The United Nations said Wednesday a multi-nation conference that the organizers had hoped would “add momentum” to the faltering peace talks between Afghanistan’s warring parties has been postponed.
Turkey, Qatar and the U.N. had planned to convene the 10-day event, proposed by the United States, in Istanbul starting this Saturday.
“In view of recent developments, and after extensive consultations with the parties, it has been agreed to postpone the conference to a later date when conditions for making meaningful progress would be more favorable,” the conveners said in a joint statement. Afghan officials had already said they would send their delegation to the conference. Kabul has not immediately commented on the postponement of the event.
Representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban were supposed to attend the conference and discuss resumption of stalled peace talks between the two adversaries to reach a power-sharing deal that would end the country’s nearly two-decade long war.
The so-called intra-Afghan negotiations have been deadlocked for most of the time since they began last September in Doha, Qatar. FILE – Taliban delegates speak during talks between the Afghan government and Taliban insurgents in Doha, Qatar, Sept. 12, 2020.The talks stemmed from a landmark peace-building agreement Washington sealed with the Taliban in February 2020 to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan to end what has been America’s longest war. The U.S.-Taliban deal had required all American and NATO-led troops to leave the country by May 1. But President Joe Biden last week announced that the U.S. would withdraw its remaining between 2,500 and 3,500 troops from Afghanistan by September 11, and not by the deadline originally agreed with the insurgents.
Within hours of Biden’s announcement, the Taliban said they would not participate “in any conference that shall make decisions about Afghanistan” until all foreign forces leave their country. FILE – Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu attends a press conference in Ankara, Turkey, Aug. 25, 2020.“The conference would be meaningless without the Taliban joining. At the moment, we decided to postpone it since there is no clarity about the formation of the delegations and participation,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told the Habertürk news channel in an interview that aired Tuesday night.
The Turkish foreign minister said diplomatic efforts together with co-conveners and the U.S. will continue to arrange the conference after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends in mid-May. Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said, “We believe that the meeting of Afghan leadership in Turkey, on the new dates once finalized, would be an important opportunity for the Afghans to make progress towards a negotiated political settlement.” The postponement of the Istanbul conference has dampened hopes of a reduction in the deadly Afghan war that a new study estimated this week has killed about 241,000 people, including Americans, and cost Washington more than $2.4 trillion since the October 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. FILE – Afghan security forces and a British soldier with NATO-led Resolute Support Mission stand guard at the site of a suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 31, 2019.
“Well, when it comes to the talks in Istanbul, this gets to the point that from the various early — very earliest days of the Biden administration, we have recognized, number one, that there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan,” U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters in Washington when asked about the status of the Istanbul meeting.
Price went on to say, “Only through a political settlement and a comprehensive cease-fire will we be able to support a resolution that brings security, stability, and prosperity to the people of Afghanistan.”
Russia, which was among the participating nations, said that in the absence of a “shared agenda, the decision to postpone the Istanbul conference was expected.
“This is predictable, to be honest, because we see that so far, the positions of the Taliban movement and the wider Kabul side, that includes the government, the High Peace Council and separate political figures, do not coincide,” Zamir Kabulov, Moscow’s presidential envoy for Afghanistan, told the TASS news agency.
“In these conditions, without some shared agenda, holding such an event would make no sense, of course,” Kabulov was quoted as telling the Russian media outlet.
Analysts say Afghan battlefield hostilities would have continued even if the Turkey-hosted conference had taken place because of the Taliban’s insistence on replacing President Ashraf Ghani’s administration in Kabul with a new “Islamic government.” Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan government adviser and political commentator, anticipates the Taliban would intensify their military campaign and extend territorial influence in the months leading up to the complete foreign troop withdrawal
“This will likely put the government under pressure. Winning or losing after the U.S. exit will be dictated at the battlefield. Kabul politicians will intensify pressure on Ghani to resign in order to open the door for the participatory government, including the Taliban,” Farhadi added.
President Ghani has refused to relinquish power in favor of a transitional government, as has been proposed by the U.S. to help move the peace process forward.
Ghani says he is ready to hold early elections and neither he nor officials in his current government will run in them in exchange for a peace deal with the Taliban that would establish a comprehensive cease-fire.
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Month: April 2021
Deby’s Son to Lead Chad as Interim President
The son of the late President Idriss Deby Itno of Chad has been named interim president of the central African nation by a transitional military council.
Wednesday’s announcement comes a day after 37-year-old General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno was named head of the 18-month council as the army announced the death of his 68-year-old father from injuries sustained while visiting troops on the front line. A rebel force known as the Front for Change and Concord in Chad, known by its French acronym FACT, has advanced from the north in recent days toward the capital, N’Djamena. The group had been based in neighboring Libya.
