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DAR ES SALAAM, TANZANIA – Tanzania’s main opposition party and rights activists are condemning the arrest of CHADEMA party leader Freeman Mbowe, who faces terrorism charges.

Police on Wednesday arrested Mbowe and 10 other party members as they were about to attend a conference to discuss changes to Tanzania’s constitution.

Mbowe was brought before a court in Dar es Salaam Monday to face charges of economic sabotage. He is accused of funding terrorist activities aimed at assassinating government leaders. There has been no comment from the government.

The charges were read out in court, but Mbowe was not allowed to respond.

Opposition supporters and human rights activists condemned what they see as a flagrant violation of Mbowe’s rights.

Rights activist Merciana Mhagama says the entire incident goes against Tanzanian law.

Mhagama says since Mbowe was arrested and taken to court, we have seen a huge abuse of law and principles, but also the incident has gone against freedom of opinion and expression. In a democratic country, we know our constitution allows people to give out their opinion, she says.Another activist, Antele Benjamin, says he is disappointed in seeing Mbowe arrested.

Benjamin says CHADEMA decided to use their constitutional right to demand a new constitution but in return to an unusual situation, we have seen its leader is charged with terrorism-related crimes, something which is a sad thing, and in a civilized society it is something that we didn’t expect to happen.

Police on Tuesday dismissed the accusations that Mbowe’s arrest was linked to politics. David Misime is a police spokesperson.

He says Freeman Mbowe knew that he had accusations against him, and he will be held by police for further legal action until the investigation against him is accomplished. He says Mbowe saw it is better to run to Mwanza for the umbrella of constitutional meeting so if arrested, people would believe he was arrested for that, which is not true.

However, political analyst Aika Peter sees Mbowe’s arrest as a threat to democracy in the country.

Democratically with incidents like these, whether it is a message they are trying to send or the message that is there from somewhere that we are no longer safe, said Peter. They are telling us that whatever promises we were told, it was just to please people so as to see we have direction but so far we are back to square one and we have returned to a very bad situation.

Late President John Magufuli, who died in March, was known for running Tanzania an iron-fisted manner. Many activists hoped for a change after President Samia Hassan took over.

Hassan has made a sharp turn on COVID-19 policy, rejecting Magufuli’s belief that the infection did not exist in Tanzania and paving the way for the country to get its first shipment of vaccines.

But she has not embraced political reforms the way some activists were hoping.

On Tuesday, Human Rights Watch said, “Instead of arresting political opponents who are calling for constitutional reform, President Hassan’s government should … protect everyone’s rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly in line with international human rights norms.”

Source: Voice of America

ABUJA, NIGERIA – A Nigerian court has ordered the secret police to release five suspects detained for wearing T-shirts criticizing President Muhammadu Buhari, their lawyer said Tuesday.

The men were arrested early this month by the Department of State Service (DSS) during a church service led by a well-known evangelical pastor in the Nigerian capital Abuja.

They had been wearing T-shirts with the slogan “Buhari Must Go!” inside the church when they were arrested and detained.

The church was accused of aiding the arrests, but it denied the allegation.

On Monday, the federal high court Abuja ordered the DSS to release the suspects, lawyer Allen Sowore told AFP.

“The judge ordered their release forthwith without any condition. But we have not got a certified true copy of that order,” he said.

He said his clients were yet to be freed.

“Unfortunately, the judge has not signed the order. So, we just came here [to the DSS office] thinking that they will act on the order of the court, but they have not acted.”

Buhari, a former army commander, has come under fire after his government recently banned Twitter, a move Western allies and critics warned undermined freedom of expression.

Officials announced the ban after Twitter removed a remark from Buhari’s personal account for violating its policies.

The Nigerian leader is also under pressure to tackle the country’s insecurity.

The security forces are battling an Islamist insurgency in the northeast, a surge in mass kidnappings by criminal gangs in central and northwestern states, and separatist tension in parts of the south.

Source: Voice of America

GENEVA – The International Organization for Migration says at least 57 migrants, most from West Africa, drowned Monday, when their boat capsized off the Libyan Coast.

About 70 people were on board the doomed vessel when it left the Libyan port of Khums late Sunday evening. Reports say the boat, which had embarked for Europe, ran into trouble soon after, took on water and sank.

U.N. migration agency spokesman Paul Dillion says no additional bodies have been found. He told VOA at least 20 women and two toddlers were among the missing and are presumed dead. He said survivors have been taken to the offices of the Libyan investigation’s unit in Khums, where they are being assisted.

“Libyan fishermen and the Libyan coast guard rescued 18 people and brought them to shore.… Our staff, who are providing regional assistance, medical, food and water to the survivors, described them as shocked, deeply traumatized, and exhausted from their ordeal,” he said.

Dillon said the survivors are natives of Nigeria, Ghana, and Gambia. He said he does not know what will happen to the migrants once they’ve recovered from their ordeal.

However, he said the IOM believes Libya is not a safe port of return and migrants who are picked up at sea should not be returned to Libya because of the instability in the country.

“Of particular concern are the conditions, well documented, in detention centers in the country where migrants are warehoused and routinely subject to a wide variety of well documented human rights abuses, be they extortions, sexual violence and other things,” Dillon said.

Every year, thousands of people, fleeing conflict and poverty, embark on dangerous journeys across the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa to Europe in pursuit of a better life. Every year many hundreds lose their lives.

The IOM says this latest tragedy off the Libyan coast pushes the 2021 death toll on the central Mediterranean route to 970 men, women, and children. As the weather improves, the agency warns the death toll will rise as an increasing number of flimsy smuggler boats depart from Libya and Tunisia for Europe.

Source: Voice of America

KUJE, NIGERIA – Some Nigerian companies are using coconut and palm shells to make charcoal briquettes in an effort to slow ongoing deforestation. Nigeria banned charcoal exports after a World Bank report showed the country lost nearly half its forest cover in just a decade.

Nothing goes to waste at the coconut processing facility started by Emeka Ugwueje 10 years ago outside Abuja.

“We began thinking inward to say, ‘OK, let our waste become the necessary energy to make fire’ and this is where we have come,” Ugwueje said.

The shells burn for about an hour before turning from brown to a carbon-rich black derivative.

They are cooled, ground and later manually molded into briquettes.

But Ugwueje said there’s a plan to scale up mechanically.

“We intend to introduce several types of machines. Among them is the molder, the cutter, and the drying system – a dehydrator that will bring these briquettes into a more solid form,” Ugweuje said.

Major environmental repercussions

Ugwueje’s company, SFK Coconut, which makes products made from coconut, is one of many in Nigeria using coconut briquettes as fuel in place of wood charcoal.

Experts said Nigeria’s huge charcoal market causes major environmental repercussions. Charcoal from here is mostly exported to Europe and the United States.

A 2017 World Bank Report showed Nigeria lost nearly half of its forest cover between 2007 and 2017 as a result of the charcoal trade. The report also predicted Nigeria’s forests could be completely gone by 2047.

Political will is missing

Conservationist David Michael Terungwa, executive director of the Global Initiative for Food Security and Ecosystem Preservation, said a lack of compliance with Nigeria’s charcoal export ban is to blame for continued deforestation. He also cites a lack of political will to address the problem.

“I think the issue is compliance and compliance monitoring, and enforcement by the regulatory agency,” Terungwa said.

He was referring to Nigeria’s National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency.

For years, Nigerian authorities have been encouraging tree planting to replace decimated forests.

But experts say in the absence of adequate monitoring systems, Nigerians must make a conscious effort to use other alternatives to tree-derived charcoal for fuel.

Source: Voice of America