US Holds Out Hope for Partnership with Niger

Pentagon — The United States is not ruling out a continued military presence in Niger, despite a statement by the country’s ruling military junta that it was ending an agreement allowing for the presence of American forces engaged in counterterrorism missions.

U.S. defense officials said Monday the U.S. has yet to withdraw any of its approximately 1,000 military personnel from Niger and, along with officials from the White House and the State Department, said conversations with Nigerien officials are continuing.

“We remain in contact,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters Monday, adding that Niger’s military junta has yet to share information on a possible deadline for U.S. forces to leave the country.

“We have different lines of communications at all levels of government with Niger and our government,” she said. “Again, we want to see our partnership continue if there is a pathway forward.”

At the State Department, deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said most of the talks, for now, have been centered through the U.S. Embassy.

“We continue to have our ambassador and our embassy team there, and we’re continuing to discuss with them [Nigerien officials],” he said.

“We believe our security partnerships in West Africa are mutually beneficial and they are intended [to] achieve, I should say, what we think to be shared goals of detecting, deterring and reducing terrorist violence,” Patel added.

A spokesperson for the ruling military junta announced Saturday that it had revoked, effective immediately, the status of forces agreement that allowed U.S. forces to operate in the country and cooperate with the Nigerien military against militants linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State terror group.

Colonel Amadou Abdramane said the decision was based, in part, on what he called a “condescending attitude” by U.S. officials in a high-level delegation that met with Nigerien officials in the capital of Niamey last week.

“Niger regrets the intention of the American delegation to deny the sovereign Nigerien people the right to choose their partners and types of partnerships capable of truly helping them fight against terrorism,” he said.

U.S. officials, in contrast, described last week’s talks, as “direct and frank,” providing U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Molly Phee, Assistant Secretary of Defense Celeste Wallander and U.S. Africa Command’s General Michael Langley a chance to express Washington’s concerns while also hearing from Nigerien military and civilian officials.

“We were troubled on the path that Niger is on,” the Pentagon’s Singh told reporters Monday, admitting that some of the concerns centered on Niger’s “potential relationships with Russia and Iran.”

Iran hosted Nigerien Prime Minister Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine in January and voiced a willingness to help Niger cope with international sanctions levied following the July 2023 coup.

But Niger’s military junta bristled at what it said were “misleading allegations” by U.S. officials that Niger had struck a secret deal to provide Tehran with uranium.

The junta also defended its relationship with Moscow, saying Russia partners with Niger to provide its military with equipment needed in the country’s fight against various terrorist groups.

U.S. officials, though, have previously expressed concerns about Russian defense officials making visits to Niger following the July coup.

And a top U.S. lawmaker Monday, suggested Russian influence may have played a role in the military junta’s announcement.

“Part of this is Russia’s attempt to insinuate themselves in the region dramatically and to cause us [the U.S.] problems,” said Senator Jack Reed, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Reed, a Democrat, told a virtual meeting of the Washington-based Defense Writers Group that Niger’s ruling junta has been sending the U.S. signals for months that it might seek to evict U.S. forces.

“We will have to counter that … by repositioning forces and capabilities so we can still have observation and influence in that area of the Sahel,” Reed said, noting that U.S. military officials have been considering other options.

U.S. military officials confirmed last August, following the coup, that a search for alternative sites was underway. But the Pentagon refused to say Monday how much progress had been made.

There are also concerns about getting other allies or partners in the region to agree to host a significant U.S. presence, and whether the location can provide the same kind of quick and easy access to terrorist targets, like the U.S. bases in Niger.

Most U.S. forces in Niger are currently located at Air Base 201 in the Nigerien city of Agadez, on the edge of the Sahara Desert.

The base, built about six years ago at a cost of $110 million, allowed the U.S. to conduct surveillance and counterterrorism missions with a fleet of U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones.

But the U.S. suspended all counterterrorism missions from the base following the July 2023 coup, saying personnel have been limited to conducting operations only for the purpose of protecting U.S. forces.

your ad here

Regional Analysts Concerned Over Niger’s Future Military Cooperation With US

abuja, nigeria — Analysts in West Africa are raising concerns about U.S. military operations across the Sahel after Niger ended military cooperation with the United States on Saturday. The U.S has hundreds of troops stationed at a drone base in northern Niger and has been helping with regional counterterrorism operations against jihadist groups.

Saturday’s announcement from Niger’s National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland came days after a U.S. delegation visited Niger, the second American team to visit since a group of military officers seized power last July.

It remains unclear what prompted the decision to cut military ties with Washington, but Council spokesman Colonel Abdou Ab’daramane said U.S. flights over Niger’s territory in recent weeks were illegal.

He also said the U.S. delegation had accused Niger of a secret deal to supply uranium to Iran and showed “condescending attitude against the government and people of Niger.”

Niger plays a pivotal role in the U.S counterterrorism operations in Africa’s Sahel region and hosts a major military air base in the city of Agadez.

Security expert Saheed Shehu of says there will be implications for regional security.

“Certainly we’ll see a spike of insecurity in those areas because the bad guys are also looking at the development,” Shehu said. “But I believe it’s not going to last because America is not going to sleep. America is going back to the drawing table to see how they can accommodate the complaints that were made by Niger.”

The U.S. has invested millions of dollars in its security operations in the region and has helped train Niger’s military — some of whom took part in the ousting of President Mohammed Bazoum last July.

The U.S. State Department Sunday said in a post on X that it was in touch with Niger’s military junta.

In October, U.S. authorities officially designated the military takeover in Niger as a coup and curbed security and development support to the nation.

