the continent.
…

The three candidates vying to become the next secretary-general of the Commonwealth have all given strong backing for Britain and other European powers to pay reparations to their former colonies for past atrocities, including the transatlantic slave trade. Henry Ridgwell has more from London.
…

Egypt ruffled Ethiopia’s feathers after Cairo sent military aid to Somalia, which had accused Ethiopia of planning to annex its territory. The two countries are locked in yet another battle over a dam Addis Ababa has been constructing on a major tributary of the Nile River.
…

LAGOS — Nigeria’s hydrological services agency has warned of potential flooding in 11 states after neighboring Cameroon said it was starting to release water from one of its largest dams following recent heavy rainfall in West and Central Africa.  

The warning comes as Nigeria is already grappling with severe floods in northeastern Borno state where a dam burst its walls after heavy rains that have also caused floods in Cameroon, Chad, Mali and Niger — all part of Africa’s Sahel region that usually receives little rain.  

The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA) said it had been notified by authorities in Cameroon on Tuesday that they had started controlled water releases from Lagdo dam.  

Cameroon has several dams on the Benue River, which flows downstream to Nigeria.  

A spokesperson for Cameroon’s utility ENEO, which manages the dam, told Reuters there was a possibility that the dam could be flooded, but the reservoirs had not been opened on Wednesday morning.  

The NIHSA said Lagdo dam managers would gradually release water in a way not to exceed the capacity of the Benue river downstream to prevent flooding.  

But 11 states, including Benue, Nasarawa and Kogi in the food producing central belt region and southern oil producing states of Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers were at risk, said NIHSA.  

It urged federal and state authorities in Nigeria “to step up vigilance and deploy adequate preparedness measures to reduce possible impacts of flooding that may occur as a result of increase in flow levels of our major rivers at this period.”  

In 2022, Nigeria lost more than 600 people and farmlands to the worst flooding in a decade following heavy rain and after Cameroon released water from Lagdo dam.  

Experts said then that Nigeria’s failure to complete a dam of its own that was supposed to backstop the Cameroonian one worsened the disaster.  

Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa, is prone to flooding but critics say defective infrastructure and poor planning worsen the situation.  
…

PARIS — Almost 200 environmental activists were murdered last year, with the toll especially heavy in South America, according to rights group Global Witness.

Here are the stories of three campaigners who have faced violence and repression trying to stop wildcat gold mining in Ecuador, illegal shrimp farming in Indonesia and a controversial oil project in Uganda.

‘We have a responsibility’

Daniel Frits Maurits Tangkilisan has been assaulted, arrested and prosecuted for his activism to protect a national park, but he is unbowed.

“Why be afraid? Why back down? Your home should be defended,” the 51-year-old told AFP in Jakarta, where he is awaiting a new ruling in legal proceedings against him.

Born and raised in the Indonesian capital, he “fell in love at first sight” with the remote Karimunjawa Islands National Park off Java, on his first visit in 2011. He later settled there.

Daniel began to notice the growing impact of illegal shrimp farms, which began to proliferate around 2017.

Run-off from the farms killed seaweed and forced marine life to move further from shore, impacting the livelihoods of fishing communities, he said.

In 2022, Daniel helped start the #SaveKarimunjawa movement, which pushed for a local zoning law banning the shrimp farms.

But his activism made him a target — he was threatened, assaulted and put in a chokehold, and fellow environmentalists received death threats.

He was arrested in December 2023 over allegations of hate speech stemming from a Facebook post criticizing illegal shrimp farming.

A local court sentenced him in April to seven months behind bars.

The conviction was overturned on appeal but prosecutors took the case to the Supreme Court, insisting he should not be recognized as an environmental activist.

“This is a price that must be paid,” Daniel said of the threats and legal battles.

And his activism has had some success, with recent government inspections forcing many illegal operations to shut.

“We have a responsibility to our children, grandchildren and future generations,” he said.

“If you give up… you say goodbye to your future.”

‘Hell on Earth’

Abdulaziz Bweete grew up in Kawempe, a shanty town in the Ugandan capital Kampala, and saw first-hand the devastating impact of environmental change in poorer communities.

