Month: April 2018

Comoros to Hold Referendum on Presidential Term Limits in July

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The Indian Ocean state of Comoros will hold a constitutional referendum in July on presidential term limits that could result in the next vote behind held two years ahead of schedule, its president has said.

The move could allow the President Azali Assoumani, who won the last election in 2016, to run the country for two fresh five year-terms instead of the one five-year term allowed in the constitution. The next vote is scheduled for 2021.

The referendum if passed would do away with a constitution meant to rotate power every five years between the archipelago’s islands.

That system was intended to promote stability and power-sharing in a coup-prone country. Comoros has had more than 20 coups or coup attempts since it declared independence from France in 1975.

“In a case where the referendum will win the support of the population, the presidential election will be held in 2019, not in 2021,” Assoumani said on Sunday during a visit to the island nation of Anjouan.

Under the constitution, the presidency of the Union of Comoros rotates between the three islands of Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli every five years.

Assoumani hails from Grande Comore.

Although details of the referendum are yet to be released, a recently completed national dialogue recommended that a president could be re-elected. This would open the door for a leader to run the country for two five-year terms.

Assoumani, a former military officer, first seized power in a coup in 1999 and ruled until 2006 after winning the country’s first multi-party poll in 2002. He won re-election in 2016.

The president said that, like anyone else holding public office, he would resign ahead of seeking re-election. He did not say when this would happen.

The president also said that he would bring together legal teams to tackle the scandal over the sale of Comoros citizenship, which a parliamentary investigation said had led to millions of dollars in government revenues going missing.

“The economic citizenship affair is very delicate. The credibility and pride of our country have been damaged .. It must be used as an example because those who run states must always know that they can, at any moment, be held accountable for the way they manage public office.”
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Comoros to Hold Referendum on Presidential Term Limits in July

ITafLeave a comment

The Indian Ocean state of Comoros will hold a constitutional referendum in July on presidential term limits that could result in the next vote behind held two years ahead of schedule, its president has said.

The move could allow the President Azali Assoumani, who won the last election in 2016, to run the country for two fresh five year-terms instead of the one five-year term allowed in the constitution. The next vote is scheduled for 2021.

The referendum if passed would do away with a constitution meant to rotate power every five years between the archipelago’s islands.

That system was intended to promote stability and power-sharing in a coup-prone country. Comoros has had more than 20 coups or coup attempts since it declared independence from France in 1975.

“In a case where the referendum will win the support of the population, the presidential election will be held in 2019, not in 2021,” Assoumani said on Sunday during a visit to the island nation of Anjouan.

Under the constitution, the presidency of the Union of Comoros rotates between the three islands of Grande Comore, Anjouan and Moheli every five years.

Assoumani hails from Grande Comore.

Although details of the referendum are yet to be released, a recently completed national dialogue recommended that a president could be re-elected. This would open the door for a leader to run the country for two five-year terms.

Assoumani, a former military officer, first seized power in a coup in 1999 and ruled until 2006 after winning the country’s first multi-party poll in 2002. He won re-election in 2016.

The president said that, like anyone else holding public office, he would resign ahead of seeking re-election. He did not say when this would happen.

The president also said that he would bring together legal teams to tackle the scandal over the sale of Comoros citizenship, which a parliamentary investigation said had led to millions of dollars in government revenues going missing.

“The economic citizenship affair is very delicate. The credibility and pride of our country have been damaged .. It must be used as an example because those who run states must always know that they can, at any moment, be held accountable for the way they manage public office.”
…

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Chad Parliament Approves New Constitution Expanding President’s Powers

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Chad’s parliament on Monday overwhelmingly approved a new constitution that expands President Idriss Deby’s powers and could allow him to stay in

office until 2033, in a vote boycotted by most opposition lawmakers.

The new constitution reimposes a two-term limit scrapped in a 2005 referendum. But it will not be applied retroactively, meaning Deby could serve two terms after the next election in 2021.

The constitution now heads to Deby for his signature.