Sam Amadi, a director at the School of Social and Political Thoughts, said Niger’s government could be looking elsewhere for a security alliance.

“It’s a loss because they’ve spent time, money by investing in that capability in Niger,” Amadi said. “I think they’ll lean towards Russia, but the question is nobody knows how effective it will be.”

Niger, like neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, turned to Russia for security support after last July’s coup.

In December, Niger ended its security partnership with the European Union, prompting France to withdraw its troops from the country.

Shehu said the various moves by the junta are a negotiation strategy.

“It will affect the general security in the area but at the same time I think the earlier agreement was more in favor of the United States,” Shehu said. “I do not see this as the end of Niger-U.S. relationship but they’re sending a signal that we need more of collaborations of equals going forward. What I see happening later is that the kind of cooperation has to be the kind that is mutually beneficial. The signal that Niger is sending is to tell America that ‘Look, we could go elsewhere.’”

The U.S. and France had a combined force of 2,500 troops in Niger before the military takeover.

It’s not clear when or if Niger will ask the U.S. will withdraw its troops as it did with France.

your ad here

Pakistani School Focuses on Healing Generational Trauma

In a neighborhood that was once a hotbed of gang violence in Pakistan’s economic hub, Karachi, one school is focused on healing the wounds of trauma passed down through generations. With emphasis on mental health, the Kiran Foundation’s school is empowering children and mothers to end the cycle of aggression and abuse. VOA Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman has the story. Camera: Wajid Asad.

your ad here

Chad Expects Some 20 Candidates to Compete With Military Ruler in Elections

YAOUNDE, CAMEROON — Officials in Chad say close to 20 candidates will be challenging military ruler General Mahamat Idriss Deby in Chad’s May 6 presidential election. The final list of candidates for the polls expected to end three years of military rule in the central African state will be officially declared on March 24, according to Chad’s Constitutional Council.

Among the presidential hopefuls is Ndjelar Koumadji Mariam, president of the National Union for Alternation in Chad, the only female candidate.  

Mariam said she is committed to bringing social justice and ensuring parity between men and women as stated in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. She spoke to VOA by telephone from Chad’s capital N’djamena on Monday.

Mariam said she intends to fight widespread corruption that has plunged a majority of Chad’s close to 17 million people into abject poverty. If Chad’s resources are equally distributed, she said, several million hungry women and children will have food, water and basic humanitarian needs.  

Mariam said corruption breeds hatred and is responsible for the anger, proliferation of armed groups and killings in Chad. 

Opposition leader and pro-democracy figure Success Masra, who was appointed transitional prime minister in January, said he is the candidate of The Transformers, a party he heads.  

Masra told Chad’s state TV that he agreed to be a candidate to mend hearts and reunite Chad’s citizens. 

Transitional president General Mahamat Idriss Deby is the nominee of Chad’s former ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement, or MPS party, which says he has the support of a coalition of over 200 opposition parties and about 1,000 civil society groups. 

Mbaiodji Ghislain, secretary general of the Alliance of Chad Civil Society Groups, said civil society groups believe that if given the opportunity, Deby will continue bringing back peace, stability, security, national concord and development, as he has done since he took power three years ago after the death of his father. 

But candidates Nasra Djimasngar, national secretary of A New Day party, and Bruce Mbaimon of the Movement of Chad Patriots for the Republic say Deby is manipulating civil society groups to stay in office. The two men accuse Deby of stoking political tensions and allowing what they call persistent social injustices to degenerate into violent conflicts in Chad. 

Chad’s opposition and civil society groups say the elections will be taking place in a very difficult political context following the killing of opposition leader Yaya Dillo, who was the president of the opposition Socialist Party Without Borders and Deby’s cousin. 

Dillo was killed during an exchange of fire with security forces on February 28, according to Chad’s government. But opposition and civil society groups say Dillo was eliminated because he was widely viewed as a strong challenger to Deby.  

The MPS party denies Deby is responsible for the several crises Chad is facing and says the transitional president will hand over power if beaten in the polls. 

But opposition candidates say voters should be vigilant before, during and after the polls. They say voters should be ready to defend their votes and report fraud or irregularities for legal action. 

The central African state’s constitutional council says campaigning for the first round of the presidential election begins April 14 and ends May 4.  

Chad’s electoral commission says May 6 presidential polls will mark a return to constitutional order and the end of Deby’s transitional period, now in its third year. 

your ad here

Can Rahul Gandhi’s Cross Country March Revive India’s Beleaguered Opposition?

New Delhi — Traversing 6,600 kilometers through 15 states over the last two months, the leader of India’s opposition Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi, beat out a message that the ruling  Bharatiya Janata Party has failed to deliver economic and social justice for the country’s masses. 

Gandhi’s “Unite India Justice March” that ended in Mumbai on Saturday aimed to give his party a boost ahead of general elections that begin on April 19. At dozens of roadshows, he said government policies have benefited business tycoons, not the marginalized masses. He promised his party would address issues such as joblessness, especially among educated youth. 

Pledging to enact a “Right to Apprentice Act” if voted to power, Gandhi said that “we will ensure that every person getting a diploma graduating from college will get a one-year job as an apprentice” and earn the equivalent of $1,200 a year. He said the plan will change the “destiny of the youth.” He also pledged to fill vacancies for three million government jobs. 

But can such promises dent the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who according to most recent surveys will win a third term in office? 

“[Gandhi] is seen as a symbol for all those dissatisfied with the Narendra Modi regime,” according to political analyst Neerja Chowdhury.  “But his message, which is about the alleged corruption of the Modi regime, growing unemployment, rising prices and the hardships that people are facing, is not having the kind of traction at the ground level that one would have thought might have happened.” 

