Category: General

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits Kenya Wednesday to discuss "the partnership" between the two countries and to address regional issues such as ending the violence in Ethiopia, combating terrorism in Somalia and reviving Sudan's transition to a civilian government, the State Department said Tuesday.

Kenya, a member of the United Nations Security Council, is an important player in Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia.

The State Department said Blinken will meet with President Uhuru Kenyatta and Foreign Affairs Ambassador Raychelle Omamo to discuss the partnerships between their governments with respect to "ending the COVID pandemic and investing in health, addressing the climate crisis, building a more inclusive global economy, and strengthening democracy and respect for human rights."

The agency said the U.S. and Kenya are also "working together to address regional priorities, particularly ending the crisis in Ethiopia, fighting terrorism in Somalia, and restoring the civilian-led transition in Sudan."

Blinken's upcoming visit to Kenya is part of a three-nation tour to Africa that also includes trips to Nigeria and Senegal. His trip is partially aimed at raising America's profile as a key player in the region as it competes with China.

Despite its large contributions of money and vaccines to contain the coronavirus and other infectious diseases, the U.S. has had little success in gaining influence in the region.

Source: Voice of America

With the Earth becoming warmer and weather events more extreme, the African Union has set up a disaster operation center in Nairobi to help monitor major hazards and provide regional early warnings for drought, floods, extreme rainfall, food insecurity, and pests like the desert locust.

Major floods have become more common in Africa and show how vulnerable the continent is to climate change, even though it's the lowest producer of greenhouse gas emissions in the world.

To cope with such disasters, the African Union has set up a centralized monitoring and early warning system for the continent. The Nairobi Disaster Operation Center for the East African region is the continent's first weather "situation room."

"Council of the ministers within the member states sat and said we need to have a disaster operation center in Nairobi, which will focus mainly on early warning systems," said Jully Ouma, a geographic information system analyst at the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, in Nairobi. "So, that gave birth to the establishment of this office so that we look at broader aspects of different disasters within the region."

The center — located at the IGAD Climate Prediction and Applications Center — uses East Africa Hazards Watch, a system developed by the center for collecting and sharing multi-hazard data with member countries.

"The system works automatically so that it ingests in the data set," Ouma said, adding, "We have a super computing system within ICPAC, so there is less human attachment to it. It is also near real time. So, in every 10 days it updates itself and then we see the conditions of drought."

The center provides climate information and early warnings to 11 East African countries. Officials say local communities must be ready to respond quickly to save lives and minimize damage.

"So, we must equip the communities themselves to be able to respond to a disaster in its first hours at least," said Amjad Abbashar, regional director for Africa at the U.N. Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. "And so, I think we owe it to them to set up these early warning systems and ensure that it is functional, and that people who are vulnerable to disasters are able to access that information in a timely way, to save lives and property."

The situation room in Nairobi covers and reports on drought and floods. Another one in Niger, set to open this month, will monitor extreme rains and cyclones. The information collected at both sites will be distributed by the situation room at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa.

"We are responding to a very complex situation," said Gatkuoth Kai, technical coordinator for disaster risk reduction at the Africa Union Commission. "Over the years, we have seen disasters increasingly becoming borderless. But even when a hazard is localized, the intensity easily overwhelms the national response. And in this situation, the Pan African solidarity is required. Therefore, having this situation room is going to facilitate that African solidarity."

As Africa experiences more extreme weather, officials say early warnings and early action will help limit its impact.

Source: Voice of America

Nigerian rights activists are praising a Lagos state report into protests last year against a controversial special police unit. Days of protests against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in October 2020 came to a halt when security forces fired on the demonstrators at a toll gate, leaving at least 11 people dead. The report, leaked Monday, blamed Nigerian security for the deaths.

The report described the events of October 20 of last year as a “massacre,” stating that agents of the army and police shot at peaceful protesters as they sang the national anthem and waved the Nigerian flag during the evening rally.

The report said there were 48 casualties, including 11 people killed, four people missing and presumed dead, and many others injured with gunshot wounds.

