Abuja — Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency is warning that fatalities caused by severe flooding in the country will increase in September and October – the usual peak period for rainfall. The floods have already killed more than 170 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more in Nigeria this year.

According to the latest tally on the National Emergency Management Agency tracker, some 170 people have died and some 205,000 displaced by flooding in 28 out of Nigeria’s 36 states.

Bauchi, Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger, and Jigawa states are the most impacted.

The flooding has been caused by unprecedented rainfall and the rising Niger and Benue rivers. And officials worry more bad weather may be ahead.

Ezekiel Manzo is the NEMA spokesperson. He spoke to VOA via phone. 

“We are presently responding to a number of locations where flooding has occurred. The situation is not ending because we are just approaching the peak of the (rainy) season. The incidents we’re having are mostly in the northern part of the country [and] from the reports available to us, River Benue is rising, River Niger is also rising. And once the water level is high there it will ultimately flow into our country, so we’re expecting large volume of water coming from Niger,” he said.

The floods have also washed away thousands of hectares of farmlands, compounding an already dire food security situation caused by widespread insecurity.

Manzo said authorities have been advising and helping to evacuate locals in flood-prone plains as well as providing relief for hundreds of thousands already impacted.

“We are conducting assessments, we are increasing our awareness to sensitize the people to move immediately from the flood plains to avoid being washed away by the waters. The situation is still that of a threat and people need to be aware and move out of the danger zone,” he said.

The Nigerian government estimates 31 states will experience severe flooding this year.

In Jigawa – one of the most impacted states – authorities have been building embankments to reduce the impact of the flooding.

State Governor Umar Namadi told Al-Jazeera that the disaster is diverting crucial government funds.

“A lot of attention is being diverted to that area because you will need to save that situation. So, because of that, of course a lot of government revenue will be lost. Not only that a lot of extra expenditure will have to be incurred,” said Namadi.

In 2022, Nigeria recorded its worst flooding in a decade. The deluge killed more than 600 people and destroyed swathes of cultivated lands. 

Last week, the 2024 Global Report on Food Crises named Nigeria second among nations with the highest number of hungry people.

Nigeria’s minister of state for agriculture said up to 51 percent of farming areas are susceptible to flooding this year.

Manzo said Nigerian authorities will compensate the farmers – but that in the meantime, it is paramount for everyone to get to safety.
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Abidjan, Ivory Coast — Families of Burkina Faso civilians killed in a massacre have accused the army of exposing them to their militant killers by making them leave their village to dig a trench.

Armed men carried out the attack in the village of Barsalogho in north central Burkina Faso on Saturday, killing dozens of civilians and security personnel, local sources said.

A group linked to al-Qaeda, known by its Arabic initials JNIM, claimed responsibility and said it had seized control of a local militia headquarters.

A group representing victims’ families, the Justice Collective for Barsalogho, said in a statement seen by Agence France-Presse on Tuesday that Burkina Faso military officials had “obliged people, through threats, to take part in construction work, against their will.”

It said they forced the locals to dig a trench 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from the village for forces to use in fighting off the militants.

The collective demanded that investigations be carried out to determine who was responsible for the alleged order.

In two videos apparently documenting the massacre —circulated on social media and attributed by various sources to JNIM — assailants in military dress are seen firing automatic weapons at a trench containing at least 91 bodies.

Authorities have not given a toll.

A member of the collective, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals by the army, told AFP they helped bury victims in mass graves that contained “more than 100 bodies.”

Rebels affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have waged an insurgency in Burkina Faso since 2015 that has killed more than 20,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

A security source earlier claimed that “the response of the soldiers” and auxiliary troops “made it possible to neutralize several terrorists and avoid a greater tragedy.”

After taking power in a coup in September 2022, Burkina’s junta leader Ibrahim Traore vowed to make fighting terrorism a priority.

This year he issued a call to civil auxiliary fighters who are aiding the army to “mobilize local people to dig trenches to protect yourselves” until machinery could be delivered.
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WASHINGTON — The United States is urging certain foreign nations not to fuel Sudan’s civil war by arming fighting factions, as the country faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Meanwhile, Washington has also called on Sudan’s warring sides to enforce a code of conduct to reduce abuses, noting that the army is considering the proposal after its rival paramilitary forces have agreed to it.

More than 25 million people face acute hunger and more than 10 million have been displaced from their homes since fighting erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, the State Department said.

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen a significant proliferation of the number of external actors that are playing a role on both sides,” and they are not putting the interest of the Sudanese people “at the core of this,” said Tom Perriello, U.S. special envoy for Sudan.

“In addition to UAE [the United Arab Emirates] supporting the RSF,” Perriello told reporters on Tuesday, “we see foreign fighters coming in from across the Sahel. We’ve seen Iran, Russia, other negative actors on the SAF side.”

U.S.-brokered peace talks on Sudan that concluded last week in Geneva failed to end the country’s 16-month conflict. But one of the warring sides, the RSF, agreed to a code of conduct pledging to avoid violence against women, exploitation at checkpoints and the destruction of crops.

Perriello said that the U.S. has presented the proposal to the SAF leaders who were absent in the Switzerland negotiations.

“They have the code of conduct in front of them. We hope to get a response from them in the coming days,” Perriello said.

The United States has accused the SAF and RSF of war crimes, with the RSF specifically charged with ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity targeting the indigenous African-origin people of Darfur.

During the talks in Geneva, the U.S., along with representatives from the African Union, the United Arab Emirates, the United Nations, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, focused on reopening three humanitarian corridors — the Western border crossing in Darfur at Adre, the northern Dabbah Road from Port Sudan and the southern access route through Sennar.

Later this week, the U.S. will have a first formal follow-up with the heads of delegations.

Humanitarian assistance deliveries have resumed via two of the three routes: across the border at Adre from Chad and along the Dabbah Road into famine-stricken areas of Sudan.

In a statement late Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the reopening of humanitarian corridors, saying lack of humanitarian aid access into Darfur over the past six months has exacerbated the historic levels of famine and acute hunger across Sudan, particularly within the Zamzam camp.
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Nairobi, Kenya   — The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the continent needs 10 million doses of mpox vaccines to stop the spread of the disease, which it recently declared a public health emergency.