That poses a challenge to the Congress Party’s hopes of weakening the BJP’s hold on power in parliamentary elections beginning April 19.  Congress, the largest opposition party in India, won just 52 seats in 543-seat lower house five years ago. BJP and its allies won more than 350.

“Beyond a shadow of doubt, Rahul Gandhi is raising the right issues,” said political analyst Sandeep Shastri, pointing out that recent data shows that unemployment and inflation are key concerns in the country. “But will the right issues being raised convert into votes is a big question mark, because that is more a question of the voter perception of who is capable of solving the problem.”

At public meetings in recent weeks, Modi has pitched himself as a leader who can deliver results and has improved the lives of India’s poor during his ten years in power.   

“We have opened bank accounts for the poor, helped them build concrete houses, and given them water, electricity connections and free vaccines,” Modi told a meeting in the southern state of Telangana, where his party is trying to make inroads. “There is only one guarantee of change, that is Modi’s guarantee.” 

To counter the BJP, the Congress party forged an alliance with about two dozen regional parties last year to put up a united front to unseat Modi’s Hindu nationalist party.  

But hopes of mounting an effective challenge to the BJP have dimmed as the opposition coalition called INDIA, an acronym for Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance, shows signs of fraying.  

The alliance had aimed to put up a common candidate against the BJP to prevent splintering of votes in parliamentary constituencies which are often contested by multiple candidates. As a result, parties win elections even if they secure less than 50% of the votes cast. 

However talks on seat-sharing have made limited headway in some states like West Bengal, where a powerful regional leader, Mamata Banerjee, decided that her party will contest all seats. 

“It is a lost opportunity. Some of its big leaders have left the INDIA alliance, some other big leaders are not joining with the Congress and other parties to form a broad platform which was the whole idea,” says Chowdhury. 

Analysts attribute the fissures in the alliance to the crushing losses that the Congress Party suffered in state elections held in December. The party lost power in two states, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh and was unsuccessful in unseating the BJP in a third. 

“It weakened the Congress Party’s role as the pivot of the alliance and subsequent to that, I think even state-based parties which were part of the alliance started redefining their individual strategies because they were more concerned with challenging the BJP in their individual states,” says Shastri. 

Opposition parties also accuse the BJP government of weakening their ranks by using the country’s main financial investigation agency to launch probes against some of their leaders — charges the government strongly denies.

The stakes in the upcoming polls are highest for Rahul Gandhi. While most regional parties have been holding ground in states that they govern, the Congress Party has suffered two humiliating losses in the last two national elections. 

Analysts say the opposition faces an uphill task in countering Modi — a  strong, charismatic leader, who remains hugely popular amid a rising tide of Hindu nationalism. 

“Gandhi has revived his image and tried to offer an alternative narrative, but so far many don’t see him as an alternative to Modi,” said Chowdhury. 

The cross-country march by Gandhi was his second  he trekked through 12 states over a year ago to connect with voters. It remains to be seen his efforts can resurrect the Congress Party that dominated India for seven decades, or whether it will continue to languish.

your ad here

Pakistani Planes Allegedly Hit Militant Hideouts in Afghanistan

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan carried out cross-border aerial strikes against suspected militant hideouts in Afghanistan early Monday, killing several people, according to officials.

A Pakistani security official, speaking anonymously to VOA because he was not authorized to interact with the media, confirmed the pre-dawn strikes, saying they targeted commanders linked to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan or TTP, a globally designated terrorist organization operating out of the neighboring country.

The military action apparently came in retaliation to Saturday’s high-profile TTP raid against a Pakistani military base in the volatile North Waziristan border district that killed seven soldiers, including two officers.

Afghanistan’s Taliban government confirmed in a statement that Pakistani planes had bombed multiple locations in its southeastern Paktika and Khost provinces but said the attack resulted in the deaths of eight civilians, including women and children. It was not possible to ascertain the identities of the slain people from independent sources.

“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan strongly condemns these attacks and calls this reckless action a violation of Afghanistan’s territory,” said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. He used the official title of his government, which has yet to be recognized internationally.

Mujahid denied again that the Taliban allowed Afghan soil to be used by militant groups against Pakistan or any other country.

“Pakistan should not blame Afghanistan for the lack of control, incompetence, and problems in its own territory. Such incidents can have very bad consequences, which will be out of Pakistan’s control,” the spokesman warned without elaborating.

Security sources told VOA that the air strikes had sparked skirmishes between Pakistani and Afghan security forces across several posts along the nearly 2,600-kilometer border between the two countries.

The Taliban Defense Ministry later confirmed in a statement that its border security forces targeted Pakistani outposts with “heavy weapons” in retaliation to the aerial incursions into Afghan territory.

Separately, a TTP statement claimed the strikes hit Pakistani refugee camps in the Afghan border area rather than its members. The claim could not be verified immediately.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani military said Monday that its troops had conducted a pre-dawn intelligence-led security operation in North Waziristan, killing eight TTP members. The slain militants included a key commander who played a role in plotting Saturday’s attack on the army base, the statement said.

Islamabad says that TTP has intensified cross-border attacks from Afghan sanctuaries since the establishment of the Taliban government in Kabul in 2021. The violence has reportedly killed about 2,000 Pakistanis, including police and military personnel, and strained relations between the two countries.

In April 2022, Pakistani fighter planes also carried out raids against TTP hideouts in Afghanistan.

Pakistan and the United Nations dispute Taliban claims they are not harboring foreign militant groups on Afghan soil.

