Month: July 2020

At least nine civilians were killed in new attacks carried out by Islamist insurgents in the restive province of Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique, local sources said.The attacks on the districts of Mocimboa da Praia and Macomia of Cabo Delgado on Wednesday forced the local population to flee their homes, seeking safety in nearby woods, residents told VOA.A group of armed men “hooded with Islamic handkerchiefs” invaded the village of Tandacua in Macomia, searching for food, according to a local resident.The insurgents “arrived around 6 in the evening [local time], so many residents fled the village,” the resident, who declined to give his name, told VOA.“When we returned the next day, we found eight dead people who were beheaded,” the resident said, adding that “the security situation is getting more complicated.”On Tuesday, Islamist militants entered the district of Mocimboa da Praia, killing one civilian at a flour mill before seizing food and livestock.The insurgents “entered Mocimboa da Praia twice this week,” said Zunaid, a Mocimboa da Praia resident who gave only his first name.“After they killed a man on Tuesday and left, they went in again [on Wednesday] to steal more food,” he told VOA.“All residents are in the woods out of fear,” Zunaid said, noting that “there are more military personnel than the local population, but al-Shabab [militants] still come in and attack us.”IS linksSince 2017, militant attacks on civilians and government security forces in Cabo Delgado have killed more than 1,000 people and displaced over 210,000 others, according to the United Nations.Locally known as al-Shabab, Ahlu Sunna wa Jama is the main militant group responsible for these attacks in northern Mozambique. It is considered to be the Mozambique affiliate of the Islamic State (IS) terror group.However, Eric Morier-Genoud, a Mozambique expert at Queen’s University Belfast, says there is little “evidence that the Islamic State is behind this group, which radicalized its positions in the face of many existing inequalities” in the Muslim-majority province.“The group has approached the Islamic State, but it has little influence yet,” he told VOA, adding that the extent of the connection between the local militant group and IS “basically has been an exchange of information up to now.”In April 2019, IS declared its so-called Central African Province, known as ISCAP. Attacks attributed to its Central African Province affiliate have been limited to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Increased attacksIn recent months, militants have stepped up their attacks in Cabo Delgado, leading experts to predict that the conflict will likely continue for a long time.Murade Murargy, former executive secretary of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP), says he doesn’t “believe a solution to the conflict in Cabo Delgado will be reached in the short term, but in the medium or long term.”The Mozambican diplomat told reporters this week that the insurgency in the northern Mozambican province “is beyond the religious question, but it has an economic aspect as well.”Cabo Delgado is a gas-rich region where major international oil and gas companies, including ExxonMobil and Total, have several investment projects.Transnational insurgencyObservers say that some of the militants fighting in northern Mozambique are allegedly Tanzanian nationals. Tanzania, which borders Cabo Delgado to the north, recently deployed troops to the border area to prevent a spillover of the unfolding violence in the Mozambican province.Mozambican officials, however, believe they need to tighten their borders to stop the flow of foreign fighters into the country.“Those who attack us, burn our houses and destroy the infrastructure are based outside the country,” said Bernardino Rafael, commander-in-chief of the Mozambican Police, without naming any countries.They “enter through our borders, which we have to close so that the terrorists do not enter and those who enter do not leave,” Rafael said during a recent speech in the capital, Maputo.Murargy also asserted that militants have been penetrating Cabo Delgado by sea and across the border with Tanzania.South Africa is reportedly preparing to deploy troops to Mozambique to help combat the insurgency in Cabo Delgado, the online newspaper Carta de Mocambique reported Thursday. South African and Mozambican officials, however, have not made official comments on the matter.In May, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi called on regional governments to support his country in driving out the jihadists.VOA’s Alvaro Andrade from Washington and Ramos Miguel from Maputo contributed to this report.
