Month: January 2021

Public health experts in Zimbabwe say the country’s extension of a lockdown that includes a 12-hour, dusk-to-dawn curfew to thwart a recent swell in COVID19 cases and deaths will not yield much without adequate equipping of the country’s health care system.  The coronavirus has infected nearly 33,000 — and two-thirds of its 1,178 deaths are from January alone according to official figures. The lockdown extension comes as the country says it is struggling to detect new highly contagious – and probably more lethal – variants of coronavirus.Calvin Fambirai, the executive director of the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, said his organization welcomed the two-week extension of the lockdown and a 12-hour, dusk-to-dawn curfew by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government.“It was going to be illogical to relax the measures, considering the background of increased daily mortality and incidence rates of COVID-19 as compared to the pre-January levels,” said Fambirai. “However, we think that there is need to complement the lockdown with one, expanding testing, case surveillance, and isolation of confirmed cases, secondly, there is need for expansion of health sector capacity to respond to severe disease of COVID-19 in order to minimize mortality, and thirdly there is need for an accelerated approach to nationwide vaccination.”Banana vendor Brian Mutera says he is yet to receive government assistance promised last March, unlike the situation in other countries worldwide, Harare, Jan. 30, 2021. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)Those most affected by the extension of the lockdown are informal traders, who constitute the country’s largest sector of employment. Most of them – like Brian Mutera – say they have yet to receive government assistance promised last March, unlike the situation in other countries worldwide. Consequently, he hangs around these shops selling vegetables despite government calls for him to stay at home.“During this lockdown everyone is not wanted in town. We do hand-to-mouth living and it’s unfortunate,” said Mutera. “In this Third World we are in Zimbabwe, there is death and life. I am here, I am dicing OK? with death. But I cannot be home. I have two children to look after. I have to come to the shops [to sell vegetables]. In developed world, government[s] are paying [handouts]. The situation of our economy, everybody knows. It’s unfortunate. We just pray to the Lord that we have to get a vaccine or something all over Southern Africa.”  On Friday, Chiwenga — who doubles as Zimbabwe’s health minister — said the country was in the process of acquiring coronavirus vaccine. A health official earlier this week told a parliamentary committee that China and Russia were among countries that had offered to supply Zimbabwe with the vaccine. 
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English-speaking Cameroonians have ignored calls by separatists to close their businesses and protest a visit by an envoy of the Roman Catholic Church. Cardinal Pietro Parolin called for reconciliation among disgruntled Cameroonians and their government, though separatists accuse the church of being indifferent to their plight.Several hundred civilians turned out Saturday in Cameroon’s English-speaking northwestern town of Bamenda to welcome Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state.
 
Forty-three-year-old Roman Catholic Christina Anong says she turned out despite threats from separatists because she thinks her Church can help resolve the crisis. She says she wants Cardinal Parolin to ask Roman Catholics who are separatists, in the military or state officials to put down their guns so peace can return to the region.”There have been abductions, there have been killings, there have been people who have been maimed for life, and so we are reinforcing our prayers that we can just have peace,” Anong said. “Our prayers have revolved around the theme that calls us to do good, to shun evil and to pursue peace.”
 
The Roman Catholic Church in Cameroon says it has more than 6 million followers, with more than 2 million in the restive English-speaking northwest and southwest.  Cardinal Pietro Parolin at a reception offered by the Cameroon government. Yaounde, Jan. 29, 2021. (Moki Edwin Kindzeka/VOA) 
Before Cardinal Parolin arrived in Bamenda, separatist groups on social media asked all civilians to stay home and close their businesses to protest. They said the Roman Catholic Church has not condemned what they call atrocities committed by Cameroon troops in the English-speaking regions since the crisis began.
 
In several audio messages circulated on social media, the separatists said their fighters will arrest anyone who turns out to listen to Pope Francis’ envoy.
 
One of the audio messages said to be from the interim government of Ambazonia, the state in which English-speaking separatists are fighting to break away, describes the Roman Catholic clergy in Cameroon as insensitive to the sufferings of English speakers.
 
