When opposition leader Keiko Fujimori leaves prison, her supporters will applaud her freedom and her detractors will lament what they consider more impunity for the corrupt, but the reality is the future is far from clear for the woman who twice almost won Peru’s presidency.The Constitutional Tribunal narrowly approved a habeas corpus request to free Fujimori from detention while she is investigated for alleged corruption. But the magistrates noted the 4-3 decision does not constitute a judgment on her guilt or innocence with regards to accusations she accepted money from Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht.The daughter of imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori — who herself was jailed in October 2018 — could be returned to a cell.“Although the Constitutional Tribunal has freed her for a strictly procedural matter, it has not absolved her of any of the charges, and it also did not dismiss the new charges made by the Public Ministry,” political analyst Iván García Mayer said.It is unclear when Fujimori will be freed, but authorities said after Monday’s court ruling that it could happen later in the week.The 44-year-old will leave prison to a changed political landscape, facing the tough task of rebuilding her political party and career, both of which have been eroded by scandals. Her Popular Force party held a majority in congress until September, when President Martín Vizcarra dissolved the legislature in a popular move he described as necessary to uproot corruption.The conservative Popular Force will participate in January legislative elections, but Fujimori is not expected to be a candidate and some expect the party to fade in the vote.As leader of Popular Force, Fujimori managed to undermine the government of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, fueling the impeachment of the now imprisoned ex-president for lying about his ties with Odebrecht.But now Fujimori herself has been ensnared by a corruption scandal that has toppled political and businesses leaders around Latin America.In 2016, Odebrecht recognized in a plea agreement with the U.S. Justice Department that it paid some $800 million in bribes to officials throughout the region. The bribes included some $29 million in Peru for public works contracts during the administrations of President Alejandro Toledo and two of his successors. Corruption allegations have hit all of Peru’s presidents between 2001 and 2016.Prosecutors accuse Fujimori of laundering $1.2 million provided by Odebrecht for her 2011 and 2016 presidential campaigns. They opened an investigation into the campaigns after seeing a note written by Marcelo Odebrecht, head of the Brazilian mega-company, on his cellphone that said: “increase Keiko to 500 and pay a visit.”Fujimori denies the accusations against her and says prosecutors and Peru’s election body have received Popular Force’s accounting books for inspection.Her jailing capped a striking downfall for a politician who went from first lady at age 19, to powerful opposition leader, to within a hair’s breadth of the presidency.Hundreds of mostly young people protested Monday’s ruling freeing her, calling it another demonstration of impunity for the corrupt.But Fujimori’s supporters have painted “Free Keiko” signs around Lima. Her husband, Mark Villanella, had been on a more than week-long hunger strike outside the jail holding Fujimori.Fujimori’s father, a strongman who governed Peru from 1990 to 2000, remains a polarizing figure. Some Peruvians praise him for defeating Maoist Shining Path guerrillas and resurrecting a devastated economy, while others detest him for human rights violations. He is serving a 25-year sentence for human rights abuses and corruption.Keiko Fujimori assumed the role of first lady following the traumatic divorce of her father and Susana Higuchi.She graduated in business administration from Boston University in 1997 and returned to the United States in 2000 to obtain a master’s degree in business from Columbia University.She tried to follow in her father’s presidential footsteps and forge a gentler, kinder version of the movement known as “Fujimorismo.”She finished second in the 2011 election and five years later lost in a razor-thin vote, coming within less than half a percentage point of defeating Kuczynski.Now, emerging into a new Peru with a dissolved congress and widespread dislike for political elites, Fujimori faces a tough situation, analysts say.She “is in a very bad position; it will be very difficult for her to recover because the immense majority believe she really committed acts of corruption,” said analyst and sociologist Fernando Rospigliosi.“She is not going to recover in the medium term,” he said.
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Month: November 2019
Somalia Hailed for Ratifying Document on Protecting Displaced People
The U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) has commended Somalia for signing a convention to protect internally displaced people (IDPs) in Africa. Somalia’s announcement on Nov 26 makes it the 30th African country to sign the Kampala Convention. Somalia has the fourth largest population of IDPs in the worldThis week, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed signed the Kampala convention that requires internally displaced persons be protected and given assistance in their daily struggles.Somalia is the 30th country to ratify the deal, which was adopted in 2009 by all 55 African countries.African IDPs face many risks to their safety and are often in need of humanitarian assistance.Somalia Not Ready for Massive Refugee Return, UN Warns
The U.N. refugee agency has warned that a large-scale return of refugees from Kenya's Dadaab camp could exacerbate the humanitarian crisis in parts of Somalia.UNHCR said it was aware of Kenya's recently renewed call to close the Dadaab refugee camp, which houses 230,000 people.
