Day: August 30, 2021

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Suspected Militants Kill 19 in Eastern Congo Village

Suspected Islamist militants killed at least 19 people in a raid on a village in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, local authorities said.

The attackers looted houses and started fires in Kasanzi-Kithovo near Virunga National Park in North Kivu province overnight between Friday and Saturday, they said.

“I don’t know where to go with my two children,” villager Kahindo Lembula, who lost four of her relatives in the attack, told Reuters by phone. “Only God will help us.”

The head of Buliki district, Kalunga Meso, and local rights group CEPADHO blamed the assault on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) — an Islamist militant group accused of killing thousands of people in recent years, mostly in remote areas.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility and the ADF could not be reached.

The government declared martial law in North Kivu and neighboring Ituri province at the beginning of May, in an attempt to quell a surge in violence that the military largely attributes to the ADF.

But the number of civilians killed in such attacks has only increased since then, according to the Kivu Security Tracker, which maps unrest in eastern Congo.

Earlier in August, President Felix Tshisekedi said special forces from the United States would soon deploy to the east to gauge the potential for a local anti-terrorism unit to combat Islamist violence.

The ADF was blacklisted in March by Washington as a terrorist group. It has publicly aligned itself with Islamic State, which in turn has claimed responsibility for some of its Attacks.

But in a June report, U.N. experts said they had found no evidence of direct support from Islamic State to the ADF.

Source: Voice of America

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Kenya Sets Up COVID-19 Vaccination Centers

Kenya is stepping up its COVID-19 vaccination campaign by setting up inoculation centers in public spaces like malls, markets, and bus stops. Authorities hope the extra convenience will lift a vaccination rate that stands at just 2%.

At a bus terminal in Nairobi, hundreds of people wait to get vaccinated. It's an exercise that has saved them long-distance travel to the designated vaccination centers.

Walter Juma, a public bus conductor, is getting ready to receive his first COVID-19 jab. He said because of the demanding nature of his job, he could not find the time to go for vaccination at the health facilities.

"The vaccination is now near my place of work and home," Walter said. "This has helped a lot. There are other people who cannot walk for long, the elderly and some are sick."

Health officials said the number of people turning up for their vaccinations has doubled since more inoculation sites opened a month ago. Jackline Kerubo is a sub-county medical officer.

"We've decided to come to the community because usually we give Monday to Friday at our public health facilities, but you find most people don't have time to come, so we decided to come to the community so that we increase accessibility to the vaccine," Jackline said.

Kenya is receiving more vaccine doses from the U.S. government and other nations, so the supply is much better than during the first phase of the vaccination program.

With its new vaccination strategy, Kenya's vaccination taskforce chairman, Dr. Willies Akhwale, says they are hoping to vaccinate at least 10 million people by the end of the year.

"We are now using about 800 centers, and we are going to gradually increase this to 3,000 centers by December," Willies said. "Increasing them means you are reaching people; you are opening vaccination center closer to where people are."

So far, 2.5 million people have received the first dose of the vaccine in Kenya.

Source: Voice of America

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Protests in South Sudan Fizzle Amid Security Presence, Internet Outage

Planned protests against South Sudan’s government failed to materialize Monday amid a heavy deployment of security forces in the capital, Juba, and a nationwide disruption of internet service.

A coalition of activist groups had called for public demonstrations to coincide with President Sala Kiir’s address to lawmakers at the opening session of Parliament Monday. However, there were no major gatherings on the streets of Juba.

Protesters 'scared off'

Speaking to VOA, Wani Michael, a member of the People’s Coalition for Civil Action, said the protest fizzled because people were “scared off” by the large police presence throughout the city.

“How do you arm yourself like that just to suppress your own citizens who are expressing their disappointment with how things are going on in the country? This is not going to stop today because today is an awakening day. It is going to be a process,” Michael told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.

Police said the activists had not sought permission to protest, and therefore any large demonstration would be illegal.

“We deployed the forces at least to keep order in case of any problem. Those forces are in the streets for your safety," police spokesperson Daniel Justin Boulogne said.

Mobile data unavailable

Residents in Juba told Reuters that as of Sunday evening, mobile data was unavailable on the network of South African mobile operator MTN Group, and by Monday morning, it was also halted on the network of Kuwait-based operator Zain Group.

Alp Toker, director of NetBlocks, a London-based group that monitors internet disruptions, said it detected "significant disruption to internet service in South Sudan beginning Sunday evening, including to leading cellular networks."

South Sudan’s Information and Telecommunications Minister Michael Makuei denied the government tampered with internet services in the country.

“It is not shut down by the government but has technical problems that need to be addressed. If that fault is addressed, it will come back,” Makuei told South Sudan in Focus.

'A stupid question'

Asked why the internet was disrupted on the same day protests were planned, Makuei said, “This is a stupid question. Why do cars go off on the road? Why do TVs go off at certain times? Why are all these things happening? They happen because they ought to happen at that particular moment, not because anything is being done by anybody.”

Activist Jame David Kolok, whose Foundation for Democracy and Accountable Governance is one of the groups that called for the demonstration, told Reuters that the internet shutdown was a sign "the authorities are panicking."

The activists accuse Kiir's government of corruption and failing to protect the population or provide basic services.

The government has repeatedly denied allegations from rights and advocacy groups of abuses and corruption.

Source: Voice of America