Month: May 2020

U.N. and private aid agencies are scaling up assistance to thousands of people who have lost everything in a fire that engulfed their camp in Maiduguri, the capital of eastern Nigeria’s Borno state a week ago.What was meant to be a festive occasion celebrating the end of Ramadan turned into a nightmare.   On the eve of the Muslim festival of Eid-al-Fitr, sparks from a cooking fireplace started a fire that spread throughout a camp housing 40,000 people who had fled Boko Haram violence.   Two people died in the blaze.The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees reports nearly 4,000 people, most of them women, lost all their goods.  UNHCR spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo says the fire in this makeshift settlement has destroyed their shelters, razed houses to the ground and damaged other facilities.“UNHCR is working with authorities, aid agencies and local partners to make sure that those affected receive shelter and other relief items as people once again are being displaced outside and also inside the camp now,” said Mantoo. “Many, including young children, are living under the open, basically living out in into the open and without protection and also needing immediate help — shelter, food and clothing.”  Nearly 300,000 people displaced by Boko Haram violence are living in organized and makeshift sites in and around Maiduguri.  Mantoo says the current tragedy is only the latest in a spate of fires that have broken out throughout the region in recent months.She says camps across northeast Nigeria are congested and shelters are too close together for safety.“With violence on the rise, the threat of COVID-19 also brings in new threats for internally displaced people living in overcrowded camps and settlements where physical distancing is impossible,” said Mantoo. “In response, UNHCR is working with U.N. Development Program to expand several camps and build additional shelters.” Since the Boko Haram insurgency started in 2009, tens of thousands of people have been killed and 2.5 million have been displaced across the Lake Chad region.  This number includes 1.8 million inside Nigeria and the rest in Cameroon and Chad.Despite numerous setbacks, Boko Haram remains a potent and dangerous force.  The militant group has spawned other armed groups in the region, increasing violence.  Aid agencies report thousands are fleeing for their lives every day.  Those bearing the brunt of this ongoing conflict, they say, are young girls, old women and aid workers.
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As Minneapolis burns over the police killing of George Floyd and shock and disappointment in Africa grow, some U.S. embassies on the continent have taken the unusual step of issuing critical statements, saying no one is above the law.       The statements came as the head of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, condemned the “murder” of Floyd and said Friday the continental body rejects the “continuing discriminatory practices against black citizens of the USA.”       Africa has not seen the kind of protests over Floyd’s killing that have erupted across the United States, but many Africans have expressed disgust and dismay, openly wondering when the U.S. will ever get it right.       “WTF? `When the looting starts the shooting starts’?” tweeted political cartoonist Patrick Gathara in Kenya, which has its own troubles with police brutality. He, like many, was aghast at the tweet by President Donald Trump, flagged by Twitter as violating rules against “glorifying violence,” that the president later said had been misconstrued.       ‘Wanton Destruction’ in Minneapolis As Protests Spread Across USWhite police officer is charged with murder of George Floyd in MinneapolisMindful of America’s image on a continent where China’s influence has grown and where many have felt a distinct lack of interest from the Trump administration in Africa, some U.S. diplomats have tried to control the damage.       The ambassador to Congo, Mike Hammer, highlighted a tweet from a local media entrepreneur who addressed him saying, “Dear ambassador, your country is shameful. Proud America, which went through everything from segregation to the election of Barack Obama, still hasn’t conquered the demons of racism. How many black people must be killed by white police officers before authorities react seriously?”       The ambassador’s response, in French: “I am profoundly troubled by the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The Justice Department is conducting a full criminal investigation as a top priority. Security forces around the world should be held accountable. No one is above the law.”       Similar statements were tweeted by the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Uganda, while the embassies in Tanzania and Kenya tweeted a joint statement from the Department of Justice office in Minnesota on the investigation.       African officials also were publicly outspoken last month over racism in China, when Africans complained of being evicted and mistreated in the city of Guangzhou amid the COVID-19 pandemic.         Protests Around the Country Following Minneapolis Death During a night of protests on Thursday, at least seven people were shot, one criticallyAt the time, the U.S. was quick to join in, with the embassy in Beijing issuing a critical security alert titled “Discrimination against African-Americans in Guangzhou” and noting actions against people thought to be African or have African contacts.       Now the Africa-facing version of the state-run China Daily newspaper is tweeting footage from Minneapolis with the hashtags #GeorgeFloydWasMurdered and #BlackLivesMatter.