“In the region and beyond, there are well-founded concerns over the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan,” Roza Otunbayeva, the head of the U.N. Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, told a March 6 U.N. Security Council meeting.

“It is not only Daesh that constitutes a threat but also TTP, a major concern for Pakistan, which has seen an increase in terrorist activity,” Otunbayeva said.

Daesh is an acronym for the Islamic State, and this militant group is an Afghanistan-based regional IS affiliate that conducts terrorist attacks on both sides of the long border between the two countries.

your ad here

India’s Bengaluru Running Out of Water as Summer Looms

Bangaluru, India — Bhavani Mani Muthuvel and her family of nine have around five 20-liter (5-gallon) buckets worth of water for the week for cooking, cleaning and household chores.

“From taking showers to using toilets and washing clothes, we are taking turns to do everything,” she said. It’s the only water they can afford.

A resident of Ambedkar Nagar, a low-income settlement in the shadows of the lavish headquarters of multiple global software companies in Bengaluru’s Whitefield neighborhood, Muthuvel is normally reliant on piped water, sourced from groundwater. But it’s drying up. She said it’s the worst water crisis she has experienced in her 40 years in the neighborhood.

Bengaluru in southern India is witnessing an unusually hot February and March, and in the last few years, it has received little rainfall in part due to human-caused climate change. Water levels are running desperately low, particularly in poorer areas, resulting in sky-high costs for water and a quickly dwindling supply.

City and state government authorities are trying to get the situation under control with emergency measures such as nationalizing water tankers and putting a cap on water costs. But water experts and many residents fear the worst is still to come in April and May when the summer sun is at its strongest.

The crisis was a long time coming, said Shashank Palur, a Bengaluru-based hydrologist with the think tank Water, Environment, Land and Livelihood Labs. “Bengaluru is one of the fastest growing cities in the world and the infrastructure for fresh water supply is not able to keep up with a growing population,” he said.

Groundwater, relied on by over a third of the city’s 13 million residents, is fast running out. City authorities say 6,900 of the 13,900 borewells drilled in the city have run dry despite some being drilled to depths of 1,500 feet (about 457 meters). Those reliant on groundwater, like Muthuvel, now have to depend on water tankers that pump from nearby villages.

Palur said El Nino, a natural phenomenon that affects weather patterns worldwide, along with the city receiving less rainfall in recent years mean “recharge of groundwater levels did not happen as expected.” A new piped water supply from the Cauvery River about 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the city has also not been completed, adding to the crisis, he said.

Another concern is that paved surfaces cover nearly 90% of the city, preventing rainwater from seeping down and being stored in the ground, said T.V. Ramachandra, research scientist at the Center for Ecological Sciences at Bengaluru-based Indian Institute of Science. The city lost nearly 70% of its green cover in the last 50 years, he said.

Ramachandra compared the city’s water shortage to the “day zero” water crisis in Cape Town, South Africa, 2018, when that city came dangerously close to turning off most taps because of a drought.

The Indian government estimated in 2018 that over 40% of Bengaluru residents won’t have access to drinking water by the end of the decade. Only those that receive piped water from rivers outside Bengaluru are still getting a regular supply.

“Right now, everyone is drilling borewells in buffer zones of lakes. That is not the solution,” Ramachandra said.

He said the city should instead focus on replenishing the over 200 lakes spread across the city, stop new construction on lake areas, encourage rainwater harvesting and increase green cover across the city.

“Only if we do this will we solve the city’s water problem,” he said.

Palur added that identifying other sources and using them smartly, for example by  

reusing treated wastewater in the city “so that the demand for fresh water reduces,” could also help.

Until then, some residents are taking serious measures. S. Prasad, who lives with his wife and two children in a housing society made up of 230 apartments, said they have begun water rationing.

“Since last week we’ve closed the water supply to houses for eight hours every day, starting at 10 a.m. Residents have to either store water in containers or do everything they need to in the allotted time. We are also planning on installing water meters soon,” he said.

Prasad said their housing society, like many others in Bengaluru, is willing to pay high costs for water, but even then, it’s hard to find suppliers.

“This water shortage is not only impacting our work but also our daily life,” Prasad said. “If it becomes even more dire, we’ll have no choice but to leave Bengaluru temporarily.”

your ad here

WHO: World Ignores Catastrophic Humanitarian Situation in Sudan

Geneva — April marks the one-year anniversary of the war in Sudan, sparked by a power struggle between two rival generals. Aid organizations say the war is having catastrophic consequences for the population of nearly 49 million people — more than half of whom need life-saving humanitarian assistance.

Since the conflict began April 15, 2023, tens of thousands of people have been killed and injured, millions have been forcibly uprooted from their homes and among the 18 million people suffering from acute hunger, 5 million are on the brink of famine, according to the World Food Program.

“And yet this catastrophic humanitarian situation in Sudan today hardly receives the international attention that it warrants,” said Dr. Richard Brennan, the regional emergency director for the World Health Organization’s regional office for the Eastern Mediterranean.

The Cairo-based Brennan, who went on his first mission to an emergency country early last week since assuming his post just over a month ago, noted that he has visited Sudan multiple times over the past 25 years and seen the country through many crises — such as floods, displacement, conflict and political turmoil.

Nevertheless, Brennan said he was taken aback by “the devastation that decades of fragility, and nearly a year of brutal war, have wreaked on the country.”

“In fact, I was just reading the report from my 2014 mission which described a desperate situation with over 6.1 million in need of humanitarian assistance.

“It is extraordinary to reflect that today over 24.8 million people are in need — four times what we observed 10 years ago,” he said, adding that the health needs are massive.

