Category: Politics

The attack in Burkina Faso last month that killed 160 civilians was in retaliation for activity by pro-government civilian militias in the area, according to Human Rights Watch.

In the daytime, Daouda Diallo is a scientist. By night, he is one of Burkina Faso’s most prominent human rights campaigners.

He runs the Collective Against Impunity and Stigmatization of Communities, a campaigning group set up in the wake of the Yirgou massacre, an attack that saw around 200 people killed, mostly from the Fulani ethnic group, in early 2019.

In Burkina Faso’s conflict with the Islamic State group and al-Qaida, the number of civilians killed by security forces has often come close to the numbers killed by the terror groups.

Diallo has been deeply affected by this.

“I’m a very sensitive person — I like to help the widow and the orphan, the vulnerable. … I’ve devoted my time to this, but it’s not an easy job, and I go unpaid. I do it for humanitarian reasons,” Diallo told VOA.

Diallo also points out that one of the government’s most controversial policies is a law that allows preexisting civilian militias, known as koglweogos, to be armed and trained by the government.

The new force is called the Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland, or VDPs.

When the law was created in 2020, Human Rights Watch said arming poorly trained civilians could lead to abuses.

So far, at least 95 people have been killed in 38 incidents of violence against civilians by VDPs, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

A man, whose full name has been withheld to protect his safety, says he watched as VDPs killed two of his neighbors after accusing them of being terrorists.

“…Issa was sick and decided to go to the market. The VDPs shot at him there. Issa ran to his house, where they killed him. Bad things happen. That’s why I had to run away. The militias are chasing you; the terrorists are chasing you.”

Burkina Faso’s Ministry of Defense did not respond to VOA’s interview request about the incident.

One VDP leader, who asked to not be named, said most VDPs simply want to defend their homeland, many having had terrifying encounters with terrorists themselves.

“The terrorists came and burned my house. They were looking for me, but fortunately I was not around. They also killed some of my neighbors and burned their houses as well. It’s because of that I really felt I had to join the VDPs,” he said.

A leader of the ruling MPP party admits it’s possible VDPs commit abuses — but says they are necessary.

“Within the framework of the fight against terrorism, we are obliged to face the fact that the VDPs make a very big contribution,” said Lassane Sawadogo, MPP Party Executive Secretary.

As widespread protests against insecurity in Burkina Faso have swept the country in recent weeks, President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said he will reform the VDPs as one way of improving security.

Diallo says the government should take corrective action quickly. However, the government has yet to say what its actions will be.

Source: Voice of America

Mourners waving white handkerchiefs, Kenneth Kaunda’s trademark symbol, paid tribute Friday at a memorial service for Zambia’s first president, who died last month aged 97, as VIPs hailed him as one of southern Africa’s great statesmen.

Neatly distanced in compliance with COVID rules, scores of Zambians stood on the terraces of the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka, swaying to dirges and solemn music played by a military band.

A hero of the struggle against white-minority rule, Kaunda died on June 17 at a military hospital where he had been admitted with pneumonia.

He always carried a white handkerchief — an item that he said symbolized love and peace, and which he started carrying while incarcerated during the struggle for independence.

A casket draped in the Zambian flag was driven on a gun carriage into the 60,000-capacity stadium and placed under a white marquee.

Zambia’s founding father was then given a multiple gun salute.

Braving the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the southern African country, several foreign dignitaries and presidents flew to Lusaka to pay their respects.

Zambia is among Africa’s top three countries reporting the highest number of new cases over the past week, after South Africa and Tunisia, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

“Today is a passing of an era,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told mourners.

“Kaunda was the last surviving leader of the generation who lit the path to Africa’s freedom from colonial misrule.”

The African Union’s commission chairman, Moussa Faki Mahamat, described Kaunda as “a unifier,” a “giant among men.”

“Had it not been for the selfless efforts of his generation, I would not be before you today, as the African Union would not exist,” he noted.

Ghana’s president, Nana Akufo-Addo, said “we are marking what is truly the end of an era on our continent… the last of the great freedom fighters, the philosopher king.”

‘Defeated Goliath of oppression’

Britain’s Minister for Africa James Duddridge, representing Zambia’s former colonial ruler, said Queen Elizabeth II was saddened by Kaunda’s death and that “the world has lost a great man.”

Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland described him as a “warrior who defeated the Goliath of oppression.”

Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta remembered the “many moments (his father Jomo Kenyatta) … shared together, fought and struggled together for this continent” with Kaunda.

