Category: General

A Sudanese official says local authorities in Kassala province have found around 50 bodies, apparently people fleeing the war in neighboring Ethiopia’s Tigray region, floating in the river between the countries over the past week, some with gunshot wounds or their hands bound.

The official said Monday a forensic investigation is needed to determine the causes of death. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

Two Ethiopian health workers in the Sudan border community of Hamdayet confirmed seeing the bodies found in the Setit River, known in Ethiopia as the Tekeze. The river flows through some of the most troubled areas of the nine-month conflict in Tigray, where ethnic Tigrayans have accused Ethiopian and allied forces of atrocities while battling Tigray forces.

Tewodros Tefera, a surgeon who fled the nearby Tigray city of Humera to Sudan, told The Associated Press that two of the bodies were found Monday, one a man with his hands bound and the other a woman with a chest wound. Fellow refugees have buried at least 10 other bodies, he said.

He shared a video of men appearing to prepare a shroud for a body floating face-down in the river.

Tewodros said the bodies were found downstream from Humera, where authorities and allied fighters from Ethiopia’s Amhara region have been accused by refugees of forcing out local Tigrayans during the war while claiming that western Tigray is their land.

“We are actually taking care of the bodies spotted by fishermen,” Tewodros said. “I suspect there are more bodies on the river.”

While it was difficult to identify the bodies, one had a common name in the Tigray language, Tigrinya, tattooed on his arm, the surgeon said.

Another doctor working in Hamdayet who saw the bodies told the AP that some of the corpses had facial markings indicating they were ethnic Tigrayans.

“I saw a lot of barbaric things,” said the doctor, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. “Some had been struck by an axe.”

Witnesses at the river told him they had not been able to catch all the bodies floating downstream because of the water’s swift flow during the rainy season, the doctor said.

An Ethiopian government-created Twitter account on Monday called the accounts of bodies a fake campaign by “propagandists” among the Tigray forces.

Samantha Power, administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, on Monday visited a refugee camp in Sudan hosting thousands of Ethiopians who fled the Tigray war. She next will visit Ethiopia to press the government to allow humanitarian aid to Tigray, a region of some 6 million people where the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade is unfolding. The U.S. says up to 900,000 people now face famine conditions.

The U.N. food agency said it is working to provide food to Tigray through Sudan despite frayed ties between Khartoum and Addis Ababa.

Negotiations to access the blocked Tigray region have proved to be quite difficult, Marianne Ward, the World Food Program’s deputy country director in Sudan, said. She said WFP has already moved 50,000 tons of wheat to Ethiopia through Sudan.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

Nigeria has been hit by a surge in cholera cases in recent weeks, focused on the country’s north and adding to a public health crisis accompanied by a rise in COVID-19 cases.

“In the last two weeks we had new and resurgence cases,” Dr. Bashir Lawan Muhammad, the state epidemiologist and deputy director of public health for northern economic hub Kano State, told Reuters.

He said the rainy season was making it worse, while insecurity in the north, where the authorities have been battling Islamist militants and armed criminals, was also hindering the authorities’ ability to respond.

Twenty-two of Nigeria’s 36 states, as well as the federal capital territory Abuja, have suspected cases of cholera, according to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, (NCDC). The illness, which is caused by contaminated water, can kill within hours if not treated.

The surge has been focused in the north of the country, where health systems are least prepared.

At least 186 people had died in Kano of cholera since March, Muhammad said. The state accounts for the biggest share of the 653 cholera deaths recorded in the country as a whole by the NCDC. Nearby northern states Bauchi and Jigawa are also among the hardest hit, according to the NCDC.

Lagos-based consultancy SBM Intelligence said the states with the most fatalities showed a strong correlation with those that performed poorly in its health preparedness index published in May.

The cholera surge comes as daily COVID-19 cases hit their highest since March, raising fear of a third wave of the pandemic in Africa’s most populous nation.

 

 

 

Source: Voice of America

More than 26,000 people who fled in 2015 jihadist attacks in southeastern Niger were returned to their hometown, in the Diffa region, local authorities said on Friday.

“These are 26,573 people from 8,190 households who have already been transported to 19 villages at the end of the first phase of the IDP return operations,” an official from the governorate of the Diffa region told AFP.

