Nairobi, Kenya — Kenyan President William Ruto on Friday ordered significant cuts in the federal budget along with other government reforms to pay off a crushing debt burden in a move seen as a concession to popular disapproval of a tax bill that sparked violent protests.

Following weeks of protests during which dozens of people reportedly were killed, Ruto withdrew a finance bill intended to raise $2.7 billion — most of it from tax increases — to pay off debt.

Ruto instead offered a compromise: a plan is to cut $1.39 billion from the budget and borrow the difference.

To make it work, Ruto said, his government will eliminate 47 state corporations with overlapping or duplicative functions and reduce by 50% the number of government advisors, among many other actions.

Filling the positions of chief administrative secretaries is suspended, Ruto said, and government funds will not be used for the operations of the offices of the first lady, the spouse of the deputy president and the prime cabinet secretary.

And there’s more.

“Public servants who attain retirement age of 60 shall be required to immediately proceed on retirement with no extensions,” Ruto said.

Also, government purchase of new motor vehicles is suspended for 12 months, except for security agencies, and all nonessential travel by state and public officers is suspended, the president said.

Some of the actions were on a list of demands made by protesters.

Ruto also said he has appointed an independent task force to carry out a comprehensive, forensic audit of the country’s public debt.

“This audit will provide Kenyans with clarity on the extent and nature of our debt and how public resources have been expanded and also recommend proposals for managing public debt in a manner that is sustainable and does not burden future generations,” he said.

Nearly 40 people died and 360 were injured nationwide since the protests started three weeks ago, according to Kenya’s National Commission on Human Rights.
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Central African Republic officials are pleading with civilians to go back to their villages, after up to 10,000 civilians were displaced this week by fighting between rebels and C.A.R. forces.  

Officials say a rebel group known as the Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation, or 3R, has relaunched hostilities in the central African nation. This week, military sources said 3R rebels attacked nearly 10 villages between the towns of Bocaranga and Bazoum in northeastern C.A.R., near the Cameroon border. 

The C.A.R. military says bodies of five government troops and six civilians have been found in villages since the attacks began Tuesday. The military says it is still searching for bodies and transporting injured civilians to hospitals for treatment. 

On Thursday, officials said several hundred troops and humanitarian workers were deployed to the villages to push back the rebels and protect civilians. 

Glwadys Siopathis led a delegation of humanitarian workers to villages affected by the fighting. She says about 10,000 civilians — including children — are hiding in the bush, and are hungry, thirsty and malnourished.

She says a majority are reluctant to return to their homes because they believe rebels have simply retreated and could again attack villages for supplies. 

The C.A.R. says that besides its troops, forces of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic, or MINUSCA, have been deployed to protect civilians and their goods. 

Both forces say huge quantities of ammunition were seized and several rebels were either neutralized or captured, but did not give further details. The C.A.R is pleading with civilians to return to villages where they will be protected by government troops. 

Bruno Yapande, C.A.R.’s territorial administration minister, says the government of the Central African Republic has ordered its military to immediately seal border areas where rebels traditionally attempt to pass through when attacked by government troops.  

He says several border security checkpoints have been erected to sort out rebels who disguise themselves as cattle ranchers or infiltrate civilian communities to escape to neighboring countries. 

Yapande spoke Friday on C.A.R. state TV. He did not say which countries the rebels may be attempting to escape to, but the C.A.R. shares borders with Cameroon, Sudan, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of Congo and Chad. 

Last week, Cameroon and C.A.R. officials met in the C.A.R.’s capital, Bangui, and signed an agreement to jointly combat what they describe as increasing insecurity and criminality caused by armed gangs and rebels operating in towns and villages along their border. 

The C.A.R. says the 3R, formed in 2015, is one of several rebel groups in the central African state. 3R rebels claim that they protect Muslim cattle ranching populations from regular attacks by Christian anti-Balaka militias. 

C.A.R. officials say the rebel group has several hundred armed fighters who fight to control villages on the C.A.R. border and regularly escape to eastern villages in Cameroon when attacked by government forces. The C.A.R. accuses the rebel group of killing, maiming, raping, looting, and regularly displacing civilians from the villages. 

The Central African Republic descended into violence and political chaos in 2013 when Muslim-led Seleka rebels seized power and forced then-President Francois Bozize from office in the majority Christian nation. A Christian-dominated militia called the anti-Balaka fought back, with both the Seleka and anti-Balaka being accused of targeting and killing civilians. 

The U.N. says fighting in the C.A.R. has forced close to a million Central Africans to flee to neighboring countries, including Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Chad.
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Nouakchott, Mauritania — Nearly 90 migrants bound for Europe died when their boat capsized earlier this week off the coast of Mauritania, the state news agency and a local official said Thursday. Dozens more remain missing.

“The Mauritanian coast guard recovered the bodies of 89 people aboard a large traditional fishing boat that capsized on Monday, July 1, on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean” about 4 kilometers from the country’s southwest city of Ndiago, the state news agency said.

The coast guard rescued nine people, including a 5-year-old girl, it said.

The agency quoted survivors saying that the boat had set sail from the border of Senegal and Gambia with 170 passengers on board, bringing the number of missing to 72.

A senior local government official gave AFP similar information, on condition of anonymity.

The Atlantic route is particularly dangerous because of strong currents, with migrants often traveling in overloaded, often unseaworthy, boats without enough drinking water.

But it has grown in popularity because of the increased vigilance in the Mediterranean.

The number of migrants landing at Spain’s Canary Islands in 2023 more than doubled in one year to a record 39,910, according to the Spanish government.

Off the coast of North Africa, Spain’s Canary Islands lie 100 kilometers away at their closest point.

But many boats, often long wooden vessels known as pirogues, leave from much farther away, setting sail from Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Gambia and Senegal.

More than 5,000 migrants died while trying to reach Spain by sea in the first five months of this year, or the equivalent of 33 deaths per day, according to Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish charity.