“I have lost not only a mentor but a person who greatly inspired me as well,” said Kenyatta.

Kaunda, popularly known by his initials of KK, was president of Zambia for 27 years, taking the helm after the country gained independence in October 1964.

He headed the main nationalist group, the left-of-center United National Independence Party.

He was nicknamed by some “Africa’s Gandhi” for his non-violent, independence-related activism in the 1960s.

He hosted many of the movements fighting for independence or black equality in other countries around the continent — sometimes at a heavy cost.

But his popularity at home waned as he became increasingly autocratic and banned all opposition parties.

He eventually ceded power in the first multi-party elections in 1991, losing to trade unionist Fredrick Chiluba.

Taxi tribute

Zambia declared a period of mourning after his death, with flags flown at half staff, while his body was taken around the country for the public to pay their respects.

He will be buried next Wednesday at the country’s presidential burial site situated opposite the cabinet office in Lusaka.

Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera said Kaunda’s burial would signify the “planting of a vibrant seed.”

“From this seed, let’s harvest a new African generation with new pan-Africanism… free from corruption,” he urged.

Some taxi drivers in Lusaka drove with their headlights on as a way of mourning the country’s founder.

“We have agreed here that we will be driving with our lights on as a way of mourning Dr. Kaunda, shikulu (grandfather). The loss is too huge, not only here in Zambia but the entire world,” driver Lazarus Daka, 37, told AFP.

Source: Voice of America

The United Nations’ political chief urged Tigrayan forces in northern Ethiopia on Friday to “immediately and completely” endorse a cease-fire declared by the government so that food aid can reach a growing number of starving people in the embattled region.

“The cease-fire announcement provides an opportunity that all parties to the conflict, including the TPLF, must seize and build upon,” Rosemary DiCarlo said, referring to the Tigray People’s Liberation Front.

“As of today, the TDF has yet to agree to the cease-fire,” she said, referring to the Tigray Defense Forces, the group’s fighters.

The U.N. appealed for calm so aid workers could reach starving people, particularly in remote areas.

Hunger crisis has worsened

Acting humanitarian chief Ramesh Rajasingham said that in the two weeks since he had last briefed council members on the food crisis, it has “worsened dramatically.” During that briefing, he said 350,000 people were in faminelike conditions.

“More than 400,000 people are estimated to have crossed the threshold into famine, and another 1.8 million people are on the brink of famine,” he said Friday. “Some are suggesting that the numbers are even higher.”

Overall, of the 6 million people who live in Tigray, the U.N. says 5.2 million need some level of food assistance. In the past two months, it has reached about 3.7 million of them.

Rajasingham said it is urgent to start reaching people as the rainy season takes hold, food supplies become depleted, and risks grow from flooding and waterborne diseases.

“The lives of many of these people depend on our ability to reach them with food, medicine, nutrition supplies and other humanitarian assistance,” he said. “And we need to reach them now. Not next week. Now.”

He appealed to armed actors to provide guarantees for safe passage along roads for aid workers and supplies in and out of Tigray, as well as to remote areas of the region, and for aid flights to resume.

On Monday, the Ethiopian government announced an immediate unilateral humanitarian cease-fire after nearly eight months of fighting with Tigrayan forces. Tigrayan fighters reclaimed control of the regional capital Mekelle after Ethiopian government forces withdrew.

“The government must now demonstrate that it truly intends to use the cease-fire to address the humanitarian catastrophe in Tigray,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said.

She and several other council members called for a permanent cease-fire, inclusive dialogue and reconciliation, unhindered and safe access for humanitarians, and accountability for atrocities committed by all sides in the conflict.

Friday’s meeting was the Security Council’s first public discussion of the situation, following six closed-door meetings since hostilities erupted in November.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said holding an open session could further destabilize the country and politically weaken the Ethiopian government.

“The situation in Tigray must remain a domestic issue of Ethiopia, and we believe interference by the Security Council in solving it is counterproductive,” he said.

But Ireland’s envoy, who has been active in bringing the issue to the council, disagreed, saying that “it is clear a catastrophe is unfolding” and council action is overdue.

“The council’s voice matters on this issue,” Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason said. “Today, finally, we meet publicly, and all council members have an opportunity to send a clear message to the parties on the ground: This conflict must end. Humanitarian needs must be urgently addressed.”

The three African members of the council — Kenya, Niger and Tunisia — along with the Caribbean nation St. Vincent and the Grenadines, called on the council to act responsibly and to listen to Africa when it comes to African issues.

