October 22, 2021

WHO Acts to Prevent Repeat of Sexual Abuse, Exploitation in Congo

The World Health Organization has issued an action plan to address allegations that its staff and contractors engaged in widespread sexual abuse and exploitation during a recent Ebola outbreak in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

An independent commission established to investigate these allegations issued a searing report September 28. It found international staff and local hires responding to an Ebola outbreak between 2018 and 2020 had forced dozens of women to exchange sex for the promise of jobs.

The WHO says its plan for preventing similar abuse from occurring in the future puts the victim and survivor at the heart of its response. The plan outlines a series of reforms aimed at creating a culture of accountability and measures for bringing perpetrators of sexual exploitation and abuse to justice.

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic says neither impunity nor inaction in the face of criminal behavior will be tolerated. He says the WHO already has acted in this regard.

“WHO has terminated the contracts of four people identified as perpetrators who were still employed by WHO when we received the report of the independent commission. Other people who have been identified as actual or alleged perpetrators are no longer employed by WHO. And what WHO can do is make sure that their names are referred to U.N. database to prevent re-employment in the U.N. system,” he said.

Jasarevic said people accused of allegations of rape and other physical violence also will be referred to national authorities in the DRC and in their national countries for investigation.

He said many of the recommendations of the commission are being put into place during the newest, current Ebola outbreak, which was detected in North Kivu province October 8.

“All staff who are deployed to the DRC for Ebola or recruited in the field are briefed on how to prevent sexual exploitation and abuse. They have signed an inter-agency code of conduct on this matter and have completed a mandatory training. The briefing on preventing sexual exploitation and abuse has also been given to drivers and guards working with us,” Jasarevic said.

As part of its victim and survivor-centered approach, the WHO says it will provide livelihood support, as well as comprehensive medical and psycho-social support for those who have suffered from sexual exploitation and abuse.

The agency says it also will support children born because of these violations, through educational grants and will cover any medical fees incurred.

Source: Voice of America

October 22, 2021

Malawi Authorities Take Steps to Protect Children From Sexual Exploitation

Malawi’s government has started a campaign to remove children from places like night clubs where they are being forced or tricked into prostitution. But rights activists say the campaign is targeting the wrong people because it does not target perpetrators.

At the start of the campaign Wednesday, government authorities with help from police conducted daytime raids on lodges, clubs and bars in the capital Lilongwe.

The operation rescued 10 children between the ages of 14 to 16 years who were being forced or lured into prostitution. The authorities say they plan to put the girls into rehabilitation centers before they are sent back to their homes.

Patricia Kaliati is the minister of social welfare. She says the campaign is part of the government’s policy to protect children against all forms of exploitation.

“We have been talking about sexual harassments and even a number of organizations are talking about the same sexual harassment programs and policies which we have. So, it’s really sad that some people are doing business out of other people’s children,” she expressed.

One of the rescued girls says, someone had encouraged her come to Lilongwe from for domestic work but was eventually forced into commercial sex work. She says the proceeds of her work were surrendered to her purported master who is still at large.

Victor Mhango is executive director for Centre for Human Rights Education, Advice and Assistance. He lauded the campaign but says the problem is that the real culprits are left unpunished. “These children are being employed by people, the adults. Maybe they are used as pimps. So, they collect the money from the clients then they receive the money themselves and give something to the children, so to us that is a crime,” he notes.

Human Rights lawyer Ruth Kaima points out that prostitution is legal in Malawi. “For these minors for them engaging in sex work on their own, they are not committing an offense, but It’s illegal because you are not supposed to harbor minors and engage them in sex work because [by doing so] you are exploiting them and because you are abusing them,” he says.

However, Kaliati says the raid Wednesday serves as warning about the impending punishment for those who push minors into prostitution. “We will close all those rest houses that are keeping these toddlers because they know that we need to protect our children and we need to safeguard our children and we need also to respect the rights of our children that they have to live peacefully without being harassed sexually,” she adds.

However, rights campaigners say the sexual exploitation of children in Malawi will only end if underlying factors like poverty are addressed.

Source: Voice of America

October 22, 2021

Nigeria Separatist Leader Pleads Not Guilty to Charges at Start of Trial

Nigerian separatist Nnamdi Kanu has pleaded not guilty to charges brought against him by authorities. The leader of secessionist group The Indigenous People of Biafra, or IPOB, was captured in Kenya in June and repatriated to Nigeria to face trial.

The start of the trial in Federal High Court on Thursday was the first time Kanu has been seen in public since he was captured in late June.

Kanu was brought to an Abuja courtroom by state security agents in a heavily guarded convoy. The trial began shortly afterward but journalists, lawyers and supporters were denied access to the courtroom.