“I have grown up seeing floods around but I had not interested myself in what is causing floods,” he told AFP.

It took two things to galvanize the 26-year-old — going to university, and seeing the Uganda government’s response to climate protests.

Bweete was among a group of student organizers who marched on parliament in July with a petition opposing a multi-billion-dollar oil project that campaigners say will badly affect a delicate environment.

He and several other young activists were arrested, charged with illegal assembly, and held in Kampala’s maximum-security Luzira prison until August.

He told AFP he and fellow protesters were beaten by police.

The activist was previously imprisoned and arrested following rallies in the capital.

“All I can say is prison is a hell on Earth,” he said.

“We don’t have freedom of protest in this country,” he said, glancing around nervously in Kyambogo University’s lush campus setting.

Demonstrations in Uganda, ruled with an iron fist by President Yoweri Museveni for four decades, are often met with a heavy-handed police response.

Bweete said politics and climate change go hand in hand.

“If we have good leaders, we can have good climate policies. This is a long struggle, but we are determined to win,” he insisted.

‘Defend life’

Alex Lucitante, a leader of the Cofan Indigenous people on the border between Ecuador and Colombia, won a historic legal victory in 2018 over mining companies in the Amazon, striking out 52 gold mine concessions.

It helped win him the Goldman Environmental Prize — the Nobel of environmental defenders — two years ago.

But despite setting up a system of patrols and even drone surveillance, it has not stopped gold prospectors violating their territory.

“The destruction is still going on all around our land, and the threat is stronger,” he told AFP, telling of illegal mining, deforestation and threats from armed groups.

“Today, the situation is particularly critical in our territories,” said Lucitante.

“It all happens in plain sight and with the knowledge of the authorities,” which are “sometimes linked to illegal actors operating in the area,” he added.

The environmentalist has urged global leaders to listen to the “voice of Indigenous communities” and hear their plea to “defend life.”
…

…

…

new york — Get ready for a partial lunar eclipse and supermoon, all rolled into one. 

The spectacle will be visible in clear skies across North America and South America Tuesday night and in Africa and Europe Wednesday morning. 

A partial lunar eclipse happens when the Earth passes between the sun and moon, casting a shadow that darkens a sliver of the moon and appears to take a bite out of it. 

Since the moon will inch closer to Earth than usual, it’ll appear a bit larger in the sky. The supermoon is one of three remaining this year. 

“A little bit of the sun’s light is being blocked so the moon will be slightly dimmer,” said Valerie Rapson, an astronomer at the State University of New York at Oneonta. 

The Earth, moon and sun line up to produce a solar or lunar eclipse anywhere from four to seven times a year, according to NASA. This lunar eclipse is the second and final of the year after a slight darkening in March. 

In April, a total solar eclipse plunged select cities into darkness across North America. 

No special eye protection is needed to view a lunar eclipse. Viewers can stare at the moon with the naked eye or opt for binoculars and telescopes to get a closer look. 

To spot the moon’s subtle shrinkage over time, hang outside for a few hours or take multiple peeks over the course of the evening, said KaChun Yu, curator at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. 

“From one minute to the next, you might not see much happening,” said Yu. 

For a more striking lunar sight, skywatchers can set their calendars for March 13. The moon will be totally eclipsed by the Earth’s shadow and will be painted red by stray bits of sunlight filtering through Earth’s atmosphere. 
…

Human rights groups have urged Britain not to copy Italy’s approach in trying to reduce the number of migrants arriving on its shores. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer traveled to Rome this week to learn more about its success in tackling migration, as a surge of people arrive on small boats across the English Channel. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
…

Bamako — Mali said on Tuesday that the capital Bamako was under control after insurgents attacked a gendarmerie training school and other areas before dawn, firing gunshots that reverberated around the city.

“Early this morning, a group of terrorists attempted to infiltrate the Faladie gendarmerie school. Mopping-up operations are currently under way,” the army said in a statement.

It called on residents to avoid the area and await further official communication.