However, experts say the global shortage of mpox vaccines will affect any inoculation drives in Africa.  

Professor Salim Abdool Karim, a virologist at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine in Durban, South Africa, said there are currently three types of vaccines for mpox, but they are hard to obtain. 

“They aren’t available, and if people are to start manufacturing them now, it will take quite a while before doses will become available,” he said, adding that price is also an obstacle. “They sell for between $100 to $200 a dose, and you need to give everybody two doses. So that’s a very expensive vaccine.”   

The mpox ailment, formally known as monkeypox due to its original discovery in monkeys in Denmark, was first detected in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been the epicenter of the current outbreak.  

Karim said mpox, which previously did not pose serious health concerns, has been mutating and the current strain is worrying, especially for Africa’s younger population, which is more susceptible. 

“If left unchecked, we will see mpox spread quite rapidly. And the reason it will spread rapidly is because it is now sexually transmitted. And we’ve seen from other sexually transmitted infections like HIV … that sexually transmitted infections can spread quite widely in Africa,” he said.   

Since July, mpox cases have been detected in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, as well as the DRC. 

Kenya has recorded two cases, and hopes to receive vaccine doses as part of the international effort to stop transmission of the disease. 

Kenyan Ministry of Health officials, however, say they are worried about the global vaccine shortage.  

“Africa requires 10 million doses,” said Dr. Patrick Amoth, director general for health in Kenya. “What could be available up to the end of the year is two million doses, if the …  manufacturer of the vaccine repurposes its manufacturing capacity to stop manufacturing — or scale down the manufacture of — other vaccines and prioritizes manufacture of the mpox vaccine.

“So, in terms of priority, of course it will be pegged on the number of cases that each and every country gets. So, for now, we cannot even … start talking about vaccination if we have only recorded two cases of the disease.”   

Amoth said there is no cause for alarm as the country has put in place measures to deal with the outbreak of the disease.   

“We have formed rapid response teams to be able to support counties in terms of contact tracing and other logistics required, including case management,” he said.  

Karim is challenging African countries to move toward developing their own vaccines locally, saying he worries wealthy countries could be hoarding the available vaccines for their own citizens. 

“I’m pretty convinced that if African scientists put their heads together, we can make an mpox vaccine and we can manufacture it right here in Africa,” he said. “It’s not rocket science. It just needs the investments to be made to do that.”   

As the wait for vaccines continues, health experts say testing, contact tracing, and public education are the best strategies in dealing with the outbreak in Africa, at least for now.  
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Nairobi, Kenya — Few countries have been hit harder by climate change than Kenya, where more frequent droughts and floods have become a fact of life for much of the country. One woman who won a contest to be named Miss Climate Kenya is working to build climate resilience and convince people to adapt to a changing world. At the same time, a farmer in western Kenya is denying the existence of climate change and defending the exploration of fossil fuels in Africa.

Over the past two decades, new weather patterns have become all too common in eastern Africa, killing off crops, pasture and livestock. Conversely, Kenya saw heavy flooding that killed dozens of people and displaced tens of thousands more this year.

Twenty-four-year-old Dorcas Naishorua, who was named Miss Climate Kenya in May, has experienced what climate change can do to lives and livelihoods. Naishorua is a member of the Maasai tribe. Her community relies on livestock for survival. Members move from one place to another in search of water and pasture for their animals to survive. 

“Since the onset of the serious climate crisis, I have personally been affected by it,” she said. “The same livestock my parents depended on to take me to school, most of them were lost during the drought, and due to that, I had to cut short my education.”

Naishorua said she is using her platform to educate her community about climate change and how to deal with its effects.

“We have stopped lamenting,” she said. “Now we have a drought. What changes are we bringing? So, through my capacity, I have been engaging with different rescue centers. I have been with different schools in tree growing and sensitization what is a tree and what tree to plant where I have been doing that on my platforms.”

But as some activists try to build climate resilience, Kenyan farmer Jusper Machogu is attracting the attention of climate change deniers or skeptics, and his social media network is growing by the day.

Just today, he shared a video on X of former U.S. President Donald Trump denying climate change and said, “I think he represents some of my views, and so I kind of like him.”

Machogu, a farmer in Kisii, Kenya’s highland region, says he denies climate change is taking place because he believes it is hard to predict weather patterns.

Mochugu, who is also an agricultural engineer, says he supports the exploration and use of fossil fuels, which scientists have shown to be a major factor in global warming due to the emission of carbon dioxide. 

Machogu says clean energy sources cannot replace fossil fuels like oil and gas.

“We have plenty of fossil fuels,” he said. “We have plenty of natural gas. We have it in Uganda. We have it in Nigeria. We have oil in Angola, Namibia, all of these countries. But now we’re being told that we should not use that to flourish. We should not use it.” 

And he spoke of the importance of fossil fuels.

“And most people don’t realize how important, how crucial fossil fuels are,” he said. “Like we can’t have steel if we don’t use fossil fuels; there is no way to produce steel minus fossil fuels. Most people have heard that solar and wind are going to save the world, but solar and wind is just electricity.”

African farmers have experienced severe impacts from climate change. Weather patterns have become unpredictable, making it difficult for them to prepare land, grow food, and harvest on time.

Environmental earth scientist Edward Mugalavai says climate change skeptics could be won over with greater development of clean energy sources. 

“When you touch on the issue of fossil fuel, then it is like you are telling people you reduce industrialization,” he said. “That cannot happen. But what we are coming up with is to come up with green energy solutions where people can continue to industrialize but use green energy that does not pollute the environment. But if you have alternatives, people can easily accept the changes that are taking place.”

Naishorua, Kenya’s Miss Climate, said those denying climate change should check how their environment has changed over the years.

If that is too difficult to observe, she said, then they should take care and protect the environment around them.
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Cairo, Egypt — The collapse of the Arbaat Dam in Sudan’s eastern Red Sea state over the weekend flooded nearby homes and killed at least 30 people following heavy rains, a U.N. agency said.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said late Monday, citing local officials, that the actual number of fatalities from the collapse on Sunday might be higher. Additionally, about 70 villages around the dam were affected by the flash flooding, including 20 villages that have been destroyed.

