The equivalent of one garbage truck full of waste plastic is dumped into the world’s oceans every minute – or 8 million metric tons a year. New research suggests that the vast majority of that waste is transported to the oceans by just a handful of major river systems – and tackling the pollution at source would go a long way to cleaning up our seas. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Month: November 2017
Zimbabweans Want Change Post-Mugabe, and They Want it Soon
Zimbabwe gets a new president Friday, signaling the definitive end to the 37-year rule of Robert Mugabe. Now, Zimbabweans want to make sure they get to elect their next leader, and to pick a leader who won’t shove aside their problems and concerns. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Harare, Zimbabwe.
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Zimbabweans Want Change Post-Mugabe, and They Want it Soon
Zimbabwe gets a new president Friday, signaling the definitive end to the 37-year rule of Robert Mugabe. Now, Zimbabweans want to make sure they get to elect their next leader, and to pick a leader who won’t shove aside their problems and concerns. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Harare, Zimbabwe.
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Suicide Blast Kills Senior Pakistan Police Officer
A suicide bomb attack on a police convoy in northwestern Pakistan on Friday killed a senior officer and wounded six others.
The early morning blast occurred in Peshawar, capital of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
The slain officer, Additional Inspector General Ashraf Noor, of the provincial police department, was on his way to work when a suicide bomber on a motorbike hit his vehicle.
Peshawar police chief Tahir Khan said body parts of the suspected bomber have been retrieved from the site and an investigation is underway.
There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the violence.
Attacks on police
Separate bomb and gun attacks on police convoys this month in Pakistan have killed several top police officers. Most of the incidents have taken place in and around the southwestern city of Quetta.
The outlawed Pakistani Taliban and its allied groups have claimed responsibility for the previous violence against Pakistani security forces.
For years, Peshawar has been in the grip of militant violence mainly because it is close to Pakistan’s volatile semi-autonomous tribal areas border Afghanistan.
But authorities say sustained counter-militancy operations have cleared most of the tribal belt, leading to a 70 percent decline in terrorist attacks in Peshawar and surrounding areas in the past two years.
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Native Americans Seek to Raise Awareness of their History
In 1990 then-President George H.W. Bush approved a resolution declaring November “National American Indian Heritage Month,” and it’s been observed ever since. VOA’s Alex Yanevskyy visited the Museum of Natural History in Utah on a day when Native American heritage was being celebrated.
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8 Men Found in Japan, Claim to be North Korean Fishermen
Police in northern Japan have found eight men near a boat at a seaside marina who said they were from North Korea. They appear to be fishermen whose vessel ran into trouble, rather than defectors, a police official said Friday.
The incident comes at a time of rising tension over North Korea’s nuclear arms and missile programs after President Donald Trump redesignated the isolated nation a state sponsor of terrorism, allowing the United States to levy further sanctions.
Japanese police took the men into custody after a resident of Yurihonjo, a city in the prefecture of Akita, told police of the presence of individuals of unknown nationality, the official, Yoshinobu Ito, told Reuters.
The men, who said they were North Koreans, appear to be fishermen whose wooden boat, found nearby, had trouble and went adrift, Ito said. Police and authorities were now dealing with the matter, he added.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, asked if the possibility the men were spies had been ruled out, told a news conference authorities were handling the matter carefully.
Japan is studying plans to cope with a possible influx of tens of thousands of North Korean evacuees should a military or other crisis break out on the peninsula, as well as how to weed out spies and terrorists among them, a domestic newspaper said.
Last week, the Japan Coast Guard rescued three North Korean men on a capsized boat in the Sea of Japan, off central Japan.
The men said they were fishermen and were later sent home aboard a North Korean vessel. Twelve more crew went missing.
Last week a North Korean soldier dramatically defected to the South after being shot and wounded by his country’s military as he made his getaway across the border in the heavily guarded Demilitarized Zone between the two countries.
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Philippines’ Duterte Ends Peace Talks with Maoist-led Rebels
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has terminated the on-again, off-again peace talks with Maoist-led rebels as hostilities have continued despite the negotiations, the president’s spokesman said Friday.