The military government said “some sensitive points of the capital” came under attack, including the gendarmerie school.

It said the army had pushed back the “terrorists” responsible for the assault and urged civilians to go about their daily business.

The gendarmerie school is in Faladie, a district on the southeastern outskirts of Bamako, near the main international airport. Reuters heard the gunfire in the Banankabougou neighborhood near Faladie before sunrise. People heading to the mosque for morning prayers turned back as shots rang out.

The gunfire started around 0530 GMT. Some residents said it came from the direction of the airport, while others said it was coming from next to the gendarmerie.

A security source said gunfire was heard in several neighborhoods, including areas close to the main airport.

Another security source said the airport had been closed.

Mali is one of several West African countries fighting an Islamist insurgency that took roots in Mali’s arid north in 2012 and has since spread across the Sahel and more recently to the north of coastal countries.

Thousands have been killed and millions displaced in the region amid the advance by militants, some of whom have links to al Qaeda and Islamic State, and military efforts to push them back. Governments and fighters have been accused of violence against civilians.

Frustration against the authorities for failing to restore security contributed to two coups in Mali — in 2020 and 2021 — followed by two in neighboring Burkina Faso and one in Niger.

But jihadist attacks have escalated despite the juntas’ promises to improve security, in part by replacing alliances with Western countries with Russian support, including mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner private army.

Experienced Wagner fighters were killed at the end of July during a battle near the Algerian border between Tuareg rebels and the Malian army, which suffered heavy losses and was ambushed by jihadists as it withdrew.

It is, however, rare for insurgents to strike inside the capital. In 2015, armed men launched a dawn raid on the Radisson Blu hotel in Bamako that killed 20 people.
…

Mbabane, Eswatini — Some Eswatini legislators, backed by human rights activists, are calling for an urgent review of the Game Act of 1991, a law they say allows wildlife park rangers to shoot and kill suspected poachers with little or no accountability.

Game park owners have defended these shootings for years as necessary to protect animals. But critics contend that the Game Act instead jeopardizes human life.

Human rights lawyer Thabiso Mavuso of the Law Society of Swaziland, who has represented the families of shooting victims, says the law not only allows game rangers to use lethal force with impunity but also shields them from legal accountability.

“We have seen here in Eswatini the killing, injury and torture of people, some as young as 13 years and some in their 60s, but nothing has been done against the perpetrators … ,” Mavuso said. “This law needs reform. It must be aligned with human rights and general principles of constitutionalism such as accountability and responsibility.”

No one has exact numbers for how many suspected poachers have been killed in Eswatini’s game parks, but the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs estimates dozens are slain each year.

Game ranger Mandla Motsa told VOA that it is rangers who need protection and that the Game Law should not be altered.

“We have lost a lot of rangers – some have been killed and others injured,” Motsa said. “Almost all the time, the poachers shoot at rangers first. There has been a wrong narrative that we value the lives of animals more than that of humans. What people are forgetting is that there are two sides of lives involved in this issue and that is that of the ranger and the poacher. So, amending the Game Act would be to make it seem that our lives as rangers are also not important.”

However, political analyst Mandla Hlatshwayo said the killings in the parks are a consequence of the government’s abuse of power under the guise of environmental protection.

“What’s happening in the country in my view has nothing to do with environmental protection,” Hlatshwayo said. “The killing of so-called poachers in the manner that it’s actually taking place is wrong and must be condemned in the strongest of terms. We are witnessing the cold-blooded execution of suspects under circumstances that are very questionable. This is simple murder that is being condoned by the authorities, mainly because the victims are poor people with no power to fight back.”

Former Senator Ngomayayona Gamedze, whose family has suffered losses at the hands of game rangers, says the act must be amended to prioritize the sanctity of human life.

“Wildlife in Eswatini is now accorded higher status and greater protection than human beings,” Gamedze said. “This must be addressed by our legislators before human lives are further disregarded. Game rangers hold immense power over ordinary Swazis who love hunting, yet are penalized to the extent of death without trial. It is an injustice that the people of Eswatini are treated as less than animals, and a review of the Game Act is needed to prevent further loss of life.”