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The bodies of seven health workers and a civilian were found Thursday in a village north of Mogadishu, shocking residents, local authorities and elders said Friday.”We found the dead bodies of the seven young health workers and a shop owner outside Golaley village near Balad district, 30 kilometers north of Mogadishu, a day after they were abducted by men in Somali military fatigues,” Ahmed Mohamed Muse, a local elder, told VOA Somali.It was not clear who was responsible for the killing, but local elders, including Muse, accused Somali government soldiers of being behind the attack.”The abductors were government soldiers and they carried out the execution, apparently as revenge for the killing of nine soldiers by a roadside bomb on Tuesday,” said Muse.Qasim Ali Nur, Balad district commissioner, denied the accusation and instead laid blame on the militant group al-Shabab.”We are still investigating the incident and the initial evidence we have is telling us that al-Shabab militants were behind the killing,” Nur told VOA Somali.He said the seven slain health workers were with the Zamzam foundation, a local aid group that focuses on health care, education, orphan care and peace building.In Somalia, Many Medics Chose Caring for COVID Patients Over Marking EidAs most Somalis celebrated the holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan, frontline hospital workers stayed behind to look after those in needColonel Abshir Maxamuud, a senior military official operating in the Middle Shabelle region where the incident occurred, also denied any involvement of government soldiers.Omar Jamac, a spokesman for the aid group, confirmed to Reuters that seven of its health workers had been kidnapped from a center in Golaley village.Residents shockedThe executions shocked the residents of Balad town, triggering protests against what they called the “brutal execution of civilians.”The protesters, wearing red head bandannas, marched through main streets of the town Friday, calling on the authorities to bring the perpetrators to justice.”We are deeply saddened by the gruesome incident. All we demand is justice and fair investigation that finally results in justice for those murdered civil servants,” Osman Muhumed, a protest organizer, told local media.The federal government, the United Nations and international groups also condemned the incident.U.N. Resident Humanitarian Coordinator Adam Abdelmoula said in a statement Thursday that he was shocked by the killings of the health workers. “Attacks against medical facilities and personnel are unacceptable and a breach of international humanitarian law and any common decency,” he said.Abdelmoula who also is the deputy U.N. head in Somalia, called for a “transparent and thorough investigation” into the incident.A statement from the Somali government said, “The government is sharing the pain with all Somalis and sends condolences to the families of those murdered.”The statement added that the government had ordered an immediate investigation into the incident.This incident came at a time when Somalia has been struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic, drought and a locust invasion.Ibrahim Mohamoud and Husein Dhaqane in Beledweyn, Somalia, contributed to this report.
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The head of the World Food Program tells VOA the number of people suffering from acute food insecurity in Africa could more than double due to COVID-19. Executive Director David Beasley says the impact of the virus on the economy and the flow of supplies could affect more than 40 million people in East Africa alone.The head of the World Food Program has warned a failure to keep food supply chains open during the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic could result in more people dying of hunger than of the virus itself.During a four-day trip to Africa, Beasley told VOA there are already grave problems distributing food because of curfews, long delays for truck drivers at border crossings and mandatory quarantines affecting pilots.FILE – People have been displaced from Wachile, Southern Oromia region of Ethiopia, May 5, 2020. The country is trying to avoid a food crisis caused by a huge invasion of locusts.The WFP has identified 28 hot spots in Africa where trade is slow due to coronavirus restrictions, says Beasley.“Quite frankly, we’ve had 350,000 people around the world die from COVID over five months,” said Beasley. “If the supply chain breaks down like we’re looking at, along with the economic deterioration, we could have 300,000 people die per day. Per day. It can’t be COVID versus hunger, we’ve got to thread the needle and balance both.”   The WFP chief is calling on governments to more carefully review whether all the restrictions are needed. “Africa is very fragile. If we shut down ports, even for a few days, if we have border restrictions, even for a few days it will have a major hunger and humanitarian impact to the people,” he said. “We are already running into issues. We’re working with the leaders, explaining the complications and the impact ripple effect if they do restrictions unnecessarily.”  In April, the WFP said that the number of people facing acute food insecurity globally could nearly double this year to 265 million due to the economic fallout of COVID-19. Most of those people reside in Africa.  The number of people living on the verge of starvation has already risen to 135 million today from 80 million four years ago due to a culmination of disasters from flooding in Kenya, insecurity in the Sahel and locust plagues throughout East Africa, says the WFP.  In the Horn of Africa alone, there are already approximately 20 million people suffering from severe food insecurity, a number the WFP estimates could rise to 43 million this year due to COVID-19 and other factors, such as locust swarms.In Ethiopia, the region’s most populous country, 7 million people are on the verge of starvation.  Beasley says the situation could get worse.“If you do a lockdown in some of the urban areas in Africa and those young people lose their jobs, and they are living day to day hand to mouth, and they lose their job and they don’t have food, you’re going to have disruption. You’re going to have protests and riots and chaos,” said Beasley.FILE – A man attempts to fend off a swarm of desert locusts at a ranch near the town of Nanyuki in Laikipia county, Kenya, Feb. 21, 2020.The WFP has set up two humanitarian hubs at airports in Ethiopia and Ghana to transport medical supplies, food and humanitarian workers across the continent.Beasley, who recovered from the coronavirus in April, said the WFP needs $960 million just to keep the supply chain up and running for humanitarian food aid.Abdi Jama, coordinator of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development’s food security hub, told VOA supply trucks are backed up at the border between Kenya and Uganda due to measures to contain the virus. Jama reports price hikes due to a lack of supplies.“It’s looking more or less like a doubling of the number of people in need of food aid. In previous years, we used to think more about the agro-pastoralists and [those working in] agriculture,” said Abdi. “But now, we have the issue of these informal settlements in the urban areas, which are really a new group of people that are coming on board.”Jama also said that the Horn of Africa has one of the highest numbers of internally displaced people in the world, creating another group at high risk.  
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