That is the highest daily number of deaths since it began collating figures in 2007, and the vast majority were on the Atlantic route. 
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Goma, Congo — A militia attack on a gold mine in northeastern Congo killed six Chinese miners and two Congolese soldiers, a civil society group said Thursday, the latest assault as violence worsens in the resource-rich region.

The attack on Wednesday targeted the village of Gambala and the nearby “Camp Blanquette” gold mine in the Ituri province, according to Jean Robert Basiloko, a member of a local civil society group. A militia known as the Cooperative for the Development of the Congo, or CODECO, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Eastern Congo has been torn by decadelong fighting between government forces and more than 120 armed groups, often involving bombs targeting civilians as the militias seek a share of the region’s gold and other resources. Violence in the region has worsened in recent months as security forces battle the militias.

On Wednesday, the militiamen set homes ablaze and then attacked the mine, which is guarded by a competing armed group, the Zaire Militia, Basiloko told The Associated Press.

They attackers killed six Chinese miners and two Congolese troops, he added, and abducted two other miners, whose whereabouts remain unknown.

CODECO and the Zaire Militia are involved in a complex conflict, mixing economic ambitions and power struggles. The Zaire Militia, a dissident faction of CODECO, fiercely opposes its former allies.

CODECO is a loose association of militia groups mainly from the ethnic Lendu farming community. Attacks by CODECO killed nearly 1,800 people and wounded more than 500 in the four years through 2022, according to the African Center for the Study and Research on Terrorism.

The United Nations has said some of the attacks could constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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Violence against reporters covering environmental issues is trending upward, according to UNESCO and media advocates. For VOA News, Robin Guess reports.
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Addis Ababa — Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Thursday he was expecting about $10.5 billion in financial aid in the coming years once the country wraps up negotiations with international lending institutions.  

Africa’s second most populous nation, battered in recent years by several armed conflicts, the COVID pandemic, and climate shocks, has been engaged in drawn-out talks seeking to secure a support program from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).  

There has been speculation that Ethiopia may have to devalue its currency, the birr, as a condition of IMF aid.  

“We have been negotiating with the IMF and World Bank on a wide range of issues,” Abiy said in an address to parliament, adding that both Ethiopia and the IMF “are stubborn.”   

“Several of our proposals were finally accepted,” he said.   

“When this process comes to a successful conclusion, and the reform is approved, we will receive $10.5 billion in the coming years.”  

The IMF had no immediate response to AFP’s request for comment on Abiy’s remarks.  

According to a source close to the matter, the program currently being negotiated with the IMF concerns around $3.5 billion in financial assistance, and any agreement could result in the release of an equivalent amount from the World Bank.   

Ethiopia has about $28 billion of external debt and is also grappling with sky-high inflation and a shortage of foreign currency reserves.  

The landlocked country’s credit rating was downgraded to a partial default in December by international agency Fitch after it missed a $33 million coupon payment on a Eurobond.   

The two-year conflict in the northern Tigray region which ended in November 2022 led to the suspension of numerous development aid programs and budget assistance.  

When he took office in 2018, Abiy pledged to embark on reforms of Ethiopia’s closed and state-dominated economy, but little has changed since then.
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Port Sudan, Sudan — Pro-democracy activists in Sudan on Thursday said around 25 people drowned in the Nile River while trying to flee fighting between the Sudanese army and paramilitary forces in the southeast.

“Around 25 citizens, most of them women and children, have died in a boat sinking” while crossing the Blue Nile River in the southeastern state of Sennar, a local resistance committee said in a statement.

The committee is one of hundreds across Sudan that used to organize pro-democracy protests and have coordinated frontline aid since the war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, began last year.

“Entire families perished” in the accident, they said, while fleeing the RSF’s recent advance through Sennar.

On Saturday, the RSF announced they had captured a military base in Sinja, the capital of Sennar state, where over half a million people had sought shelter from the war.

Witnesses also reported the RSF sweeping through neighboring villages, pushing residents to flee in small wooden boats across the Nile.

At least 55,000 people fled Sinja within a three-day period, the United Nations said Monday.

Local authorities in neighboring Gedaref state estimated on Thursday that some 120,000 displaced people had arrived this week. The state’s health minister Ahmed al-Amin Adam said 90,000 had been officially registered.

Over 10 million people are currently displaced across Sudan, in what the U.N. calls the world’s worst displacement crisis.

Sudan has been gripped by war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF, led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The conflict in the country of 48 million has killed tens of thousands, with some estimates putting the death toll as high as 150,000, according to the United States envoy to Sudan, Tom Perriello.

It has also torn the country apart into competing zones of control. The RSF holds much of the capital and the agricultural heartland to its south, nearly all of Darfur and swathes of the southern Kordofan states.

In El-Fasher in North Darfur — the only state capital in the Darfur region that the RSF has not captured — a paramilitary attack on a market on Wednesday “killed 15 civilians and injured 29 others,” Health Ministry official Ibrahim Khater told AFP Thursday.

Since fighting in the city began in early May, at least 278 people have been killed, according to French charity Doctors without Borders, or MSF.

But the real toll is likely much higher, with most of those wounded unable to reach health facilities amid an ongoing siege and heavy street battles.

The hospitals in El-Fasher — nearly all of which have shut down — have themselves been attacked at least nine times since May, according to MSF.

Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including targeting civilian infrastructure and indiscriminately shelling homes, markets and hospitals.
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Bamako — An attack blamed on jihadists in central Mali killed more than 20 civilians on Monday, two officials from the provincial authority said, in the latest killings in the troubled Sahel region.

“At least 21 civilians have been killed” in the village of Djiguibombo, several dozen kilometers [miles] from the town of Bandiagara, one of the officials said on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another official, who spoke overnight, said about 20 people had been killed and the security situation prevented authorities from going to the site.

Both sources asked not to be identified given their positions. Since the junta came to power in the West African nation in 2020, information about such events is not generally made public.