Guelnoudji Ndjekounkosse is the U.N. refugee agency’s senior protection officer in Somalia. He says ratification will improve the welfare of Somalis who fled their homes.“It helps to promote and strengthen regional, national measures to find a solution for displaced persons,” said Ndjekounkosse. “The second aspect is that the fact that the Kampala ratification established a legal framework to protect and assist properly the Somali displaced people and lastly I look at it from the angle of how it established a legal framework for solidarity, cooperation at a regional level.”According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 10 million people in Africa were displaced in 2018. Somalia accounted for 11 percent of that figure.Somalia has long lacked a stable government. The fight against al-Shabab militants has led to more people fleeing their homes.
Ndjekuonkosse says reaching those Somalis in need of humanitarian assistance has been a problem for many aid agencies.
“So the same insecurity is affecting the internally displaced persons also affects humanitarian workers from all the sectors that are trying to intervene in the areas,” said Ndjekounkosse. “I think most significantly the government of Somalia is making the effort to ensure that humanitarian actors have access and to deliver the assistance and protection request from them.”The ratification signed by the Somali government means it has to take measures to ensure the safety and tend to the long term needs of IDPs in the country.Amnesty International researcher Abdullahi Hassan says Somalia has much to overcome to fulfill the commitment.
“As long as this conflict continues the situation of IDPs will be there so that’s one big challenge that Somalia needs to deal with the other thing is due to these climatic shocks we have seen in Somalia there has been constant famine and drought that hits Somalia very hard in the past few years. IDP situation is likely to be there for a long time and more IDPs will be created due to drought and continues conflict but that should not be an excuse for the government not to protect the rights and the livelihoods of the IDPs in the country,” said Hasan.
Two-point-six million Somalis are displaced, a number that could rise as the fight against al-Shabab rebels continues.
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France to Reconsider Conditions of Military Role in Africa
French President Emmanuel Macron says France will reconsider the conditions of its military operation in West and Central Africa, after a helicopter collision killed 13 soldiers fighting Islamic State group-linked extremists.
Macron told reporters Thursday that “our mission there is important, yet what we are now living in the Sahel leads us to look into all strategic options.”
He said the French government and armed forces will work on the issue in the coming weeks.
The Monday night crash led to France’s highest military death toll in nearly four decades.
Macron this week defended France’s largest overseas military mission, which involves 4,500 troops, saying it is aimed at enhancing France’s own security and providing support to African countries.
A national tribute ceremony will take place Monday in Paris.
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NATO at 70: Internal Tensions, External Threats as Leaders Set to Gather in London
NATO leaders are preparing to gather in London for a two-day meeting Tuesday to mark the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the alliance. The war in Syria and the ongoing threat from Russia will serve as the backdrop to the summit. But as Henry Ridgwell reports, growing tensions between members could overshadow the anniversary celebrations.
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Pakistan Court Limits Extension of Army Chief, Orders Change in Law
Pakistan’s Supreme Court limited the tenure extension of the sitting army chief to six months Thursday, as opposed to the three years the government wanted to grant him. In addition, the court has asked the government to use the time to amend laws to clarify the terms and conditions of the post, including the length of tenure and whether that tenure could be extended.
“[I]nspite of the assistance rendered by the learned Attorney-General, we could not find any provision relating to the tenure of COAS [Chief of Army Staff] or of a General and whether the COAS can be reappointed or his term can be extended or his retirement can be limited or suspended under the Constitution or the law,” the court wrote in its order.
Once the new legislation is enacted, the court said, it would determine the future of army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa’s tenure and other conditions of service.
On Tuesday, the court suspended a government notification extending General Bajwa’s term for three years.
The decision sent shock waves through a country that has been ruled by the military for more than half of its existence and where the military is considered to be the most powerful institution, widely believed to be secretly wielding influence over other institutions like the executive, the parliament, and the judiciary.