Deby’s opponents say that the constitution, which eliminates the post of prime minister and creates a fully presidential system, is aimed at installing a de facto monarchy in Chad, an ally of Western nations fighting jihadist groups in West Africa.

The new constitution – approved by a vote of 132 to two — introduces six-year rather than five-year presidential terms. That would mean Deby could stay in power until 2033, when he will be at least 80.

Deby first came to power in a rebellion in 1990. He has recently faced strikes and protests due to budget shortfalls caused by low prices for Chad’s chief export, oil.
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Chad Parliament Approves New Constitution Expanding President’s Powers

ITafLeave a comment

Chad’s parliament on Monday overwhelmingly approved a new constitution that expands President Idriss Deby’s powers and could allow him to stay in

office until 2033, in a vote boycotted by most opposition lawmakers.

The new constitution reimposes a two-term limit scrapped in a 2005 referendum. But it will not be applied retroactively, meaning Deby could serve two terms after the next election in 2021.

The constitution now heads to Deby for his signature.

Deby’s opponents say that the constitution, which eliminates the post of prime minister and creates a fully presidential system, is aimed at installing a de facto monarchy in Chad, an ally of Western nations fighting jihadist groups in West Africa.

The new constitution – approved by a vote of 132 to two — introduces six-year rather than five-year presidential terms. That would mean Deby could stay in power until 2033, when he will be at least 80.

Deby first came to power in a rebellion in 1990. He has recently faced strikes and protests due to budget shortfalls caused by low prices for Chad’s chief export, oil.
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Migrant Caravan Remains in Limbo at US Border

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A group of about 50 Central American migrants remain in limbo at a U.S. border crossing after U.S. border inspectors said the port of entry did not have enough space to accommodate them.

 

The migrants, who traveled in a caravan to try to seek asylum in the United States, awoke Monday near the border crossing facility in Tijuana, Mexico. On Sunday, the migrants were stopped from entering the San Ysidro facility because officials said it was at capacity.

 

It is not clear how long the migrants might need to wait to be seen by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials. Another 50 to 100 migrants camped in Tijuana say they also plan to try to cross the U.S. border and seek asylum.

Organizers of the caravan say they want the most vulnerable cases to cross the border first, including children under threat.

Many of the migrants are women and children. They are part of a group of several hundred people from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador who spent a month traveling in a caravan through Mexico.

The migrants walked Sunday to the El Chaparral pedestrian crossing wearing white arm bands to distinguish themselves from others at the busy border site.

Nicole Ramos, a lawyer working with the migrants, said they plan to tell border officials they are afraid to return to their home countries.

U.S. President Donald Trump and members of his administration have been tracking the caravan of migrants, calling it a threat to the United States, since it started March 25 in the Mexican city of Tapachula, near the Guatemala border.

Trump sent hundreds of National Guard troops to the border after railing against the migrants and pressuring Mexico to stop the caravan, going as far as to threaten the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Mexico rejected the pressure from Trump. Instead, it gave the migrants a one-month transit pass to decide if they want to seek refuge in Mexico, go back home or keep moving toward the United States.

The weeks-long journey by the so-called caravan is an annual, organized trip aimed at drawing attention to the plight of destitute Central Americans. The tradition dates back to 2010.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said asylum claims will be resolved “efficiently and expeditiously.” But she warned that any asylum-seekers making false claims could be prosecuted, as could anyone who assists the migrants in doing so.

Asylum seekers must demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution at home. The vast majority of those who apply for asylum in the United States are denied. Those who pass an initial “credible fear” screening are assigned a date in immigration court that is often months away.

 

Trump administration officials say many of those migrants skip their court dates and try to live illegally in the United States. Trump has urged Congress to change what he calls “catch and release laws” to prevent migrants from entering the country before their asylum cases have been heard.
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UK Housing Minister to Run Interior as Immigration Scandal Grows

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Britain’s Housing Minister Sajid Javid, the son of Pakistani immigrants, was named Monday to take over the portfolio of the Home Office (interior ministry), which oversees  law enforcement, immigration, and counter-terrorism activities.