Government spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo said a motion from senators to amend the Gaming Act was being debated and that a vote was pending.
…

DAKAR, Senegal — The withdrawal of U.S. troops from Niger is complete, an American official said Monday. 

A small number of military personnel assigned to guard the U.S. Embassy remain, Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters. 

Earlier this year, Niger’s ruling junta ended an agreement that allowed U.S. troops to operate in the West African country. A few months later, officials from both countries said in a joint statement that U.S. troops would complete their withdrawal by the middle of September. 

The U.S. handed over its last military bases in Niger to local authorities last month, but about two dozen American soldiers had remained in Niger, largely for administrative duties related to the withdrawal, Singh said. 

Niger’s ouster of American troops following a coup last year has broad ramifications for Washington because it’s forcing troops to abandon critical bases that were used for counterterrorism missions in the Sahel. groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group operate in the vast region south of the Sahara desert. 

One of those groups, Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin, known as JNIM, is active in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, and is looking to expand into Benin and Togo. 

Niger had been seen as one of the last nations in the restive region that Western nations could partner with to beat back growing jihadi insurgencies. The U.S. and France had more than 2,500 military personnel in the region until recently, and together with other European countries had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance and training. 

In recent months Niger has pulled away from its Western partners, turning instead to Russia for security. In April, Russian military trainers arrived in Niger to reinforce the country’s air defenses.
…

Maiduguri, Nigeria — The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has approved the immediate release of $8 million dollars to support victims in flood ravaged Maiduguri, in Nigeria’s Borno state. Severe flooding there last week killed dozens of people and displaced hundreds of thousands of others.

Mohammed Malick Fall, the U.N. resident coordinator, announced the new funding to journalists in Maiduguri while visiting flood victims over the weekend.

The visit was to assess the extent of damage caused by the flooding and to ramp up lifesaving assistance.

Fall announced the allocation of $8 million from the humanitarian fund to support disaster response and management.

“We’re all behind you not only in sympathy but in solidarity. We will not spare any of our resources in this response,” Fall said. “Probably we might not be where we want it to be in terms of resources, but as we speak, we’ll try to refocus resources that have been designed for some other intervention to see how we can bring them toward scaling up and speeding up this response. We’ll prioritize our response around the immediate need.”

The U.N. has provided hot meals and facilitated food air drops in hard-to-reach areas cut off by flood waters.

Last Thursday, a dam burst caused millions of liters of water to pour into communities in Maiduguri. State authorities say the flood killed dozens of people and affected more than 1 million others.

Many are taking shelter in camps. The disaster follows an alarming malnutrition crisis caused by conflict, climate change and inflation in the region.

Local residents say food prices have skyrocketed as a result of flood waters washing out access roads and markets and farms.

Borno state Governor Babagana Umara Zulum told journalists the full extent of damage remains unknown.

“The unfortunate flood incident is perhaps the most devastating acute disaster that our state has suffered as far as we can remember,” Zulum said. “Many bridges are damaged and we’re yet to assess the integrity of the bridges that form the main link between the two major parts of the city.”

Zulum added that the flood hit the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, which has the most up-to-date medical diagnostic and therapeutic equipment in West Africa. The status and function of the equipment has yet to be ascertained.

Borno state is the heartland region of the Boko Haram terror group. The group’s 15-year insurgency has sparked one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.

But the U.N. said Nigeria’s Humanitarian Response Plan for Nigeria, seeking $927 million dollars, is only about 46% funded.

In 2022, Nigeria’s worst flooding in a decade killed more than 600 people and displaced 1.4 million.

On Monday, the Nigerian Correctional Services announced a manhunt for more than 280 escapees from a prison destroyed by the flooding.
…

Authorities in Nairobi are trying to tackle the Kenyan capital’s chronic and worsening air pollution. With help from the U.S. Agency for International Development, authorities are placing sensors that can monitor air quality around the densely populated city. Victoria Amunga reports from Nairobi. Camera: Jimmy Makhulo
…

Abuja, Nigeria — Nigerian authorities said 281 inmates escaped after devastating floods brought down a prison’s walls in the country’s northeast.