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The World Health Organization on Thursday warned Africa against easing coronavirus restrictions as the number of infections on the continent has doubled in the past month.WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti said at a virtual news conference, “We are concerned that … we will see an increase in cases as we have seen in [other] countries” where restrictions have been eased too soon.”She said more than 20 African countries have recorded more new cases than in the previous weeks, with South Africa accounting for the most but increases also reported in Kenya, Madagascar, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe.Moeti said Uganda, Seychelles and Mauritius are doing well in controlling the virus.The WHO said there have been nearly 890,000 reported coronavirus cases in Africa and 18,000 deaths.World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a news conference organized by Geneva Association of United Nations Correspondents (ACANU) amid the COVID-19 outbreak, caused by the novel coronavirus.Meanwhile, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus issued a new warning to young people across the world to not consider themselves invulnerable to contracting COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.“Although older people are at a higher risk of severe disease, younger people are at risk, too,” he said. “One of the challenges we face is convincing younger people of this risk.“Evidence suggests that spikes of cases in some countries are being driven in part by younger people letting down their guard during the Northern Hemisphere summer,” Tedros said.“We have said it before and we’ll say it again: Young people are not invincible,” he said.The number of confirmed cases worldwide topped the 17 million mark, with nearly 670,000 deaths. The rising number of COVID-19 cases has researchers racing to develop and test a vaccine to blunt the spread of the virus.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that it could authorize the emergency use of an experimental coronavirus vaccine within a matter of weeks, once it meets efficiency standards.Jennifer Degroff, owner of the Tipsy Rose Bar and Catering Services, protests in support of the live events industry receiving federal aid outside of the office of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., during the coronavirus pandemic, July 30, 2020, in Miami.In the US Some large U.S. states – California, Florida and Texas – are breaking their own records for new infections or deaths. California reported a record 197 COVID-19 related deaths on Wednesday, according to state health records, far surpassing the previous high of 159 recorded just last week. Florida posted a record 216 deaths, while Texas reported at least 313 deaths.U.S. health experts say many states reopened businesses and public attractions too soon. They also say a lack of clear guidance and enforcement from the national government means governors must develop their own public health directives to contain the spread of the coronavirus.The result is restrictions and directives that vary from state to state, including travel limitations for returning residents and nonresidents.In Australia Other countries are experiencing a surge of new coronavirus cases, chief among them Australia. The southern state of Victoria posted 723 new COVID-19 cases and 13 deaths on Wednesday, a new one-day record for the state hardest hit from the sudden spike of the disease.The new numbers exceed the 532 new coronavirus cases posted Monday for Australia’s second most populous state. Victoria has now reported a total of more than 9,900 COVID-19 infections and 105 deaths, making up the majority of Australia’s 16,298 total confirmed cases and 189 deaths.Melbourne, Victoria state’s capital, is the center of the state’s current COVID-19 surge. State Premier David Andrews has ordered all residents in Victoria to wear face masks outside beginning Sunday, extending a mandate already in place for Melbourne and the rural area of Mitchell Shire.Andrews also issued an order effective Thursday banning residents in communities outside Melbourne from bringing guests into their homes.Melbourne is at the halfway point of a six-week lockdown that has restricted residents from leaving home unless going to work, school, medical appointments or shopping for food.Traditional dancers wear costumes as they prepare their performance in Bali, Indonesia on July 30, 2020. Indonesia’s resort island of Bali will reopen Friday.Elsewhere Brazil’s first lady Michelle Bolsonaro tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday, following a positive test for her husband, President Jair Bolsonaro, earlier this month. The president’s press office said she “is in good health and will follow all established protocols.”Norway is imposing a 10-day quarantine on travelers from Belgium after a virus spike there. Oslo last week renewed similar restrictions on travel from Spain.Iceland launched stricter coronavirus measures after a spike in cases in the island country. Included is a ban on gatherings of more than 100 people. Gatherings of up to 500 people had previously been allowed.British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was “absolutely vital” for Britons not to “delude ourselves into thinking we are out of the woods or that this is somehow all over” as Europe is witnessing the possibility of a second coronavirus wave. “Don’t lose focus, don’t lose discipline, continue to follow those guidelines, and if you have symptoms, get a test,” he said.
