Day: August 4, 2021

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115 Killed in Military Crackdown in Nigeria: Amnesty

Amnesty International on Thursday accused Nigerian security forces of using excessive force and killing at least 115 people in a crackdown on separatist agitators in the country’s restive southeast.

Violence has flared in Nigeria’s southeastern states this year, claiming the lives of at least 127 police or members of the security services, according to the police.

Some 20 police stations and election commission offices have been attacked, according to local media.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), an outlawed movement seeking independence for ethnic Igbo of the region, and its militant wing Eastern Security Network (ESN) have been blamed for the violence, but IPOB has denied the charges.

Amnesty said that in response, security forces, including the military, police and the Department of State Services (DSS) intelligence agency have killed dozens of gunmen, as well as civilians, where attacks have taken place.

“The evidence gathered by Amnesty International paints a damning picture of ruthless excessive force by Nigerian security forces in Imo, Anambra and Abia states,” said Osai Ojigho, the group’s Nigeria director.

The global rights watchdog said it “documented at least 115 persons killed by security forces between March and June 2021.”

The Nigerian police could not immediately respond to the allegations.

“I have not seen the statement. So I cannot respond,” national police spokesperson Frank Mba told AFP.

Arbitrary arrest, torture

Amnesty said relative of the victims told the rights group that they were not part of the militant groups who were attacking security agents.

“Many of the victims were deposited at government hospitals in Imo and Abia state,” it said.

Amnesty said it also documented cases of arbitrary arrest, ill-treatment and torture in the restive region.

It said that in May 2021, Imo state government announced the arrest of at least 400 people allegedly linked to the violence.

“Amnesty International’s investigation indicates that most of them were randomly picked up in their homes and off the street and had nothing to do with ESN.”

Local and international rights groups have repeatedly accused Nigerian security forces of rights abuses, but they always deny the charges.

Nigeria has recently intensified a crackdown on separatist agitators, including the arrest and trial of their leaders.

Last month, IPOB leader and founder Nnamdi Kanu was detained in Kenya, according to his lawyers, and brought back to Nigeria to face treason charges.

Kanu’s IPOB is attempting to revive the now defunct Biafra Republic, a declaration of independence which led to a 30-month civil war between 1967 and 1970.

More than 1 million people, mostly Igbo, were killed in the fighting or by starvation and disease.

Another separatist leader, Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, was arrested in neighboring Benin as he attempted to board a flight to Germany. He is currently detained in Benin awaiting extradition.

Igboho is accused of calling for a separate homeland for Yoruba people of southwest Nigeria following alleged killings of locals by Fulani herders.

President Muhammadu Buhari, a Fulani, is accused by some critics of favoring his northern kinsmen in appointments and other economic opportunities in Nigeria, fueling ethnic tensions in other regions.

With a population of more than 210 million, Nigeria has more than 250 ethnic groups and is regularly rocked by ethnic tensions in different regions.

The three largest groups are the Hausa-Fulani in the north, the Igbo in the southeast and the Yoruba in the southwest.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

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Doctors Without Borders Leaving West Cameroon After Government Suspension

Withdrawing emergency health care services amid a crisis was a difficult decision, but it was one that Doctors Without Borders (MSF) had to make after the government suspended its operations for eight months.

Cameroonian authorities have accused the aid group of helping separatist groups in the country’s English-speaking northwest region, a charge the group has strongly denied.

Laura Martinelli, MSF’s coordinator for the northwest region, where thousands of people need health care access, said MSF had seen no signs of the Cameroon government’s authorization for the group to resume its activities.

“We simply cannot remain indefinitely on standby in an area where we are not authorized to do our job,” she said. “But we still hope that the [Cameroonian] authorities will revise this decision for the sake of the population, because thousands of patients benefited from our free emergency services. We are therefore maintaining a liaison office to continue with the dialogue in the region and at the central level.”

Few other options for care

Martinelli said MSF would be ready to resume activities when Cameroonian authorities lift the suspension. She said the MSF presence was vital because the aid group was one of the few international medical organizations offering free care for people in need, providing 24-hour ambulance services to civilians in the northwest region.

Kennedy Tumenta, coordinator of the Integrated Mental Health Care for Humanity in Babungo, a village in Cameroon’s English-speaking northwest, said the center provides psychological care to civilians whom MSF treats. Tumenta said MSF’s departure meant that thousands of civilians caught in crossfire would be left without much-needed help.

The withdrawal of Doctors Without Borders, Tumenta said, is a setback “for organizations like ours who provide mental health services to distressed individuals, especially in this region as the crisis has increased the challenges of accessing certain basic health services. We hope that the government and Doctors Without Borders will find ways to solve this problem.”

Cameroon’s territorial administration minister, Paul Atanga Nji, who announced the suspension of MSF in December 2020, declined to comment on MSF’s withdrawal when VOA reached out for an interview Tuesday.