“We estimate that almost 14,000 have been killed and 28,000 injured; there are ongoing outbreaks of cholera, measles, dengue fever, and malaria; around 3.4 million children are acutely malnourished; and 70 percent of health facilities in conflict-affected areas are non-functional or only partially functional,” he said.

Early last week, Jill Lawler, chief of field operations and emergency for UNICEF in Sudan, led a team of 12 UNICEF staff on a mission to Omdurman – in the greater Khartoum area. Omdurman is a region that has been under near-constant fire since the war broke out.

She described the intolerable conditions under which millions of children are forced to live and told journalists in Geneva Friday about the difficulties of providing medical care to children in need.

She said, “At Al Nau Hospital, one of the only hospitals in Khartoum with a functional and very crowded trauma ward, we met with two young people who had recent amputations — two young lives changed forever — and we learned from the hospital director that about 300 had limbs amputated in the hospital in just the past month alone.”

She said Al Nau and other hospitals she and her team visited were overcrowded, with two or three patients having to share the same bed. She said medicine and equipment were in short supply, health care workers were overworked, exhausted, and that most “have not been paid regular salaries in months.”

“During our visit, we learned that women and girls who had been raped in the first months of war are now delivering babies — some of whom have been abandoned to the care of hospital staff, who have built a nursery near the delivery ward,” she said.

UNICEF projects nearly 3.7 million children in Sudan will be acutely malnourished this year, including 730,000 who need lifesaving treatment. “The scale and magnitude of needs for children across the country are simply staggering,” said Lawler, noting that Sudan is the world’s largest displacement crisis, adding, “Some of the most vulnerable children are in the hardest-to-reach places.”

The World Health Organization reports escalating fighting is preventing desperately needed humanitarian aid from reaching millions of people across the country.

“We are especially concerned about the situation in Darfur states, where no direct humanitarian access has been possible for several months, and only limited aid is reaching people in these areas,” said Dr. Hanan Balkhy, WHO regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region, in a statement Friday.

Balkhy, who went on the mission to Sudan early last week with her colleague, Richard Brennan, said, “Most health facilities have been looted, damaged, or destroyed. In West Darfur, the local health system has essentially ground to a halt.”

“We have consistently shown that when we are provided with sufficient access and resources, we achieve good health outcomes.

“During my meetings with the deputy prime minister and minister of health, I received reassurances that all efforts will be made to facilitate the scale up of the health response throughout Sudan,” she said.

UNICEF is appealing to the warring parties to enable rapid, sustained, and unimpeded humanitarian access both across conflict lines within Sudan and across borders with Sudan’s neighboring countries.

“Chad has provided a crucial lifeline to communities in Darfur, and access through its border remains absolutely critical, along with access through South Sudan,” Lawler said, adding that providing a lifeline for millions of destitute people will require generous support from the international community.

“We need a massive mobilization of resources by the end of March so that humanitarian partners can get the supplies and capacity on the ground, in time, to limit the impending humanitarian catastrophe that we are seeing,” she said.

your ad here

US Military Operations Across the Sahel at Risk After Niger Ends Cooperation 

DAKAR, Senegal — The United States scrambled on Sunday to assess the future of its counterterrorism operations in the Sahel after Niger’s junta said it was ending its yearslong military cooperation with Washington following a visit by top U.S. officials.

The U.S. military has hundreds of troops stationed at a major airbase in northern Niger that deploys flights over the vast Sahel region — south of the Sahara Desert — where jihadi groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group operate.

Top U.S. envoy Molly Phee returned to the capital, Niamey, this week to meet with senior government officials, accompanied by Marine Gen. Michael Langley, head of the U.S. military’s African Command. She had previously visited in December, while acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland traveled to the country in August.

The State Department said Sunday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that talks were frank and that it was in touch with the junta. It wasn’t clear whether the U.S. has any leeway left to negotiate a deal to stay in the country.

Niger had been seen as one of the last nations in the restive region that Western nations could partner with to beat back growing jihadi insurgencies. The U.S. and France had more than 2,500 military personnel in the region until recently, and together with other European countries had invested hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance and training.

But that changed in July when mutinous soldiers ousted the country’s democratically elected president and months later asked French forces to leave.

The U.S. military still had some 650 personnel working in Niger in December, according to a White House report to Congress. The Niger base is used for both manned and unmanned surveillance operations. In the Sahel the U.S. also supports ground troops, including accompanying them on missions. However, such accompanied missions have been scaled back since U.S. troops were killed in a joint operation in Niger in 2017.

It’s unclear what prompted the junta’s decision to suspend military ties. On Saturday, the junta’s spokesperson, Col. Maj. Amadou Abdramane, said U.S. flights over Niger’s territory in recent weeks were illegal. Meanwhile, Insa Garba Saidou, a local activist who assists Niger’s military rulers with their communications, criticized U.S. efforts to force the junta to pick between strategic partners.

“The American bases and civilian personnel cannot stay on Nigerien soil any longer,” he told The Associated Press.

After her trip in December, Phee, the top U.S. envoy, told reporters she had “good discussions” with junta leaders and called on them to set a timeline for elections in return for restoring military and aid ties. But she also said the U.S. had warned Niamey against forging closer ties with Russia.

Neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, which have experienced two coups each since 2020, have turned to Moscow for security support. After the coup in Niger, the military also turned to the Russian mercenary group Wagner for help.

Cameron Hudson, who served with the Central Intelligence Agency and State Department in Africa, said the incident shows the diminution of U.S. leverage in the region and that Niger was angered by Washington’s attempt to pressure the junta to steer clear of Russia. “This is ironic since one mantra of the Biden Administration has been that Africans are free to choose their partners,” he said.