The attack began before nightfall and “lasted around three hours”, a youth representative, also speaking anonymously for security reasons, said.

“Twenty people have been killed. More than half are young people. Some victims had their throats cut,” the source said.

Mali has since 2012 been ravaged by different factions affiliated to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group, as well as by self-declared, self-defense forces and bandits.

The violence spilled over into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger, with all three countries seeing military regimes seize power.
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Geneva — The U.N. refugee agency is expanding a humanitarian appeal for Sudan, as increasing numbers of people flee the country’s war and widespread hunger in search of safety in neighboring countries.

The UNHCR reports more money is needed to aid and protect the swelling population of Sudanese refugees, and it is revising its appeal to $1.5 billion, up from $1.4 billion it requested in January. The appeal will help 3.3 million refugees and the local communities hosting them in neighboring countries through the end of the year.

Ewan Watson, UNHCR head of global communications, has just returned from visits to Sudan’s White Nile State and a to the Renk and JamJin refugee camp in South Sudan’s Unity State.

He described the situation there as “incredibly difficult, confusing, dangerous, and an appalling tragedy for civilians both still in Sudan and those who have had to leave the country due to the violence.”

Briefing journalists Tuesday in Geneva, Watson said “It is one of the most neglected crises globally and for us, it is the most pressing displacement crisis in the world right now.”

Since the conflict began in mid-April 2023, he noted that 10 million people have fled their homes in Sudan, “with many displaced multiple times.”

Of these, the UNHCR reports nearly 8 million are displaced inside Sudan, while nearly 2 million people have gone to neighboring countries.

Money from the January appeal has been used to assist Sudanese refugees who fled to the Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan.

The UNHCR’s revised appeal has been expanded to include two new countries, Libya and Uganda. Since last year’s power struggle between rival generals from the Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Response Forces triggered this catastrophic conflict, the UNHCR has registered 20,000 new arrivals in Libya from Sudan, mainly fleeing Darfur.

“We understand that thousands more have arrived in Libya that are not registered and are in the East of the country. With more refugees continuing to arrive since the escalation of fighting in the Darfur region, local services available across the country are really overstretched,” Watson said.

“Refugee families are being forced to sleep in the open as there is a lack of shelter,” he said. “Medical facilities also cannot keep up with growing needs and this is putting children, in particular, at risk of malnutrition.”

He observed that Uganda, which already was the largest refugee hosting country in Africa, is fast becoming home to a burgeoning Sudanese refugee population.

Since the outbreak of the war, he said more than 39,000 Sudanese refugees have fled to Sudan, “with 70 percent fleeing just this year. This is three times more than was initially expected or predicted.”

“Most of them are arriving from Khartoum and have university level education and are looking to rebuild their lives,” he said, noting that most are being hosted and receiving humanitarian aid, including food, shelter, and health care in the Kiryandongo refugee settlement in the west of the country.

“As more people arrive, these services continue to be stretched, while resources to expand assistance are lacking,” he said, adding that only 19 percent of the money required to run its humanitarian operations has been received. “This is abysmally insufficient to cover the most basic needs for people forced to flee. The cost of inaction is having grave consequences for refugees.”

The UNHCR official said heavy rains expected in some of the hosting countries risk complicating the delivery of humanitarian aid, particularly in border areas. He appealed to international donors to provide the funds needed to help strengthen government-led efforts to deliver critical assistance to millions of vulnerable people.

Otherwise, he warned more and more refugees will be forced to seek help “further afield in countries such as Libya, which are extremely difficult for refugees.”

Last week, the United Nations published alarming new data showing that the rapid deterioration in food security in Sudan has left 755,000 people “in catastrophic conditions with a risk of famine in 14 areas.”

Reacting to this latest food assessment by the Integrated Phase Classification, IPC, heads of three leading U.N. agencies warned that “Sudan is facing a devastating hunger catastrophe on a scale not seen since the Darfur crisis in the early 2000s.”

In its latest update of fighting between the SAF and RSF in the southern town of Sinja the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, reports that more than 60,000 people have fled Sinja for safety, most moving east toward the state of Gedaref.

“The fighting continues, and people are on the move as we speak so the situation is very volatile and these numbers could increase in the coming days,” Vanessa Huguenin, OCHA spokesperson told journalists in Geneva on Tuesday.

“We and our humanitarian partners are present in Gedaref and are preparing for the arrival of people that have been displaced by the clashes, with food and nutrition supplies … We have a window of opportunity to act but time is running out and we need more funding and access,” she said.
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YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — The Multinational Joint Task Force in the Lake Chad basin says several hundred fighters from jihadist groups Boko Karam and Islamic State West Africa Province have fled to Chad and Cameroon after the task force attacked camps and killed more than 70 terrorists Sunday.

The ongoing operation, dubbed Lake Sanity 2, aims to obliterate all terrorist camps around Lake Chad, the task force said.

In a video circulated on social media and broadcast on Chadian state TV, scores of villagers shouted that at least two dozen relatives died in attacks in villages along Cameroon’s border with Nigeria, and that 12 more people were injured.

The four-nation task force, created to fight terrorism in Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger, said the deceased seen in the video are some of the more than 70 Boko Haram and Islamic State terrorists “neutralized” in Sunday’s attacks.

The joint task force also said many jihadists surrendered in the air and ground operations but did not give a precise number. The troops said they captured many fighters and recovered large consignments of weapons.

None of its ground troops suffered injuries, the task force said.

The task force’s operations are targeting terrorist hideouts in border villages, including Mokolo and Waza in Cameroon. Moubi, Menchika and Madagali in Nigeria are also part of the operation.

A release from task force spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Abubakar Abdullahi said the goal is to wipe out terrorist camps in villages on the borders of Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria, as well as the portion of the Lake Chad basin shared by the three neighbors.