A major dam collapsed on Sept. 10, unleashing severe flooding that left 30 people dead and over a million displaced, and prompted evacuations across the state of Borno.  

Officers attempted to evacuate the city of Maiduguri’s main prison last week when they found out that the prisoners had escaped, Umar Abubakar, spokesperson for the Nigeria Correctional Services said in a statement Sunday night.  

“The floods brought down the walls of the correctional facilities including the Medium Security Custodial Centre, as well as the staff quarters in the city,” Abubakar said.

Security personnel were able to recapture seven of the inmates and an operation is still ongoing to locate the rest, he said. 

The collapse caused some of the state’s worst flooding since the same dam collapsed 30 years ago. The state government said the dam was at capacity due to unusually high rains.  

Two years ago, heavy flooding in Nigeria killed more than 600 people across the country.

West Africa has experienced some of the heaviest flooding in decades this year, affecting over 2.3 million people, a threefold increase from 2023, according to the U.N.
…

Bamako, Mali — Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger will soon launch new biometric passports, Mali’s military leader Colonel Assimi Goita said Sunday, as the junta-led states look to solidify their alliance after splitting from regional bloc ECOWAS.

The three Sahel nations, all under military rule following a string of coups since 2020, joined together last September under the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), after severing ties with former colonial ruler France and pivoting toward Russia.

They then said in January that they were turning their backs on the Economic Community of West African States — an organization they accused of being manipulated by France.

In July, the allies consolidated their ties with the creation of a Confederation of Sahel States which will be chaired by Mali in its first year and groups some 72 million people.

“In the coming days, a new biometric passport of the AES will be put into circulation with the aim of harmonizing travel documents in our common area,” Goita said during a televised address late Sunday.

“We will be working to put in place the infrastructure needed to strengthen the connectivity of our territories through transport, communications networks and information technology,” he said.

The announcement came a day before the three states are due to mark the one-year anniversary of the alliance’s creation.

The neighbors are all battling jihadi violence that erupted in northern Mali in 2012 and spread to Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.

The unrest is estimated to have killed thousands and displaced millions across the region.
…

Kano, Nigeria — More than 40 people are presumed to have died after a boat overloaded with passengers sank on a river in northwestern Nigeria, authorities said on Sunday.   

The vessel was ferrying 53 farmers to their farms across the Gummi River in Zamfara State on Saturday when it capsized, a local official said.   

“Only 12 were rescued yesterday shortly after the accident,” said Na’Allah Musa, a political administrator of the flood-hit Gummi district where the accident happened, adding that authorities were searching for the bodies of the rest of the passengers, who are presumed to have died.   

Musa added that the vessel was “crammed with passengers far beyond its capacity which caused it to overturn and sink.”  

In a statement on Sunday, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu “expressed the government and the people of Nigeria’s commiseration” for the “twin tragedies” of the farmers’ deaths and the nearby floods.   

In recent days, rising waters in the Gummi area have forced more than 10,000 people to flee, with Tinubu promising support for the victims.   

Boat accidents are common on Nigeria’s poorly regulated waterways, particularly during the rainy season when river and lakes swell.   

Last month, 30 farmers on their way to their rice fields drowned after their overloaded boat sank in the Dundaye River in neighboring Sokoto State, emergency officials said.   

Three days earlier, 15 farmers died when their canoe overturned on the Gamoda River in Jigawa State, according to the police. 

 
…

Conakry — Guinea has handed over a plot of land to thousands forcibly evicted by previous governments, with some of the victims having waited more than 25 years for compensation.  

More than 20,000 people were displaced when the government of former president Alpha Conde demolished the Kaporo-Rails, Kipe 2, Dimesse, and Dar Es Salam neighborhoods of the capital Conakry between February and May 2019, according to Human Rights Watch.  

The government said the land belonged to the state and would be used for official buildings.  