The Arbaat Dam, which is about 38 kilometers (nearly 25 miles) northwest of Port Sudan, was massively damaged because of heavy rains. In areas west of the dam, the flooding either destroyed or damaged the homes of 50,000 people — 77% of the total population living there. Those affected urgently need food, water and shelter, OCHA warned, adding that damage in eastern parts of the dam is still being assessed. 

More than 80 boreholes collapsed because of the flooding, OCHA said citing officials, while 10,000 heads of livestock are missing, and 70 schools have been either damaged or destroyed.

Heavy rain and flooding across Sudan this month impacted more than 317,000 people. Of those impacted, 118,000 people have been displaced, exacerbating one of the world’s biggest displacement crises due to the ongoing war in the country.

Tuesday marks 500 days since Sudan plunged into war after fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.

The conflict began in the capital, Khartoum, and raged across Sudan, killing thousands of people, destroying civilian infrastructure, and pushing many to the brink of famine. More than 10 million people were forcibly displaced to find safety, according to the U.N.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement Tuesday that “this is a shameful moment” for international humanitarian organizations, which for more than 16 months, “have failed to provide an adequate response to the country’s escalating medical needs — from catastrophic child malnutrition to widespread disease outbreaks.”

“At the same time, heavy restrictions from both warring parties have drastically limited the ability to deliver humanitarian aid,” MSF said. 

Abdirahman Ali, CARE’s Sudan country director warned in a statement Tuesday that the war “shattered” the health care system, “leaving countless without care.”

More than 75% of health care systems have been destroyed since the war began, according to a World Health Organization estimate in July.
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Gaborone, Botswana  — More than 30 African countries will be represented at a military law conference set to begin Tuesday in Lusaka, Zambia. Participants will discuss the role of legal advisers in the deployment of troops as conflicts threaten stability across Africa.

The four-day African Military Law Forum will be co-hosted by the Zambian Defense Force, the U.S.-Africa Command (AFRICOM), U.S. Army Europe and Africa, and the North Carolina National Guard.

Participants, who will include military leaders and magistrates, will focus on legal advisers and their role in the deployment of troops to missions.

AFRICOM’s deputy legal counsel, retired Colonel Max Maxwell, says it is critical to ensure the rule of law is followed when troops are deployed.

“Militaries deploy outside their borders to sometimes very remote places,” Maxwell said. “We want them to follow and adhere to the rule of law. What I mean is, soldiers are held accountable, commanders have legal advisers and soldiers are inculcated in professionalism. In the end, we want armies that people run to and not run from.”

Maxwell said promoting professional conduct is crucial for the successful execution of the troops’ mission.

“When an army is held accountable and they are professional and the commanders have legal advisers, then the result is that the army is more likely to execute the mission successfully and it helps mitigate negative results,” he said. “This standard of conduct promotes partnership and helps focus militaries on the rule of law, specifically professionalism. It is especially true in the face of increased challenges and more complex conflicts.”

Brigadier General Dan Kuwali from Malawi said Zambia meeting participants would also discuss ways to help soldiers avoid human rights violations during deployments.

Malawi has deployed hundreds of soldiers in the conflict-torn eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of the Southern African Development Community mission.

“We are here to build capacity as legal advisers in order to help our troops to avoid violations, but also to be able to ensure accountability for violations,” Kuwali said. “We also want to promote professionalism, because if we comply with the law, we are regarded as a professional force.”

The seventh African Military Law Forum is being held at a time when the United States is bolstering military and security ties with African partners.

Eswatini’s legal counsel, Captain Portia Magongo, said it is imperative to involve legal advisers during deployments.

Legal advisers “are more in a strategic position when it comes to decision-makers, when it comes to commanders,” Magongosaid. “Be it political, be it military policies that they have to decide on, legal advisers are always there on an advisory level. When it comes to deployment, those deployment decisions come after being advised.”

Africa is battling increased instability, particularly in the Sahel region where a jihadi insurgency has ramped up attacks.
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Nairobi, Kenya — The Kenyan-led international security force deployed to Haiti has made “significant progress” in tackling gang violence, Kenyan police said, two months after they first arrived.

It also said the force had helped Haitian police take back control of “critical infrastructure, including the airport, from gang control” and “opened critical roads that have enabled the return of thousands of Haitians earlier displaced.”

Haiti has long been plagued by violent gangs that now control swathes of the capital Port-au-Prince and the country’s main roads.

The Multinational Security Support Mission, which Kenya stepped up to lead last year, was deployed to help Haiti tackle the soaring insecurity.

Its promised 1,000-member Kenyan contingent is made up of officers from several elite units, of which at least 400 have already been deployed.

Set for an initial duration of one year, the mission will involve a total of 2,500 personnel from countries including Bangladesh, Benin, Chad, the Bahamas and Barbados.

The United States has ruled out putting boots on the ground but is contributing funding and logistical support to the mission.

In an article published Monday in the Kenyan newspaper Daily Nation, several relatives of police officers deployed to Haiti reported delays in their salary payments.

Gang attacks escalated at the start of the year, pushing embattled Prime Minister Ariel Henry to resign.

Since then, the violence in Port-au-Prince has led to a serious humanitarian crisis.

The United Nations estimates that nearly 600,000 people have been displaced in Haiti, with the armed gangs accused of abuses including murder, rape, looting and kidnappings.
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Maputo, Mozambique — Mozambique has begun a 45-day election campaign to choose the next president, with four hopefuls looking to succeed President Filipe Nyusi. He will step down in January at the end of his second five-year term.

More than 17 million registered voters will choose the country’s new head of state and 250 members of parliament in the October 9 election.

The ruling Frelimo’s party’s presidential candidate, Daniel Chapo, is expected to face a stiff challenge from Venancio Mondlane, who is running as an independent.

The other two candidates are Ossufo Momade of the former rebel Renamo party and Lutero Simango of the Mozambique Democratic Movement.

The eventual winner will have to deal with the long-running insurgency in the oil- and gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado as well as widespread corruption.

Speaking Saturday in the central port city of Beira, Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo emphasized that he was born into a poor family that lived for two years in captivity during Mozambique’s civil war and overcame adversities to become a public servant. Chapo said he is the right man to reverse the country’s economic fortunes.