But in June, Cameroon’s health ministry reported that nearly 30% of hospitals in the northwest region were no longer functioning because separatist attacks, and that hundreds of health workers had fled to French-speaking towns for safety.

Government strategy criticized

Cyrille Etoga, a health analyst at the University of Yaounde, said Cameroon should know how to distinguish between the activities of a reputable international organization and groups that may be collaborating with separatists. He said Cameroon’s government should legally charge people suspected of collaborating with separatists instead of suspending MSF.

Etoga said Cameroon needs the assistance of organizations like MSF to meet the growing health needs of its citizens in conflict zones.

In 2020, Cameroon’s government accused MSF of having close relations with separatists who are fighting to create an independent English-speaking state. The aid organization strongly denies the accusations and says its only goal is to save lives.

MSF says more than 1.4 million people in Cameroon’s restive western regions need humanitarian support, where access to health care is extremely limited.

The separatist crisis that began in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions in 2017 has killed more than 3,000 people and displaced 750,000, both internally and to neighboring Nigeria, according to the U.N.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

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WHO: Health Care Under Siege in Areas of Conflict

The World Health Organization says more than 700 health care workers and patients were killed, more than 2,000 injured, and hundreds of health facilities destroyed in countries of conflict between 2018 and 2020.

A three-year analysis was carried out in 17 conflict-ridden countries and territories, including Ethiopia, Yemen, Syria, Mozambique, the occupied Palestinian territories, and Myanmar.

New data show that health care continues to be under attack. So far this year, the World Health Organization has recorded 588 incidents in 14 countries with emergencies, causing 114 deaths and 278 injuries of health care workers and patients.

The WHO’s director of health emergencies interventions, Altaf Musani, says the impact of those health care attacks goes well beyond claiming lives. He says the ramifications are significant and alarming, especially considering the ongoing COVID-19 response.

 

“Their impact reverberates on health care workers’ mental health and willingness to report to work, equally, on communities’ willingness to seek health care, and also drastically reduces resources for responding to a health crisis, amongst others,”  Musani said.

Musani says the ripple effect of a single incident is huge and has a long-lasting impact on the system at large. When health facilities are destroyed, he says, they need to be rebuilt.

When health care workers are killed or wounded, he says a vital work force must be reinforced. Building back those vital systems, he says, requires years of costly investment, years in which people in need are underserved.

“During the pandemic, more than ever, health care workers must be protected, must be respected,”  Musani said. “Hospitals and health care facilities, including the transportation of ambulances should not be used for military purposes. Essential conditions for the continued delivery of vital health care must be given the necessary space.”

Musani notes any reduction in capacity will interrupt services and deprive vulnerable communities of urgent care.

The WHO is calling on all parties in conflicts to ensure safe working spaces for the delivery of health care services. It says people caught in emergency situations must be able to safely access care, free from violence, threat, or fear.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

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Rival Leaders: South Sudan’s VP Machar Deposed by Party

South Sudan’s vice president Riek Machar has been ousted as head of his party and its armed forces, say rival leaders who accused the rebel-turned-politician of no longer representing their interests.

Machar, a pivotal figure in South Sudan’s bloody road to independence and subsequent civil war, was deposed following a three-day gathering of senior SPLM/A-IO leaders in the country’s far north, the party’s military wing said.

Its chief of staff, First Lieutenant General Simon Gatwech Dual, was declared interim leader of the opposition movement that governs the troubled country in a shaky alliance with former enemies.

It is unclear what the putsch means for Machar, a wily leader who survived years of bush warfare, close attempts on his life and stretches in exile.

The military wing said Machar had “completely failed” to show leadership and greatly weakened the party’s position in the post-war coalition government formed between the warring sides in early 2020.

Machar had engaged in a years-long “policy of divide and rule” and favoured nepotism over unity or advancing their cause, according to a statement signed by the SPLM/A-IO military leadership and dated August 3.

“As a result, the meeting saw there was no option rather than to come up with the decision and finally prompted to declare the denouncement of Dr Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon from the chairmanship of the SPLM/A-IO,” the statement said.

Political disunity

AFP has sought comment from Machar’s spokesman in Juba.

He served as vice president in South Sudan’s first post-independence government alongside his old rival, President Salva Kiir.

But the pair fell out and Machar was sacked two years later. Troops loyal to each man turned their guns on each other, and South Sudan descended into five years of horrific bloodshed.

In 2018 — after a string of failed peace accords and violated ceasefires — a fresh truce paused the fighting that left nearly 400,000 South Sudanese dead.

Under that arrangement, Machar entered another unity government as deputy to Kiir in February 2020.

But distrust lingered and cracks soon appeared, as key provisions of the peace accords went unfulfilled.

