December 26, 2021

Anti-Apartheid Hero Archbishop Desmond Tutu Dies at 90

South Africa’s Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has died at the age of 90. The Nobel peace laureate was known worldwide for anti-apartheid activism and as a champion of human rights.

His death was announced Sunday by South African President President Cyril Ramaphosa.

“The passing of Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is another chapter of bereavement in our nation’s farewell to a generation of outstanding South Africans who have bequeathed us a liberated South Africa,” he said.

Tutu was far more than a spiritual leader.

He spent his life advocating for civil rights and speaking out against injustice, corruption and oppression.

Thabo Makgoba is the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town.

“He wanted every human being on Earth to experience the freedom, the peace, and the joy that all of us could enjoy if we truly respected one another. And because he worshiped to God, he feared no one.He named wrong wherever he saw it and by whoever it was committed,” Makgoba said.

Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his activism against South Africa’s racist apartheid regime.

When Nelson Mandela was released from prison, Tutu housed him on his first night of freedom.

The archbishop then presented Mandela to the public as the country’s first Black president in 1994.

Tutu was at the helm in the country’s healing process after apartheid, chairing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where many horrific accounts of injustice were heard.

Despite the hardships he confronted, Tutu is remembered for his peaceful activism and ability to forgive.

Parliamentarian Patricia De Lille spoke to reporters about her memories of the Arch, as he was known.

“Humor and a great sense of timing were amongst the Arch’s greatest assets. He had an extraordinary ability to defuse tension, contain anger, and remind people of their human essence. He used humor to convey important messages. And had that particular, that we all know, contagious love,” she said.

Tributes to Tutu have been pouring in.

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden said they were “heartbroken” to learn of Tutu’s passing. “His courage and moral clarity helped inspire our commitment to change American policy toward the repressive Apartheid regime in South Africa,” the Bidens said in a statement.

“Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a mentor, a friend and a moral compass for me and so many others. A universal spirit, Archbishop Tutu was grounded in the struggle for liberation and justice in his own country, but also concerned with injustice everywhere,” said former U.S. President Barack Obama.

“I am deeply saddened to hear of the death of Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He was a critical figure in the fight against apartheid and in the struggle to create a new South Africa and will be remembered for his spiritual leadership and irrepressible good humor,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “Archbishop Tutu was a towering global figure for peace and an inspiration to generations across the world. During the darkest days of apartheid, he was a shining beacon for social justice, freedom and non-violent resistance.”

Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said “Archbishop Desmond Tutu was entirely dedicated to serving his brothers and sisters for the greater common good. He was a true humanitarian and a committed advocate of human rights.”

The Nelson Mandela Foundation said Tutu’s “contributions to struggles against injustice, locally and globally, are matched only by the depth of his thinking about the making of liberatory futures for human societies. He was an extraordinary human being. A thinker. A leader. A shepherd.”

After his retirement at the age of 79, Tutu continued speaking out on ethical and moral issues from xenophobia to LGBTQ+ rights to climate change.

President Ramaphosa has called him “a patriot without equal” and “a man of extraordinary intellect, integrity and invincibility.”

Details of his funeral have not yet been announced.

Tutu is survived by his wife, children, siblings and their families.

Source: Voice of America

December 26, 2021

Sudan Says 58 Policemen Injured in Protests

Sudanese authorities said on Sunday that 58 police personnel had been injured during protests the previous day against military rule, and that tear gas had been used only to confront attacks on security facilities and vehicles, state TV reported.

The Khartoum security committee’s statement added that 114 people had been arrested and faced prosecution after Saturday’s protests, the latest in a series of rallies against an Oct. 25 coup that upended a transition towards democratic elections.

Medics aligned with the protest movement said earlier that violence by security forces had caused 178 injuries among demonstrators, including eight with live bullet wounds.

At least 48 people have been killed in crackdowns on protests against the coup, the medics say.

Internet and phone communications were disrupted on Saturday, and security forces fired tear gas as they blocked protesters from reaching the presidential palace.

A deal announced by the military in November to reinstate Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has failed to stem the protests, which are calling for the military to withdraw from politics altogether.

Source: Voice of America

December 26, 2021

28 Migrants Found Dead on Libyan Coast

The bodies of 28 migrants have washed up on Libya’s western coast after their boat sunk, a security official said Sunday, the latest tragedy on the world’s deadliest migration route.

“Libyan Red Crescent teams recovered 28 bodies of dead migrants and found three survivors at two different sites on the beaches of Al-Alous,” some 90 kilometers (55 miles) from Tripoli, the source said.

“The bodies’ advanced state of decomposition indicates that the shipwreck happened several days ago,” he said, adding the toll could rise in the coming hours.

Images published by Libyan media outlets showed corpses lined up along the shore then placed in body bags.

Libya, wracked by a decade of conflict and lawlessness, has become a key departure point for African and Asian migrants making desperate attempts to reach Europe.

Migrants often endure horrific conditions in Libya before embarking northwards on overcrowded, often unseaworthy vessels that frequently sink or get into trouble.