“We want to combat bureaucracy, combat corruption and create laws that facilitate a good business environment,” he said, “so that investors, whether national or foreign, can come and invest in Mozambique.”

With this investment, he said, there will be more jobs, more salaries and companies will pay more taxes.

Running under the slogan “Save Mozambique!, this country is ours!” Venâncio Mondlane started his campaign in a Maputo suburb, where he promised to create an honest and transparent government and remove Mozambique from the list of the poorest countries in the world.

“We want to put an end to a partisan state once and for all,” he said. “We want a clean state, a state that works for the people and by the people. We want the resources exploited in the provinces to be used in projects in the provinces to develop those regions.”

These will be Mozambique’s seventh general elections since the advent of multiparty democracy in 1994, two years after the government signed a peace deal with Renamo to end a 16-year civil war that killed an estimated 1 million people.

Renamo has not won a national election since then. Frelimo has ruled Mozambique since 1975 when the country won independence from Portugal.

On Friday, the head of the National Electoral Commission, Carlos Matsinhe, called for peaceful elections and asked that everyone abide by election rules to avoid possible post-electoral conflicts.

“Let us not use the electoral campaign to promote disorder, incitement to hatred, moral violence that has led to insults and defamation,” he said. “We must also avoid physical violence and/or other forms of injustice, as all competitors are compatriots and only occasional adversaries.”

In an interview with VOA, scholar and Reverend Marcos Macamo appealed to the candidates to not dwell on the past to settle old scores.

“The issue must not be power, power. It must be the nation to move forward,” Macamo said. “If we come to an agreement, whoever wins, the nation will move forward. With you, I or both of us, let it happen.”

The issue isn’t so much why the country is not moving forward or who is to blame, he said, “but what will you or I do to overcome the situation? Because these wounds of the past are complicating the situation.”

The European Union ambassador to Mozambique said Saturday it will send a mission of 130 observers to monitor the elections.
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ACCRA — The two main contenders in Ghana’s presidential election have launched dueling manifestos promising fiscal stability, jobs and a path out of the country’s worst economic downturn in a generation.

Voters will head to the polls on Dec. 7 to elect a successor to President Nana Akufo-Addo, who is stepping down at the end of the two terms he is allowed to serve as head of the West African gold, oil and cocoa-producing nation.

The election will pit ex-president John Dramani Mahama of the main opposition National Democratic Congress party against Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, an economist and former central banker, from Akufo-Addo’s ruling New Patriotic Party.

No party has ever won more than two consecutive terms in government in Ghana’s democratic history.

Frustrations about economic hardship have tainted Akufo-Addo’s presidency. Ghana defaulted on most of its $30 billion external debt in 2022 – the culmination of years of overstretched borrowing compounded by the COVID pandemic, the knock-on impacts of the war in Ukraine and a rise in global interest rates.

The government sought help from the International Monetary Fund and is now restructuring its debt as a condition for a $3 billion support package.

Both Mahama and Bawumia laid out their policy promises over the weekend ahead of a vote analysts predict to be tight two-man contest, even though others are running.

Mahama, 65, vowed to scrap first-year university fees to boost tertiary education and reduce taxes during his first three months in office.

“I will lead a ruthless war against corruption” and recover misappropriated assets, he told supporters in the south central city of Winneba on Saturday.

Mahama invested heavily in infrastructure during his 2013-17 presidency but drew criticism over power shortages, economic instability and alleged state corruption. He was never directly accused of wrongdoing but oversaw the government that was. His government denied wrongdoing.

NPP critics say graft continued and grew worse under Akufo-Addo’s administration. His administration has also denied wrongdoing.

Bawumia promised to simplify the tax system, almost halve the number of ministers and cut public spending by 3% of GDP.

Addressing reporters in the capital Accra on Sunday, he outlined a plan to provide digital training to one million young people to help them find jobs.

Both candidates are from northern Ghana, a long-standing NDC stronghold in which the NPP has made inroads over the past years.
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THIAROYE-SUR-MER, Senegal — Salamba Ndiaye was 22 when she first tried to get to Spain, dreaming of a career as a real estate agent. Without her parents’ knowledge, she made it onto a small fishing boat known as a pirogue, but the Senegalese police intercepted the vessel before it could leave.—

A year later Ndiaye tried again, successfully making it off the coast but this time a violent storm forced the boat to stop in Morocco, where Ndiaye and the other passengers were sent back to Senegal.

Despite her two failed attempts, the 28-year-old is determined to try again. “Right now, if they told me there was a boat going to Spain, I would leave this interview and get on it,” she said.

Ndiaye is one of thousands of young Senegalese who try to leave the West African country each year to head to Spain, fleeing poverty and the lack of job opportunities. Most head to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the coast of West Africa, which is used as a stepping stone to continental Europe.

Since the beginning of the year, more than 22,300 people have landed on the Canary Islands, 126% more than the same period last year, according to statistics released by Spain’s Interior Ministry.

While most migrants leaving Senegal are young men, aid workers in the Canary Islands say they are increasingly seeing young women like Ndiaye risk their lives as well.

Earlier this year, the EU signed a 210 million euro deal with Mauritania to stop smugglers from launching boats for Spain. But the deal has had little effect on migrant arrivals for now.

The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez will visit Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia this week to tackle irregular migration. The West African nations are the main launching pads for migrants traveling by boat.

The Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands is one of the deadliest in the world. While there is no accurate death toll because of the lack of information on departures from West Africa, the Spanish migrant rights group Walking Borders estimates the victims are in the thousands this year alone.

Migrant boats that get lost or run into problems often vanish in the Atlantic, with some drifting across the ocean for months until they are found in the Caribbean and Latin America carrying only human remains.

But the danger of the route is not a deterrent for those like Ndiaye, who are desperate to make a better living for themselves and their families in Europe. “Barsa wala Barsakh,” or “Barcelona or die” in Wolof, one of Senegal’s national languages, is a common motto of those who brave the deadly route.

“Even if we stay here, we are in danger,” said Cheikh Gueye, 46, a fisherman from Thiaroye-sur-Mer, the same village on the outskirts of Senegal’s capital that Ndiaye is from.