Bajwa is not the first army chief to receive an extension. Several army chiefs in the past, some of them dictators, served multiple terms. However, no one ever challenged such actions in court. In the last two decades, only one army chief, Raheel Sharif, stepped down at the end of his term of three years.
For the last three days, the case has received almost non-stop coverage in local media. Television news channels have repeated the judges’ words in court almost verbatim.
Many in the country, including the top court, were surprised by the fact that the terms of service of the army chief’s office, considered to be one of the most powerful in the country, were not clearly described in the law.
“In the proceedings before us during the last three days the Federal Government has moved from one position to another referring to it as reappointment, limiting of retirement or extension of tenure,” the court said in its judgment, also noting that the government also kept changing its position on whether it drew the authority to grant an extension from the constitution or from a particular set of laws governing the army.
The court’s proceedings, particularly because of the possibility that the judges might strike down the extension completely, threatened to pit the judiciary against the military. Prime Minister Imran Khan expressed relief that it did not happen.
“Today must be a great disappointment to those who expected the country to be destabilized by a clash of institutions. That this did not happen must be of special disappointment to our external enemies & mafias within -,” he tweeted.
At a press conference Thursday evening, Attorney General Anwar Mansoor Khan, who represented the government, called it a historic judgment.
“The interpretation of the constitution in this judgment will help us in the future as well,” he said, explaining that the laws ruling the army dated back to a time when the British ruled the region, before 1947, and were being used with minor changes.
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Turkey Calls on NATO to Support its Security Concerns
Turkey’s foreign minister has called on NATO to support Ankara’s security concerns, accusing allies of backing Baltic countries’ security concerns but dismissing threats to Turkey from Syrian Kurdish fighters. Mevlut Cavusoglu made the comments Thursday. He confirmed media reports that said Turkey was blocking a NATO defense proposal for the Baltic nations and Poland until the alliance supports Turkey’s concerns relating to the Kurdish fighters, which Ankara considers to be terrorists.
Cavusoglu said: “We are not against NATO’s retaliation plans for the Baltic nations but (NATO) should also want for Turkey what it wants for the Baltics.”
He said the NATO chief was working to overcome the dispute.
A plan to defend the Baltic nations in case of a Russian attack needs the backing of all member states.
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Study: For HIV-Infected Babies, Treatment Best Started at Birth
Babies born with HIV benefit the most if treatment is started within hours or days of birth rather than waiting for them to be a little older, a study published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine found.A Harvard-led study of 40 infected infants in Botswana found those treated within hours of birth developed a much smaller viral reservoir, the pool of virus that remains within the body during and after treatment and is responsible for later relapses. While babies who were given the medications starting at four months after birth did not fare as well.The first group of babies also had more robust immune systems even than babies born without the virus.The study was based on a case in the U.S. know as the “Mississippi Baby.” That case involved a baby who was treated within 30 hours of birth in July 2010. Her family stopped treatment when she was a toddler and she stunned the medical community by remaining in remission for 27 months before she relapsed and restarted treatment.The findings of the Mississippi Baby case and the study in Botswana are particularly important to poorer nations where at-risk babies are not tested for HIV immediately after birth, as they are in the U.S., Europe and South Africa.The availability of anti-HIV drugs can prevent infected moms from passing the virus on to their children but despite that, a study found that some 300-500 infants are thought to be infected every day in sub-Saharan Africa.