The military, along with police authorities and the national government, have yet to comment on the report, but its findings contradict the early official position on the incident, and corroborate accounts told by many protesters.

“End SARS” activists have praised the report, including Obianuju Iloanya, one of the Abuja protest leaders whose brother was killed by the SARS police unit in 2012.

"When I saw it [the report] yesterday, the first feeling I had was relief because I never expected them to be so transparent or be able to say the truth. I thought that they'll run away from the truth because it's a panel that was set up by government,” Iloanya said.

In October of last year, Nigerian authorities established investigative panels across 29 out of 36 states in the wake of mass protests against police brutality. They were looking into claims, many made by younger citizens, of abuse.

The Lagos state panel received 255 petitions against the police. The panel's findings also showed that the military prevented medical aid from getting to the injured protesters after the shooting, further exacerbating the impact.

In its submission to the Lagos state authorities on Monday, the panel recommended police reforms and sanctions for security agents who took part in the shooting.

The panel also said compensation should be paid to victims and that the government must improve its engagement with the youth and publicly apologize to protesters.

Last year, Amnesty International said at least 12 protesters were killed at the toll gate and made recommendations similar to those of the panel. Speaking before the report was leaked, Amnesty's spokesperson, Seun Bakare, said government usually trivializes these issues.

"The government has consistently refused to take recommendations seriously. Many times they even claim that all that we're saying is absolute lies,” Bakare said.

Iloanya said the leaked report triggered sad memories.

"I felt anger and I felt pain and frustration because these were young people that were out on the streets, and demanding for better and they were killed for that; it's painful thinking about it," he said.

But End SARS activists like Iloanya say the Lagos panel's findings and honesty inspire confidence and hope that it prompts other investigative panels to do the same. In the wake of last year’s deadly protests, the government disbanded the SARS unit. Rights groups have said the unit was a symbol of excessive force.

Source: Voice of America

The late F.W. de Klerk, South Africa’s final apartheid president, leaves a legacy as complicated as the nation he once led.

Some South Africans say de Klerk, who died last week, deserves to be honored as one of the world’s great statesmen for releasing Nelson Mandela and helping South Africa toward democracy.

Others, though, are focusing on de Klerk’s support of whites-only rule for most of his political career and for the alleged role he played in the murderous rampage of anti-apartheid activists.

“F.W. de Klerk, knowing him also on a personal level for many years now, he’s very misunderstood," said Jan Bosman, the director of the Afrikanerbond, a group representing Afrikaner interests. "Some very unfair remarks are made towards him. And I think it’s unfair at this stage, also in the time of death, to be so harsh and so critical."

Elected president in 1989, de Klerk released African National Congress leader and anti-apartheid icon Mandela from prison in 1990, setting off South Africa’s path to its first democratic, multiracial elections. Four years later, de Klerk’s National Party lost to the ANC, which has held power ever since.

After that, de Klerk was a visible figure amid national reconciliation efforts and fierce debate over whether the pain of segregationist rule could ever be erased.

Political critics and activists say he never went far enough to condemn the brutal acts committed under the whites-only rule. Activists say it is unlikely that former officials during apartheid will ever face justice.

In the 1980s, as South Africa experienced one of the most violent periods in its history, the government, in which de Klerk was a senior member, imprisoned thousands of people. Its forces killed scores of anti-apartheid activists, including four from the small town of Cradock in Eastern Cape province.

“They were driving back from Port Elizabeth to Cradock when they were ambushed, and they were killed,” said Lukhanyo Calata, the son of Fort Calata, one of the four killed.

For much of the 1980s, de Klerk was a member of the government’s State Security Council. SSC documents show that in the months leading up to the killings of the “Cradock Four,” the council discussed the activists’ “permanent removal from society.” Minutes of the meetings indicate that de Klerk was present.

“We wanted de Klerk to confirm what he’d said in those meetings," Calata said. "We wanted him to tell us the truth about what his role was in the planning and conspiracy to murder the Cradock Four. He knew that a crime would be committed and yet he never did anything to stop it.”