Midjiyawa Bakari, the governor of Cameroon’s Far North region, asked civilians to watch for fleeing terrorists because, he said, they are infiltrating neighboring towns and villages. He asked local militias to help in the effort and for people in border towns and villages to report to government troops any strangers or groups of people entering the country.

Bakari, who spoke on Cameroonian state TV on Tuesday, said the porous nature of Cameroon’s border with Chad and Nigeria makes it difficult for troops to single handedly stop jihadists without the assistance of civilians.

Chad’s government said it also has deployed what it says are enough troops to stop terrorists from hiding in its territory. Chad said that within the past two days, its troops had killed or arrested many militants but provided no details.

Boko Haram began launching attacks in Nigeria in 2009. In 2013, Cameroon, Niger and Chad reported that the terror group had launched attacks in their territories. The task force, which was created in 2014 to fight the militants, says it has about 11,000 troops and rescue workers.

The United Nations says the conflict has killed more than 40,000 people, mainly in Nigeria, and forced 3 million to flee their homes.
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Nairobi, Kenya — As protests resumed in Kenya, some families were visiting morgues Monday to collect the bodies of relatives who died during last week’s demonstrations against proposed tax increases.

Hussein Khaled, CEO of Vocal Africa, an organization of community activists, was at Nairobi’s City Mortuary assisting mourners and trying to ensure that autopsies were performed and causes of death recorded.

“We are here to support the families, particularly those who were shot and killed by police officers. We make sure we have the necessary documentation that will help us in seeking justice,” Khaled said.

Reports of the death toll vary. While President William Ruto said on Sunday that 19 people have been killed, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights reported that 24 people have died since the protests began two weeks ago.

Kennedy Mwangi Njeru, 20, was among the fatalities. His parents, Joseph Mwangi Njeru and Mary Muthoni, came to the morgue to collect their son’s body. His father said Kennedy, who he described as his firstborn and best friend, was shot in the head and the back.

“I feel very bad,” his mother said. “My son is gone, and I will never see him again.”

Kennedy Mwangi Njeru’s aunt, who gave her name only as Esther, accompanied her relatives. She said, “We have a lot of stress in our minds. … We were ready to bury [him] on Thursday this week, but we don’t have money even to pay the mortuary to travel from here to Kirinyaga.”

Phoebe Akumu Maina, a widow who lost her 17-year-old son, Kevin Odhiambo Maina, also faced a financial burden.

“I don’t have money, I have nothing. I am only just a mother. … I don’t have anything … to carry the body up to the cemetery,” she said.

Activist Hanifa Adan and others have set up an account through M-Changa, a mobile contribution platform, to help offset some of the protesters’ medical and funeral expenses.

“We had a target of 10 million [Kenyan shillings], but it actually surpassed. We collected 24 million in a day, in just like 10 hours,” Adan said.

She explained that the money, equivalent to about $193,000, will help pay hospital bills and for burial costs.

As some protesters demanded his resignation, Ruto promised a thorough investigation into the deaths. He has withdrawn the controversial tax bill and proposed a multi-sectoral forum to engage youth and discuss issues related to debt, taxation, unemployment and corruption.
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The U.S. government’s representative to the Minerals Security Partnership, an alliance of mostly Western countries that aims to speed the development of energy mineral supply chains, said last month that a Chinese company was using “predatory” tactics to hold down the price of cobalt mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Henry Wilkins looks at what this means for Africa.
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Former army chief earns nearly 56% of vote to earn second 5-year term
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Johannesburg — After weeks of political deal-making, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced the Cabinet of his new government of national unity. Ministers from different parties will now have to put political differences aside to run the country successfully.

South Africa’s new ministers are a diverse group — from a former armed robber to a white Afrikaner nationalist.

After the long-governing African National Congress, or ANC, lost its majority in May elections, Ramaphosa opted to form an inclusive government with 10 opposition parties that don’t necessarily see eye to eye.

Ramaphosa had to divvy up Cabinet positions to keep everyone happy, with the result a somewhat bloated government of 32 ministers and 43 deputy ministers.

“The establishment of the government of national unity in its current form is unprecedented in the history of our democracy. We have had to consider how to form the new government in a manner that advances the national interest, that gives due consideration to the outcome of the election and that makes use of the respective capabilities within each of the parties,” he said.

The ANC took 20 of the 32 Cabinet posts, while the Democratic Alliance, or DA, which came second in the elections, won six. Smaller parties took the remainder.

The DA has long been a thorn in the ANC’s side, and its leader, John Steenhuisen, who was made agriculture minister, noted that the road ahead would be “difficult.”

Steenhuisen, however, pledged to try and make the new government work.

“It is now up to all of us — including the voters who created this multi-party government — to ensure that it delivers on its promise,” he said.

Experts say the ANC — which liberated South Africa from apartheid 30 years ago — only won 40% of the vote in polls in May due to a flailing economy, high unemployment, electricity and water shortages and corruption scandals.

The business-friendly DA, which captured 22% of the vote, will now head some key economic portfolios including agriculture and public works and infrastructure as well as getting deputy minister positions in the finance and trade ministries.

David Everatt, a politics professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, said the government of national unity was expected to try to give roles to all members.

“However, the Cabinet has ballooned to a remarkable 75 people, ministers and deputy ministers… the most ironic part of that is that the Democratic Alliance, which is a fairly conservative liberal party, has for many years lambasted the ruling African National Congress for having these very large Cabinets, giving jobs to pals, et cetera. They’re now sitting in exactly those seats,” he said.

The uMkhonto weSizwe party, led by corruption-accused former President Jacob Zuma, finished third in the voting, and the radical Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters came in fourth.

Both parties have refused to join the government of national unity, and object to the white-led DA’s participation. They will now be on the opposition benches.

Other smaller parties that did join and were given portfolios include the anti-immigrant, populist Patriotic Alliance and the right-wing white nationalist Freedom Front Plus.