“In our view, dialogue is strength, and it is at the core of the African identity,” Kenyan Ambassador Martin Kimani said on behalf of the group. “Embrace it and save the precious lives of the people of Tigray to protect your national peace and once again be an anchor of regional security.”

Ethiopia’s envoy Taye Atske-Selassie told the council his government had made a “difficult political decision” to suspend the military operation in favor of protecting the state. But now it believes it has created the conditions for unhindered humanitarian assistance and for farmers to plant this season.

Fighting between the Ethiopian federal government and the TPLF broke out in November, leaving thousands of civilians dead and forcing more than 2 million people from their homes. Some 60,000 refugees crossed to neighboring Sudan.

Troops from Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbor to the north, and Amhara, a neighboring region to the south of Tigray, also entered the conflict in support of the Ethiopian government.  The U.N. said Friday that the Eritreans had withdrawn to the border and the Amhara regional force remained in place despite advances by the Tigrayan forces.

Source: Voice of America

The Nigerian government’s efforts to reintegrate former Boko Haram militants has seen hundreds of fighters go through rehabilitation. But it also gets pushback from the conflict’s victims, who want the militants to be held accountable. At a conference in the capital, women from the conflict-affected areas are getting support to head up reconciliation between the former terrorists and their communities.

Some 45 women from Nigeria’s northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe file in for a two-day conference in Abuja.

They’re here to discuss a sensitive subject – the reconciliation and reintegration of ex-Boko Haram fighters into their communities.

The conference is a joint initiative by the non-profit Center for Humanitarian Dialogue in Switzerland, U.N. Women and the International Organization for Migration (IOM). It’s designed to promote women-led community peacekeeping in the northeast, said Millicent Lewis-Ojumu, director at Center for Humanitarian Dialogue.

“We know and from experience have seen that when the women are involved in the conversations, peace building, in helping to resolve issues relating to how to reintegrate and rehabilitate former combatants or person’s associated with Boko Haram, that they are very effective,” said Lewis-Ojumu.

Since launching the safe exit program, “Operation Safe Corridor” for repentant fighters in 2016, authorities say the program has met with resistance from host communities.

The scheme was launched as part of a growing awareness for the use of amnesty to persuade terrorists to lay down their guns. Nearly 1,000 ex-fighters have been rehabilitated under the government’s program.

But very few are successfully living in communities. Most of them eventually rejoin Boko Haram due to rejection.

Hamzatu Alamin is one of the participants at the conference. She started talking about reconciliation 10 years ago when her community was hit hard and young men were coerced into joining Boko Haram.

But she said her efforts attracted some unwanted attention.

“You can be arrested by state actors and accused of being an accomplice. And secondly, the boys (Boko Haram), if you make a mistake, you can be their target,” she said.

Women like Alamin here said they hope to improve their community’s acceptance of former jihadists after the conference.

But attending the conference along with other women also lifts the burden of being negatively labeled with terrorists.

“I have been communicating with them. I am now able to say it freely because I know that even the government is communicating with them. The government and security forces are using many of the boys I communicate with as outlets to get the people they’re rehabilitating,” she said.

Maria Quintero, program manager at IOM Nigeria, said women also need socioeconomic stability if the program is to succeed.

“The Nigerian women are very strong. What we have found as well is that they’re very influential in the decision of the males. Women have a role to play especially when it comes to males coming back to the communities,” said Quintero.

More than 35,000 people have been killed and millions displaced since the start of the Boko Haram insurgency in 2009. Boko Haram, which opposes Western education, has frequently targeted schools.

Source: Voice of America

U.N. aid agencies warn of a looming humanitarian catastrophe in northern Ethiopia’s battle-scarred Tigray region if they are prevented from delivering life-saving assistance to this stricken area.

The Ethiopian government’s tenuous unilateral ceasefire in Tigray after eight months of conflict has not got off to a good start. The U.N. refugee agency reports the electrical power and phone networks in its offices in the capital Mekelle are not functioning, hampering its ability to deliver humanitarian aid.

The U.N. children’s fund has condemned the pillaging of its video equipment Monday by members of the Ethiopian National Defense Forces, warning 140,000 acutely malnourished children were at risk of dying without urgent nutritional treatment.

The World Food Program is demanding full access to Tigray to deliver life-saving food assistance to millions of hungry people. Among them, it says, are half a million children, women and men who face starvation over the coming months.