She says the Roman Catholic Church in Cameroon has failed to emulate clerics like the American Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King, who defended civil rights and fought injustice. She says all civilians should stay at home to let the world know that the Roman Catholic Church and Pope Francis have been indifferent to the killings in the English-speaking western regions. She says it is unfortunate the pope’s envoy met with Cameroon President Paul Biya instead of comforting victims of the separatist crisis caused by Biya.
 
Most businesses have remained open.
 
Chris Anu, who calls himself the secretary for communication of the interim government of Ambazonia, has acknowledged on social media that the interim government does not want the pope’s envoy in Bamenda. He said it will be useless for Cardinal Parolinto to visit Cameroon and listen only to government and Catholic clergy he describes as not being sincere.The Roman Catholic Church, in a news release, said it has always stood for justice and encourages both separatists and the military to declare a cease-fire. The release said human lives and property should be preserved and that sincere dialogue should be opened by both parties in the conflict.
 
Cardinal Parolin says he told President Biya Friday that violence is not a solution to the separatist crisis.
 Cameroon President Paul Biya exchange gifts with Cardinal Pietro Parolin Yaounde, Jan. 29, 2021. (Moki Edwin Kindzeka/VOA)”We touched the different points about conflicts, especially about the situation in the north and southwest of the country,” Parolin said. “What we are looking forward to is reconciliation and peace, especially in this present situation where there are many other crises starting from the COVID crisis. It is important to achieve peace. It is the only condition to grow and to achieve sustainable development everywhere.”
 
Deben Tchoffo, governor of the English-speaking northwest region that includes Bamenda, says Cameroon and the Vatican have the same vision for handling the crisis, but fighters should drop their weapons and be pardoned or be killed.
 
He says Pope Francis, through his envoy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, supports and encourages President Paul Biya’s efforts to return peace to Cameroon’s English- speaking regions. He says his wish for the country is that all civilians, especially Christians, traditional rulers, the civil society and separatist fighters, obey and abide by the message of peace and reconciliation brought to Cameroon by the Vatican secretary of state.
 
During a mass Sunday in Bamenda, Cardinal Parolin will bestow the Pallium — a liturgical vestment from the pope that is a symbol of their participation in papal authority — on Cameroon Archbishop Andrew Nkea Fuanya. Some separatist groups have vowed to disrupt the ceremony. The government says it has deployed troops to protect civilians, the clergy and Cardinal Parolin.
 