Interior minister Amber Rudd resigned Sunday amid a growing scandal over the harsh treatment of elderly immigrants who were brought to the country from the Caribbean seven decades ago.

Rudd told lawmakers last week that the government had not set targets to deport people considered illegal immigrants. But documents have since emerged contradicting her testimony.

She said in her resignation letter to Prime Minister Theresa May Sunday she “inadvertently misled” Parliament about the deportation targets.

Housing Minister Sajid Javid, the son of Pakistani immigrants, was named Monday to take over the portfolio of the Home Office (interior ministry),

May and Rudd have been under increasing fire since the so-called Windrush scandal first emerged several months ago. The scandal gets its name from the ship Empire Windrush, which in 1948 brought the first wave of immigrants from the Caribbean to Britain to help rebuild the country in the aftermath of World War II.

News reports have revealed that many of these immigrants have lost jobs, housing, access to medical care and threatened with deportation because they could not produce documents proving their right to reside in Britain, which was granted by a law passed in 1971.

The harsh treatment of the “Windrush generation” apparently stems from a policy introduced by May during her tenure as interior minister between 2010 and 2016, which called for creating a “hostile environment” for illegal immigrants.
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UK Housing Minister to Run Interior as Immigration Scandal Grows

ITeuLeave a comment

Britain’s Housing Minister Sajid Javid, the son of Pakistani immigrants, was named Monday to take over the portfolio of the Home Office (interior ministry), which oversees  law enforcement, immigration, and counter-terrorism activities.

Interior minister Amber Rudd resigned Sunday amid a growing scandal over the harsh treatment of elderly immigrants who were brought to the country from the Caribbean seven decades ago.

Rudd told lawmakers last week that the government had not set targets to deport people considered illegal immigrants. But documents have since emerged contradicting her testimony.

She said in her resignation letter to Prime Minister Theresa May Sunday she “inadvertently misled” Parliament about the deportation targets.

Housing Minister Sajid Javid, the son of Pakistani immigrants, was named Monday to take over the portfolio of the Home Office (interior ministry),

May and Rudd have been under increasing fire since the so-called Windrush scandal first emerged several months ago. The scandal gets its name from the ship Empire Windrush, which in 1948 brought the first wave of immigrants from the Caribbean to Britain to help rebuild the country in the aftermath of World War II.

News reports have revealed that many of these immigrants have lost jobs, housing, access to medical care and threatened with deportation because they could not produce documents proving their right to reside in Britain, which was granted by a law passed in 1971.

The harsh treatment of the “Windrush generation” apparently stems from a policy introduced by May during her tenure as interior minister between 2010 and 2016, which called for creating a “hostile environment” for illegal immigrants.
…

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Russians Not Turning on Kremlin Even as Latest US Sanctions Bite

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The latest U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia earlier this month targeting two dozen Kremlin insiders and oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin and their companies are proving more painful than had been expected, say analysts. But they’re doing nothing at this stage in turning ordinary Russians against the Kremlin or undermining the Russian leader’s overall popularity.

 

The rouble suffered its worst week in four years in the immediate wake of the April 6 announcement of new sanctions on 24 super-wealthy Russians and 14 companies, suggesting the additions to the sanctions blacklist could have major impact on the Russian economy.

And that appears to be the case with the fortunes of the blacklisted Oleg Deripaska. He is the owner is Rusal, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers, which until the sanctions started to bite exported 82 percent of its production.

A majority of analysts and economists polled by Reuters Saturday said the latest round of U.S. sanctions against Moscow will likely limit interest rate cuts planned by Russia’s central bank, thereby slowing the country’s economic recovery, despite rising oil prices.

Retaliation

“The introduction of sanctions drastically raised uncertainty for the business environment in the Russian economy,” said Kirill Tremasov, a former Russian official and now head of research at Loko-Invest, a financial brokerage. The threat of counter-measures by the Russian parliament isn’t helping to calm turbulence, he added.

