Day: June 5, 2021

ABUJA, NIGERIA – Millions of Nigerians struggled Saturday to access Twitter, a day after authorities suspended the service in response to the company’s deletion of a tweet by President Muhammadu Buhari for violating its terms of service.

The Twitter ban took effect Saturday morning. Millions of users in Lagos and Abuja said they were unable to access their accounts.

Authorities said Friday that they had banned Twitter because it was persistently being used “for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”

Twitter responded to the ban, saying it was “deeply concerning.”

‘Reverse the unlawful suspension’

Many citizens and rights groups objected to the ban. Amnesty International said it was a threat to free speech and must be reversed without delay.

“Amnesty International condemns the Nigerian government’s suspension of Twitter in Nigeria,” said Seun Bakare, a spokesperson for the organization. Bakare said Amnesty had called on Nigerian authorities “to immediately reverse the unlawful suspension and other plans to gag the media, to repress the civic space and to undermine human rights of the people. The Nigerian government has an obligation to protect and promote International human rights laws and standards.”

The ban mostly affected the country’s largest network providers, MTN and Airtel.

Some users Saturday were able to access Twitter using Wi-Fi connections. Others were avoiding the shutdown by using virtual private networks that make them appear to be using Twitter from another country.

VPN providers have since Friday seen a surge in usage. Abuja resident Basil Akpakavir was among Twitter users getting around the government ban.

“They are relentless in their intolerant attitude toward people that have contrary opinion to theirs,” Akpakavir said. “But the truth is that we’re equal to the task, as well. Whichever way they want it, we’re going to give it to them. We want a Nigeria that is prosperous, that is built on the tenets of true democracy.”

Separatist group singled out

Buhari had threatened earlier in the week to crack down on separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), in a manner similar to the civil war waged in 1967 when 3 million Biafrans were estimated to have died in battle against the Nigerian government.

The president’s tweet was criticized as a war threat to separatist groups, and Twitter deleted it.

Amnesty’s Bakare said the government must be held accountable for comments capable of instigating division and violence.

“It is important that government platforms, and in this particular instance the president, do not invite violence or division,” Bakare said. “The government must be alive to the increased tensions in the country, given the spate of insecurity.”

The Nigerian government has often attempted to regulate the use of social media to reduce criticism.

Late last year, the government proposed a social media regulation bill after the End SARS protests against police brutality, when social media were used by young Nigerians to mobilize and challenge what they said was bad governance.

Source: Voice of America

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON – Female Cameroonian activists and opposition members have appealed to the United Nations Security Council, meeting Monday, to discuss possible solutions to escalating Boko Haram terrorism and the separatist crisis in the central African state. They are also asking the U.N. to force Cameroon to respect human rights, release political prisoners and negotiate a cease-fire with armed groups. The government has refused to respond to their appeal.

Twenty female leaders say in a letter to the U.N. Security Council that Cameroon, once the bastion of stability in Central Africa, is today conflict-ridden and on the brink of catastrophe.

They say that more than 10,000 Cameroonians have died in the Boko Haram conflict on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria and the separatist crisis in the central African state’s English-speaking western regions. They accuse Cameroon’s government and rebels of gross human rights violations.

Edith Kah Walla is the president of the Cameroon People’s Party and founding member of Stand Up for Cameroon, which advocates for a peaceful transition to rebuild Cameroon.

She says the women want the Security Council to include Cameroon on their agenda.

“We want the U.N. to give us help now,” said Walla. “We do not want them to wait till the situation is so bad, and then to start telling us that they are bringing U.N. soldiers [peace keeping troops] here. We want them to act now. Our population is dying. Over a million children are out of schools. We cannot sit by as our country falls apart. There is no peace without respect for human rights, without justice.”

Walla said the women want the U.N. to require Cameroon to respect human rights and release all nonviolent political prisoners linked to Boko Haram, separatists and the political crisis in the central African state.

The women say that for the sake of peace, U.N. member states should ask Cameroon to allow free public discussions on political transition. Cameroon’s 88-year-old President, Paul Biya, has been in power for close to 40 years and is accused of wanting to hang on to power until he dies.

Ejani Leonard Kulu is a Cameroonian political analyst at the U.N. University for Peace in Addis Ababa. He says it is very unlikely that the United Nations will take up the female leaders’ proposals.

He says the U.N. has already helped Cameroon, Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Benin contribute troops to a joint task force to fight Boko Haram.

“The U.N. is a partner in managing the crises in Cameroon,” said Kulu. “If we should take Boko Haram, remember the Multinational Joint Task Force. It is financed and supported by the U.N. The crisis in the North West and South West, the U.N. has pronounced itself on several occasions that it is an internal problem which Cameroon can solve.”

Kulu said Cameroon female leaders should have carried out advocacy with the five permanent members of the Security Council – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States to ensure discussion of Cameroon at the Security Council.

In another letter, the female leaders ask International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva to stop disbursing funds until the Cameroon government shows proof of transparent management.

Tomaino Ndam Njoya is mayor of the western town of Foumban, an official of the Cameroon Democratic Union and a former lawmaker in Cameroon’s National Assembly.

Njoya says the female leaders are not indifferent to the high wave of corruption and theft of public funds in Cameroon. She says many government ministers have been asked to explain what happened to a $335 million IMF loan intended to stop the spread of COVID-19. She says it would be unfair to continue to give loans to Cameroon when the government has not accounted for amounts already received.