The Patriotic Alliance’s leader, Gayton McKenzie, an ex-gangster who was sentenced to 17 years in prison for robbery, is now minister for sports, arts and culture. Pieter Groenewald of the FF Plus has been made minister of correctional services.
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After fleeing conflict in Somalia, Mohamed Mataan overcame many challenges growing up in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp. Today, he is helping young refugees learn digital skills that could lead to a brighter future. VOA reporter Ahmed Hussein met Mataan in the Dagahaley section of Dadaab and has this story.
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NOUAKCHOTT — Mauritania’s President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani is on track to secure a second mandate after positioning the country as a strategic ally of the West in a region swept by coups and violence, provisional results showed on Sunday.   

Ghazouani, who is seeking reelection on a pledge of providing security and economic growth, obtained 55% of votes, according to provisional results from over 80% polling stations, the country’s independent electoral commission said on Sunday afternoon. His main rival, anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid, received 22.4% of votes, the commission said, with a turnout of almost 55%.   

The full results are expected on Sunday evening but Ghazouani, a former army chief and the current president of the African Union, has a comfortable lead.   

Although his opponents accused him of corruption and mismanagement, he remains popular among Mauritanians who see him as a beacon of stability. The vote is taking place in a particularly tense regional climate, with Mauritania’s neighbors shaken by military coups and jihadi violence.   

Mauritania is rich in natural resources including iron ore, copper, zinc, phosphate, gold, oil and natural gas. It is poised to become a gas producer by the end of the year, with the planned launch of the BP-operated Greater Tortue Ahmeyin offshore gas project at the border with Senegal.   

Yet almost 60% of the population lives in poverty, according to the United Nations, working as farmers or employed in the informal sector. With few economic opportunities for young people at home, many are attempting to reach Europe, and some are even trying to get to the United States through Mexico.   

“The last word belongs to the Mauritanian voters,” Ghazouni said after voting in Ksar, a suburb of the capital. “I commit myself to respecting their choice.”   

Saturday’s vote unfolded peacefully, according to observers.   

“Nothing has been detected so far and the CENI has not received any complaints,” said Taghioullah Ledhem, the spokesman for CENI, the country’s independent electoral commission. But some opposition candidates held a different view.   

Biram Dah, who came second in the vote according to the provisional results, warned on Sunday against “an electoral coup d’état for the benefit of Ghazouani, who was defeated by voters.”   

During a press conference on Sunday morning, Biram accused the electoral commission of fraud by giving Ghazouni thousands of votes “added out of nowhere.”   

“We are going to oppose this electoral hold-up,” he said. “I ask Ghazouani to respect his solemn commitment to comply with the will of the people.” 

  
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Kanyabayonga, DR Congo — The M23 militia group continued to gain ground in the war-torn east of DR Congo, with more towns falling into the hands of the rebels, sources told AFP Sunday.   

Kinshasa accuses Rwanda of backing the Tutsi-led M23 rebel group which has seized swathes of eastern DR Congo in an ongoing offensive launched in 2021 — something Kigali denies.   

On Sunday the M23 (March 23 Movement) moved into the town of Kirumba, in North Kivu province, which has been rocked by violence since 2021 when the group resumed its armed campaign in the region.    

Kirumba is the biggest town in the south of the Lubero territory, where the group has been advancing, and a big commercial center with more than 120,000 residents.    

“We regret that the large entity [the town] has since yesterday evening been in the hands of the M23,” a local official, who did not wish to be named, told AFP on Sunday.   

He said the group is now heading north from the town.   

‘They are numerous’ 

“They are numerous, some arrived on foot and others in vehicles,” a civil society leader who asked to remain unnamed told AFP.   

Another local official, who also said the rebels had arrived in the town, said they are “waiting for the government’s reaction.”  

President Felix Tshisekedi held a meeting of DR Congo’s defense council on Saturday.   

During a speech to mark the country’s independence day, Tshisekedi said “clear and firm instructions have been given for the safeguarding of the territorial integrity of our country”, without giving more details.   

On Saturday M23 seized the strategic town of Kanyabayonga, as other surrounding areas also fell into the hands of the rebels.   

Kanyabayonga is home to more than 60,000 people and tens of thousands of people have fled there in recent months, driven from their homes by the advance of the rebels.    

The town is considered a pathway to Butembo and Beni in the north, strongholds of the Nande tribe and major commercial centers.    

It is in the Lubero territory, the fourth territory in the North Kivu province that the group has entered after Rutshuru, Nyiragongo and Masisi.   

Other towns near Kanyabayonga have also been seized by M23, according to officials and security sources.   

Five people including three civilians and two soldiers have been killed in the town of Kayna where the rebels took control on Saturday, Console Sindani vice president of Kayna civil society, told AFP on Sunday.   

The mayor of the commune of Kayna, Clovis Kanyauru told AFP on Sunday there had been three deaths.   

DR Congo’s mineral-rich east has been the scene of violence for 30 years by armed groups, both local and foreign-based, going back to regional wars of the 1990s. 

 
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NAIROBI, Kenya — In the heart of the crowded Kibera neighborhood in Kenya’s capital, Jacinter Awino shares a small tin house with her husband and four children. She envies those who have escaped such makeshift homes to more permanent dwellings under the government’s affordable housing plan.

The 33-year-old housewife and her mason husband are unable to raise the $3,800 purchase price for a one-room government house. Their tin one was constructed for $380 and lacks a toilet and running water.

“Those government houses are like a dream for us, but our incomes simply don’t allow it,” Awino said.

The government plans to build 250,000 houses each year, aimed at eventually closing a housing deficit that World Bank data puts at 2 million units. The plan was launched in 2022, but no data is available on the number of houses already completed.

Kenya’s urban areas are home to a third of the country’s total population of more than 50 million. Of those in urban areas, 70% live in informal settlements marked by a lack of basic infrastructure, according to UN-Habitat.

Some urban Kenyans have moved into a government housing project on the outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, where one-bedroom units sold for $7,600 last year.