The Kremlin says the April round of sanctions, which Washington imposed after accusing Russia of “malign activities,” are unlawful and Russian officials have warned they will retaliate.

In mid-May, the lower house of the Russian parliament is set to consider legislation detailing retaliatory steps, including suspension of space and nuclear cooperation and a ban on importing U.S. agricultural produce, pharmaceuticals, tobacco and alcohol.

Some Russian lawmakers also want to suspend the intellectual rights to software developed by U.S. individuals or companies that’s used on Russian territory.

Impact on investment

When the West imposed its first sanctions on Russia, after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and fomenting separatism in eastern Ukraine, the effect was limited, according to analyst to Nigel Gould-Davies of Britain’s Chatham House, Russia found ways to adapt.

“But America’s latest financial sanctions, announced on 6 April, are a game-changer,” he argued in a recent commentary, noting the latest sanctions have created bigger uncertainty.

“No one knows who might be targeted next,” he continued. “Russia faces a new systemic risk: expectations about U.S. sanctions are now as important as the oil price for assessing its prospects.”

The sanctions, he and other analysts argue, deter counter-parties and agencies handling payments from doing business with the blacklisted Russians, including the aluminum king Deripaska and Vladimir Bogdanov, CEO of Russia’s third largest oil company. And by targeting publicly traded companies the sanctions have stripped away protecting corporate assets by listing on foreign stock exchanges, including London, New York or Hong Kong.

The sanctions have already impacted Deripaska by locking Rusal out of the global aluminum market, roiling the market and prompting massive prices hikes. The U.S. Treasury has now said it will consider lifting sanctions on Rusal, if Deripaska divests from the company and relinquishes control, something the industrial titan has hinted he may have to do.

UK sanctions

This week, more pressure will be applied on the Russian elite, when British lawmakers start the process of introducing legislation that will block Russian oligarchs and officials linked to human rights abuses from doing business in the country and buying property in Britain.

“If foreign oligarchs and kleptocrats who’ve committed crimes or abused human rights suddenly find they can’t buy property or stash their cash in the UK, it’s going to hurt,” said British Conservative lawmaker John Penrose.

Impact on Putin?

But while the Russian elite is being roiled by U.S. sanctions targeting oligarchs, disrupting their businesses and impacting foreign investment more broadly in the country, it remains unclear whether they’re denting Putin’s popularity among Russians or will in the future.

The Kremlin has been able to maintain price stability with subsidies, cushioning the impact of sanctions by dipping into reserves and the increased revenue from oil price rises.

Analysts remain divided about whether sanctions will force the Kremlin to curtail what Washington views as aggressive foreign activity, such as the alleged poisoning in Britain of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, an attack Moscow denies it had a hand in.
…

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Russians Not Turning on Kremlin Even as Latest US Sanctions Bite

ITeuLeave a comment

The latest U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia earlier this month targeting two dozen Kremlin insiders and oligarchs close to Vladimir Putin and their companies are proving more painful than had been expected, say analysts. But they’re doing nothing at this stage in turning ordinary Russians against the Kremlin or undermining the Russian leader’s overall popularity.

 

The rouble suffered its worst week in four years in the immediate wake of the April 6 announcement of new sanctions on 24 super-wealthy Russians and 14 companies, suggesting the additions to the sanctions blacklist could have major impact on the Russian economy.

And that appears to be the case with the fortunes of the blacklisted Oleg Deripaska. He is the owner is Rusal, one of the world’s largest aluminum producers, which until the sanctions started to bite exported 82 percent of its production.

A majority of analysts and economists polled by Reuters Saturday said the latest round of U.S. sanctions against Moscow will likely limit interest rate cuts planned by Russia’s central bank, thereby slowing the country’s economic recovery, despite rising oil prices.

Retaliation

“The introduction of sanctions drastically raised uncertainty for the business environment in the Russian economy,” said Kirill Tremasov, a former Russian official and now head of research at Loko-Invest, a financial brokerage. The threat of counter-measures by the Russian parliament isn’t helping to calm turbulence, he added.