This region bordering Nigeria is home to 300,000 Nigerian refugees and internally displaced persons, driven out by the atrocities of the jihadists of the Nigerian group Boko Haram and its dissident branch of the Islamic State group in West Africa (Iswap), according to the U.N.

Nigerien public television showed images on Thursday evening of the last wave ending this first phase, of 11,733 people en route to their locality of origin in trucks chartered by the authorities.

These displaced people had found refuge in sites around more secure villages, U.N. camps or with relatives across the region.

Launched on June 20, this first phase of voluntary return concerns villages bordering the national road No. 1 “where the security situation is already favorable” for the return of the inhabitants, President Mohamed Bazoum indicated at the beginning of July during a stay in Diffa.

Other operations will be scheduled in order to return all the displaced to their villages “by December 2021,” explained Mohamed Bazoum.

In particular, the government provided food assistance, shelters and mosquito nets — to fight malaria — to populations returning to their villages.

He also promised to rehabilitate health centers, drinking water distribution systems and dilapidated schools after the residents left.

Niger and the governor of Nigeria’s Borno region, particularly hit by the attacks, have reached an agreement for the repatriation of 130,000 Nigerian refugees in Niger from November or December, President Bazoum said July 9.

Bazoum announced new military operations to “cleanse” villages where jihadists are located, who have “widened” their field of action in the southeast of the country.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

Awoken by gunshots in the middle of the night, Fatima Amadou was shocked by what she saw among the attackers: children.

Guns slung over their small frames, the children chanted “Allahu akbar,” as they surrounded her home in Solhan town in Burkina Faso’s Sahel region. Some were so young they couldn’t even pronounce the words, Arabic for “God is great,” said the 43-year-old mother.

“When I saw the kids, what came to my mind was that (the adults) trained these kids to be assassins, and they came to kill my children,” Amadou told The Associated Press by phone from Sebba town, where she now lives.

She and her family are among the lucky ones who survived the June attack, in which about 160 people were killed — the deadliest such assault since the once-peaceful West African nation was overrun by fighters linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State about five years ago. As that violence increases, so too does the recruitment of child soldiers.

The number of children recruited by armed groups in Burkina Faso rose at least five-fold so far this year, up from four documented cases in all of last year, according to information seen by the AP in an unpublished report by international aid and conflict experts.

At least 14 boys are being held in the capital, Ouagadougou, for alleged association with militant armed groups, some there since 2018, said Idrissa Sako, assistant to Burkina Faso’s public prosecutor at the high court in the city.

Amadou said she saw about seven children with the fighters who surrounded her home during the Solhan attack. She did not see them kill anyone, but they helped burn down houses.

“We are alarmed by the presence of children with armed groups,” said Sandra Lattouf, the representative for the United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, in the country.

The effects of the conflict on children — including their recruitment as soldiers but also attacks on schools and kids themselves — have become so concerning that this year Burkina Faso was added for the first time to the U.N.’s annual report on Children and Armed Conflict.

Aid groups say they are seeing more children with jihadi fighters at roadside checkpoints in the Sahel — an arid region that passes through Burkina Faso but stretches straight across the African continent just south of the Sahara. In recent years, the western Sahel has become an epicenter of jihadi violence.

During a recent trip to Dori, a town in the region where nearly 1,200 people fled after the attack on Solhan, the AP spoke with eight survivors, five of whom said they either heard or saw children partake in the violence.

“We heard them say, ‘we good children have come to change Solhan in a better way,’” said Hama Amadou, a resident, who hid in his shop during the fighting. He said he also heard women directing the children, saying “kill him, kill him.”

Burkina Faso’s ill-equipped and undertrained army is struggling to stem the violence, which has killed thousands and displaced 1.3 million people since the jihadi attacks began.

Experts on child recruitment say that poverty pushes some kids toward armed groups. Sako, who works with the public prosecutor, said some children who wanted money to enroll in school joined because they were promised approximately $18 if they killed someone. Others were promised gifts like motorbikes.

But civil society organizations also accuse army troops of contributing to the problem by committing abuses against civilians suspected of being jihadis.

“There are more security operations … (so) there are more military abuses,” said Maimouna Ba, head of operations for Women for the Dignity of the Sahel, a Dori-based advocacy group. “It is hard for a child to get up in the morning and see that their father was killed.” As they get older, children may become angry and start asking why the state isn’t helping them, she said.