Ending the nearly half-century-long conflict, in which more than 40,000 people have been killed, was among Duterte’s priorities since he took office in June last year.
“We find it unfortunate that their members have failed to show their sincerity and commitment in pursuing genuine and meaningful peaceful negotiations,” Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said in a statement late Thursday.
“The president, as we all know, has always wanted to leave a legacy of peace under his administration. He has, in fact, walked the extra mile for peace,” Roque added.
The president Thursday signed the proclamation terminating the peace talks, which were being brokered by Norway.
In May, government peace negotiators canceled the fresh round of formal talks with the Maoist-led rebels in the Netherlands as guerrillas stepped up offensives in the countryside.
Revolutionary forces now have no choice but to intensify guerrilla warfare in rural areas, the Jose Maria Sison, chief political consultant of the National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDF), said in a statement.
NDF, the political arm of the Maoist guerrillas, said it regrets the unilateral cancellation of talks on such vital social and economic reforms.
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Family: Iran Has Set Date for New Trial of Imprisoned British-Iranian Woman
The British daily The Guardian has reported that authorities in Iran have set a date for the trial of British-Iranian citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, citing the woman’s husband.
Richard Ratcliffe told the newspaper that his wife will appear in court Dec. 10 to face charges of spreading propaganda.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who was arrested in Tehran in April 2016, is serving a five-year prison term for a conviction on national-security charges.
The new charges against Zaghari-Ratcliffe apparently stem from a statement made by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who told a parliamentary committee on Nov. 1 that she had been “training journalists” in Iran.
Johnson later apologized for the statement, saying it was not true and affirming that the woman had only been visiting relatives in the Islamic republic.
On Nov. 4, however, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was brought to an unscheduled court hearing, at which Johnson’s comments were used as evidence for a new charge that she had been spreading “propaganda against the regime.”
Richard Ratcliffe said he believed his wife was about to be released before Johnson made his remarks.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s employer, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, has said she was not working in Iran.
Johnson said earlier this month that he plans to travel to Tehran soon and would seek to meet with Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
Reuters and The Guardian contributed to this report.
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US Navy Calls Off Search for Missing Sailors
The U.S. Navy has halted its search and rescue efforts for three sailors who were lost at sea Wednesday when a U.S. Navy transport plane crashed into the western Pacific Ocean.
The Navy said Thursday that eight U.S. Navy and Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force ships, three helicopter squadrons and maritime patrol aircraft had covered nearly 1,000 square nautical miles in the two-day search for the missing sailors.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with our lost shipmates and their families,” said Rear Admiral Marc Dalton, commander, Task Force 70. “As difficult as this is, we are thankful for the rapid and effective response that led to the rescue of eight of our shipmates, and I appreciate the professionalism and dedication shown by all who participated in the search efforts.”
Routine mission
The Navy said the twin-propeller C2-A Greyhound aircraft plummeted into the sea about 925 kilometers southeast of Okinawa while it was on a routine mission taking passengers and cargo from a U.S. base in Japan to the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier.
It said the eight people were rescued about 40 minutes later and taken to the Reagan where they are reported in good condition.
There was no immediate explanation for the crash, and the Navy said the incident is being investigated.
U.S. President Donald Trump, at his oceanfront Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for the Thanksgiving weekend holiday, said via Twitter that he is monitoring the situation.
“Prayers for all involved,” he said.
Joint exercises with Japan
The Reagan was operating in the Philippine Sea as part of joint exercises with Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force, part of 10 days of training designed to increase defensive readiness and interoperability in air and sea maneuvers between the two countries.
More than 14,000 U.S. personnel are participating in the drills, which also include the guided-missile destroyers USS Stethem, USS Chafee and USS Mustin, and a maritime patrol and reconnaissance squadron.
Fifth accident this year
Wednesday’s crash was the fifth major Navy incident in Asian waters this year.
Two fatal accidents left 17 sailors dead and prompted the Defense Department to remove of eight top Navy officers from their posts, including the 7th Fleet commander.
The destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with an oil tanker in August off Singapore, leaving 10 U.S. sailors dead and five injured. The USS Fitzgerald, another destroyer, collided with a container ship in waters off Japan in June, killing seven sailors.
After investigations, the Navy concluded the collisions were avoidable, resulting from widespread failures by commanders and crewmembers, who did not recognize and respond quickly to the emergencies as they unfolded. The Navy has called for improved training, and increasing sleep and stress management for sailors.
Separately, in January, the USS Antietam ran aground near Yosuka, Japan, and the USS Lake Champlain collided with a South Korean fishing vessel in May.
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Irish Row Could Collapse Government, Delay Brexit
The Irish government was on the verge of collapse Thursday after the party whose votes Prime Minister Leo Varadkar depends on to pass legislation said it would seek to remove the deputy prime minister in a breach of their cooperation agreement.
The crisis comes three weeks ahead of a European Union summit in which the Irish government has an effective veto on whether Britain’s talks on leaving the bloc progress as it determines if EU concerns about the future of the Irish border have been met.
In a row that escalated rapidly, the opposition Fianna Fail party said it would put a motion of no confidence in Deputy Prime Minister Frances Fitzgerald before parliament on Tuesday over her handling of a legal case involving a police whistleblower.
That would break the three-year “confidence and supply” agreement that allowed Varadkar’s Fine Gael party to form a minority government 18 months ago.
Fianna Fail initially indicated it might withdraw its threat if Fitzgerald resigned, but Fine Gael members of parliament passed a unanimous motion of support in Fitzgerald at an emergency meeting Thursday evening.
Election likely
Asked after Fine Gael’s statement whether the country was headed for an election, a senior Fianna Fail source replied: “Straight towards one.”
The source declined to be named as the party’s frontbench was to hold an emergency meeting early Friday to decide its next move.
“This is … dangerous politically at a time when the country does not need an election,” Foreign Minister Simon Coveney of Fine Gael told national Irish broadcaster RTE, in an apparent reference to the Brexit talks he had earlier described as a “historic moment” for the island of Ireland.
Border and Brexit
The border between Ireland and Northern Ireland, which will be the UK’s only land frontier with the bloc after its departure, is one of three issues Brussels wants broadly solved before it decides next month on whether to move the talks onto a second phase about trade, as Britain wants.
Coveney told parliament Thursday that the government was not yet ready to allow the talks to move on to the trade issues at the Dec. 14-15 summit and needed more clarity from London.
A breakdown of the government’s cooperation deal, which has worked relatively smoothly up until now between two parties that differ little on policy but have been bitter foes for decades, would likely lead to an election in December or January.
The Fianna Fail move comes after Fitzgerald admitted she was made aware of an attempt to discredit a police whistleblower in a 2015 email, but failed to act. Fine Gael say she adhered to due process.
Since Varadkar’s appointment as Fine Gael leader in May, his party has narrowly led Fianna Fail in opinion polls that suggest both parties would increase their support but still struggle to form anything but another minority government.
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EU Eyes Closer Ties With Armenia Amid Tensions Over Brussels Summit Declaration
The leaders of the European Union and the six Eastern Partnership countries will meet in Brussels on Friday in an effort to deepen ties between the EU and the former Soviet republics.
The summit’s main event will likely be the signing of an enhanced EU partnership deal with Armenia. That pact, however, omits free trade and is less ambitious than the association agreements secured by Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
Like those three countries, Armenia previously negotiated an EU Association Agreement. But Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian walked away from the deal in 2013 under pressure from Russia.
Armenia later joined the Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).
The EU launched the Eastern Partnership in 2009 to promote economic integration and European values in six Eastern European and South Caucasus countries.
The run-up to this year’s summit has otherwise been dominated by speculation about whether authoritarian Belarusian President Alyaksandr Lukashenka would show up. Minsk said Tuesday that Foreign Minister Uladzimer Makei would lead its delegation.
In October, EU sources told RFE/RL that Lukashenka had received an invitation “without restrictions,” just like the leaders of the other five Eastern Partnership states: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.
This was a U-turn compared with the previous four summits, when he was blocked after being hit with EU sanctions following a violent crackdown on protesters after the Belarusian presidential elections in 2010.