The U.S. delegation visit coincided with the start of Ramadan, a month of dawn-to-dusk fasting and intense prayer for Muslims. Niger’s junta leader, Gen. Abdourahmane Tchiani, refused to meet them. A U.S. press conference at the embassy in Niger was canceled.

The junta spokesperson, speaking on state television, said junta leaders met the U.S. delegation only out of courtesy and described their tone as condescending.

Aneliese Bernard, a former U.S. State Department official who specialized in African affairs and director of Strategic Stabilization Advisors, a risk advisory group, said the recent visit had failed and the U.S. needs to take a critical look at how it’s doing diplomacy not just in Niger but in the whole region.

“What’s going on in Niger and the Sahel cannot be looked at continuously in a vacuum as we always do,” she said. “The United States government tends to operate with blinders on. We can’t deny that our deteriorating relationships in other parts of the world: the Gulf, Israel and others, all have an influential impact on our bilateral relations in countries in West Africa.”

 

your ad here

European Union Announces $8 Billion Package of Aid for Egypt

Cairo — The European Union on Sunday announced a $8 billion aid package for cash-strapped Egypt amid concerns that economic pressure and conflicts and chaos in neighboring countries could drive more migrants to European shores.

The deal is scheduled to be signed during a visit by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and the leaders of Belgium, Italy, Austria, Cyprus and Greece, according to Egyptian officials. 

The package includes both grants and loans over the next three years for the Arab world’s most populous country, according to the European Union Mission in Cairo. 

According to a document from the EU mission in Egypt, the two sides have promoted their cooperation to the level of a “strategic and comprehensive partnership,” paving the way for expanding Egypt-EU cooperation in various economic and non-economic areas. 

The EU will provide assistance to Egypt’s government to fortify its borders especially with Libya, a major transit point for migrants fleeing poverty and conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and will support the government in hosting Sudanese who have fled nearly a year of fighting between rival generals in their country. 

Egypt has for decades been a refuge for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa trying to escape war or poverty. For some, Egypt is a destination and a haven, the closest and easiest country for them to reach. For others, it is a point of transit before attempting the dangerous Mediterranean crossing to Europe. 

While the Egyptian coast has not been a major launching pad for people smugglers and human traffickers sending overcrowded boats across the Mediterranean to Europe, Egypt faces migratory pressures from the region, with the added looming threat that the Israel-Hamas war will spill across its borders. 

The package drew criticism from international rights groups over Egypt’s human rights record. Amnesty International decried the deal and urged European leaders not to be complicit with human rights violations taking place in Egypt. 

“EU leaders must ensure that the Egyptian authorities adopt clear benchmarks for human rights, said Amnesty International’s Head of the European Institutions Office, Eve Geddie in a statement. Geddie pointed to Egypt’s restrictions on media and freedom of expression and a crackdown on civil society.

your ad here

South Sudan Shutters All Schools as It Prepares for Extreme Heat Wave 

JUBA, South Sudan — South Sudan’s government is closing down all schools starting Monday as the country prepares for a wave of extreme heat expected to last two weeks.   

The health and education ministries advised parents to keep all children indoors as temperatures are expected to soar to 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit), in a statement late Saturday.

They warned that any school found open during that time would have its registration withdrawn, but didn’t specify how long the schools would remain shuttered.   

The ministries said they “will continue to monitor the situation and inform the public accordingly.”   

Peter Garang, a resident who lives in the capital, Juba, welcomed the decision. He said that “schools should be connected to the electricity grid” to enable the installation of air conditioners.   

South Sudan, one of the world’s youngest nations, is particularly vulnerable to climate change with heatwaves common but rarely exceeding 40C. Civil conflict has plagued the east African country which also suffered from drought and flooding, making living conditions difficult for residents.   

The World Food Program in its latest country brief said South Sudan “continues to face a dire humanitarian crisis” due to violence, economic instability, climate change and an influx of people fleeing the conflict in neighboring Sudan. It also stated that 818,000 vulnerable people were given food and cash-based transfers in January 2024. 

your ad here

21 Dead, 38 Injured in Bus Collision in Afghanistan

kabul, afghanistan — Twenty-one people were killed and 38 injured on Sunday in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province when a bus collided with an oil tanker and a motorbike, provincial officials said. 

 

Deadly traffic accidents are common in the country, due in part to poor roads, dangerous driving on highways and a lack of regulation. 

 

“On Sunday morning, 21 people were killed and 38 people were injured due to a collision between a tanker, a motorcycle and a passenger bus,” the provincial information department said in a post on X. 

 

The accident took place on the Herat-Kandahar highway in Grishk district of Helmand province, it added. 

 

The collision caused the vehicles to ignite, Helmand governor spokesman Mohammad Qasim Riyaz told AFP. 

 

Images shared by the information department on social media showed charred, twisted metal scattered across the highway and the crushed cabin of the tanker. 

 

Cleanup crews were on site removing the debris, according to officials. 

 

Of the injured, 11 were seriously hurt and 27 had minor injuries. 

 

The passenger bus was traveling from Herat city to the capital, Kabul, when it first collided with a motorbike carrying two people, killing both riders, Helmand traffic management officials said, according to the information department. 

 

The bus driver lost control and crashed into an oil tanker travelling in the opposite direction from the southern city of Kandahar to Herat, sparking a fire. 

 

The accident killed three people on the tanker and 16 bus passengers. 