The Kremlin says the April round of sanctions, which Washington imposed after accusing Russia of “malign activities,” are unlawful and Russian officials have warned they will retaliate.

In mid-May, the lower house of the Russian parliament is set to consider legislation detailing retaliatory steps, including suspension of space and nuclear cooperation and a ban on importing U.S. agricultural produce, pharmaceuticals, tobacco and alcohol.

Some Russian lawmakers also want to suspend the intellectual rights to software developed by U.S. individuals or companies that’s used on Russian territory.

Impact on investment

When the West imposed its first sanctions on Russia, after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and fomenting separatism in eastern Ukraine, the effect was limited, according to analyst to Nigel Gould-Davies of Britain’s Chatham House, Russia found ways to adapt.

“But America’s latest financial sanctions, announced on 6 April, are a game-changer,” he argued in a recent commentary, noting the latest sanctions have created bigger uncertainty.

“No one knows who might be targeted next,” he continued. “Russia faces a new systemic risk: expectations about U.S. sanctions are now as important as the oil price for assessing its prospects.”

The sanctions, he and other analysts argue, deter counter-parties and agencies handling payments from doing business with the blacklisted Russians, including the aluminum king Deripaska and Vladimir Bogdanov, CEO of Russia’s third largest oil company. And by targeting publicly traded companies the sanctions have stripped away protecting corporate assets by listing on foreign stock exchanges, including London, New York or Hong Kong.

The sanctions have already impacted Deripaska by locking Rusal out of the global aluminum market, roiling the market and prompting massive prices hikes. The U.S. Treasury has now said it will consider lifting sanctions on Rusal, if Deripaska divests from the company and relinquishes control, something the industrial titan has hinted he may have to do.

UK sanctions

This week, more pressure will be applied on the Russian elite, when British lawmakers start the process of introducing legislation that will block Russian oligarchs and officials linked to human rights abuses from doing business in the country and buying property in Britain.

“If foreign oligarchs and kleptocrats who’ve committed crimes or abused human rights suddenly find they can’t buy property or stash their cash in the UK, it’s going to hurt,” said British Conservative lawmaker John Penrose.

Impact on Putin?

But while the Russian elite is being roiled by U.S. sanctions targeting oligarchs, disrupting their businesses and impacting foreign investment more broadly in the country, it remains unclear whether they’re denting Putin’s popularity among Russians or will in the future.

The Kremlin has been able to maintain price stability with subsidies, cushioning the impact of sanctions by dipping into reserves and the increased revenue from oil price rises.

Analysts remain divided about whether sanctions will force the Kremlin to curtail what Washington views as aggressive foreign activity, such as the alleged poisoning in Britain of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, an attack Moscow denies it had a hand in.
…

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No Guns Allowed at NRA Convention When Trump, Pence Speak

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Attendees at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Dallas can carry their firearms — except during the forum where President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence speak Friday.

A White House official said Monday that Trump will attend Friday. Pence had already been slated to speak at Friday’s leadership forum,

 

The NRA has said on its website that due to Pence’s attendance, the U.S. Secret Service is responsible for security then. It’s standard for the Secret Service to bar firearms from being carried into places visited by the people they protect, regardless of state laws.

 

Some students at the Parkland, Florida, high school where 17 people were killed in February criticized the NRA on social media for what they see as hypocrisy.

 

Guns were also banned during Trump’s appearance at the NRA’s annual meeting in Atlanta last year.

 

 
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Correspondents’ Annual Dinner Jokes Draw Trump’s Ire

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U.S. President Donald Trump is assailing the White House correspondents’ annual dinner celebrating the country’s free speech guarantees after a comedian performing at the affair unleashed a string of barbed jokes aimed at Trump and his aides.

Trump skipped last Saturday’s black-tie event at a Washington hotel for the second year in a row in favor of holding a political rally with his supporters in Michigan. But since then, he has railed against one of his favorite targets — the journalists who cover his presidency on a daily basis.