“If you are sick and you can’t pay for treatment, aren’t you in danger? So, we take our chances, either we get there, or we don’t,” he added.

Gueye also attempted to reach Europe though the Atlantic route but only made it to Morocco following bad weather, and was sent back to Senegal.

Like many inhabitants of Thiaroye-sur-Mer, he used to make a decent living as a fisherman before fish stocks started to deplete a decade ago due to overfishing.

“These big boats have changed things, before even kids could catch some fish here with a net,” Gueye said, pointing at the shallow water.

“Now we have to go more than 50 kilometers out before we find fish and even then we don’t find enough, just a little,” he adds.

Gueye and Ndiaye blame the fishing agreements between Senegal and the European Union and China, which allow foreign industrial trawlers to fish in Senegalese waters. The agreements impose limits on what they can haul in, but monitoring what the large boats from Europe, China and Russia harvest has proven difficult.

Ahead of the Spanish prime minister’s visit to Senegal on Wednesday, Ndiaye’s mother, Fatou Niang, 67, says the Senegalese and Spanish governments should focus on giving young people in the West African country job opportunities to deter them from migrating.

“These kids don’t know anything but the sea, and now the sea has nothing. If you do something for the youth, they won’t leave,” Niang says.

“But if not, well, we can’t make them stay. There’s no work here,” she said.
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ABUJA, Nigeria — At an intersection seven miles from the presidential villa, frustrated drivers honk as a herd of cattle feeds on the grass beautifying the median strip and slowly marches across the road, their hooves clattering against the asphalt. For the teenage herder guiding them, Ismail Abubakar, it is just another day, and for most drivers stuck in the traffic, it’s a familiar scene unfolding in Nigeria’s capital Abuja.

Abubakar and his cattle’s presence in the city center is not out of choice but of necessity. His family are originally from Katsina State in northern Nigeria, where a changing climate turned grazing lands into barren desert. He moved to Idu — a rural, bushy and less developed part of Abuja — many years ago. But it now hosts housing estates, a vast railway complex and various industries.

“Our settlement at Idu was destroyed and the bush we used for grazing our cattle cut down to pave the way for new houses,” Abubakar said in a smattering of Pidgin English. It forced his family to settle on a hill in the city’s periphery and roam the main streets for pasture.

Fulani herders like Abubakar are traditionally nomadic and dominate West Africa’s cattle industry. They normally rely on wild countryside to graze their cattle with free pasture, but the pressures of modernization, the need for land for housing and crop farming and human-caused climate change are challenging their way of life. To keep cattle off of Abuja’s major roads and gardens, some suggest that herders need to start acquiring private land and operating like other businesses. But to do that, they’d need money and government incentives.

“It’s disheartening,” said Baba Ngelzarma, the president of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, a Fulani pastoralists’ advocacy group. “Nigeria is presented as an unorganized people. The herders take the cattle wherever they can find green grasses and water at least for the cows to survive, not minding whether it is the city or somebody’s land.”

He added that part of the problem is the government’s failure to harness the potential of the livestock industry by offering incentives such as infrastructure like water sources and vet services at designated grazing reserves and providing subsidies.

For its part, the government has said it will address the issue, previously promising fenced-off reserves for cattle herders. President Bola Tinubu announced in July a new livestock development ministry, which Ngelzarma said would help revive the abandoned grazing reserves. No minister has been appointed.

Fewer places to go

Nigeria is home to over 20 million cows, mostly owned by Fulani herders. It has the fourth largest cattle population in Africa, and its dairy market is valued at $1.5 billion. But despite its size, almost 90% of local demand is met through imports, according to the U.S .International Trade Administration. It’s a sign of the industry’s inefficiency, Ngelzarma said, as cows stressed from constant moving and poor diets can’t produce milk.

For Abuja, the city’s environment bears the consequence, and so do businesses when traffic grinds to a halt because cows are crossing busy roads. And in other parts of Nigeria, herders are often involved in violence with farmers over access to land, especially in central and southern Nigeria where the two industries overlap with religious and ethnic divisions.

There are four designated grazing reserves in rural areas surrounding Abuja, but they lack the needed infrastructure and have been encroached on by other farmers and illegal settlers, according to both Ngelzarma and Festus Adebayo, who’s executive secretary of the Housing Development Advocacy Network.

With those reserves not functioning, herders set up settlements anywhere and stay for as long as they can before legitimate owners claim it or the government builds on it.

Mohammed Abbas, 67, has repeatedly had to move locations over the years. Most of his current settlement in the city’s Life Camp neighborhood has been taken over by a newly constructed petrol station, and he is aware that the remaining land will soon be claimed by another owner.

As a smallholder pastoralist, he said he could not afford to buy land in Abuja for a permanent settlement and ranching. To afford one, “I have to sell all my cows and that means nothing will be left to put on the land,” he said in Hausa, sitting outside his hut.

Other pastoralists would rather resist.

“We are not going anywhere again,” said Hassan Mohammed, whose family now occupies a strip on the edge of a new estate near the Idu train station. Once a vast bush, the area has been swallowed by infrastructure and housing projects. Mohammed now also drives a lorry on the side because of the shrinking resources needed to keep cattle.

Despite repeated orders from the owners to vacate, Mohammed said that his family would stay put, using the dwindling strip as their home base while taking their cattle elsewhere each day for pasture. The landowners have repeatedly urged the government to resettle Mohammed’s family, but the government has yet to take action.

“Many don’t have anywhere to call home, so they just find somewhere to sleep at night with the cattle,” said Mohammed, in Hausa. “But for us, we are not leaving except there is a new place within Abuja.”

Making room for development and cows

Folawiyo Daniel, an Abuja-based real estate developer who has endured difficulties with pastoralists that affect his project development, said the issue is a failure of urban planning.

“Real estate development is not the problem,” he said, and the government should revive grazing reserves in the city for pastoralists.

Adebayo, from the Housing Development Advocacy Network, agreed, saying “it is time” for Abuja’s minister Nyesom Wike to take action and prove that “the problem of open grazing in the city of Abuja is solvable.”

Herders should be moved to a place designated for their work or restricted to defined private property, he said.

The official responsible for animal husbandry in the agriculture ministry said they could not comment on a major policy issue without authorization, while the spokesperson for the ministry in charge of Abuja declined a request for an interview.