A previous round of demolitions took place in the same area of Conakry in 1998, under the rule of president Lansana Conte.   

At a jubilant ceremony on Saturday, the associations representing the victims received the land deeds for a 258-hectare (638-acre) plot in Wonkifong, some 60 kilometers (40 miles) from Conakry, an AFP journalist saw.  

The land will be managed by the state-owned company SONAPI, which will be responsible for developing the site and rehousing the victims.  

“We are taking a concrete step towards healing the wounds of the past for 2,683 households, while laying the foundations for a shared future,” the managing director of SONAPI, Maimouna Laure Mah Barry, said in a statement.   

The spokesman for the victims, Samba Sow, said the event marked “the reparation of a 26-year-old injustice for those who were evicted in 1998 and five years for those evicted in 2019.”  

“Thousands of homes, schools, markets and places of worship were destroyed in flagrant violation of the laws of our country. The lives of several thousand families have been destroyed,” he added.  

Sow called on current head of state, junta leader General Mamady Doumbouya, to set up a compensation fund for the victims.   

The ceremony was attended by General Amara Camara, a junta spokesman, who said the president was “resolutely committed to drying the tears of all the sons and daughters of this country.”  

The West African state has been ruled by a military junta led by Doumbouya since a coup in September 2021 toppled civilian president Conde. 
…

ACCRA, Ghana — Texas Kadiri Moro stood in the middle of the hustle and bustle of Accra on Thursday, dressed in short pink Speedos and a pink polo shirt.

Accompanied by trumpet players, carrying a banner with slogans including “Why should a society of evildoers judge others?” and “Justice begins where inequality ends!” he marched across the Ghanaian capital in a one-man protest against a highly controversial bill that targets members of the LGBTQ+ community and their supporters. 

Moro is an unusual figure amid the LGBTQ+ rights activists in the coastal West African nation. 

He is heterosexual, married to a woman, and a father of six. He is a teacher. And he is a practicing Muslim. Yet for months he has been conducting solo demonstrations against the bill, which criminalizes members of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as its supporters, including promotion and funding of related activities and public displays of affection. It could send some people to prison for more than a decade. 

The bill was passed by Ghana’s parliament earlier this year but has been challenged in the Supreme Court. 

It has not yet been signed into law by President Nana Akufo-Addo, who cited ongoing proceedings. But he refused to reject it either. 

“There are so many issues about rights” when it comes to the bill, Moro told The Associated Press. 

“Homosexuality does not affect anyone,” Moro said. “We have activities that people are doing in the country that are worse than homosexual activities,” he said, citing adultery as an example. Parliament, he said, should be more concerned with “other crimes and pollution.” 

The bill has sparked condemnation from rights groups and some in the international community who have been concerned about similar efforts by other African governments. 

Sponsors of the bill have said it seeks to protect children and people who are victims of abuse. 

Man becomes target

Gay sex is already illegal in Ghana, carrying a three-year prison sentence, but the new bill could imprison people for more than a decade for activities including public displays of affection and promotion and funding of LGBTQ+ activities. 

Since he began his protests, Moro has lost his job, not received any assistance from the LGBTQ+ community, and become a target of “very hostile attacks from the Muslim community,” he said. 

But he is determined to continue. For him, it is about battling injustice. 

“I know I’m doing something that God is asking me to do,” he said. 

To point out the hypocrisy of the bill, Moro carried a petition to the Parliament asking the government to withdraw foreign missions from countries where homosexuality is legal, if they find it “filthy,” he said. 

Bill ‘is a wrongdoing’

At the entrance to Parliament House, Kate Addo, Parliament’s director of communications, received Moro’s petition on behalf of the speaker. She said she was pleased with his initiative. 

“We live in a democratic country where what people do in their bedrooms is not to be anyone’s concern,” Addo said. “However, we are also regulated by law.” 

Even though Ghana’s president delayed signing the bill into law, activists said that the debate by itself triggered an increase in physical and psychological violence against LGBTQ+ people. 