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TikTok Apologizes for Removing Video on Muslims in China
Social media app TikTok apologized to a user Thursday for removing a video that criticized China’s treatment of Muslims, blaming a “human moderation error” and saying the images had been restored within less than an hour.The controversy over the video, viewed 1.6 million times, comes as TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, faces an inquiry by a U.S. national security panel over its handling of personal data, while U.S. lawmakers fear it may be censoring politically sensitive content.In the video she posted last week, the user, who identifies herself as Feroza Aziz, gave a tutorial on eyelash curling, while talking about how Muslims were being treated and saying she wanted to spread awareness of the situation.But on Twitter this week she said she had been blocked from posting on TikTok for a month, and Wednesday posted that her viral video had been taken down, only to be restored later.TikTok logo on a mobile phoneTikTok statementThe video was offline for 50 minutes, TikTok said on its website.“We would like to apologize to the user for the error on our part,” said Eric Han, the app’s U.S. head of safety. “Due to a human moderation error, the viral video from Nov. 23 was removed. It’s important to clarify that nothing in our community guidelines precludes content such as this video, and it should not have been removed.”The TikTok user did not immediately respond to requests from Reuters for additional comment.China’s foreign ministry said it had no specifics of the case, when queried by Reuters about the incident Wednesday.But it added that it required Chinese firms to operate in a way that respected international norms and local laws and regulations, and hoped that relevant countries also provided a fair and non-discriminatory environment.TikTok is not available in China, but ByteDance has a domestic version called Douyin.UighursThe user did not mention Uighurs in the video, but said later on Twitter she had been referring to the minority ethnic group.United Nations experts and rights groups estimate more than a million Uighurs and members of other ethnic groups have been detained in camps in China’s far western region of Xinjiang, which has triggered international condemnation.China says the camps are vocational training centers to impart new skills and help root out and prevent extremism.ByteDance has stepped up efforts to shield TikTok, popular with U.S. teenagers and those in their 20s, from much of its Chinese operations, Reuters reported Thursday.In a timeline on its blog post, TikTok said it had blocked another account set up by Aziz that had posted an image of Osama Bin Laden, which violated its content policies regarding “terrorist imagery.”On Monday, it enforced a device ban on accounts associated with violations. This affected the new account from which Aziz had posted the eyelash curling video and sent from the same device, it said.It said it had decided to override the device ban and was directly contacting her to do so.Aziz confirmed on Twitter that TikTok had restored her account but said other past videos had been deleted.“Do I believe they took it away because of a unrelated satirical video that was deleted on a previous deleted account of mine? Right after I finished posting a three-part video about the Uyghurs? No,” she posted on Twitter.
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UN: Ebola Responders Killed in Eastern Congo Attacks
Rebels have attacked and killed Ebola response workers in eastern Congo, the World Health Organization chief said Thursday, an alarming development that could cause the waning outbreak to again pick up momentum in what has been called a war zone.“We are heartbroken that our worst fears have been realized,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Twitter.Three health workers were killed when Mai-Mai fighters attacked a base of the United Nations health agency overnight in Biakato, local official Salambongo Selemani told The Associated Press. One resident also was killed and Congolese forces killed one attacker and captured two others, Selemani said.Warnings had been posted earlier demanding that the health workers leave or face “the worst,” the official said.Earlier threatsThis is not the first time that health workers trying to contain the second-worst Ebola outbreak in history have been targeted. Some have called this outbreak more complicated than any other. Several rebel groups are active in the region, and local officials say some believe Ebola is nothing but a political ploy.“Imagine, a doctor leaves home in the U.S. or elsewhere to come sleep in a tent to help save us from this scourge of Ebola and yet poorly educated young people want to attack him. … It is very deplorable,” said Fiston Kamango, a youth leader in Biakato.The latest attacks come after days of deadly unrest in the city of Beni, where residents outraged by repeated rebel attacks stormed the local U.N. peacekeeping base, demanding more protection. WHO evacuated 49 of its staffers there, leaving 71 in place.Ebola response work was put on lockdown in Beni, dismaying health experts who say every attack hurts crucial efforts to contain the deadly virus.The number of cases had been dropping in the yearlong outbreak which has killed more than 2,100 people. Several days this month, zero cases were reported. Previously, cases have surged after attacks on health workers and facilities.Progress reversedIn one example of how any pause can sharply affect Ebola containment efforts, WHO has said no one in Beni could be vaccinated against the virus Monday. The health agency previously could trace more than 90% of contacts of infected people in the city but now that figure is just 17%, a U.N. spokesman said Tuesday.Residents accuse Congolese and U.N. forces of not doing enough to protect civilians from the rebels who fight for control of the region’s vast mineral wealth. The Allied Democratic Forces armed group alone is blamed for the murders of more than 1,500 people in and around Beni in the past four years.The latest rebel attack outside Beni killed 19 people, the U.N. said Wednesday.After an emergency meeting Monday, President Felix Tshisekedi decided to allow joint operations between Congolese and U.N. forces in Beni following the protests that also burned the town hall.Far from the capital, Kinshasa, some traumatized residents in the densely populated border region near Uganda and Rwanda are wary of outsiders, further complicating the Ebola containment work in a part of Congo that had never recorded the virus before.Health workers continue to battle misinformation and reluctance to seek treatment for the virus that is largely spread via close contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, including the dead.