Felister Muema, a 55-year-old former caterer, paid a deposit of about 10% through a savings plan and is expected to pay off the balance in 25 years.

“This is where I have started living my life,” she said. “If I do something here, it is permanent. If I plant a flower, no one is going to tell me: ‘Uproot it, I don’t want it there.’ This gives me life.”

But experts say construction and financing need to change and speed up for Kenya’s housing deficit to be met.

“We cannot rely on the traditional mortgage route,” said UN-Habitat’s head of East Africa, Ishaku Maitumbi, who recommended a cooperative savings system that is popular with Kenyan businesses.

For home construction, some are exploring the emerging technology of 3-D printing. A machine layers special mortar to form concrete walls and cuts the building time by several days compared to traditional brick and mortar work.

A company, 14Trees, has used the technology to build a showcase house in Nairobi and 10 houses in coastal Kilifi County.

Company CEO Francois Perrot said the technology can help address the huge housing need on the African continent, but it will take time.

“If we want to clear that backlog, we need to build differently, we need to build at scale, with speed, and with low-carbon materials, and this is what construction 3-D printing makes possible,” Perrot said.

The company’s homes, like many traditionally built ones, remain beyond the reach of most Kenyans. A two-bedroom house costs $22,000 and a three-bedroom one costs $29,000. But Perrot asserted that acquiring a printer locally and making mortar locally would help bring down costs.

“People don’t really worry or care about technology. What they care about is the design, the price, the way it is set up, the layout of the building,” he said.

Nickson Otieno, an architect and founder of Niko Green, a sustainability consulting firm, said such new technology has great potential but remains limited.

“It will still take a long time for it to compete with brick and mortar,” he said. “Brick and mortar, everybody can build their house anywhere they are. They are able to access the materials, they are able to access the tradesmen who build the house and they can plan the cost.”

Financing remains a challenge. In June 2023, Kenya’s parliament passed a finance law with a new housing tax of 1.5% on gross income, to be used to build affordable housing. The law is being challenged in court. Critics argue the tax is discriminatory as it applies only to those with formal employment.

If the tax is rejected, Kenya’s government would need to look elsewhere for funding to build affordable housing.

The housing tax is one of the issues causing discontent among young people who have organized a series of protests that included the extraordinary storming of parliament Tuesday. More than 20 people were killed as police opened fire.

President William Ruto has defended the need for the tax.

“We have said that affordable housing, social housing is a right,” he said earlier this year in response to the legal challenge.
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NEW YORK — U.S. prosecutors are meeting with Boeing and the families of crash victims as a July 7 deadline looms for the Justice Department to decide whether to criminally charge the plane maker, according to two people familiar with the matter and correspondence reviewed by Reuters.  

Justice Department officials met with Boeing lawyers on Thursday to discuss the government’s finding that the company violated a 2021 agreement with the department, one of the sources said. That deal, known as a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA), had shielded it from criminal prosecution over two 737 MAX crashes in 2018 in Indonesia and a crash in 2019 in Ethiopia that together killed 346 people.  

Separately, federal prosecutors are slated to meet with victims’ family members on Sunday to update them on the progress of their investigation, according to the second person. U.S. officials are working on a “tight timeline,” according to an email sent by the DOJ and reviewed by Reuters.  

Boeing lawyers present case

Boeing’s lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis on Thursday presented their case to officials from the Deputy Attorney General’s office that a prosecution would be unwarranted and that there is no need to tear up the 2021 deal, one of the people said. 

Such appeals from companies in the DOJ’s crosshairs are typical when negotiating to resolve a government investigation.  

Officials want input from family members as they consider how to proceed, the email said. Prosecutors from the Justice Department’s criminal fraud division and the U.S. attorney’s office in Dallas will attend the Sunday meeting, it said. 

Spokespeople for the DOJ and Boeing declined to comment. 

Boeing has previously said it has “honored the terms” of the settlement and formally told prosecutors it disagrees with the finding that it violated the agreement.  

Prosecutors recommend criminal charges

U.S. prosecutors have recommended to senior Justice Department officials that criminal charges be brought against Boeing after finding the plane maker violated the 2021 settlement, two people familiar with the matter previously told Reuters. 

The two sides are in discussions over a potential resolution to the Justice Department’s investigation, and there is no guarantee officials will move forward with charges, they said last week.  

The deliberations follow a January 5 flight during which a panel blew out on a Boeing plane just two days before the company’s DPA expired. The incident exposed ongoing safety and quality issues at Boeing. 

Boeing had been poised to escape prosecution over a criminal charge of conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration arising from the 2018-2019 fatal crashes.  

Prosecutors had agreed to drop a criminal charge so long as Boeing overhauled its compliance practices and submitted regular reports over a three-year period. Boeing also agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle the investigation. 

In May, officials determined the company breached the agreement, exposing Boeing to prosecution. The DOJ said in a court filing in Texas that the plane maker had failed to “design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations.” 
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Port Sudan, Sudan — Paramilitary forces battling Sudan’s regular army for more than a year said Saturday they had taken a key state capital in the southeast, prompting thousands to flee, witnesses said.

“We have liberated the 17th Infantry Division from Singa,” the capital of Sennar state, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) announced on the social media platform X.

Residents confirmed to AFP: “The RSF have deployed in the streets of Singa,” and witnesses reported aircraft from the regular army flying overhead and anti-aircraft fire.

Earlier Saturday, other witnesses said there was fighting in the streets and “rising panic among residents seeking to flee.”

Sudan has been gripped by war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.

The conflict in the country of 48 million has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

The latest RSF breakthrough means the paramilitaries are tightening the noose around Port Sudan on the Red Sea, where the army, government and U.N. agencies are now based.

The RSF controls most of the capital Khartoum, Al-Jazira state in the center of the country, the vast western region of Darfur and much of Kordofan to the south.

Sennar state is already home to more than 1 million displaced Sudanese. It connects central Sudan to the army-controlled southeast.