The army denied these allegations, along with accusations that it was slow in responding to the attack in Solhan, but would not provide a detailed comment.

The deteriorating security is sparking unrest, with protests across the country demanding the government take stronger action. In response, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore fired his security and defense ministers, appointing himself minister of defense.

Amid this raft of problems, Burkina Faso must now also figure out what to do with the children accused of being affiliated with armed groups.

None of the boys being held in Ouagadougou has been put on trial, according to Sako. The government has not yet signed an agreement with the United Nations that would help it to treat such children as victims, not perpetrators, for instance, by moving them from prison to centers where they could receive psychological care.

“It is a real concern for us to find a permanent solution for children,” said Sako.

Preventing further recruitment, meanwhile, means tackling economic hardship and all that comes with it, including helping kids who have left school to catch up on their lessons.

“Neglecting to act now will only lead to a more intractable crisis and greater instability in the months and years ahead, giving these armed groups the heartbreaking advantage they are so violently seeking,” said Dr. Samantha Nutt, founder and president of War Child Canada and War Child USA.

For now, many parents, already struggling to feed, clothe and educate their kids, feel powerless to protect them.

“I’m really afraid for my child to be recruited by jihadis,” said Isma Heella, a Dori resident and father to a 4-year-old boy. “We fear for our children and for ourselves as parents because we are not stronger than them.”

 

 

Source: Voice of America

The United States military has confirmed that it carried out another airstrike against al-Shabab militants, its third in less than two weeks.

Sunday’s strike was in support of Somali government forces in the vicinity of Qeycad, in the central Galmudug state, according to the U.S. military.

The Somali government earlier reported the strike was in an area where federal and U.S.-trained forces were fighting the militants. There was no word on whether militants were injured or killed.

“This is another major blow to al-Shabab’s means to wage war against the Somali people,” a statement by the Information Ministry of Somalia said.

“The airstrikes destroyed a large al-Shabab firing position engaging Danab and SNA (Somali National Army) forces as they approached,” the statement added.

Danab or “lightning” are Somali commandos trained by the U.S.

Both the U.S. and Somali government said there were no civilian casualties.

Al-Shabab, however, said in a statement published online that government forces, supported by the United States, did not succeed in Sunday’s fighting.

Previous airstrikes took place July 20 and 23 in the same vicinity.

These are the first airstrikes against al-Shabab in Somalia since U.S. President Joe Biden took office in January.

 

Source: Voice of America

TOKYO – At age 46, the second-oldest skateboarder at the Tokyo Games is hoping to not have a heart attack and have mounds of fun. Should be no problem. Fun has been a life’s work for Dallas Oberholzer.

“I have never had a real job. I have never applied for a job,” he says. “My whole life has just been skateboarding. I am just hooked.”

Skateboarding’s young guns, with their endorsements and boards bearing their names, have bigger tricks and bigger Instagram followings than the grizzled South African with a salt-and-pepper beard. Oberholzer isn’t expecting to beat them when they go wheel-to-wheel this week in Tokyo’s huge purpose-built Olympic skate bowl.

But Oberholzer has big tales, woven from a nomadic existence on four squeaky polyurethane wheels. If skateboarding is the punk rock sport of the Games, disruptive and not taking itself too seriously, then Oberholzer is its Iggy Pop — raw, wild and worn, someone who can talk and talk and talk.

About, say, when he worked as a concert chauffeur, ferrying around Janet Jackson’s dancers. Or his 16-month road trip, from Canada all the way to Argentina, after he graduated from university with a degree in marketing that he quickly realized he had no use for.

“Just a collection of experiences” is how he describes himself. Another description could be: A mascot for middle-aged people everywhere, flying the flag for Generation X against Gens Y and Z.

“I’m not going to win. I am not going to get a medal,” he said. “But, like, I am legitimately the best guy in Africa. By default, the best guy in Africa goes to the Olympics.”

“It’s just unbelievably epic,” he added. “It’s all expenses paid and it’s going to be the best course I would have ever skated in my life.”

Only Rune Glifberg, aka “the Danish Destroyer” and also 46, is older (by eight months) than Oberholzer among the 80 men and women competing in skateboarding’s Olympic debut in Tokyo.