Violence erupted in Cameroon’s English-speaking regions in 2017 when teachers and lawyers protested alleged discrimination by the French-speaking majority. The military reacted with a crackdown, and separatist groups took up weapons, claiming they were protecting civilians.
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The fallout from this month’s hotly contested Uganda election is shaking the nation and drawing international rebuke.The national electoral commission declared President Yoweri Museveni the winner of a sixth term with 58% of the vote. But Robert Kyagulanyi, a politician, singer and the main opposition candidate — commonly known by his stage name, Bobi Wine — said the vote was corrupted by harassment of his supporters and ballot box stuffing. Several opposition candidates agree with Wine and are calling for national defiance of Museveni’s government.Wine was put under de facto house arrest for 12 days after the election but still marshaled international support. Human rights groups and foreign governments — including the United States — slammed the government for shutting down the internet during the election and banning outside voting observers.’There will be consequences’U.S. Senator FILE – Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda, speaks during the World Economic Forum’s Africa meeting at the Cape Town International Convention Centre, Sept. 4, 2019.Youth at odds with Museveni?The contested election stirred the passion of Uganda’s disenchanted young population. Uganda is one of the youngest countries in the world, with a median age of less than 16, according to the CIA World Factbook. But FILE – Supporters of the National Resistance Movement celebrate the victory of Yoweri Museveni in the presidential election in Kampala, Uganda, Jan. 16, 2021. Museveni won a sixth term in office.President still has supportersA 76-year-old former rebel leader, Museveni lauded the 57% of Uganda’s 18 million registered voters who participated in the election, and he declared the poll free and fair.“I, therefore, thank the people of Uganda and I congratulate you for turning up in big numbers and voting for the candidates and for the parties of your choice,” he said when the results were certified. “I think this may turn out to be the most cheating-free election since 1962.”Museveni’s supporters say the country’s economy has improved under his leadership and the president has prioritized infrastructural progress. The country’s GDP grew by an average of 6.7% prior to the global pandemic over a three-year span. And Museveni has also been commended for how he has led efforts to battle the virus. He has also been praised for the country’s open-door policy toward refugees.”My expectation from President Museveni, first of all, is security,” a supporter of his told a Reuters reporter. “He has done good. Second, he’s going to finish up the roads he has been constructing, the hospitals, education. He’s going to do more, more, more, what I am expecting [of] him.”Some local analysts speculated that Museveni is paving the way for his son, a commander of the country’s special forces, to succeed him.But Wine and his supporters have vowed to challenge Museveni’s victory in court.’Reject this mockery’“This and many other irregularities and fraudulent actions, for which we have overwhelming evidence, prove one thing: This has been the most fraudulent election in the history of Uganda,” he said. “We call upon the people of Uganda to reject this mockery and to refuse to acknowledge Museveni as the winner of the … polls. We defeated Museveni. We defeated them, and we were supposed to be announced as winners.”Willy Mayambala, an independent presidential candidate, told local reporters that none of the opposition candidates had representatives in the tallying centers.“We have been engaging the Electoral Commission before the campaigns and during the campaigns when the police [were] brutalizing us,” he said. “But up to today, we have never received any response.”Halima Athumani contributed to this report.      
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South Sudanese President Salva Kiir says his government will no longer deploy security forces to intervene when inter-communal fighting breaks out in Jonglei state and the Pibor Administrative Area, the scene of repeated deadly clashes. “Next time when you go and fight, I will not come to your rescue again nor form a committee to go to the war zone. I have decided that any other fighting that erupts, I won’t send either soldiers or the police. I will leave you to fight yourselves until one section runs from the other,” Kiir said Wednesday while addressing a peace conference for Jonglei and Pibor in Juba. Political analysts in the capital immediately said Kiir is taking the wrong approach and are calling on the president to withdraw his statement. Augustino Ting Mayai, a researcher and analyst with the Sudd Institute, said he hopes the president misspoke because citizens look to the national government to resolve such conflicts. FILE – South Sudanese President Salva Kiir attends a press conference in Juba, Feb. 15, 2020.”It was very unfortunate to hear that he would give up making sure that security is restored in these communities. It’s basically a signal, I’m quite sure it wasn’t intended that way, but it signals the state’s inability to monopolize violence and that should be a concern to our citizens,” Mayai told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus.Mayai said he hopes communities will not perceive the president’s remarks as permission to attack each other. “The communities have to find the courage to come together and bring peace among themselves and restore what has been lost in the last 15 years since South Sudan became a regional autonomy as well as a state, otherwise what else do we exist for if there’s no peace?” Mayai said. Increasing problem Inter-communal fighting often triggered by cattle raids and child abductions, and heightened by ethnic tension and revenge attacks, has become an increasing problem in northeastern South Sudan. After one clash last March, medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières said it treated 45 people for gunshot wounds in Pibor and more than 80 wounded patients in Jonglei. In May 2020, fighting between pastoralists and farm workers erupted in the Jonglei state town of Pieri, leaving hundreds dead and forcing thousands of people to flee to the bush.  Aid groups saw their property raided and dozens of homes were destroyed.  James Okuk, a senior research fellow and policy analyst at the Center for Strategic Policy Studies in Juba, does not find Kiir’s remarks surprising, saying the government has not provided protection or other services to its citizens for quite some time. “That’s why we have the UNMISS (United Nations Mission in South Sudan) in the country doing some of those duties, it’s not a new thing,” Okuk told South Sudan in Focus. “I think as human beings they will find a way to survive and move on. If they see that escalation is not good for their survival, they will stop it.” Call for reversalJame David Kolok, executive director for the local advocacy group Foundation for Democracy and Accountable Governance, said Kiir is frustrated with community-level conflicts that happen again and again despite the signing of the 2018 revitalized peace agreement. But Kolok said the national government should respond because inter-communal clashes have become hugely militarized. “If the president says that he will never dispatch his forces and neither the police to be able to confront any emerging threat, that to us in other words would actually promote or encourage communities now to fight,” Kolok said. Kolok said Kiir should reverse his statement and instead say the government “is ready to confront any emerging threat that will disorganize this kind of peace conference and peace negotiations that we have.” 
 