This time, some of the reporters apologized for the acerbic humor of comedian Michelle Wolf, saying the jokes exceeded the unwritten boundaries of such political gatherings. But Trump took to Twitter Monday to declare the dinner “dead.”

Earlier, he said last year’s dinner was “a failure.”

In a 19-minute string of at times raunchy jokes, Wolf skewered Trump for his alleged 2006 affair with an adult film actress and a hush money payment to keep her quiet before the 2016 election.

She also minimized the size of Trump’s vast wealth, poked fun at the high turnover of his key appointments that has consumed the first 15 months of his presidency, and impugned his prowess in the bedroom.

But it was Wolf’s attack on the daily press briefings by Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders that drew the most post-dinner comment. Some reporters said Wolf crossed the lines of civility and apologized to Sanders afterward.

Sanders, seated on the dais a couple of chairs away from Wolf, sat unsmiling through the comedian’s biting humor aimed at her, but did not walk out as did a pair of husband-and-wife conservative Trump supporters offended by Wolf’s humor.

In one joke, the 32-year-old Wolf said of Sanders, “She burns facts, and then she uses that ash to create a perfect smoky eye.”

In another, Wolf described Sanders as an “Uncle Tom, but for white women who disappoint other white women,” a derogatory term originating in a 19th century novel depicting an extremely loyal enslaved black man.

As the tumult over Wolf’s jokes mushroomed, Margaret Talev, a Bloomberg News White House correspondent who contracted Wolf for the dinner, issued a White House Correspondents’ Association statement.

The dinner, it said, “was meant to offer a unifying message about our common commitment to a vigorous and free press while honoring civility, great reporting and scholarship winners, not to divide people. Unfortunately, the entertainer’s monologue was not in the spirit of that mission.”

As criticism mounted, Wolf defended her routine.

“All these jokes were about her despicable behavior,” the comedian said on Twitter.

And then Wolf posted a picture of herself, captioned, “Not in the spirit of the mission.”
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Somali Parliament Elects New Speaker

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Somali lawmakers elected Mohamed Mursal Abdirahman speaker of parliament’s lower house Monday after two rounds of voting in Mogadishu’s heavily protected parliament building.

Abdirahman resigned as defense minister just last week to run for the speakership, securing 147 votes out of 265. He defeated Ibrahim Isak Yarow, former deputy minister of telecommunications, who received 118 votes.

Ten candidates competed for the post, which became vacant April 12 following the resignation of Mohamed Osman Jawari, a seasoned and longtime politician. He stepped down after a bitter dispute with the legislative branch of the government.

Jawari was accused of aligning himself with opposition lawmakers who were allegedly planning a no-confidence motion against the government of Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire; however, MPs who support the prime minister brought a no-confidence motion against Jawari, which eventually forced him to step down after nearly a month of political turmoil.

Abdirahman, 61, is a former Somali ambassador to Turkey who is believed to have a close working relationship with Prime Minister Khaire. He will lead a parliament divided by the recent dispute.

The election of the speaker comes as the country faces serious security and humanitarian challenges. Leaders of African Union troop contributing countries have recently announced plans to stop reducing the number of peacekeepers in the country because Somali security forces are not ready to take over those responsibilities.

The country also faces serious humanitarian issues as hundreds of thousands have fled due to flooding and heavy rains in the south central regions in recent days. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, 427,000 people have been affected by the ongoing bad weather, with 175,000 fleeing their homes. One of the worst hit areas has been the Hiran region, according to the government, which declared the situation a national disaster.

Hiran Governor Abdullahi Ahmed Maalin told VOA Somali that five people have died due to floods, including two children in the central town of Beledweyne in the past few days.

President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo flew to Beledweyne on Monday to tour the affected areas. Aid organizations have warned of a possible outbreak of diseases such as malaria and cholera.

 
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Somali Parliament Elects New Speaker

ITafLeave a comment

Somali lawmakers elected Mohamed Mursal Abdirahman speaker of parliament’s lower house Monday after two rounds of voting in Mogadishu’s heavily protected parliament building.