Kanu is charged with terrorism, treason, involvement with a banned separatist movement, inciting public violence through radio broadcasts, and defamation of Nigerian authorities through broadcasts.

Kanu denies the allegations, and his lawyer, Ifeanyi Ejiofor, told reporters the dismissal of charges is being sought.

“We’re challenging the seven-count amended charge.” Ejiofor said. “Once the court hears it and rules in our favor, that’s the end of the case and he’ll walk out of court a free person.”

Justice Binta Nyako adjourned the trial to November 10 and declined an application by Kanu’s counsel for the defendant to be transferred to a correctional facility in Abuja, where he’d be more accessible, instead of the state security custody.

The IPOB, led by Kanu, wants the southeastern region of Biafra to break away from Nigeria. An attempt to separate in 1967 triggered a civil war that killed more than one million people, mostly Biafrans.

Nigerian authorities consider the IPOB’s activities to be a threat and banned the group in 2017.

But the IPOB continued to win supporters, especially in the southeastern region, where the movement is most active.

The IPOB has launched a security arm, the Eastern Security Network, ESN, which authorities blame for unrest in the region and the killing of more than 120 people this year.

The IPOB has denied the allegations. Public affairs analyst Abu Mohammed, a supporter of the separatist movement, said the Nigerian government’s failures are motivating separatists.

“Today they’re calling for another system of government that may not work and that is why people are agitating,” Mohammed said. “If we’re supposed to get to so-so place and we haven’t gotten there, definitely there should be separation for us to go because maybe we have our vision.”

Southeastern Nigeria was largely shut down on Thursday after the IPOB called for a “sit-at-home” strike to show solidarity with Kanu.

Source: Voice of America

October 22, 2021

Ethiopian Government Airstrike Hits Tigray Regional Capital

Ethiopian forces carried out an airstrike Friday on the city of Mekelle, their fifth on the Tigray regional capital since Monday.

There were no immediate reports of casualties following Friday’s airstrike, which witnesses say hit a farmer’s field near a fenced off area on the eastern side of Mekelle University.

A U.N. humanitarian flight bound for Mekelle had to turn back in mid-air to Addis Ababa Friday because of the airstrike, according to Gemma Connell, head of the regional office for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Connell said this week’s air strikes and recent fighting in Tigray have had major consequences because not a single aid truck has entered the embattled northern Ethiopian region since Monday.

Ethiopia’s state-owned Fana Broadcasting Corporation reported Friday’s airstrike targeted military training spots used by Tigrayan forces.

“Another one of the terrorist group TPLF’s [Tigray People’s Liberation Front] training sites has been the target of air strikes today,” said the report, which cited the website Ethiopia Current Issue Fact Check, a pro-government initiative.

“This site was ENDF’s [Ethiopian National Defense Force’s] training center before being appropriated by TPLF for military training of illegal recruits. It is also serving as a battle network hub by the terrorist org.”

TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael said the airstrikes are a last ditch effort to turn the tide in the conflict between the TPLF and the Ethiopian government, which has raged on for nearly a year.

“They are desperate on the war front,” he said, speaking to Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location. “My interpretation is they are bombing us because they are losing on the ground and it’s their reprisal. The fact that they are bombing shows they don’t care about Tigrayan civilians.”

On Wednesday, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed that three children were among those killed in this week’s attacks.

Haq said colleagues at the U.N. “are alarmed at the intensification of the conflict and once again reminded all parties to the conflict of their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure.”

Witnesses who spoke to VOA’s Tigrigna Service reported civilian injuries and deaths.

The airstrike Thursday that targeted Mesfin Industrial Engineering, an equipment manufacturing company, injured 15 people, who are receiving medical help at Mekelle’s flagship Ayder Referral Hospital, according to Girmay Legas, the director of the emergency room at the hospital, who spoke to VOA’s Tigrigna Service.

“There are many who were seriously injured, especially two of the people who had to go straight into the operating room right after they were admitted,” Girmay said. “We have a five-year-old child among the 15 injured and one of the injured was pregnant and she is receiving care to find out the condition of the child.”

Girmay said most of those admitted to the hospital had “serious physical injuries,” and said the hospital did not have enough medical equipment and medicine to help the victims.

Biniam Kassa was one of those injured. “Mesfin industrial’s work focuses on normal projects like transportation but I don’t know why and in what case it was targeted,” he said. “Only thing I can say at this moment is that only civilians were attacked but nothing else.”

Filimone Yohannes was another person injured and underwent surgery on his right leg. He says the attack happened while they were in the middle of work.

“I was injured on my knee and couldn’t stand up but pulled myself to move a bit further until people came and lifted me up and brought me here [Ayder hospital] in an ambulance. I am not sure how people will go back to work and might lose their jobs and won’t be able to feed themselves if they don’t have work, people will be displaced. If you are bombarded in your place of work, how would you go back to work? How can you work?”