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An unknown number of girls, kidnapped seven years ago from a government school in Chibok, Nigeria, are believed to have escaped after the military launched an offensive in the Sambisa Forest in Borno state, a Boko Haram base where the girls and many other kidnap victims are believed to be held. One of the girls, Halima Ali Maiyanga, spoke to her father Friday from military custody, confirming the escape. FILE – Mothers of the missing Chibok schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram gather to receive information from officials, May 5, 2014.Former chairman of the Chibok community Hosea Adama, speaking to VOA via a messaging app, says the town is celebrating the news: “People are happy, yes it is true. Even if it’s one (girl), the whole village will jubilate over it.”  The Nigerian military has yet to respond to questions or issue a statement on the matter. However, Adama says the military is profiling the rescued victims to ascertain how many of them are Chibok girls, who would now be in their late teens and early 20s. “Up tlll now, we don’t know who is involved and how many. Even the soldiers, people contacted them, they don’t have the right information. They are still profiling,” he said.In 2014, Boko Haram militants raided a government secondary school in Chibok town and kidnapped 276 girls.  Dozens of the girls escaped soon after and about 100 of them were freed through negotiations between 2016 and 2017. Hosea says five of his nieces are among the Chibok girls who are yet to be found, and he’s hoping they’re among the new batch of returnees.  
 
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Threats to African journalists are nothing new, but the African Union is launching a website to track and monitor threats against them, in a bid to improve protections for media workers and support the right to freedom of the expression. Six African journalists were killed in 2020, according to the International Federation of Journalists. Countless more were threatened, arrested, harassed, and censored, according to several media freedom and human rights groups. That, the African Union is now saying, has to stop. And to do that, they’re making use of journalists’ most powerful tool: facts. A new AU website, www.safetyofjournalistsinafrica.africa, launched Friday, and will now track threats to African journalists.“We stand on the shoulders of these giants, these heroes of the of the media in Africa in whose name we today launched this platform that is designed to help end the harassment, detention, and even murder of journalists, just for doing their work,” siad Jovial Rantao, chairman of the African Editors Forum, invoking the memories of fallen colleagues. “In some of our beloved continent, freedom of the media, freedom of expression, access to information, is a matter of life or death.”Rantao and his colleagues readily admit that journalists are often the irritating characters who lurk in the halls of power to shout tough questions at important people. They are also figures like Zimbabwean investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono, who was recently granted bail after three weeks in prison. He was charged with “communicating falsehoods,” after he tweeted that police had beaten an infant to death while enforcing COVID-19 lockdown regulations.As South African President Cyril Ramaphosa argues, you don’t have to like journalists or their work to support this initiative.“It requires that we rigorously defend the right of journalists to do their work, to write, to publish, and to also broadcast what they like, even if we disagree with some or all of it,” Ramaphosa said. “Africa is on the march to entrench a culture of human rights, of democracy, gender equality, inclusion, peace, prosperity, security for all our citizens, and unfettered media freedom and independence.  The digital platform for the safety of journalists in Africa is an important tool in promoting the safety of journalists and other media workers across Africa.”But, media freedom advocates were quick to point out, that doesn’t mean journalists are without responsibilities. At the virtual launch of the website, media freedom advocates spoke of Felicien Kabuga, founder of Rwanda’s infamous Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines. That’s the broadcaster whose reporters actively encouraged Rwandans to participate in the 1994 genocide that killed more than 800,000 people. Kabuga’s use of the platform to spew hatred and incite violence has led him to prison, in the Hague. The head of the AU African Governance Architecture Secretariat, Salah Hammad, says the AU draws a direct line between honest journalism and robust, peaceful societies.“So when we are talking about the rights of people, the rights of human and people’s rights in Africa, we cannot really exclude media freedom as well as a right to expression and right to freedom of expression as well as a right to information,” he said. “And the African Union, in its constitutive act, clearly indicated that the African Union, in totality, is very supportive of course of the promotion and protection of these rights.”The platform will help keep a focus on continuing violations, like the January 19 shooting death of an Ethiopian broadcaster in the conflict-wracked Tigray region. The independent Ethiopian Human Rights Council says that the journalist, Dawit Kebede Araya, and a friend were killed execution-style by security forces. 
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