In the men’s park competition on Thursday, Oberholzer and Glifberg — with their spiky shocks of grey-flecked hair — will face skaters less than half their age.

The women’s event on Wednesday has even younger skaters: Kokona Hiraki of Japan is just 12. In the women’s street event in Week 1, three young teens — 13, 13 and 16 — won gold, silver and bronze.

“I have got nothing to lose, nothing to prove. I know I am 46 and all I need to do is keep my cardio up so I can stay on my skateboard for 45 seconds,” Oberholzer said. “I’m going to be the one smiling, bro. I hope. Or I will be having a mild heart attack.”

Skating’s age range is remarkably broad for an Olympic event and testifies to the sport’s inclusivity. In July, skating pioneer Tony Hawk competed at the X Games at age 53, and was beaten by a 12-year-old, Gui Khury.

The sport’s coffee mug could read: “Skaters don’t grow old, they just get new wheels.”

“Skateboarding definitely makes you feel younger,” Glifberg said. “It’s not just a physical thing. It’s a lot to do with style and grace and just the way that you present yourself on the board.”

Whereas Gens Y and Z have had “how-to” videos on YouTube and Instagram to teach them tricks, Oberholzer and Glifberg had to find their own way.

Glifberg started right around the time that Back to the Future turned kids onto skating in 1985. For Oberholzer, it was a rented VHS copy of the 1986 movie Thrashin’, about skateboarding gangs, that “made all our eyeballs pop out.”

Until then, his sport had been tennis.

“I remember just thinking to myself, ‘I could play tennis and let the ball have all the fun or I could be the ball,'” he recalled. “And I’m like, ‘I want to be the ball. I want to be the one flying around.'”

Anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela was still in prison when Oberholzer started riding buses into central Johannesburg in search of places to skate. Schooled, like other white South Africans, separately from Black kids, it was on his board that Oberholzer first started to meet and mingle with Black peers who also skated.

“It really helped me get over my apartheid upbringing,” he said.

In turn, Oberholzer is giving back. He uses skateboarding to reach out to kids in tough neighborhoods, to keep them from drugs and gangs and help them develop skills. The Indigo Youth Movement he founded has built multiple skate parks and ramps.

But none of that has impressed his mum, Linda, quite like qualifying for the Olympics.

“My mom is finally happy with my life choices, bro. You know what a good feeling that is? It’s taken that long for my mom to acknowledge what I do with my life,” he said. “That’s probably the best thing I’m taking out of this, is that my mom finally goes, ‘Wow.'”

 

Source: Voice of America

Ethiopia’s Selemon Barega sprinted the last lap to beat world record holder Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda and win a shock Olympic gold medal in the men’s 10,000 meters on Friday.
The 21-year-old Barega powered down the home straight to cross the line in 27 minutes 43.22 seconds, ahead of world champion Cheptegei in 27:43.63.
Jacob Kiplimo, the youngest-ever Ugandan Olympian when he ran the 5,000 heats in Rio as a 15-year-old, posted a time of 27:43.88 to secure bronze in the first athletics medal event of the Games.
Barega, the 2019 5,000-meter world championship silver medalist who set the second-fastest 10,000-meter time of the year in June, was applauded by the Ethiopian delegation as he smiled broadly on a victory lap with his country’s flag draped around his shoulders.
Cheptegei said he was experiencing mixed emotions.
“I have two feelings. One is that I’m very happy to have won an Olympic silver medal today,” he told reporters. “But the other side of me is really not satisfied with the result because I came here expecting to win a gold.”
Cheptegei also admitted that 2021 had been tough for him.
“This year was really a very difficult year for me in terms of racing,” he said. “It’s the year that I have lost all the focus, all the belief. There was a lot of pressure and I was feeling it in every moment.”
Uganda’s Stephen Kissa acted as the early pacemaker before dropping out a little over halfway through the race.
“We had a plan for me to go ahead to make it a fast race,” Kissa told reporters. “I thought they were going to follow me but when I looked round they were not there.”
Cheptegei led briefly before dropping back into the pack and Barega seized his chance, moving among the leaders in the last third of the race before hitting the front with a surge on the last lap to secure his surprise victory.

Source: Voice of America