Most of the sanctions, including those on Lukashenka, were lifted in February 2016.
Conflicting statements
This year’s summit in Brussels could also see clashes over the gathering’s final declaration, according to EU diplomats familiar with the talks.
One paragraph concerning conflicts in the region has been left open after both Armenia and Azerbaijan wanted specific but conflicting statements on the breakaway Azerbaijani region of Nagorno-Karabakh, according to a draft text seen by RFE/RL.
The current text also fails to mention the war between Kyiv and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014.
“The summit participants call for renewed efforts to promote the peaceful settlement of conflicts in the region on the basis of the principles and norms of international law,” it reads.
It adds that “the resolution of the conflicts, building trust and good neighborly relations are essential to economic and social development and cooperation.”
EU diplomats told RFE/RL that they wanted neutral wording in the statement and to omit any mention of specific conflicts in the Eastern Partnership countries, citing squabbles between Baku and Yerevan over the 2015 declaration that delayed the summit by several hours.
Ukraine is also likely to make a final push to secure more positive wording concerning its prospects of eventually joining the EU.
The current draft language on that topic is identical to that of the previous summit, stating that “the summit participants acknowledge the European aspirations and European choice of the partners concerned, as stated in the association agreements.”
The text references a December 2016 decision by EU heads of state that included a legally binding supplement to its association agreement underscoring that Brussels will not give Kyiv the right to automatic EU membership or guarantee any EU military aid for Ukraine.
The addendum allowed the Netherlands to finally ratify the Ukraine Association Agreement earlier this year despite the fact that 61 percent of Dutch voters disapproved of the deal in a citizen-driven, nonbinding referendum held in April 2016.
The draft declaration also outlines some future EU strategies in the Eastern Partnership countries.
These include “facilitating access to local currency lending” for local small and medium-sized enterprises, supporting “increased access to high-speed broadband” and “progressing towards reduced roaming tariffs among the partner countries.”
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Mnangagwa to Take Oath as Zimbabwe’s President
Emmerson Mnangagwa, who was fired Nov. 5 from his position as Zimbabwe’s vice president, will be sworn in as president Friday morning, ending 37 years of authoritarian rule by Robert Mugabe.
In a dramatic turn of events, Mnangagwa, who was relieved of his position amid a succession struggle with Mugabe’s wife, Grace, is scheduled to take the oath shortly before noon local time. The event will be held at the 60,000-seat National Sports Stadium in Harare.
Mnangagwa, 75, had spent the previous two weeks in exile. He spoke to cheering crowds in Harare upon his return to Zimbabwe Wednesday night and struck a conciliatory note, urging Zimbabweans to “bury our differences and rebuild a new and prosperous Zimbabwe, a country that is tolerant to divergent views.”
Known as “the Crocodile,” he has close ties to Zimbabwe’s army. Among the many tests he faces will be rebuilding the country’s economy, which was left shattered by nearly four decades of Mugabe’s rule.
Immunity for Mugabes
Mugabe and his wife have been granted immunity from prosecution. An official in the ruling ZANU-PF party and a Harare journalist confirmed the development to VOA’s Zimbabwe service on Thursday.
Robert Mugabe has been negotiating terms of his retirement with Zimbabwean generals and political leaders who forced him to step down Tuesday.
The military took over state institutions after Mugabe, 93, fired Mnangagwa and suggested he would appoint his wife, 52, to the post.
Human rights groups have accused Robert Mugabe of rigging elections, allowing large-scale corruption, and being responsible for the torture and killing of thousands of political opponents during his long rule.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has urged Zimbabwe’s new leaders to ensure the country holds free and fair elections.
“The people of Zimbabwe must choose their own leaders,” he said Tuesday.
Some Zimbabweans told VOA they have concerns about Mnangagwa, who was a close ally of Robert Mugabe for decades. They are concerned he will run Zimbabwe in the same ruthless fashion as his predecessor.
Better or worse?
“It’s like the person who is coming was there before, and we don’t know what he is thinking because of the previous things that he and the other ZANU people were doing. I don’t know if those things are going to change, or if we’re going for the worse,” Phillippa Mukumba, 37, a Harare business owner, said.