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A sandy hill is all that remains of a Mintails gold mining operation, just outside Johannesburg.Mintails, an Australian-owned company, is being sued, along with the government, for not cleaning up environmental damage at its mines.The Federation for Sustainable Environment is taking the court action. The group’s director, Mariette Liefferink, says waste at the mines, including uranium, has released radiation on nearby communities and squatters.”We do not hold the directors ourselves criminally responsible, but we do ask for the court to order the government to take action against the directors,” Liefferink said. “So, we hope to achieve a precedent.”Mintails was liquidated last year, leaving an unfunded environmental liability.Meanwhile, the Department of Mineral and Energy Resources is seeking to avoid a lengthy legal process and wants to see the case settled out of court.The department’s Sunday Mabaso says a solution needs to be found.Illegal mining issue”We really would like to find a solution for the community, and we would love the mine to come back and work so that it can resolve the environmental challenges,” Mabaso said. “And also resolve the issue of illegal mining in that area, which is now becoming a nuisance to the community and everyone in the surrounding area.”Nearby communities such as Tudor Shaft are exposed to radiation and toxic tailings, leftovers separated from the ore, Liefferink said.“This was declared a radioactive hot spot,” she said. “The radioactivity in this area is significantly elevated. This community has been exposed for decades, or more than a decade, to the dust fallout from the tailings storage facility, the physical risks from open-pit mining and blasting.”Some Tudor Shaft residents have been relocated to safer areas, but many more have been left behind.The absence of basic structures in this impoverished area is making life unbearable for Tudor Shaft residents, said community activist Lucas Mitsipitso.”There is no infrastructure, no water, no electricity, and the community has been here since 1995,” he said. “And we try to engage with different, you know, municipal departments, as far as this is a concern. And there was no luck, no answers in our proposals that we made in regard to relocation.”With the fate of the legal action filed by environmentalists unclear, the contamination surrounding one of the biggest gold reserves in the world appears unlikely to be cleaned up anytime soon.
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As the number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in Nigeria increases, contact tracing of patients in the country’s communities is becoming more difficult for health officials.  Nigeria’s Presidential Task Force Committee on COVID-19 has criticized Nigerians who refuse to assist contact tracers due to fear and stigma.  But in some communities, local leaders have stepped up to help the tracers do their job.Daniel Sila is the town crier in this Mabushi village near Abuja city. Occasionally, he disseminates vital information from the village chief to people who live in the community.But in recent weeks, his message has been about COVID-19, and ways to prevent it.Silas said he also helps health officials with their contact tracing mission in the village.Sila said they came in their vehicles.  I wore coronavirus protection clothing with them.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 6 MB480p | 9 MB540p | 13 MB720p | 27 MB1080p | 56 MBOriginal | 62 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioThis community was among the first in the Abuja region to record COVID-19 infections. Danjuma Dogo, the community secretary, said cases have increased exponentially.”The first time was about seven cases, the second was about fourteen. The conclusion when that testing was done, I think it was about 70-something.”  Health authorities responded by conducting extensive testing in Mabushi. But as more positive cases were discovered, it became a challenge to trace them. They sought an audience with the community heads, and officials like Danjuma Dogo were assigned to help health workers locate positive cases.”They came with the list and  we responded quickly by working together with them to fish out those ones affected. I was part of the committee and the list was with me, we had to go round, checking who and who is affected,” said Dogo. So far Nigeria has recorded more than 41,000 cases of COVID-19.  But the fear and stigma attached to the disease have limited the number of people who show up for testing or report symptoms.Last month, the presidential task force committee on coronavirus criticized the reluctance of Nigerians to aid health workers or participate in contact tracing.The committee says unless Nigerians change their attitudes, the pandemic cannot be brought under control. 