The latest tragedy comes just days after 160 migrants died within a week in similar incidents, bringing the total number of lives lost this year to 1,500, according to the International Organization for Migration.

The IOM says more than 30,000 migrants have been intercepted in the same period and returned to Libya.

The European Union has cooperated closely with the Libyan Coast Guard to cut numbers of migrants arriving on European shores.

On their return, many face further horrific abuses in detention centers.

Source: Voice of America

December 26, 2021

After Suicide Bombing, Congo Officials Fear More Attacks

Authorities in eastern Congo announced an evening curfew and new security checkpoints Sunday, fearing more violence after a suicide bomber killed five people in the first attack of its kind in the region.

Beni Mayor Narcisse Muteba, a police colonel, warned hotels, churches and bars in the town of Beni that they needed to add security guards with metal detectors because “terrorists” could strike again.

“We are asking people to be vigilant and to avoid public places during this festive period,” Muteba told The Associated Press on Sunday.

Brig. Gen. Constant Ndima, the military governor of North Kivu province, said there will be a 7 p.m. curfew, as well as more road checkpoints.

Officials initially said the death toll was six plus the suicide bomber, but they revised that figure a day later to five victims. Thirteen others remained hospitalized after the blast at the entrance to the Inbox restaurant on Christmas Day.

Saturday’s bloodshed dramatically deepened fears that Islamic extremism has taken hold in Beni. The town already has suffered years of attacks by rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, who trace their origins to neighboring Uganda.

Officials have blamed the latest attack on those rebels, whose exact links to international extremist groups have been murky. The Islamic State’s Central Africa Province has claimed responsibility for attacks blamed on ADF, but it is unknown what role exactly the larger group may have played in organizing and financing the attacks.

There have been worrying signs that religious extremism was escalating around Beni: Two local imams were killed earlier this year within weeks of each other, one of whom had spoken out against the ADF.

Then in June, the Islamic State group’s Central Africa Province claimed responsibility for a suicide bomber who blew himself up near a bar in Beni without harming others. Another explosion that same day at a Catholic church wounded two people.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Saturday’s attack, in which authorities say the bomber ultimately was stopped from entering the crowded restaurant. After the blast near the entrance, blood stained the pavement and mangled chairs lay strewn near the entrance.

Rachel Magali, who had been at the restaurant with her sister-in-law and several others, described hearing a loud noise and then people starting to cry.

“We rushed to the exit where I saw people lying down,” she told the AP. “There were green plastic chairs scattered everywhere and I also saw heads and arms no longer attached. It was really horrible.”

Source: Voice of America

December 26, 2021

World Reflects on Legacy of Archbishop Desmond Tutu

The world is reflecting on the legacy of South African anti-apartheid icon Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who died Sunday. The Nobel Peace laureate was known worldwide as a champion of human rights.

Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu is being remembered for his efforts in transforming South Africa into the free Rainbow Nation it is today.

“The Arch” as he was known, died at the age of 90 in Cape Town.

Tutu’s peaceful activism against the country’s apartheid government is ttributed to the avoidance of widespread conflict.

As chair of the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he showed the world resolution could be attained without violence.

Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela is the research chair in historical trauma and transformation at Stellenbosch University in South Africa.

“After so much tragedy, after so much violence, that sense of hope, that sense of possibility that victims and perpetrators can actually engage in a dialogue, in a way that is much more hopeful than what a vengeful kind of approach offers; that is the legacy of Archbishop Desmond Tutu,” she said.

Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 for his activism.

The international recognition Tutu received never changed his values of equality and public servitude.

Imtiaz Sooliman is chairman and founder of the charity Gift of the Givers and worked with the archbishop.

“When we visited him in Cape Town for the first time, you have this feeling you’re coming to this great man, you know, and how are you going to approach him? He was so easy when you walked in — simply dressed, simple office, such humility…. He was so warm and the embrace that he gave us was so gentle and so caring, you could just see this man exuding love all over,” he said.

Tutu was unaffected by political affiliations as well.

He continued campaigning for equality long after South Africa became a free democracy.

Gobodo-Madikizela says Tutu applied the same scrutiny to the now-ruling African National Congress as he did to apartheid leaders.

“Right after the leadership of Nelson Mandela, he again continued as that voice that was reminding the post-apartheid leaders about the promise of freedom for everybody,” she said. “When he could see that they were leading in a way that was self-serving, he called them out…. His boldness, his moral stature allowed him to do that.”

Gobodo-Madikizela says his criticism fell on deaf ears among many in the ruling party that underwent a national corruption inquiry this year.

Tutu’s campaign to tackle extreme inequality with a wealth tax also remains unfinished. Experts say his death is a moment to reinvigorate the public to take on issues he was passionate about.

June Bam-Hutchison is a researcher with the Center for African Studies at the University of Cape Town.

“The one thing that we’re sort of losing grip on in the everyday is the values, the values of peace, of anti-violence, of an inclusive anti-racism, and non-racialism. … And we need to be reminded now that we’ve lost to Archbishop Tutu that we need to revisit those principles,” she said.