“Mnangagwa, and the government before — it’s the same. So what did they change? … If I’m looking at it, we are going to struggle the same way. So we want something in Zimbabwe which is better,” Terrence Mawere, a flag seller, said.
Mawere, incidentally, said he had enjoyed a brisk business this week, selling 350 Zimbabwean flags at prices ranging from $2 to $10.
John Campbell, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said because Mnangagwa played such a key role in Mugabe’s administration, he did not expect a dramatic change in the style of governance in the short term.
“Nevertheless, the fact that there has been a coup, the fact that Mugabe has resigned, opens the range of possibilities,” Campbell told VOA. “Whether or not the Zimbabwean people will take advantage of that, it is too soon to tell.”
Ntungamili Nkomo and Anita Powell contributed to this report.
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Sheriff: Las Vegas Gunman Fired More Than 1,100 Rounds
The top lawman in Las Vegas says the gunman who killed dozens of people at a concert last month fired more than 1,100 rounds.
The newly released estimate from Sheriff Joe Lombardo offers more detail about the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Lombardo tells the Las Vegas Review-Journal he was aware of the previously unreported figure because his department’s forensics lab is working with the FBI to process all ballistics evidence.
Stephen Paddock killed 58 people and injured hundreds more on Oct. 1 after he shattered windows of his suite on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel-casino and unleashed withering gunfire at the music festival below before killing himself.
Authorities have said they have not determined Paddock’s motive or why he stopped shooting. Lombardo says authorities found about 4,000 unused rounds in the suite.
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Analysts, Leaders Say Returning IS Foreign Fighters Are Concern for N. Africa
As the embattled Islamic State terror group has lost much of its territory and strength in Syria and Iraq, governments in North Africa fear many returning fighters from the Mideast battlegrounds could trigger instability in the region.
“The region is threatened … with the return of foreign fighters,” Algeria Foreign Minister Abdul Qader Messahel told reporters in Cairo last week.
“The signs and reports indicate that the [foreign fighters’] return will be in our region,” Messahel added.
Thousands of foreign fighters
Recent reports indicate at least 5,600 foreign fighters have left the battlefield following IS defeats in Syria and Iraq. Hundreds of fighters from North African states, including Tunisia and Morocco, have already returned to their home countries, according to a recent report by the Soufan Center, a New York-based think tank following the developments in the region.
North Africa has been a major source of foreign fighters for IS and other terror groups in Iraq and Syria, with thousands of fighters from the region having reportedly joined the conflict in the two troubled countries since 2012.
Analysts think that while some fighters might settle down and join the mainstream in their respective communities, others might move on to the next conflict after the one in the Middle East.
“Foreign fighters returning from ISIS is a very great concern in the West and in the Middle East and North Africa region,” David Des Roches, an associate professor at the National Defense University in Washington, told VOA, using an acronym for the militant group.
“This group of radicalized people do not view themselves as defeated, but rather feel they are returning to carry on jihad on a different battlefield,” Des Roches added.
Ongoing conflicts
There is also growing concern that the ongoing conflicts in several North African countries provide a fertile ground for the re-emergence of IS in the region.
In Egypt, several militant groups, including Ansar Beit al-Maqdis, which has pledged allegiance to IS, are controlling large swaths of the Sinai Peninsula, which borders the Gaza Strip and Israel, and have established their own rule over the areas under their control.
Ansar Beit al-Maqdis’ local affiliates are posing a threat in the neighboring Sahel region of Africa. Last month, IS-linked militants killed four U.S. soldiers in Niger.
Libya is another location that analysts think IS might use as a breathing space and a hub from which to send fighters to neighboring countries in an effort to expand its sphere of influence.
Leaders in North African countries and analysts say the political and military crisis in Libya is providing a springboard for IS fighters moving to North Africa.
“There is every likelihood that squeezed IS fighters will seek to move to a more permissive security environment, and that would be Libya and the states of the Sahel,” Jennifer Cooke, director of Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told VOA.