Cameroon government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi did not respond when contacted by VOA about Njoya’s comments. In a release read on state radio, Cameroon promised to investigate corruption and punish those found guilty.

Cameroon, a majority French-speaking country, is facing several problems, including the separatist crisis in its English-speaking western regions and Boko Haram terrorism on its northern border with Nigeria.

Cameroon also suffers the spillover of the crisis in the Central African Republic, with attacks by rebels on its eastern border and political tensions from Biya’s long stay in power.

Source: Voice of America

OUAGADOUGOU, BURKINA FASO – The death toll from the worst militant attack in Burkina Faso in recent years has risen to 132, the government said Saturday, after armed assailants laid siege overnight to a village in the Islamist extremist-plagued northeast.

The attackers struck during the night Friday, killing residents of the village of Solhan in Yagha province, bordering Niger. They also burned homes and the market, the government said in a statement.

It declared a 72-hour period of national mourning, describing the attackers as terrorists, although no group has claimed responsibility. Another 40 residents were wounded, government spokesperson Ousseni Tamboura later told reporters.

Attacks by Islamist extremists linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State in West Africa’s Sahel region have risen sharply since the start of the year, particularly in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, with civilians bearing the brunt.

The violence in Burkina Faso has displaced more than 1.14 million people in just more than two years, while the poor, arid country is hosting 20,000 refugees from neighboring Mali.

The latest attack pushed the number killed by armed Islamists in the Sahel region to more than 500 since January, according to Human Rights Watch’s West Africa director, Corinne Dufka.

“The dynamic is the jihadists come in, they overpower the civil defense post and engage in collective punishment against the rest of the village — it’s a pattern we’ve seen everywhere this year,” Dufka said.

In March, attackers killed 137 people in coordinated raids on villages in southwestern Niger.

Source: Voice of America

KHARTOUM – Thousands of protesters in Sudan’s capital demanded justice from the government this week over a 2019 massacre in Khartoum in which more than 100 people died.

The protesters Thursday called for the government to hold the Rapid Support Forces, a security unit, accountable for violently suppressing sit-in protests two years ago.

On Wednesday night, Sudan’s military began restricting access to the area surrounding the military headquarters where the killings took place.

In a press release addressing the anniversary, the prime minister of Sudan, Abdalla Hamdok, described what he called a complicated relationship with the country’s various security agencies, which the constitution says are under the authority of his military counterpart.

Hamdok said this relationship had delayed the investigation and the government was holding talks to fix this relationship.

Political analyst Shawgi Abdulazeem said the absence of justice in the sit-in dispersal was increasing tension.

Activists have shared videos from the June 2019 attack that show heavily armed security convoys near the protester encampments.

Qatar-based political analyst Abbas Mohamed said he thought the accusations might threaten the country’s fragile transition to democracy.

Mohamed said demands of the massacre victims’ relatives remained linked with political agendas. He noted that their protests were aimed at the Rapid Support Forces alone, not other uniformed forces such as the military and other security forces that should also be under investigation.

Surfaced under Bashir

The controversial Rapid Support Forces surfaced during the Darfur war in 2003 under former dictator Omar al-Bashir. The forces grew larger over the years, participating in the Yemen war on behalf of Saudi Arabia, and they were allegedly involved in Libya’s war.

After Bashir was ousted from Sudan in 2019, the top leaders of Rapid Support Forces reached a power-sharing agreement with military and civilian lawmakers.

In March 2021, Human Rights Watch alleged that the Rapid Support Forces had committed many abuses, and it urged the transitional government to address the unit’s growing power.

The United States also called on Sudan to bring all the militias and armed entities into one army controlled by a civilian-led government.

Meanwhile, the Sudanese public prosecutor resigned in May without explanation.

Sudan’s prime minister has asked the official tasked with investigating the 2019 killings to set a deadline for releasing the findings. Protesters say they will escalate their rallies if the government further delays the results of the investigation.

Source: Voice of America

LAGOS, NIGERIA – Nigeria’s government said Friday it was suspending Twitter indefinitely in Africa’s most populous nation, a day after the company deleted a controversial tweet President Muhammadu Buhari made about a secessionist movement.

It was not immediately clear when the suspension would go into effect as users could still access Twitter late Friday, and many said they would simply use VPNs to maintain access to the platform.

Others mocked the government for using the platform to announce the action.

“You’re using Twitter to suspend Twitter? Are you not mad?” one user tweeted in response.

Information Minister Lai Mohammed said Friday that government officials took the step because the platform was being used “for activities that are capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.”

Mohammed criticized Twitter for deleting the post. “The mission of Twitter in Nigeria is very suspicious,” he said, adding that Twitter had in the past ignored “inciting” tweets against the Nigerian government.

Twitter deleted Buhari’s post on Wednesday, calling it abusive, after the president threatened suspected separatist militants in the southeast.

More than 1 million people died during the 1967-70 civil war that erupted when secessionists sought to create an independent Biafra for the ethnic Igbo people. Buhari, an ethnic Fulani, was on the opposing side in the war against the Igbos.

In recent months, pro-Biafra separatists have been accused of attacking police and government buildings, and Buhari vowed to retaliate and “treat them in the language they understand.”

Source: Voice of America