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More than one million livestock being transported from Cameroon and Chad for Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast of sacrifice, have been blocked at the borders with Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Nigeria.  Cameroon’s neighboring states are refusing imports due to COVID-19, forcing livestock merchants who depend on the annual festival, known locally as Tabaski, to sell at cut-rate prices.Spokesperson for the Central African Association of Cattle Sellers Clementina Ondo said their trade was already crumbling because of COVID-19.The situation is made worse, she said, because border authorities are blocking trade of their livestock raised to sell for the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, known locally as Tabaski.Ondo spoke via a messaging app from the Cameroon town of Kiossi, on the borders with Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.She said at least 500 sheep and cattle sellers now find themselves in serious economic hardship. Ondo said it is unfair for major consumers of their animals like Gabon and Equatorial Guinea to completely seal their borders during peak sales periods like the feast of Tabaski. She said Cameroon refused entry to 20 trucks sent from Equatorial Guinea and Gabon to transport sheep in less than 24 hours.A health worker collects an oral swab from a woman during a COVID-19 coronavirus test at the Nkembo health center in Libreville, Gabon, July 9, 2020.Ondo said the sheep and cattle were from northern Cameroon and Chad, where ranching is a main economic activity.Cameroon’s Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute on Wednesday denied his country is blocking the livestock trade.”We require a certificate to show that people coming in are free of the virus. So, the frontiers are not closed.  They are still open but to certain categories of transporters,” he said.In March, Cameroon and its neighbors the Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Nigeria sealed their borders to stop the spread of COVID-19.Cameroon and Chad later said they would allow merchants access as they were suffering economic hardship from the pandemic.  Livestock traders had hoped neighboring states would follow suit or were unaware of the restrictions.But the Association of Cattle Sellers this week reported that Equatorial Guinea and Gabon refused imports of over 200,000 sheep and cattle.The association said Nigerian border authorities blocked another half-million animals from being exported from Cameroon.But while Cameroon’s livestock suppliers are suffering the glut, local buyers are benefitting.28-year-old Cameroonian butcher Kaigama Abo said prices have dropped by up to 70 percent.He said he can now afford to buy many sheep for the Tabaski feast with Muslim neighbors and friends — and also to store for selling when the price goes up.Abo said he is buying as many sheep as possible to sell and make much profit when COVID-19 reduces and the borders are opened. He said sheep he buys today at between $60 and $100 are normally sold for $400 to $500. Abo said he cannot miss the opportunity.But while Cameroon’s Muslims are celebrating the low prices, the Tabaski feast will still be hampered by pandemic restrictions.People are required to gather in groups of 50 or less, wear face masks, frequently wash their hands, and keep a distance of at least two meters from each other. 
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The U.N. refugee agency is calling for urgent action to stop the killing and maiming of refugees and other forcibly displaced people from landmines and improvised explosive devices in Africa’s Sahel and Lake Chad basin regions. Deaths and injuries from these indiscriminate killing machines are rising at an alarming rate.  Security forces reportedly are the intended targets of attacks by various armed groups operating in Africa’s conflict-ridden Sahel and Lake Chad basin.  But the U.N. refugee agency says civilians are paying the heaviest price. UNHCR spokesman, Babar Baloch says landmines and unexploded ordnance are posing a growing threat to refugees, internally displaced people and the local communities hosting them.  He says many of the victims are children under age 18. “Chad and Nigeria top the most affected countries in the lake Chad Basin,” he said.  “In the most recent incident in a refugee camp in the east of the country on June 24, four refugee children aged from 9 to 12 were killed and three others were seriously injured when they picked up an unexploded device and tried to open it.”  Baloch says hundreds of deaths and injuries from landmines and improvised explosive devices have been reported in Northeastern Nigeria.  He says UNHCR teams on the ground have witnessed a rising trend in the Sahel in the killing and maiming of civilians from these lethal weapons. The Sahel is facing one of the fastest growing displacement crises in the world.  Baloch notes millions of people have fled indiscriminate attacks and widespread violations from armed groups, including summary executions and rape. “In addition to the high death toll, injuries and their after-effects, including psychological damages, the presence of explosive devices hinders access to local livelihoods such as pastures, fields, farms, firewood as well as community infrastructure.  They also affect the delivery of humanitarian aid and development activities,” he said.The UNHCR is calling on governments and humanitarian organizations to speed up the removal of these dangerous weapons.  It says awareness campaigns must be expanded to inform populations at risk about the horrifying threats they face and what they can do to protect themselves from these barbaric weapons of war. The Landmine and Cluster Munitions Monitor reports more than 120,000 civilian deaths and injuries have been documented since the landmine ban came into force in 1999.  It reports casualties continue to rise despite the ban.    
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