As the process drifted Machar faced growing opposition within his own ranks, with top cadres complaining they had lost out under the power-sharing arrangement struck with the ruling party.

The political disunity comes as South Sudan faces economic disaster and its worst hunger crisis since independence, with tens of thousands of people enduring famine-like conditions in the world’s youngest nation.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

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Former Child Soldier Strives to Make War-weary South Sudanese Laugh

A South Sudanese former child soldier who now performs comedy says he wants to put smiles on the faces of South Sudanese who have been traumatized by years of conflict. He also wants to educate soldiers on how to associate with civilians.

South Sudanese soldiers harass civilians with the intention of extorting money from them, says Kuech Deng Atem, 26. He hopes to disarm soldiers with jokes.

Atem jokes about a common occurrence in South Sudan: getting stopped on the road: “We came with a car, and the guy stopped us, and he was like, ‘Jibu (give) logbook (car registration).’

“I gave him the logbook.

“‘Jibu ruksa’ (permit, or driver’s license).

“I gave him the permit. Then the guy knew there was nothing wrong with the car, and he looked at me and was like, ‘Brother, why didn’t you put on your seatbelt?’

“I started talking to him. He said, ‘No, you park there. I don’t want nonsense.’

“Not to waste time because I was rushing somewhere, I put my hands in the pocket and gave him 1,000 pounds. The guy looked at me and was like, ‘My brother, you should have told me your seat belt is wireless.'”

A soldier at 10  

Atem, commonly known by the stage name Wokil Jeesh Commando, became a soldier when he was 10 years old. He and other children were trained in Aweil and Mapel and later joined the fighting in Heglig and Abyei in 2006. He says that in the beginning, child soldiers like him were mainly tasked with taking care of wounded soldiers and carrying ammunition.

In 2008, his mother followed him to Mapel and brought him to Juba, where he finally returned to school. That’s where he started performing comedy, telling classmates stories about life in the barracks.

“They would laugh, and teachers would come in sometimes and get me and be like, ‘Tell me the story.’ I would tell them, and they would laugh. Then one of the teachers told me, ‘You could do this in the assembly and make people laugh.’ So I started doing this in the assembly, and people would laugh every morning. That’s when I discovered that I can do stand-up comedy,” Atem told VOA.

In 2013, Atem joined South Sudan Film Limited, where, he said, he perfected his skills, and then started performing comedy skits on the state-run SSBC TV. Later, he joined “Kilukilu Ana,” a local stand-up comedy program, and performed every Thursday at the Nyakuron Cultural Center in Juba.

Atem says he has won four awards for best comedian: South Sudan’s MTN Music Awards in 2016, the South Sudan Talent Youth Award in 2017, the Juba Talent Award in 2018, and the South Sudan Super Stars Award in 2018.

The comedian, studying information technology in his final year at Juba’s Starford University, says if his mother had not taken him out of the army, he might still be killing people, looking for the next war to fight in. He is urging the South Sudan government to ensure that children are no longer recruited into the army and are allowed to study so that later, should they choose to join the army, they will be educated soldiers who can make good decisions for the country’s development.

Healing through comedy

Atem feels that comedy can help ease the stress that many South Sudanese feel after living through five and a half years of civil war. He hopes one day to become an international success, putting “smiles on people’s faces” and helping them forget their past painful experiences.

“My main aim is to become international — not just in South Sudan but also in Africa generally — travel from one country to another, try to educate Africans and try to help in trauma healing through my jokes and solve other problems through jokes, Atem told VOA. “You know, comedy plays a great role in society in peace building, bringing people together.”

 

 

Source: Voice of America

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USAID Head Pushes for Humanitarian Aid Access in Tigray

U.S. Agency for International Development head Samantha Power is set to meet Wednesday with officials in Ethiopia as the United States urges the government to allow clear access for humanitarian aid to the Tigray region.

Power on Tuesday met with refugees in Sudan who have fled Tigray, and she reiterated the position of the United States, the United Nations and others that ultimately what will help the people in the northernmost region of Ethiopia is an end to the war that has been ongoing for more than nine months.

“The U.S. has been pushing all parties in Tigray toward an immediate cease-fire in the hopes that people like the Ethiopians I met here will be able to return home,” Power said in a Twitter post Tuesday. “The conflict has brought harrowing attacks against civilians, it is impacting millions, and it has to end.”

She said specifically the United States is calling for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or the TPLF, to withdraw from the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions, for the Amhara regional government to pull its forces from western Tigray, and for neighboring Eritrea to immediately withdraw its forces from Ethiopia.

“All parties should accelerate unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance to those affected by the conflict, and the commercial blockade of Tigray must end,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters Tuesday in Washington.

The United States announced last week $149 million in additional humanitarian assistance for the Tigray region, while also calling attention to bureaucratic delays and attacks on aid convoys that have hindered efforts to get food and other necessary supplies to those in need.