But in March, after the Belgian ambassador to Nigeria raised concerns to Wike about cattle roaming Abuja’s streets, he replied that efforts were in progress to stop the indiscriminate grazing without disclosing specific details.

Herders say they are not opposed to a restricted form of herding or practicing like a normal business that buys their own feedstock instead of using free pasture and water wherever they find them.

The problem, according to cattle association chief Ngelzarma, is that the government has neglected the sector and does not provide incentives as it does other businesses, giving the examples of irrigation systems for crop farmers and airports for private airline operators paid for by the government.

“The government should revive the gazetted grazing reserves fitted with the infrastructure for water and fodder production, training and veterinary services and generate jobs and revenues,” Ngelzarma said.

“Then, you can say stop roaming about for free pasture,” he said.
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Lagos, Nigeria — An attack Sunday by an outlawed pro-Iran Nigerian Shiite group killed at least two law enforcement officers, police said, with three more found unconscious in the capital Abuja. 

The capital’s police force confirmed “an unprovoked attack by the proscribed Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN)… on some personnel of the Nigeria Police Force,” said a statement by police spokesperson Josephine Adeh. 

During the attack on a police checkpoint, “two police personnel were killed, three [were] left unconscious in the hospital, and three police patrol vehicles [were] set ablaze,” Adeh added. 

Inspired by the Islamic Revolution in Iran in the late 1970s, the IMN still maintains close ties with Tehran. 

It has long been at loggerheads with Nigeria’s secular authorities and was banned in 2019. 

Sunday’s attackers carried out their assault wielding machetes, knives and improvised explosive devices, according to the police. 

With several arrests made, Abuja’s police commissioner, Benneth C. Igweh, condemned the “unprovoked attack,” vowing to bring the perpetrators to justice. 

“The situation is presently under control and normalcy restored,” the police statement added. 

In July 2021, after more than five years in prison, IMN leader Ibrahim Zakzaky and his wife were released by a court in Kaduna, in the north of the country. 

A Shiite cleric, Zakzaky has repeatedly called for an Iranian-style Islamic revolution in Nigeria — where the Muslim population is predominantly Sunni. 
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Tunis — Tunisian President Kais Saied on Sunday replaced various ministers, including from the foreign and defense portfolios, the Tunisian presidency said in a statement posted on Facebook without explanation. 

The abrupt reshuffle replaced 19 ministers and three state secretaries, just days after Saied sacked the former prime minister. 

“This morning, August 25, 2024, the President of the Republic has decided to make a governmental change,” said the statement, without further detail.

The move comes as the North African country readies for presidential elections on October 6.

Saied, 66, was democratically elected in 2019 but orchestrated a sweeping power grab in 2021.

He is now seeking a second presidential term as part of what he has said was “a war of liberation and self-determination” aiming to “establish a new republic.”

But while he is running for office, a number of his political opponents and critics are currently in jail or being prosecuted.

Earlier this week, Human Rights Watch (HRW), a global watchdog, said Tunisian authorities “have prosecuted, convicted or imprisoned at least eight prospective candidates” for the October vote.

The North African country under Saied was “gearing up for a presidential election amid increased repression of dissent and free speech, without crucial checks and balances on President Saied’s power,” HRW added.

Earlier this month, Abir Moussi, a key opposition figure who has been in jail since October, was sentenced to two years in prison under a “false news” law, days after she reportedly submitted her presidential candidacy via her lawyers.

Other jailed would-be candidates include Issam Chebbi, leader of the centrist Al Joumhouri party, and Ghazi Chaouchi, head of the social-democratic party Democratic Current, both held for “plotting against the state.”

“After jailing dozens of prominent opponents and activists, Tunisian authorities have removed almost all serious contenders from the presidential race, reducing this vote to a mere formality,” said Bassam Khawaja, HRW’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Only two candidates — former member of parliament Zouhair Maghzaoui, 59, and Azimoun leader Ayachi Zammel — were pre-selected to run against Saied.

On Wednesday, local media said a court in the capital Tunis ordered the pre-trial detention of the treasurer of the Azimoun party, which Zammel leads, for “falsifying” financial records.

It remains unclear whether this would affect Zammel’s contention.

So far, 14 presidential hopefuls have been barred from challenging Saied, after Tunisia’s election board said they weren’t able to collect enough ballot signatures.

Several would-be candidates have been accused of forging these signatures, with some being sentenced to prison. 

Some hopefuls have also said they were unofficially barred from running because authorities refused to give them a copy of a clean criminal record, which is needed by candidates.

In early August Saied sacked prime minister Ahmed Hachani without explanation and replaced him with social affairs minister Kamel Madouri, the presidency announced at the time.
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Bamako — At least 15 people, including children, were killed by drone strikes Sunday on the town of Tinzaouaten in north Mali, near where the army suffered a heavy blow last month, Tuareg rebels said.

Mali had already carried out airstrikes on insurgent targets in and around Tinzaouaten shortly after Tuareg and Islamist fighters killed many Malian soldiers and Russian Wagner mercenaries near the town in July.

The town, located near the Algerian border, came under drone attack again Sunday, a spokesperson for a rebel coalition known as the Permanent Strategic Framework for Peace, Security and Development (CSP) said.

The strikes hit a civilian home, a pharmacy and other parts of town, Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane said via telephone.

Around 15 people are confirmed dead, including children, and the death toll is likely to rise, he added.

Mali’s army did not respond to a request for comment.

The fighting near Tinzaouaten in late July could be Wagner’s heaviest defeat since it stepped in two years ago to help Mali’s junta fight insurgent groups.

Tuareg rebels said they killed at least 84 Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers. An al-Qaida affiliate said it had killed 50 Wagner mercenaries and 10 Malian soldiers.

Neither Mali nor Wagner have said how many troops they lost, although Wagner said it suffered heavy losses.

Both Tuareg separatists and jihadi insurgents liked to al-Qaida and Islamic State operate in north Mali.

The country has been grappling with jihadi insurgents since Islamist groups hijacked a Tuareg rebellion in 2012.

Frustrations over authorities’ failure to restore security contributed to coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger since 2020.