IS in Libya
Ismael Meraf, an Algerian analyst, told Alhurra, a U.S.-based public Arabic-language satellite TV channel that broadcasts to Middle East and North African audiences, that Libya “has become a fertile land for terrorist groups.”
U.S. officials and lawmakers also have warned of IS’s growing threat in Africa.
“The more we succeed on the Middle East, the more we are going to see the snakes run to Africa,” U.S. Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said last month following a classified briefing on the attack on U.S. troops by an IS-affiliated group in Niger.
Senator John McCain of Arizona, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has warned that “there is no doubt” the fight against IS is now moving to Africa.
General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers last month that IS aspires to establish a larger presence “from Libya to Egypt’s Sinai to West Africa.”
U.S. Africa Command spokeswoman Robyn Mack recently told VOA that the U.S military had launched new airstrikes against IS militants in Libya.
Mack said the strikes occurred November 17 and 19 near Fuqaha “in coordination with the Libyan Government of National Accord.”
Several IS militants have been reportedly killed in the airstrikes.
“We are committed to maintaining pressure on the terror network and preventing them from establishing [a] safe haven,” Mack said.
Battling IS presence
IS has a presence in Libya’s coastal city of Sirte. The U.S and Libyan governments have been battling the terror group to try to prevent it from establishing a hub in the war-torn country.
The military carried out about 500 airstrikes last year against the IS fighters in Sirte.
Experts, however, charge that IS is looking to establish a hub not only in Libya but also in other vulnerable countries.
Des Roches, of the National Defense University, maintains that a comprehensive strategy is needed to counter the threats posed by the returning IS fighters in Africa and elsewhere.
Other than military measures, combating IS and other militant groups in the region requires addressing other factors that enable extremist groups to expand in the region, he added.
“There is a need to create more jobs, fight corruption, and provide services and better governance in Africa,” Des Roches told VOA. “To win the ideological battle, the governments should focus on teaching moderate Islam.”
VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report.
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Flynn’s Attorneys Split From Trump, Newspaper Reports
Attorneys for Michael Flynn, President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser, have told Trump’s legal team they can no longer discuss the probe by a special counsel, indicating Flynn may be cooperating with the investigation, The New York Times reported Thursday.
Flynn’s attorneys and a spokesman for special counsel Robert Mueller did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. A representative for Trump’s legal team could not immediately be reached for comment.
Flynn is a central figure in the federal probe led by Mueller into whether Trump aides colluded with Russia to boost his 2016 presidential campaign. Russia has denied interfering in the U.S. election, and Trump has said there was no collusion.
The Times reported that Flynn’s attorneys had been sharing information with Trump’s legal team about the Mueller investigation.
Citing four people involved in the case, the newspaper reported the cooperation agreement had ended, although adding that that in itself did not prove Flynn was cooperating with Mueller.
Flynn served 24 days as Trump’s national security adviser but was fired after it was discovered he had misrepresented his contacts with a Russian diplomat to Vice President Michael Pence.
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Uganda Charges 8 Journalists With Treason
Ugandan authorities have arrested eight senior staff members of the Red Pepper national newspaper and charged them with treason.
Police raided the Kampala offices of the privately owned English-language newspaper late Tuesday and detained the journalists, whom they accused of publishing a false story the previous day.
The story, citing unnamed sources, said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was planning to overthrow Rwandan President Paul Kagame.
Besides treason, the journalists were charged with “offensive communication and publication of information prejudicial to national security,” police spokesman Emilian Kayima told Reuters.
Kayima couldn’t say when the journalists would appear in court.
The U.S. media watchdog group Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Uganda to immediately release the eight.
“Uganda is trying to intimidate Red Pepper journalists and staff into silence with arrests and raids,” Angela Quintal, CPJ Africa program coordinator, said from New York. “Reporting on politics is not a crime. Journalists in Uganda must be able to report without fear of retaliation.”
Local media, including Red Pepper, have reported this month on tensions between Uganda and neighboring Rwanda over a range of economic and security disputes. Uganda’s Foreign Affairs Ministry has dismissed the reports as rumors and insisted relations between the two countries are untroubled.
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