Six former police officers later confessed to abducting and executing the Cradock Four, burning the bodies and dumping them in bush near Port Elizabeth. De Klerk denied any knowledge of political assassinations, blaming them on “rogue low-level operatives” within apartheid-era security forces.

Earlier this year, de Klerk claimed that senior ANC leaders “made deals” with his government to prevent prosecutions of apartheid-era politicians and killers. The ANC denies such deals were made.

“The ANC must be rejoicing today because their secret about who it was that entered into those deals with apartheid operatives, de Klerk took that information with him to the grave,” Calata said.

De Klerk repeatedly acknowledged that while he was in favor of apartheid in his “younger years” and a staunch supporter of whites-only rule, he eventually grew to regret his position.

“Since the early 80s, my views changed completely,” de Klerk said in a taped message shortly before his death. “It was as if I had a conversion. And in my heart of hearts, realized that apartheid was wrong. I realized that we had arrived at a place that was morally unjustifiable.”

South African President Cyril Ramaposa, the leader of the ANC, said de Klerk should mostly be judged for leading the country out of apartheid.

“We are saddened because he did play a key role in ushering in democracy in our country,” Ramaphosa said in a statement. “He had the courage to step away from the path that his party, that he led, had embarked upon from 1948, and we will remember him for that.”

De Klerk’s foundation said his funeral on Saturday would be private, attended by family and close friends.

Source: Voice of America

More than 200 people, most of them women, marched in the city center of Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, on Tuesday against what they call growing intolerance in the Central African state. The protesters, marking this year’s International Day for Tolerance, sang that there is a growing lack of respect for each other’s cultural and religious beliefs.

Secretary General of the Council of Imams and Muslim Dignitaries of Cameroon Adamou Ngamie took part in the protest. Ngamie says all Muslims, especially Imams, must try to preach inter-religious tolerance because it is praised by God in the Holy Quran. He says intolerance is bringing confusion and discord in Cameroon, which is in dire need of tolerance that will breed cohesion and bring back peace to the country.

In 2020, the government of Cameroon reported on problems of inter-religious intolerance in the central African state. It cited conflicts between Christian Pentecostal churches and Muslim fundamentalist movements on Cameroon’s northern border with Nigeria. The report said several clashes resulted in casualties but gave no further details.

Tuesday’s protesters noted intolerance in Cameroon spiked in 2017 when Anglophone separatists, complaining of second-class treatment, took up arms against the French-speaking majority state.

Cameroon’s separatist conflict has claimed more than 3,000 lives and displaced more than 550,000, according to the United Nations.

22-year-old University of Yaounde student Anabel Michou marched in the protest. She says hate speech and propaganda on social media by both separatists and authorities promote intolerance.

“We are calling on everybody to join us on board, to build a hate free Cameroon, to promote social cohesion, to ask for peace. Wherever we find ourselves, we have a collective role to play to make Cameroon a better country. There are alternative, nonviolent means of saying what we have and using the right channels for our thoughts to be heard. And we should also remember, we cannot build by destroying. We have to build by making what we have better.”

The Cameroon Women’s Peace Movement, which has been urging troops and separatists to lay down their arms, organized the protest. Movement member Nicoline Nwenushi Wazeh says the separatist conflict would be greatly reduced if Cameroonians learned to tolerate each other.

“We need to acknowledge that every human being is a separate entity [person] and this acknowledgement needs to come from the government through enforceable laws against intolerance. Parents should have a communication around tolerance with their children. In schools, children should be able to know about tolerance. We should be able to promote tolerance.”

In July, Cameroon launched a campaign against what it called growing online hate speech, intolerance, and xenophobic statements.

Rights groups, however, note that along with xenophobic statements, authorities also define hate speech as criticism of the state and long-time President Paul Biya.

The government did not issue any statements for this year’s International Day for Tolerance but has in the past called on all Cameroonians to live together in harmony.

Source: Voice of America