Juntas have subsequently cut ties with Western and regional allies, turning instead to Russia.

The separatists, meanwhile, signed a peace agreement with Mali’s government in 2015. But CSP pulled out of talks in 2022.
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Brazzaville, Congo — Twenty-one cases of mpox have been recorded in Congo-Brazzaville, the country’s health minister told state television Sunday.

Gilbert Mokoki said that the central African country had “registered 158 suspect cases” since the beginning of the year, “21 of which we have confirmed.”

The latest two were reported Thursday, he said.

Cases of the infectious disease — formerly known as monkeypox — have been surging in eastern and central Africa, but the virus has also been detected in Asia and Europe, with the World Health Organization declaring an international emergency.

The virus has been reported in five of Congo-Brazzaville’s 15 regions, with the forested areas of Sangha and Likouala in the north particularly affected.

A new variant of mpox has swept across neighboring DR Congo, killing more than 570 people so far this year.

Mokoki said that the epidemic was not alarming in Congo-Brazzaville, but appealed to people to take preventative measures like regularly washing their hands.

While mpox has been known for decades, a new more deadly and more transmissible strain — known as Clade 1b — has driven the recent surge in cases.
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LUGO, Spain — When Adiaratou Iglesias crossed the finish line at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games, she did not know she had bagged a gold in the women’s 100-metre T13 race until she was told.

The visually impaired Spanish athlete, who goes by Adi and also won a 400m silver in Tokyo, said she now dreamed of hearing her adoptive family shout “gold” when she completes her races at the Paris Games this week.

Iglesias was born in Mali with albinism, a genetic condition that inhibits the production of melanin which pigments the skin, hair and eyes. Albinism impairs her visual perception by 90%, but thick corrective eyewear allows her to see around 20%.

“I don’t know anything when I cross the finish line because I can’t see what’s on my sides,” the 25-year-old told Reuters.

Iglesias said her biological parents decided to send her to Spain when she was 11 to prevent her from suffering attacks based on her albinism.

In some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, people with albinism are sometimes killed for their body parts, which are prized in ritual witchcraft.

As a child, Iglesias used to run errands for her mother in Bamako, and she invariably did it as quickly as possible.

“I’ve always loved running and been passionate about it but I couldn’t (practice athletics) due to life circumstances until 2014,” she said, crediting the support from her adoptive mother, Lina Iglesias, without which “this never would’ve been possible.”

After spending time at a children’s shelter in northern Spain, Iglesias was adopted in 2013 and moved to the northwestern city of Lugo, obtaining Spanish citizenship.

Lina, 60, held back tears and beamed with pride when asked what it would mean to hug her daughter after winning in Paris. “It’d be a big thrill for me but not much more than what I feel each time I see her run or win.”

Last year, Iglesias — who is a fan of Spanish tennis star Rafael Nadal — was invited by the European Commission to talk about combatting hate speech and hate crimes.

Despite spending most of her time at a high-performance center for elite athletes in Madrid, she wants to keep her medals — which include two golds from the 2021 European Championships and two silvers from the 2019 World Championships — in her childhood room in Lugo.

“It’ll be my museum, and it makes (Lina) very happy,” Iglesias said while sitting on her bed.
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Port Sudan, Sudan — Sudan’s de facto ruler, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said Saturday his government would not join peace talks with rival paramilitaries in Switzerland, vowing instead to “fight for 100 years.” 

“We will not go to Geneva … we will fight for 100 years,” Burhan, whose troops have been battling the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) for over 16 months, told reporters in Port Sudan. 

The United States opened talks in Switzerland on August 14 aimed at easing the human suffering and achieving a lasting cease-fire. 

While an RSF delegation showed up, the Sudanese armed forces were unhappy with the format and did not attend, though they were in telephone contact with the mediators. 

The talks were co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, with the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations completing the so-called Aligned for Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan Group (ALPS). 

They wrapped up Friday without a cease-fire but with progress on securing aid access on two key routes into the country, which is gripped by one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. 

The brutal conflict has forced one in five people to flee their homes, while tens of thousands have died. More than 25 million across Sudan — more than half its population — face acute hunger. 
…

GENEVA — U.N. agencies are scaling up cholera prevention and treatment programs to get on top of a new, deadly cholera outbreak in Sudan that threatens to further destabilize communities suffering from hunger and the ill effects of more than 16 months of conflict.

The recent cholera outbreak has resurged after several weeks of heavy rainfall and resulting flooding,” Kristine Hambrouck, UNHCR representative in Sudan, told journalists Friday in Geneva.

Speaking on a video-link from Port Sudan, she warned, “Risks are compounded by the continuing conflict and dire humanitarian conditions, including overcrowding in camps and gathering sites for refugees and Sudanese displaced by the war, as well as limited medical supplies and health workers.”

She expressed particular concern about the spread of the deadly disease in areas hosting refugees, mainly in Kassala, Gedaref and al-Jazirah states.

“In addition to hosting refugees from other countries, these states are also sheltering thousands of displaced Sudanese who have sought safety from ongoing hostilities,” she said.

The United Nations describes Sudan as the largest displacement crisis in the world.  Latest figures put the number of people displaced inside Sudan at more than 10.7 million, with an additional 2 million who have fled to neighboring countries as refugees.

Additionally, the UNHCR says Sudan continues to host tens of thousands of refugees from countries such as Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Sudan’s health ministry officially declared a cholera outbreak on August 12. In the one month since the first suspected cases were reported, the World Health Organization says 658 cholera cases and 28 deaths have been reported by five states, “with a high case-fatality ratio of 4.3%.”

Kassala has reported the highest number of cholera cases at 473, followed by Gedaref with 110 cases, and al-Jazairah with 51 cases. Two other states, Khartoum and River Nile, have reported fewer numbers.

“These cases are not linked to the previous cholera outbreak, which had been declared in September 2023,” said Dr. Shible Sahbani, the WHO representative to Sudan, noting that the outbreak “technically ended” in May 2024 after no cases were reported for two consecutive incubation periods.

Speaking from Port Sudan, Sahbani described the situation in Kassala as very worrisome. He said the state’s health system already was under stress because of the large number of displaced people and refugees living there. “So, the health system is not able to cope with the additional influx of refugees and IDPs [internally displaced persons].”