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French Farmers Fight for Survival
Farmers across France are protesting poor economic and social conditions in the farming community. Hundreds of tractors disrupted traffic in Paris and other major cities in a demonstration organized by the National Federation of Agricultural Holders’ Unions and the union of young farmers. Farmers unloaded tires to block some roads and scattered hay bales across the Champs-Elysées, the central avenue in Paris. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports farmers demand a response from President Emmanuel Macron.
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Albanian-American Activist Heads Fundraising Campaign
Marko Kepi, an Albanian-American activist, is heading a fundraising campaign to aid victims of Wednesday’s earthquake.
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Albanian Defense Minister Reads Quake Victims’ Names
Albanian Defense Minister Olta Xhacka becomes emotional while reading names of victims of the strongest earthquake to hit Albania in more than three decades.
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Myriad of Frustrations Draw Colombians Back onto Streets
Colombians unhappy with President Ivan Duque’s response to nearly a week of boisterous protests over everything from job losses to shark hunting took to the streets again Wednesday in a continuing tide of unrest.The daily protests jolting the South American country proclaim a wide array of complaints but echo one refrain: an opposition to a government that many believe only looks after the most privileged citizens.“We feel defenseless to everything,” Lucy Rosales, 60, a pensioner in Bogota. “We don’t feel like we have a voice that represents us. It’s many things that they allowed to accumulate.”Several thousand people blew whistles and waving their nation’s flag as they marched through the streets of the capital around mid-afternoon, while indigenous activists blocked part of a major highway in southwest Colombia.The new demonstration came a day after Duque’s attempt to quell the discontent by holding talks with a protest steering group hit a snag: Members of the National Strike Committee refused to join broader talks the president has called with all social sectors, fearing their demands would be diluted.“The government has not been able to learn from the Chilean and Ecuadorian experiences,” said Jorge Restrepo, an economics professor, referring to recent mass demonstrations in both of those countries. “It has made very many mistakes.”A man performs hanging from a bridge during an anti-government protest in Bogota, Colombia, Nov. 27, 2019. The steering committee presented a 13-point list of demands Tuesday that asks Duque to withdraw or refrain from tax, labor and pension law changes that are either before the legislature or rumored to be in development. The labor and student leaders also want Duque to review free-trade agreements, eliminate a police unit accused in the death of an 18-year-old student protester and fully implement the nation’s historic peace accord with leftist rebels.Organizers dismissed Duque’s calls to join his “National Conversation” that would run through March — an initiative that appears to take a page from French President Emmanuel Macron, who opened a “Great National Debate” to involve citizens in drafting reforms after months of angry protests in that country.“It’s a monologue between the government and its allies,” said Diogenes Orjuela, president of the Central Workers Union, one of the main forces behind the National Strike Committee.It remains unclear to what extent the Strike Committee represents protesters in what has become a largely citizen-driven outpouring of discontent. An invitation to gather in a park or bang pots and pans quickly goes viral on WhatsApp and soon hundreds fill neighborhoods with the angry sound of clanging metal and chants like “Get out Duque!”“We’re tired,” Ana Maria Moya, a student, said. “We’re saying, ‘No more.’”Though the National Strike Committee drew an estimated 250,000 people to the streets last Thursday, far fewer protesters were heeding their call for a new strike on Wednesday. Protesters filled the storied Plaza Bolivar but life continued as normal in much of the rest of the capital.Various leaders have tried to capitalize on the momentum, but none yet has emerged as the unequivocal voice of the protesters.“There is a contest over the ownership of the protesters,” Restrepo said. “I see students get out in the streets because they need more social mobility, higher levels of income, more opportunities at least in employment. But then the ones that claim they represent those students in the streets are the unions.”Colombia is widely considered in need of labor and pension reform. Few retirees currently have access to pensions, with the lowest-income earners the least likely to get one. Labor laws make it difficult to hire new employees. Even as the nation’s economy grows at a healthy 3.3%, unemployment has risen to nearly 11%.“I would characterize the demands of the National Strike Committee as highly conservative, regressive and counter-reformist demands,” Restrepo said.Orjuela, a former schoolteacher who participated in Colombia’s last major strike, in 1977, said protest organizers would be willing to support a pension reform as long as it involves a state and not a private-run system.Even as they parse out the details, the committee’s general message decrying Duque has resonated widely, tapping into the myriad frustrations of Colombians.For some it is big-picture issues like not fully implementing peace accords, endemic corruption and persistent economic inequality. For others it is small indignities, like relatively pricey public transportation that is also slow and overcrowded.One unexpected sight in the protests has been that of giant plastic sharks hoisted by at least one protester denouncing a government decision allowing a certain amount of shark fishing.“It’s like all the groups are feeding off each other,” said Gimena Sanchez-Garzoli, a human rights advocate with the Washington Office on Latin America.Few expected that such a mixed bag of motivations could generate a prolonged protest and it remained unclear how long it might drag on. Thus far, four people have died, hundreds have been injured and tens of millions of dollars have been lost from businesses shuttering during demonstrations.The patience of some Colombians is beginning to wear thin.Julio Contreras, a deliveryman who was tear gassed while trying to get 20 kilos (44 pounds) of chicken to restaurants, said he is ready for the protests to be done.“They’re not letting us work,” he said. “The students should be in the universities and not affecting us.”