Posts on social media showed thousands of people fleeing in vehicles and on foot, and witnesses told AFP, “Thousands of people have taken refuge on the east bank of the Blue Nile” river east of Singa.

RSF forces are also besieging the town of El-Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.

On Thursday, a report cited by the United Nations said nearly 26 million people in war-torn Sudan are facing high levels of “acute food insecurity.”  
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BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — India’s national cricket team secured their second Twenty20 World Cup title with a dramatic seven-run win over South Africa on Saturday, the result still in doubt at the start of the final over of an electrifying match. 

South Africa required 16 runs to win after Heinrich Klaasen had put them firmly on course in reply to India’s 176 for seven by smashing 52 from 27 balls including five sixes. 

David Miller hit the first ball, a full toss from Hardik Pandya, high down the ground but Suryakumar Yadav raced around the long-off boundary, knocked the ball into the air, toppled over the ropes and stepped back to complete a stunning catch. 

Two boundaries from the final two balls would still have led to a Super Over with the scores tied but Kagiso Rabada was caught off the fifth and the match was over as jubilant Indian supporters swarmed on to the ground. 

After Rohit Sharma had won the toss and opted to bat, Virat Kohli finally recaptured his best form with 76 from 59 balls. 

After scoring only 75 runs in seven knocks at the tournament, Kohli first anchored the innings after India had lost their top three wickets cheaply before accelerating. 

Kohli signaled his intent by striking three boundaries in the opening over from paceman Marco Jansen, but South Africa struck back immediately through left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj.  

Maharaj dismissed Rohit for nine and had Rishabh Pant caught by Quinton de Kock for a duck off another mistimed sweep. 

Suryakumar (three) lofted paceman Rabada to the square leg boundary where Klaasen took a comfortable catch and after the powerplay India were reeling on 45 for three.  

Left-hander Axar Patel lofted the first six of the match over mid-wicket in the eighth over as India sought to accelerate, reaching 75 for three at the halfway stage. 

Axar was run out for 47 when De Kock threw down the stumps at the bowler’s end with the batter centimeters short of his ground. 

Shivam Dube slapped a six and a four and Kohli brought up his half century from 44 deliveries. 

Kohli was now in full flow, smashing Jansen for six before being caught by Rabada trying another hit over the boundary. 

Bumrah strikes 

Jasprit Bumrah, India’s strike bowler, almost inevitably struck in his opening over when he clean bowled Reeza Hendricks. 

De Kock, however, went on to the attack, taking a four and a six off Kuldeep Yadav and he kept South Africa up with the required run rate to reach 39 from 31 balls when he swung left-arm paceman Arshdeep Singh straight to Kuldeep at fine leg. 

Klaasen’s pugnacious innings put his team within sight of victory with 22 runs required off 18 balls when Rohit turned to Bumrah to bowl his final overs.  

Bumrah responded by bowling Jansen for two while conceding just two runs to finish with two for 18 in another magnificent spell of bowling. 

“I tried to keep calm,” said Bumrah, who was named player of the tournament.  

“We play sport for the big stages. On the big day you have to give more, throughout the tournament I felt very clear and calm.” 

Man-of-the-match Kohli retired from T20 Internationals soon after the victory as India became the first side to win the trophy after going unbeaten through the tournament. 

If India players were in tears after winning their first global title since the 2013 Champions Trophy, their South African counterparts looked desolate after another heartbreak. 

“Gutted. It will take some time for us to reflect on this,” South Africa skipper Aiden Markram said. 

“We’ve had a great campaign but for the time being, this hurts… I am so proud of all my players, and everyone involved in this team.” 
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NOUAKCHOTT, Mauritania — Mauritanians went to the polls Saturday to elect their next president, with the incumbent Mohamed Ould Ghazouani widely expected to win after positioning Mauritania as a strategic ally of the West in a region swept by coups and violence. 

Ghazouani, who is seeking reelection on the pledge of providing security and economic growth, is a former army chief and the current president of the African Union. He came to power in 2019 following the first democratic transition in the country’s history, and Saturday promised to respect the results of the vote. 

“The last word belongs to the Mauritanian voters,” Ghazouani said after voting in Ksar, the suburb of the capital. “I commit myself to respecting their choice.” 

Although his opponents accused him of corruption and mismanagement, he remains popular among Mauritanians who see him as a beacon of stability. The vote is taking place in a particularly tense regional climate, with Mauritania’s neighboring countries shaken by military coups and jihadi violence. 

“We must not let ourselves be fooled by the slogans of the candidates who are not reassuring,” said Marieme Brahim, a 38-year-old company executive, who voted for Ghazouani. “Mauritania must vote for continuity and stability and its security in a troubled environment, and it is not these candidates without experience in governance who will give us confidence.” 

Some 2 million people are eligible to vote in a nation of 5 million. Ghazouani is facing six opponents, including an anti-slavery activist, leaders of several opposition parties, and a neurosurgeon who accused the government of corruption and clientelism. 

Mauritania is rich in natural resources such as iron ore, copper, zinc, phosphate, gold, oil and natural gas. It is poised to become a gas producer by the end of the year, with the planned launch of the BP-operated Greater Tortue Ahmeyin offshore gas project at the border with Senegal. 

Yet almost 60% of the population live in poverty, according to the United Nations, working as farmers or employed in the informal sector. With few economic opportunities for young people at home, many are attempting to cross the Atlantic to reach Europe, and some are even trying to get to the United States through Mexico. 

Mohamed Lemine Ould Moktar, 45, who voted for an opposition candidate, has two young sons who remain unemployed despite having university diplomas. 

“I just voted for change, we have had enough of identical regimes which squander the people’s assets and maintain corruption,” said Ould Moktar. “Just look at more than 40,000 young Mauritanians take the path of immigration to the United States by jumping the border wall between Mexico and the United States. This is why I am voting for change.” 

Saturday’s vote was unfolding peacefully, according to observers, with the polls due to close at 7 p.m. Partial results were expected Sunday. 