“But in addition to that, it puts a big burden on the WASH system — the water, sanitation, and hygiene system. So, this makes the situation more complicated in favor of the spread of cholera,” he said.

Besides the dangers posed by cholera, UNICEF representative Hambrouck also warns of an increasing number of cases of waterborne diseases, including malaria and diarrhea, which also need to be brought under control.

“Constraints in humanitarian access are also impacting response efforts. Violence, insecurity and persistent rainfall are hampering the transportation of humanitarian aid,” she said.

She noted that more than 7.4 million refugees and internally displaced Sudanese living in White Nile, Darfur and Kordofan states are having to do without “critical medicines and relief supplies” because of delays in delivery.

The WHO and UNHCR are working closely with Sudan’s Ministry of Health to coordinate the cholera outbreak response. Among its many initiatives, UNHCR says it is working with health partners to strengthen surveillance, early warning systems and contact tracing in affected locations.

“Disease surveillance and testing are ongoing, and awareness-raising and training on cholera case management for health staff are also being conducted,” said Hambrouck.

For its part, Sahbani said the WHO has prepositioned cholera kits and other essential medical supplies “in high-risk states in anticipation of the risks associated with the rainy season.”

He said the WHO was spearheading a cholera vaccination campaign, noting that “a three-day oral cholera vaccination campaign in two localities of Kassala state concluded Thursday.”

He said the campaign already has used 51,000 doses and “the good news is that we got the approval of an additional 155,000 doses of cholera vaccine. So, this is the good news in the middle of this horrible crisis.”

One dose of the vaccine, he said, would protect the population against cholera for six months, while two doses would provide protection for up to three years.

“So, this is really good news because this will help us to contain the outbreak,” he said.  Without more funding, however, he warned the good news will quickly evaporate, noting that the WHO has received just one-third of its $85.6 million appeal.

“This will indeed limit our capacity to launch a robust response to reach a larger segment of the people in need,” he said.

His UNHCR colleague, Hambrouck, echoed the sentiments.

“With the humanitarian situation and funding level already precarious prior to this latest cholera outbreak, funds are desperately needed to support the provision of health care and other life-saving aid,” she said.
…

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geneva — U.S.-brokered peace talks on Sudan have failed to end the country’s 16-month conflict but have succeeded in gaining greater humanitarian access to millions of people who have been deprived of food, medicine and other essential relief for many months, according to a senior U.S. official.

In wrapping up a first round of peace negotiations Friday in Geneva, Tom Perriello, U.S. special envoy for Sudan, told journalists “it is extremely important that we have found breakthroughs on humanitarian access for millions and millions of people in Sudan.

“But this is just the beginning,” he said. “We need to see the results from the parties, whether that is on protection of civilians or humanitarian access and we need to continue to build where we can.”

Search for humanitarian corridors

Over the past two weeks, representatives from the United States, Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, the United Nations, African Union, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates have focused on reopening three humanitarian corridors — the Western border crossing in Darfur at Adre, the northern Dabar Road from Port Sudan, and the southern access route through Sennar.

Perriello said the three routes combined “would open up food, medicine and lifesaving services for 20 million people in Sudan,” adding that negotiators got commitments from the two warring parties, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to send aid through both the Adre and Dabar routes.

“We are in active negotiations with the parties on multiple potential routes for Sennar, which would open up another 11 million with access,” he said.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told journalists that United Nations and humanitarian partners continue to engage with the Sudanese authorities to ensure the sustained and scaled-up delivery of supplies into Sudan.

“This is crucial to meet people’s most urgent needs at the height of the rainy and lean seasons in Darfur,” he said, adding that the 15 trucks that crossed into Sudan from Chad via the Adre crossing this week “were a step in the right direction.”

“But the fighting and deepening hunger crisis in Sudan means there has to be a steady flow of food, nutrition, water, sanitation, hygiene and medical supplies for people at risk of famine in more than a dozen areas,” he said.

Hundreds of thousands on brink of famine

The World Food Program reports more than half of Sudan’s population, some 25.6 million people, face acute hunger, including more than 755,000 people on the brink of famine.

The RSF sent a delegation to the talks. However, Sudan’s military has stayed away because of the participation of the United Arab Emirates, which it accuses of supporting the RSF and of fueling war by sending arms to the paramilitary group.

While not responding to these accusations, Lana Nusseibeh, head of the UAE delegation, said that the position of her country has been clear.

“We see the future of Sudan as one that requires a peaceful civilian transition of power. We are dedicated and committed to engage in these talks and use all our efforts to bring about the cease-fire that the Sudanese people so desperately need and so desperately deserve,” she said.

While acknowledging the difficulties of negotiating a cease-fire with only one of the warring parties present, U.S. mediator Perriello said it has been possible to make progress in other areas because “we were able to engage with the SAF many, many times a day virtually by phone.”

The Geneva talks also have focused on implementing the Jeddah declaration, which calls for the protection of civilians and respect for international humanitarian law even in wartime. Both warring parties signed the agreement on May 11, 2023, but a week later they breached a subsequent agreement which called for a seven-day cease-fire.

Underscoring the importance of complying with the Jeddah declaration, Perriello said, “We have all seen the horrific atrocities of rape, sexual slavery, starvation used as a weapon of war, shelling, bombing and daily terrors that are realities of the Sudanese people.”

He said the delegations have been working hard to achieve a compliance mechanism that can work for the existing Jeddah declaration and have presented that to the parties for consideration.

In the meantime, he said, “We got agreement from the Rapid Support Forces for a code of conduct that will be issued to their soldiers.

“It will have many of the basics of international humanitarian law, including protections of women and protections related to farming and the harvest so we can look at the issues not only of the current famine, but how we begin to help the Sudanese grow out of this.”

The U.S. envoy said no formal date has been set for the next round of peace talks because “the urgency of this crisis is one in which we do not want to [be] constrained by the formal dates of when we can get on airplanes.”

“We know that there are decisions today that are going to be the difference between whether we start to see hundreds of trucks go across Adre or whether the brakes are thrown on. That is a today thing and that is a tomorrow thing,” he said. “We are very committed to seeing this as a 24/7 operation in the face of a famine that the world has largely ignored.”
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