The World Health Organization reports the region’s health system has collapsed. WHO spokesman, Tarik Jasarevic, says WHO can do little to help the beleaguered population because access to the area is extremely limited.

“We are obviously concerned about potential for cholera, measles, and malaria outbreaks in the region. In addition, Tigray region is also located on the meningitis belt and is at risk of yellow fever outbreaks… People are also at risk of death from lack of access to health services to treat any other diseases that may happen,” he said.

Despite the cease-fire, fighting continues in Tigray. Jasarevic says WHO is taking measures to strengthen the security and wellbeing of its staff. He says efforts to provide essential health care is ongoing where it is possible to do so. However, he adds, what WHO staff can do does not approach the enormity of the needs.

“Now, with hospitals that are barely functioning, people being displaced, and the looming famine, the risk of communicable and vaccine-preventable diseases spreading due to the lack of food, clean water, safe shelter and access to health care is very real. All these factors combined are literally a recipe for larger epidemics,” he said.

WHO reports an estimated 3.5 million people are at risk of cholera. It says six million people are vulnerable to malaria, especially malnourished children. It says they are at particular risk of dying from this deadly vector-borne disease.

An oral cholera vaccine campaign targeting two million people, which began on June 12 was only able to reach 50% of the targeted population. WHO reports this was due to the conflict and difficulty in reaching the region’s widely spread population by road.

The agency reports attacks on health care, the looting and destruction of cold chain — the system used for storing vaccines correctly — and the general dangers posed by the warring parties has had a harmful impact on this life-saving operation.

Source: Voice of America

Burkina Faso’s President Roch Kabore has dismissed the country’s defense minister in the wake of widespread protests Saturday against insecurity.

Cherif Sy had been defense minister since the country’s conflict with domestic terror groups started in 2015. His replacement is the president himself, along with a minister delegate, Colonel Major Aimé Simpore, who has been appointed to assist.

At the beginning of June, Burkina Faso saw its worst terrorist attack on civilians since the conflict with armed groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State started. At least 138 people were killed in the village of Solhan.

The attack triggered a wave of protests against insecurity that swept the country last weekend. Sy’s departure was one of the protesters’ major demands.

Sy was sacked Wednesday, as was Security Minister Ousséni Compaoré, who was replaced with Maxim Kone, a foreign affairs deputy.

Will changes bring calm?

So what does this reshuffle in leadership mean for the country?Burkinabe analyst and activist Siaka Coulibally said public opinion was mixed, and even if some accepted the ministers’ departures as a concession, it’s dubious as to whether it’s enough to reverse the negative effect of terrorism across the country. Whether the reshuffle will be enough to calm the anger depends on whether there are new attacks, he said.

The fighting in Burkina Faso is at its most intense in the east of the country and in the northern province of Sahel. Izidag Tazoudine, a local official from the tri-border region of Sahel province, where Burkina Faso’s border meets with Mali and Niger, said he was hopeful that things would change after the reshuffle.

Since Sy has been in office, Tazoudine said, there have been attacks and discontent, such as that in the northern communities of Solhan, Markoye and Barsalogho, where insurgents ambushed and killed 11 police officers in late June. That’s why people wanted the president to change the ministers of defense and security. Tazoudine said that because those moves have been made, it’s believed that things will change now.

Smockey, a local hip hop artist and co-founder of Citizen’s Broom, a civil society group that played a central role in ousting the country’s former dictator in 2014 as well as in organizing last weekend’s protests, said the recent actions weren’t enough for virtuous governance. It is necessary, he said, to tackle problems at all levels of the state and not only these two key ministerial posts.

No risk of coup seen

Philippe M. Frowd, an associate professor at the University of Ottawa and an expert on security in the Sahel, was asked whether he thought the protests could escalate into a coup, as happened in neighboring Mali recently.

“I don’t sense a strong similarity with Mali in the sense of fragmentation within the armed forces or very strong inter-elite tensions that would typically be what goes into the recipe for a coup,” he said. “So I don’t think Burkina Faso is immediately in that risk zone.”

Meanwhile, opposition leader Eddie Kombiego said the reshuffle would not be enough to return security to the country. The opposition is determined to push ahead with further protests this weekend.

Source: Voice of America

An Ethiopian government spokesman said Wednesday that the Ethiopian army could reenter Tigray’s regional capital of Mekelle within weeks, if necessary.

Redwan Hussein, spokesman for Ethiopia’s task force for Tigray, made the announcement to reporters in the government’s first public remarks since the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) seized control of Mekelle earlier this week.