“We have not noticed any anomalies or problems,” declared Taghiyouallah Ould Ledhem, spokesperson for CENI, the independent electoral commission. “People are voting smoothly and easily, we have not received any complaints so far.” 
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BADINGILO and BOMA NATIONAL PARKS, South Sudan — Seen from the air, they ripple across the landscape — a river of antelope racing across the vast grasslands of South Sudan in what conservationists say is the world’s largest land mammal migration.

The country’s first comprehensive aerial wildlife survey, released Tuesday, found about 6 million antelope. The survey over a two-week period last year in two national parks and nearby areas relied on spotters in airplanes, nearly 60,000 photos and tracking more than a hundred collared animals over about 120,000 square kilometers.

The estimate from the nonprofit African Parks, which conducted the work along with the government, far surpasses other large migratory herds such as the estimated 1.36 million wildebeests surveyed last year in the Serengeti straddling Tanzania and Kenya. But they warned that the animals face a rising threat from commercial poaching in a nation rife with weapons and without strong law enforcement.

“Saving the last great migration of wildlife on the planet is an incredibly important thing,” said Mike Fay, a conservation scientist who led the survey. “There’s so much evidence that the world’s ecosystems are collapsing, the world resources are being severely degraded and it’s causing gigantic disruption on the planet.”

The east African nation is still emerging from five years of fighting that erupted in 2013 and killed nearly 400,000 people. Elections scheduled for last year were postponed to this December, but few preparations are in place for those. Violence continues in some areas, with some 2 million people displaced and 9 million — 75% of the population — reliant on humanitarian aid, according to the United Nations.

The migration is already being touted as a point of national pride by a country trying to move beyond its conflict-riddled past. Billboards of the migration recently went up in the capital of Juba, and the government has aspirations that the animals may someday be a magnet for tourists.

South Sudan has six national parks and a dozen game reserves covering more than 13% of the terrain. The migration stretches from east of the Nile in Badingilo and Boma parks into neighboring Ethiopia — an area roughly the size of the U.S. state of Georgia. It includes four main antelope, the white-eared kob — of which there are some 5 million — the tiang, the Mongalla gazelle and bohor reedbuck.

The survey said some animals have increased since a more limited one in 2010. But it described a “catastrophic” decline of most non-migratory species in the last 40 years, such as the hippo, elephant and warthog. Associated Press journalists flying over the stunning migration of thousands of antelope last week saw few giraffes and no elephants, lions or cheetahs.

Trying to protect the animals over such a vast terrain is challenging.

In recent years, new roads have increased people’s access to markets, contributing to poaching. Years of flooding have meant crop failures that have left some people with little choice but to hunt for food. Some 30,000 animals were being killed each month between March and May this year, African Parks estimated.

The government hasn’t made a priority of protecting wildlife. Less than 1% of its budget is allocated to the wildlife ministry, which said it has few cars to move rangers around to protect animals. Those rangers say they haven’t been paid a salary since October and are outgunned by poachers.

South Sudan President H.E. Salva Kiir Mayardit said the country is committed to turning its wealth of wildlife into sustainable tourism. He called on the Ministry of Wildlife to prioritize training and equipping rangers to fight poaching.

Matthew Kauffman, a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Geological Survey and a professor of zoology at the University of Wyoming, said the work fits a growing global effort “to map these migrations.” One benefit is to be smarter when landscapes are developed to make way for these seasonal movements, he said.

Villagers near the parks told AP they mostly hunted to feed their families or to barter for goods.

A newly paved road between Juba and Bor — the epicenter of the illegal commercial bushmeat trade — has made it easier for trucks to carry large quantities of animals. Bor sits along the Nile, about 45 kilometers from Badingilo Park. In the dry season, animals coming closer to the town to drink are vulnerable to killing.

Officials at the wildlife ministry in Bor told AP the killing of animals had doubled in the last two years.

Even when those involved in the industry are caught, the consequences can be minor. A few years ago, when wildlife rangers came to arrest Lina Garang for selling animals, she said they let her go, instead telling her to conduct business more discreetly. Garang, 38, said her competition has only grown, with 15 new shops opening along her strip to buy and sell animals.

Part of the challenge is that there is no national land management plan, so roads and infrastructure are built without initial discussions about where best placed. The government’s also allocated an oil concession to a South African company in the middle of Badingilo that spans nearly 90% of the park.

African Parks is trying to square modernizing the country with preserving the wildlife. The organization has been criticized in the past for not engaging enough with communities and taking an overly militarized approach in some of the nearly two dozen areas it manages in Africa.

The group says its strategy in South Sudan is focused on community relations and aligning the benefits of wildlife and economic development. One plan is to create land conservancies that local communities would manage, with input from national authorities.

African Parks has set up small hubs in several remote villages and is spreading messages of sustainable practices, such as not killing female or baby animals.

Peter Alberto, undersecretary for the ministry of wildlife, conservation and tourism, said the government hopes the migration can become a point of pride, and reshape how the world thinks of South Sudan.

As for tourism, that may take a while. There aren’t hotels or roads to host people near the parks, and the only option is high-end trips for what one tour company official called a “high-risk” audience. There’s fighting between tribes and attacks by gunmen in the area, and pilots told AP they’ve been shot at while flying.

Will Jones, chief exploration officer for Journeys by Design, a U.K.-based tour company, charges roughly $150,000 per person for a weeklong tour in South Sudan. He said there isn’t strong demand.

Locals trying to protect the wildlife say it’s hard to shift people’s mentality.

In the remote village of Otallo on the border with Ethiopia, young men have started buying motorbikes. What had been an all-day trip on foot to cross the border to sell animals now takes just five hours, allowing them to double the number of animals they take and make multiple trips.

One of them, Charo Ochogi, said he’d rather be doing something else but there are few options, and he’s not worried about the animals disappearing.

“The kob isn’t going to finish. They’ll reproduce,” he said.
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