Ethiopian government spokesman Legesse Tulu said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that the military is making precise aerial attacks and making every effort to avoid civilian casualties.

“We confirm and assure these surgical operations have no any intended harm to civilians,” Legesse wrote.

He added that Tigrayan forces have used civilian facilities for military purposes. “They have been adept at hiding munitions and heavy artillery in places of worship and using ordinary Tigrayans as a human shield,” he wrote. “The purpose of the air strikes was just to deter the damages and atrocities the TPLF terrorist group plan[n]ed to make on the social well-being of the country and citizens.”

The Tigray conflict began almost a year ago between Ethiopian troops and the TPLF, which governed Ethiopia for three decades but now rules only the northern Tigray region.

Mekelle has not seen large-scale fighting since June, when Ethiopian forces withdrew from the area and Tigray forces retook control of most of the region. Following that, the conflict continued to spill into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.

Last week, Tigray forces said the Ethiopian military had launched a ground offensive to push them out of the Amhara region and to recapture territory lost to them several months ago.

Source: Voice of America

October 22, 2021

Still Dangerous, Boko Haram Hanging On in West Africa

The United States is monitoring reports militants aligned with Boko Haram are taking over communities in north-central Nigeria, part of what appears to be an attempted revival by the al-Qaida-linked terror group.

Officials in Nigeria’s Niger state have been warning of Boko Haram activity for months, recently claiming that the group’s fighters are present in more than 500 villages across eight of the state’s 25 wards.

“They tell local people that they are not fighting with them but with government and its institutions,” Suleman Chukuba, an official with the Shiroro local government, told VOA.

“They are saying only Islamic education is allowed…They also use bombs to attack people,” he added, noting the terror group’s flag has been raised in a growing number of villages. “These are Boko Haram’s ways of operation.”

But U.S. officials are leery of drawing any conclusions given the fast-evolving terror landscape, which has seen the fortunes of Boko Haram and its Islamic State-aligned rival, IS West Africa, rise and fall multiple times over the past several months.

“The United States is aware of reports that Boko Haram militants are present in Nigeria’s north-central Niger state,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.

“Boko Haram has terrorized civilian populations in Nigeria, Cameroon, Chad, and Niger for more than a decade,” the spokesperson said, adding the U.S., “will continue to seek to help further develop the capabilities of the Nigerian security services to respond to these threats.”

U.S. intelligence officials are also concerned.

“Boko Haram’s remaining elements continue to be a threat to local communities,” one official told VOA, requesting anonymity in order to discuss the information.

So far, Nigerian officials have sent some military and police units to Niger state to help, though local officials say it is not enough to combat what they see as a growing threat.

One factor that could be boosting Boko Haram’s current efforts are reports that the leader of IS West Africa is dead, potentially giving Boko Haram the time and space to rebuild.

Nigeria’s military announced the death of Abu Musab al-Barnawi last week (October 14) though U.S. officials cautioned previous reports of the IS West Africa leader’s death had proven to be unfounded.

Yet even if al-Barnawi is dead, Boko Haram is likely to still face significant challenges as it attempts to regroup.

“Their resources continue to be drained by ongoing clashes with ISIS-West Africa, some fighters’ attempts to disengage from the battlefield, and continued counterterrorism pressure from Nigerian security forces,” the intelligence official told VOA, using another acronym for Boko Haram’s IS-aligned rival.

U.S. officials also tell VOA that Boko Haram was hit hard earlier this year by the death of its leader, Abubakar Shekau, following his capture by IS West Africa.

Even though some high-level Boko Haram commanders managed to escape the IS West Africa assault, the defeat led to mass defections, whittling Boko Haram’s fighting force to as few as 500 fighters.

“They are definitely on their back foot,” a U.S. military official, who like the other U.S. officials requested anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, told VOA.

The official, who described Boko Haram’s recent setbacks as significant, also said there are questions about how effectively the group can recruit as it attempts to overcome something of a leadership vacuum.

“[Boko Haram] was significantly driven by Shekau and his leadership,” the official said, noting the group’s command and control is “not as cohesive as it was.”

Some analysts who study Boko Haram also have doubts about the group’s ability to rebound, despite reports of ongoing, low-level clashes with IS West Africa.

“There are still remnants,” James Barnett, a research fellow at the Centre for Democracy and Development in Abuja, told VOA. “But it’s difficult to gauge at this point whether those remnants are coalescing into a cohesive, smaller insurgency.”

“The best evidence now points to Boko Haram being, at best, a very marginal player for the near term,” he added.

Source: Voice of America