 

Another serious accident involving an oil tanker took place in December 2022, when the vehicle overturned and caught fire in Afghanistan’s high-altitude Salang pass, killing 31 people and leaving dozens more with burn injuries. 

your ad here

Extermination Planned for Island Mice Breeding Out of Control, Eating Birds

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Mice accidentally introduced to a remote island near Antarctica 200 years ago are breeding out of control because of climate change, and they are eating seabirds and causing major harm in a special nature reserve with “unique biodiversity.”

Now conservationists are planning a mass extermination using helicopters and hundreds of tons of rodent poison, which needs to be dropped over every part of Marion Island’s 297 square kilometers (115 square miles) to ensure success.

If even one pregnant mouse survives, their prolific breeding ability means it may have all been for nothing.

The Mouse-Free Marion project — pest control on a grand scale — is seen as critical for the ecology of the uninhabited South African territory and the wider Southern Ocean. It would be the largest eradication of its kind if it succeeds.

The island is home to globally significant populations of nearly 30 bird species and a rare undisturbed habitat for wandering albatrosses — with their 10-foot wingspan — and many others.

An undisturbed habitat, at least, until stowaway house mice arrived on seal hunter ships in the early 1800s, introducing the island’s first mammal predators.

The past few decades have been the most significant for the damage the mice have caused, said Dr. Anton Wolfaardt, the Mouse-Free Marion project manager. He said their numbers have increased hugely, mainly due to rising temperatures from climate change, which has turned a cold, windswept island into a warmer, drier, more hospitable home.

“They are probably one of the most successful animals in the world. They’ve got to all sorts of places,” Wolfaardt said. But now on Marion Island, “their breeding season has been extended, and this has resulted in a massive increase in the densities of mice.”

Mice don’t need encouragement. They can reproduce from about 60 days old and females can have four or five litters a year, each with seven or eight babies.

Rough estimates indicate there are more than 1 million mice on Marion Island. They are feeding on invertebrates and, more and more, on seabirds — both chicks in their nests and adults.

A single mouse will feed on a bird several times its size.

Conservationists snapped a photo of one perched on the bloodied head of a wandering albatross chick.

The phenomenon of mice eating seabirds has been recorded on only a handful of the world’s islands.

The scale and frequency of mice preying on seabirds on Marion has risen alarmingly, Wolfaardt said, after the first reports of it in 2003. He said the birds have not developed the defense mechanisms to protect themselves against these unfamiliar predators and often sit there while mice nibble away at them. Sometimes, multiple mice swarm over a bird.

Conservationists estimate that if nothing is done, 19 seabird species will disappear from the island in 50 to 100 years, he said.

“This incredibly important island as a haven for seabirds has a very tenuous future because of the impacts of mice,” Wolfaardt said.

The eradication project is a single shot at success, with not even a whisker of room for error. Burgeoning mice and rat populations have been problematic for other islands. South Georgia, in the southern Atlantic, was declared rodent-free in 2018 after an eradication, but that was a multiyear project; the one on Marion could be the biggest single intervention.

Wolfaardt said four to six helicopters will likely be used to drop up to 550 tons of rodenticide bait across the island. Pilots will be given exact flight lines and Wolfaardt’s team will be able to track the drop using GPS mapping.

The bait has been designed to not affect the soil or the island’s water sources. It shouldn’t harm the seabirds, who feed out at sea, and won’t have negative impacts for the environment, Wolfaardt said. Some animals will be affected at an individual level, but those species will recover.

“There’s no perfect solution in these kinds of things,” he said. “There is nothing that just zaps mice and nothing else.”

The eradication project is a partnership between BirdLife South Africa and the national Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, which designated Marion Island as a special nature reserve with the highest level of environmental protection. It has a weather and research station but is otherwise uninhabited and dedicated to conservation.

The department said the eradication of mice was “essential if the unique biodiversity of the island is to be preserved.”

Wolfaardt said the amount of planning needed means a likely go-ahead date in 2027. The project also needs to raise about $25 million — some of which has been funded by the South African government — and get final regulatory approvals from authorities.

Scientists have tried to control the mice of Marion in the past.

They were already a pest for researchers in the 1940s, so five domestic cats were introduced. By the 1970s, there were around 2,000 feral cats on the island, killing half a million seabirds per year. The cats were eliminated by introducing a feline flu virus and hunting down any survivors.

Islands are critical to conservation efforts, but fragile. The Island Conservation organization says they are “extinction epicenters” and 75% of all species that have gone extinct lived on islands. About 95% of those were bird species.

“This really is an ecological restoration project,” Wolfaardt said. “It’s one of those rare conservation opportunities where you solve once and for all a conservation threat.”

your ad here

Karakalpak Activist Faces Threat of Deportation From Kazakhstan

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN — Uzbek law enforcement officials this month confirmed to VOA that an Uzbek extradition request was behind the February 15 arrest in Kazakhstan of Karakalpak activist Akylbek Muratov, known as Aqylbek Muratbai on X and other social media.

Karakalpaks are indigenous Turkic people of Karakalpakstan, since 1993 a sovereign republic within Uzbekistan with its own parliament, national symbols and language. This status has been a source of friction with the Uzbek government because it often stirs discussions of secession.

Muratov, arrested in Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city, had been under Uzbek scrutiny since 2015. He is suspected of engaging in separatism and “destructive activism,” according to officials in Tashkent.

Karakalpakstan’s Internal Affairs Ministry indicted him late last year, accusing him of preparing and distributing materials that “threaten public safety and order.” Uzbek authorities say he has used social media to foment mass unrest in Karakalpakstan, but he denies the charges.