After meeting in Addis Ababa Wednesday with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other Ethiopian officials, U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths tweeted, “We need to see an end to the spread of the conflict, which is pushing humanitarian needs higher and making it harder to reach people in need.”

Griffiths also cited the “need to work with the government to improve conditions under which aid and humanitarian workers can reach those in need. We’ve been working hard to get 100 trucks a day in and we’ve been assured by the government that it will happen.”

 

U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths told reporters Tuesday in Addis Ababa that in recent days, 122 trucks had arrived in preparation for taking supplies into Tigray, but that humanitarian organizations said the need in the region is more like 100 trucks of aid per day.

“We need to change circumstances that have seen trucks moving in rather slowly. We need assured access routes by land, as well as, of course, our own flights going in and out of Mekele, and frankly we need the war to end, we need the conflict to stop if this is to be a safe place for the people of those particular regions in northern Ethiopia,” Griffiths said.

All warring parties have been trading blame on several issues including blockade of access to humanitarian aid. The Ethiopian government has blamed Tigrayan forces for aid blockades, while Tigrayan forces blame the government. The Associated Press reported last week a senior USAID official told the news agency that the government’s allegation is “100% not the case.”

The official added that the “primary obstacle is the government.”

Ahead of Power’s visit, Ethiopian officials expressed strong opposition to opening the country’s western border with Sudan to transport aid into Tigray.

The two countries are clashing over ownership of the fertile borderland.

“Access to the Tigray region is allowed through Amhara and Afar regions. Opening a corridor through the Sudan border will subvert the sovereignty of Ethiopia,” the country’s minister of labor and social affairs, Dr. Ergoge Tesfaye, tweeted Sunday [Aug. 1].

Meanwhile, TPLF forces were flexing their military muscles last month, pushing into the Amhara region to the south and to the Afar region to the east.

Cutting through Afar are the main highway and railway connecting the federal capital, Addis Ababa, with Djibouti’s seaport.

“It’s really hard to say at this point what the motivations of Tigrayan leadership are,” Joseph Siegle, research director for the Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies, told VOA this week. “They’ve justified the attacks on Afar on the need to reopen supply routes into Tigray. And so it opens up the question about what other broader designs” the TPLF may have.

General Tsadkan Gebretensae, commander of the Tigrayan forces and former head of Ethiopia’s army, told the BBC Sunday that his troops made incursions into the Afar and Amhara regions to break up the humanitarian aid blockade and to force the federal government to accept their preconditions for a cease-fire.

Siegle told VOA that the TPLF “is not satisfied simply with defending the territory of Tigray but is instead wanting to take the offensive into other parts of Ethiopia.”

“The initial reaction has been a rallying around the federal government and other regions are supporting renewed efforts to try to push back in Tigray, and there [has] been a rise in volunteers to join the army,” Siegle said. “So I think in the short term there has been some sort of a unifying effect.”

In the longer term, Siegle said the fighting possibly could create more fragmentation among the roughly 110 million people in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous nation after Nigeria.

Aly Verjee, a senior adviser to the U.S. Institute of Peace’s Africa Center, said increased military buildup was worrisome.

He told VOA that the conflict’s “solution is a political one, not a military one. And so whether there are new troops on the ground from either side, it will still require a discussion at a political level to find some sort of resolution. And I think that is still very much possible if both sides feel that they can actually engage in talks.”

Ethiopia suspended part or all of the operations Tuesday of Doctors Without Borders and the Norwegian Refugee Council. The aid groups said the government ordered them to halt their work in Tigray.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

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South Africa’s Cape Town Copes With Tens of Thousands of Active COVID Cases

South Africa’s Cape Town is struggling to cope with more than 38,000 active cases of COVID-19, making it the epicenter of the pandemic in Africa’s worst-hit country.

The provincial chairman of the Democratic Nursing Organization of South AfrIca, Elenor Roberts, said medical staff members were under immense pressure.

“As of now, the situation in our rural areas, it is dire,” because there are so many COVID patients who need attention and “so few staff to look after these patients,” Roberts said.

She said there were about 13,000 nurses in Western Cape province, far too few to handle the workload.

“Our members complained that they cannot take it,” Roberts said. “It is too much for them. There is not enough staff and there’s also not enough beds.” The result, she said, is that “they have to struggle to put the COVID patients away from the other patients.”

She said she thought the vaccination drive underway in the country was helping to some extent.

“I think the vaccinations in this case did help,” she said, but progress remained slow in Western Cape. As of last Thursday, she said, it was her understanding that less than 70 percent of nurses had been vaccinated, so “we are still are at a great risk.”

The province’s premier, Alan Winde, is due to give an update on the situation at a digital news briefing Thursday.

 

 

Source: Voice of America