Abdirahman resigned as defense minister just last week to run for the speakership, securing 147 votes out of 265. He defeated Ibrahim Isak Yarow, former deputy minister of telecommunications, who received 118 votes.

Ten candidates competed for the post, which became vacant April 12 following the resignation of Mohamed Osman Jawari, a seasoned and longtime politician. He stepped down after a bitter dispute with the legislative branch of the government.

Jawari was accused of aligning himself with opposition lawmakers who were allegedly planning a no-confidence motion against the government of Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire; however, MPs who support the prime minister brought a no-confidence motion against Jawari, which eventually forced him to step down after nearly a month of political turmoil.

Abdirahman, 61, is a former Somali ambassador to Turkey who is believed to have a close working relationship with Prime Minister Khaire. He will lead a parliament divided by the recent dispute.

The election of the speaker comes as the country faces serious security and humanitarian challenges. Leaders of African Union troop contributing countries have recently announced plans to stop reducing the number of peacekeepers in the country because Somali security forces are not ready to take over those responsibilities.

The country also faces serious humanitarian issues as hundreds of thousands have fled due to flooding and heavy rains in the south central regions in recent days. According to the Norwegian Refugee Council, 427,000 people have been affected by the ongoing bad weather, with 175,000 fleeing their homes. One of the worst hit areas has been the Hiran region, according to the government, which declared the situation a national disaster.

Hiran Governor Abdullahi Ahmed Maalin told VOA Somali that five people have died due to floods, including two children in the central town of Beledweyne in the past few days.

President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo flew to Beledweyne on Monday to tour the affected areas. Aid organizations have warned of a possible outbreak of diseases such as malaria and cholera.

 
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Pakistan’s Shi’ite Hazara on Hunger Strike to Protest Targeted Killings

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Members of Pakistan’s Hazara community, a minority Shi’ite sect, are on a hunger strike for a third day against the targeted killings their community has faced for years.

 

The number of killings has recently increased, with four separate attacks in April alone.

 

“I want to request army chief (Qamar Javed) Bajwa to come here as a common man, as a father, as a husband, and feel our pain. We have 3,000 widows and 10,000 orphans. Face them. Tell them why their loved ones are being killed,” said Jalila Haider, a lawyer and a human rights activist belonging to the community.

 

“Who are these people who come and shoot our youth despite the presence of security check posts,” asked Raheela Haider, another striker. “We want to find out who they are.”

 

Provincial Home Minister Mir Sarfaraz Bugti visited the hunger strike camp late Sunday and assured Haider and others that the regional government was taking steps to arrest elements involved in the targeted killings. Haider, however, rejected Bugti’s request to end the strike.

 

Thousands of Hazaras have been killed in bomb blasts or shootings over the last two decades. Sunni militant groups have taken responsibility for most of those incidents.

 

In most of the attacks, the assailants managed to escape.

 

The Hazaras reside primarily in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. In Pakistan, Shi’ites are a regular target of Sunni militant groups. Hazaras seem to bear the brunt of that violence since their distinctive facial features, a mixture of Mongolian and Central Asian ancestry, make them easily identifiable. In addition, many of them live in two large clusters in Quetta and have limited routes out of their communities, making attacks easier to plan.

 

Over time, the government tried to protect their main communities in Quetta, the capital of the restive Balochistan province, by putting walls around their neighborhoods guarded at the entrance by Frontier Constabulary, a paramilitary force.

 

Hazaras complain that their neighborhoods have turned into large prisons, where they are free to move about as long as they do not step outside. If they do, to conduct business or pursue their education, they risk death.

 

Last year, a high school graduate, Ali Haris, told VOA that up to 80 percent of his high school class gave up the prospect of a university education out of fear. To go to college, they would have to leave the safety of their protected community and travel through parts of the city where Hazaras regularly become targets.

 

Pakistan’s National Commission of Human Rights (NCHR), established in 2012 to meet the country’s international obligations, said in a recent report that more than 700 Hazaras were killed in various incidents of terrorism in Quetta in the last five years.
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