Uzbek officials told VOA that Muratov had been warned through the Uzbek Consulate in Almaty and by his father, but that he persisted in what Tashkent views as anti-government propaganda. Writing on the X social media platform, formerly Twitter, in October, Muratov described these messages as threats and vowed to “not stop my activities to disseminate information about repressions against ethnic Karakalpaks in Uzbekistan.”

Muratov is the sixth Karakalpak to be taken into custody in neighboring Kazakhstan at Uzbekistan’s request since protests in July 2022 against proposed constitutional amendments intended to strip the republic of its autonomous status and right to secede. At least 21 people were killed during the unrest in Nukus, Karakalpakstan’s capital.

None of the five previously arrested in Kazakhstan has been extradited, but they have not received refugee status, which would offer more international protection, including the opportunity to resettle in another country. Muratov, who lived in Kazakhstan for 13 years, is seeking that status.

As a result of the unrest, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev withdrew the proposed amendments that triggered mass discontent and pledged not to change Karakalpakstan’s status.

Sixty-four people were convicted for their roles in the violence. One defendant, former police officer Polat Shamshetov, died in prison in February 2023, shortly after receiving a six-year prison term. The longest sentence, 16 years, was given to the lawyer and blogger Dauletmurat Tajimuratov, whose case Muratov often highlighted.

Karakalpaks in Kazakhstan on edge

Muratov’s detention, days after a new Kazakh government was sworn in, has drawn attention to Kazakhstan and put Karakalpaks in Kazakhstan on edge.

Muratov’s sister, Fariza Narbekova, told VOA that he has been charged by Uzbek authorities for publishing video of Karakalpak activists’ speeches at an Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe conference in October and for urging Karakalpaks on his Telegram channel to switch off lights at home on November 13 for 16 minutes to mark the first anniversary of Tajimuratov’s 16-year imprisonment.

Mihra Rittmann, senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in a February 26 statement that the charges “have no merit and should be dropped, and Kazakhstan should release him from custody immediately.”

“Kazakhstan is bound by international human rights law not to return Muratbai to Uzbekistan, where he faces serious risk of politically motivated persecution,” she said.

Human Rights Watch said human rights organizations had “documented numerous cases of torture and other ill-treatment, and arbitrary detention, of individuals accused of anti-state crimes in Uzbekistan in recent years.”

This is “a clear-cut case of retaliation” by Uzbek authorities against Muratov for exposing human rights violations in Karakalpakstan following the July 2022 protests, Rittmann said.

Karakalpaks feel discriminated against in their own homeland because migrants from other parts of Uzbekistan are given jobs and farmland there, Galym Ageleuov, an Almaty-based Kazakh rights activist, told VOA. 

The proposed constitutional amendments triggered an outpouring of discontent that had built up in Karakalpakstan for years, he said, citing local frustration that Tashkent brings workers from elsewhere to develop gas fields in the Aral Sea region instead of employing locals.

“What Kazakh authorities are doing to Karakalpak activists living in Kazakhstan by detaining them is an incompetent policy to suppress the diaspora and its activists who are standing up for rights, and it’s the continuation of Uzbek authorities’ suppression of human rights in Karakalpakstan,” said Ageleuov, who has researched the July 2022 events and monitored subsequent developments in Karakalpakstan.

“Person seeking asylum” status

In what is seen as a face-saving exercise, on February 23, Kazakh authorities granted Muratov “person seeking asylum” status for three months, preventing him from being handed over to Uzbekistan during that period, treatment similar to that of the five other Karakalpaks, who were released after a year in detention.

Muratov was instrumental in publicizing the detentions and court proceedings involving Karakalpaks in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan on social media.

“We fought for the rights of Karakalpakstan and Karakalpaks and activists, and ordinary Karakalpaks who were imprisoned after the July events rely on our help for their release,” cardiologist Raysa  Khudaybergenova, one of the five Karakalpaks detained in Kazakhstan, told VOA in an Almaty clinic where she works.

“They all want to get out of prison,” she said of the activists who remain in Uzbek prisons.

Like Muratov, Khudaybergenova is an Uzbek citizen and was not involved in political activism before the 2022 turmoil, focusing mostly on cultural, linguistic and health issues in Karakalpakstan.

Denis Zhivago, an Almaty-based human rights lawyer, told VOA that according to Kazakh law, “detention on extradition requests could last for a year, that’s why other Karakalpak activists spent a year in detention.”  Muratov’s lawyer, Inara Masanova, would not comment on the case because of its sensitivity.

“Akylbek is now likely to spend a year in detention, unfortunately,” Zhivago said.

“As in the previous five cases, I hope wisdom would triumph with Kazakh authorities and they will give the man a chance to avoid extradition and leave for a third country. There is a big chance that will happen, but we shouldn’t rule out any possibilities.”

In the past, Kazakhstan was notorious for handing over those without refugee status. It extradited about 30 Uzbek asylum seekers to Tashkent and at least one Uyghur to Beijing in the early 2010s. Last December, it extradited Russian security officer Mikhail Zhilin at Moscow’s request.

Zhivago said Uzbekistan keeps submitting extradition requests because it is “irritated” and wants to silence activists publicizing violations of rights in Karakalpakstan.

This has left Kazakhstan in a “complicated” situation because it is bound by agreements and friendly relations with Uzbekistan, he said.

“Our government, on the one hand, doesn’t want to spoil relations with Uzbekistan and, on the other hand, wants to provide Karakalpak activists with a chance of obtaining asylum,” Zhivago said. He noted Kazakhstan’s status as a signatory to the Geneva conventions against torture and on the status of refugees.

Navbahor Imamova reported for this article from Washington.

your ad here