Joseph Kobla Wemakor, the executive director of Human Rights Reporters Ghana, said that “abuse, both psychologically and physically against members of the community has skyrocketed” since the bill was introduced. 

“The moment people hear that you are part of this, the LGBTQ+, you are an enemy,” Wekamor said. “They are looking forward to hurting you, even lynching you, killing you.” 

They are “forgetting that we are all humans,” he said.

“It takes one man to change the world,” he said. “And if he has started something like that, other people will follow, because it (the bill) is a wrongdoing.” 
…

JOHANNESBURG — Thethiwe Mahlangu woke early on a chilly morning and walked through her busy South African township, where minibuses hooted to pick up commuters and smoke from sidewalk breakfast stalls hung in the air.

Her eyes had been troubling her. But instead of going to her nearby health clinic, Mahlangu was headed to the train station for an unusual form of care.

A passenger train known as Phelophepa — or “good, clean, health” in the Sesotho language — had been transformed into a mobile health facility. It circulates throughout South Africa for much of the year, providing medical attention to the sick, young and old who often struggle to receive the care they need at crowded local clinics.

For the past 30 years — ever since South Africa’s break with the former racist system of apartheid — the train has carried doctors, nurses and optometrists on an annual journey that touches even the most rural villages, delivering primary health care to about 375,000 people a year.

The free care it delivers is in contrast to South Africa’s overstretched public health care system on which about 84% of people rely.

Health care reflects the deep inequality of the country at large. Just 16% of South Africans are covered by health insurance plans that are beyond the financial reach of many in a nation with unemployment of over 32%.

Earlier this year, the government began to address that gap. President Cyril Ramaphosa in May signed into law the National Health Insurance Act, which aims to provide funding so that millions of South Africans without health insurance can receive care from the better-provisioned private sector.

But the law has been divisive. The government has not said how much it will cost and where the money will come from. Economists say the government will have to raise taxes. Critics say the country can’t afford it and warn that the system — yet to be implemented — will be open to abuse by corrupt officials and businessmen. They say the government should fix the public health care system instead.

For Mahlangu and others who look to the train for a rare source of free treatment, the situation at local health clinics is one of despair.

Long lines, shortages of medicines and rude nurses are some of the challenges at the clinics that cater for thousands of patients a day in Tembisa, east of Johannesburg.

“There we are not treated well,” Mahlangu said. “We are made to sit in the sun for long periods. You can sit there from 7 a.m. until around 4 p.m. when the clinic closes. When you ask, they say we must go ask the president to build us a bigger hospital.”

The health train has grown from a single three-carriage operation over the years to two 16-carriage trains. They are run by the Transnet Foundation, a social responsibility arm of Transnet, the state-owned railway company.

When the train began in 1994, many Black people in South Africa still lived in rural villages with little access to health facilities. It was a period of change in the country. The train began as an eye clinic, but it soon became clear that needs were greater than that.

Now both trains address the booming population of South Africa’s capital of Pretoria and nearby Johannesburg, the country’s economic hub. One would spend two weeks in Tembisa alone.

“The major metros are really struggling,” said Shemona Kendiah, the train’s manager.

But the traveling clinic is far from the solution to South Africa’s health care problems.

Public health expert Alex van den Heever said there have been substantial increases in the health care budget and the public sector employment of nurses and doctors since the country’s first democratic government in 1994. The health department’s budget in Gauteng province, which includes Pretoria and Johannesburg, has grown from 6 billion rand ($336 million) in 2000 to 65 billion ($3.6 billion) rand now.

But van den Heever accused the African National Congress, the ruling party since the end of apartheid, of allowing widespread corruption to undermine the public sector, including the health care system.

“This has led to a rapid deterioration of performance,” he said.

For South Africans who have witnessed the decline firsthand, it can be a relief when the health train pulls into town.

Mahlangu — with her new pair of glasses — was among hundreds who walked away satisfied with its services and already longing for the train’s return next year.

Another patient, Jane Mabuza, got a full health checkup along with dental services. She said she hoped the train would reach many other people.

“Here on the train, you never hear that anything has been finished,” she said.
…