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Man Arrested in Afghanistan for Rape and Murder of Eight-Year-Old
Police in Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar arrested a local imam for allegedly raping and murdering an eight-year-old boy in the Ghazi Ghundi section of the city of Kandahar.Kandahar police spokesperson Jamal Nasir Barakzia shared a video Wednesday of the suspect, Sayed Ahmad, admitting to the accusations.“I have raped my pupil eight times before he fled the mosque. We (my father and I) later found him and brought him back. On our way back to the mosque, I kicked his back several times; he (the victim) first began vomiting and later passed away,” Ahmad admits in the video.Authorities say Sayed has asked to be pardoned, claiming he was “deceived by the devil.”
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Zimbabwe’s Senior Doctors Join Strike, Further Crippling Health Care System
Senior doctors in Zimbabwe have joined their junior counterparts in a general strike over low wages that they say are not keeping up with high inflation.On Wednesday, health care workers said they would continue their strike, which began Tuesday to protest the dismissal of junior colleagues who walked out in September, paralyzing the country’s health delivery system.Zimbabwe’s biggest hospital, Parirenyatwa General in Harare, looked deserted as patients were being turned away.Margret Mashava brought in her pregnant sister, Marvel, who she suspected might have complications related to an earlier cesarean section.”Now we are stranded. We do not know what to do. There are no nurses at the clinics. We do not know. Maybe we will approach midwives since there are no doctors now. We don’t know what to do,” she said.Zimbabwe’s senior doctors on Wednesday said in a statement that they had watched “over the past few months as the situation in our hospitals deteriorate … no bandages, no gloves and syringes available. In response, the employer [the government] unlawfully withheld their salaries. The authorities are so vindictive that they went to [a medical] theater to hand a letter to a doctor who was finishing an emergency operation. For the record, the senior doctors will not be reapplying to go back to work.”Tawanda Zvakada of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association says, Nov. 22, 2019, he hopes President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government will swiftly act now that senior doctors have joined the strike. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)Tawanda Zvakada of the Zimbabwe Hospital Doctors Association said he hoped the government would swiftly act now that senior doctors had joined the strike.He said, “Doctors are not neglecting patients at all. But they have been put in such a situation that they can’t do anything. This is solely to blame on the government side. We have reiterated that we are not on strike, but incapacitated. The will is there but we do not have the capacity. Once we are capacitated, you will see doctors at hospitals.”Being “incapacitated” is the word government workers are using to justify staying at home, saying their salaries of below $100, in some cases, cannot let them meet their basic needs.President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government claims it can’t pay more to its workers, but critics point to skewed priorities, an apparent reference to frequent foreign trips and purchases of luxury vehicles by senior officials while the social sector is ailing and largely depends on foreign donors.
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Bomb Blast Kills 15 Afghan Civilians
A roadside bomb in northern Afghanistan demolished a civilian vehicle Wednesday evening, killing least 15 civilians and injuring two others.An Afghan Interior Ministry spokesman accused Taliban insurgents of planting the bomb in troubled Kunduz province.Provincial officials said the victims, including women and children, were on their way to attend a wedding party in the Imam Sahib district, the scene of heavy fighting between Afghan forces and the Taliban.Civilians continue to bear the brunt of the Afghan war that entered its 19th year last month.The United Nations has documented around 2,600 Afghan civilian deaths in the first nine months of 2019, with 5,600 wounded.
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