From the head of the African Union to the Dalai Lama, leaders worldwide have been sharing tributes calling Tutu an inspiration to the world.

He is survived by his wife, children, siblings and their families.

Source: Voice of America

December 26, 2021

Desmond Tutu: Timeline of a Life Committed to Equality

1931 – Oct. 7 – Desmond Mpilo Tutu is born in Klerksdorp, near Johannesburg.

1947 – Contracts tuberculosis, as he recuperates, he is visited by Trevor Huddleston, a British Anglican pastor working in South Africa.

1955 – Marries Nomalizo Leah Shenxane and begins teaching at a secondary school in Johannesburg.

1961 – Is ordained as a minister in the Anglican church, after quitting teaching in disgust at South Africa’s apartheid government’s inferior education for Blacks.

1962 – Studies theology at King’s College London.

1966 – Returns to South Africa to teach at a seminary in the Eastern Cape.

1975 – Becomes the Anglican Church’s first Black dean of Johannesburg.

1976 – Serves as Bishop of Lesotho and voices criticism of apartheid in South Africa.

1978 – Becomes general-secretary of the South African Council of Churches and achieves global prominence as a leading opponent of apartheid, supports economic sanctions to achieve majority rule in South Africa.

1984 – Wins Nobel Peace Prize – “There is no peace in southern Africa. There is no peace because there is no justice. There can be no real peace and security until there be first justice enjoyed by all the inhabitants of that beautiful land,” Tutu says in his acceptance speech.

1985 – Becomes the first Black bishop of Johannesburg.

1986 – Is ordained the first Black Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town.

1989 – Leads anti-apartheid march of 30,000 people through Cape Town.

1990 – Hosts Nelson Mandela for his first night of freedom after Mandela is released from prison after being held for 27 years for his opposition to apartheid. Mandela calls Tutu “the people’s archbishop.”

1994 – Votes in South Africa’s first democratic election in which all races can cast ballots.

1995 – President Nelson Mandela appoints Tutu to be chairman of the country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

1996 – Tutu retires as prelate, the Anglican Church gives him the title of Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town.

1997 – Is diagnosed with prostate cancer and announces it to help with public awareness of the disease.

1998 – Truth and Reconciliation Commission publishes its report, putting most of the blame for abuses on the forces of apartheid, but also finds the African National Congress guilty of human rights violations. The ANC sues to block the document’s release, earning a rebuke from Tutu.

2009 – Aug. 12 – Receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from U.S. President Barack Obama.

2010 – July 22 – Retires from public life, tells press: “Don’t call me, I’ll call you.”

2013 – Launches international campaign for LGBTQ rights in Cape Town. “I would not worship a God who is homophobic.”

2014 – July 12 – Urges the British parliament to allow assisted dying, saying, “The manner of Nelson Mandela’s prolonged death was an affront.”

2021 – Oct. 7 – Frail, in a wheelchair, Tutu attends his 90th birthday celebration at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town.

2021 – Dec. 26 – Tutu dies in Cape Town.

Source: Voice of America

December 26, 2021

Somali Leaders Again Disagree on Already Delayed Polls

Bickering Somali leaders have once again disagreed on already delayed elections in the Horn of Africa country, paving the way for another political crisis as the international community calls for dialogue to speed up the electoral process.

Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, popularly known as Farmajo, and his Prime Minister, Mohamed Hussein Roble, have argued again over the process, which is already behind schedule.

The head of state blamed the prime minister for failing to uphold a mandate to lead the country through elections, based on what has come to be known as the September 17th agreement of 2020. The agreement would allow 101 delegates to select members of parliament, who would choose the next head of the state.

In response, the prime minister rejected the call and maintained his commitment to lead a free and fair election process. Roble added that Farmajo’s criticism is aimed at disrupting the ongoing process.

The members of the opposition were quick to throw their weight behind the prime minister, who was tasked with conducting the elections following a political agreement on governing the process back in May.

Former President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who is among key candidates challenging the incumbent, reiterated the significance of expediting the electoral process to avoid setbacks.

He said, “We don’t have other options than that of the prime minister in convening the national consultative forum to discuss the challenges on the disagreed poll process, which we have been stressing from Day One.”

Somali security agencies backed by African Union peacekeepers have beefed up security during the electoral process but experts warn that the continued spat involving the country’s leadership is concerning.

Dahir Korow is a political analyst who believes there is a need for quick steps forward.

“The Somali citizens are losing confidence in their leadership over continued election wrangles; the international community is also frustrated with lack of commitment by the leaders, on the other hand, the threats by al Shabab are growing; therefore, there is need for compromise to conduct credible polls,” said Korow.

By al-Shabab, he was referring to the militant group. For years, it has fought the central government in a bid to seize power and impose a strict version of Islamic law known as Sharia.

This latest political crisis linked to elections comes as hundreds of Somalis affected by severe drought wait for humanitarian assistance. Drought and famine in Somalia have been attributed to climate change.

Source: Voice of America