“If it is required, we can easily enter to Mekelle, and we can enter in less than three weeks,” Redwan said.

The Ethiopian government announced a cease-fire on state media late Monday, saying it would take effect immediately after nearly eight months of conflict in the region and as troops of Tigray’s former governing party entered Mekelle, prompting cheers from residents.

However, Tigray forces spokesman Getachew Reda said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday that the cease-fire was a “sick joke” and promised to push out Ethiopian and Eritrean forces.

Getachew said Ethiopian troops were still battling to recapture territory and that Eritrean forces continued to control a “significant part” of the area.

Getachew also told AP that the TPLF would not negotiate with Ethiopia until vital services such as communications and transportation, which were damaged or destroyed in the war, were restored.

“We have to make sure that every inch of our territory is returned to us, the rightful owners,” Getachew said.

Rebels in Ethiopia’s Tigray region warned Tuesday that their troops would seek to destroy the capabilities of Ethiopian and Eritrean forces, despite the Ethiopian government’s unilateral cease-fire.

Later Tuesday, a senior member of Tigray’s regional government told The New York Times that Tigray’s leadership was committed to “weaken or destroy” the capabilities of the Ethiopian and Eritrean armies “wherever they are.”

But during the Ethiopian government’s news conference in Addis Ababa on Wednesday, Lieutenant General Bacha Debele warned that troops could quickly return.

“If they try to provoke, our response will be huge, and it will be more than the previous one,” said Bacha, who added that the pullout was meant to “give relief” to residents.

Famine concerns

At a U.S. congressional hearing Tuesday on the conflict, Sarah Charles of the U.S. Agency for International Development told lawmakers the “U.S. believes famine is likely already occurring” in the region. She said the U.S. estimated that between 3.5 million and 4.5 million people needed “urgent humanitarian food assistance” and that up to 900,000 of them were “already experiencing catastrophic conditions.”

State Department official Robert Godec said at the hearing that Eritrea “should anticipate further actions” if the announced cease-fire did not improve the situation in the region. “We will not stand by in the face of horrors in Tigray,” Godec said.

An Ethiopian government statement carried by state media said the cease-fire would allow farmers to till their land and aid groups to operate without the presence of military troops. It said the cease-fire would last until the end of the farming season but did not give a specific date. The country’s main planting season lasts through September.

The United Nations said the nearly eight-month-old conflict in Tigray has pushed 350,000 people to the brink of famine and that 5 million others need immediate food aid. The famine is the world’s worst in a decade, the U.N. said.

Ethiopia and authorities on the scene have been accused of blocking deliveries of aid, also endangering the lives of more than 1 million Tigrayans who live in remote areas.

Significant loss, meetings urged

Several U.N. Security Council members, including the United States, Britain and Ireland, have called for an urgent public meeting to discuss the developments. Diplomats said no date had yet been fixed for the meeting, and it had not been decided whether it would be a public or private session.

On Monday, the U.N. children’s agency said Ethiopian soldiers had entered its office in Mekelle and dismantled satellite communications equipment.

UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement, “This act violates U.N. privileges and immunities. … We are not, and should never be, a target.”

Violence in the Tigray region intensified last week after a military airstrike on a town north of Mekelle killed more than 60 people.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus accused Ethiopian authorities of blocking ambulances from reaching victims of the strike.

An Ethiopian military spokesman said only combatants, not civilians, were hit in the strike.

Judd Devermont, director of the Africa program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA the loss of Mekelle was one of several reasons the Ethiopian government announced the cease-fire after resisting months of global pressure.

“That was a pretty significant defeat for the Ethiopians and probably a further sign that they were not winning the war. So, I think that compelled them to ask for a pause or to call for a pause for a cease-fire,” he said.

Other factors are the loss of global financial support, sanctions from the European Union and the U.S., a weakening economy and issues with elections, Devermont said.

Marina Ottaway, a political scientist with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars based in Washington, echoed Devermont’s assessment of Ethiopia’s economy.

“It’s still a very poor country, don’t misunderstand me. But there were clear signs of improvement, of new policies, of new directions … and now, it’s back to square one,” Ottaway said in an interview with VOA.

Fighting between the Ethiopian government and the TPLF broke out in November, leaving thousands of civilians dead and forcing more than 2 million people from their homes. Troops from Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbor to the north, and Amhara, a neighboring region to the south of Tigray, also entered the conflict in support of the Ethiopian government.

Source: Voice of America