The rebel group released a statement Tuesday vowing to take the capital and depose the younger Deby.
“Chad is not a monarchy,” the statement read. “There can be no dynastic devolution of power in our country.”
A day before his death, the elder Deby was declared the winner of Chad’s April 11 election with 79 percent of the vote, giving him a sixth term in office. Most opposition groups had boycotted the poll, citing arrests and a government ban on opposition rallies.
FILE – In this April 20, 2016 photo, Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno meets with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power at the presidential palace in N’Djamena, Chad.Deby had ruled Chad since coming to power in a December 1990 coup, making him one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders. Opponents called him an autocrat and criticized his management of Chadian oil revenue. In 2008, a different rebel force reached N’Djamena and came close to toppling Deby before French and Chadian army forces drove them out of the city.
In the West, however, Deby was seen as an important ally in the fight against Islamist extremist groups in West Africa and the Sahel, like Nigeria-based Boko Haram.
The Libya-based FACT had attacked a border post on the day of the election and then moved hundreds of kilometers toward the capital. On Monday, the Chadian army said it had inflicted a heavy loss on the rebels, killing more than 300 of them.
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Thousands Flee Renewed Clashes in Central African Republic
The U.N. refugee agency reports renewed fighting between government forces and rebel groups in Central African Republic has sent more than 2,000 refugees fleeing for their lives to neighboring Chad this past week.
Newly arriving refugees have been telling aid workers in Chad of the mayhem engulfing their region. The refugees, who come from CAR’s northern Kaga-Bandoro region describe shocking acts of violence, looting and extortion by rebel groups as government forces were closing in on them. As people were fleeing toward the Chadian border, U.N. refugee spokesman, Babar Balloch, says other people from towns they passed along the way joined them, fearing that they too would come under rebel attack. “To reach Chad, people had to wade shoulder-deep through the Grande Sido river, with some carrying their few belongings on their heads,” he said. “The refugees are now settled in Gandaza village inside Chad on the other side of the border… although some are having to resort to crossing back into CAR to find food or salvage what little is left from their properties.” Chad is hosting nearly 11,000 of the 117,000 Central African refugees who have fled violence sparked by CAR’s contested presidential and parliamentary elections in December. Most of the refugees, about 92,000, have fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Several thousand others have taken refuge in neighboring Cameroon and the Republic of Congo. FILE – Central African refugees arrive in Ndu after crossing the Mbomou River, which marks the border between the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Feb. 5, 2021.The country has enjoyed a period of relative calm since mid-March after government forces and their allies reclaimed most of the rebel strongholds. Balloch says the newly arrived refugees are in urgent need of shelter, food and water, as well as access to sanitation and health care. “UNHCR’s ability to meet their basic requirements is severely constrained by a lack of funding and resources… The CAR humanitarian situation is one of the most underfunded of UNHCR operations globally, with only 12% of the required 164 million U.S. dollars needed,” he said. Post-election violence also has displaced 164,000 people inside the country. CAR’s decade-long war has uprooted nearly one-third of its 4.7 million population. The United Nations reports 2.8 million people, more than half of the population, needs international aid and protection.
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EU Targets Cutting Emissions 55% by 2030
The European Union announced Wednesday a provisional agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the 27-member bloc by 55% by 2030. The 2030 target is part of a larger goal of getting the EU to be carbon-neutral by 2050. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the agreement puts the EU “on a green path for a generation.” “It is our binding pledge to our children and grandchildren,” she added. EU member states must approve the deal before it becomes official. Wednesday’s agreement comes ahead of the start of a two-day virtual summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden for world leaders to discuss ways to combat climate change.
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Zimbabwe’s President Calls for Unity on 41st Independence Day
Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa called for unity as the country marked 41 years of independence on Sunday. But the president also accused the opposition leader of being destructive, and the opposition fired right back, saying the president and his party are violent against the people. In a wide-ranging interview aired on national television to mark the country’s independence, President Emmerson Mnangagwa called on Zimbabweans to unite so that the country can prosper. Asked about Nelson Chamisa, the leader of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change Alliance, the 78-year-old leader said, “Well, you have mentioned this one Zimbabwean, you forget that him and his vice president [Tendai Biti] went to America to ask for sanctions to continue to be imposed on Zimbabwe. So, before they cut that cord with the Americans it is difficult to be proper Zimbabweans! I still believe that Mr. Chamisa is a young Zimbabwean, he still has that opportunity to positively to contribute to his country if he puts aside the vision for violent demonstrations against his country, being destructive.” Independence celebrations were muted this year with most of the usual festivities canceled due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. Clifford Hlatshwayo, the spokesman for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change Alliance, dismissed the remarks by Mnangagwa saying his party was more peaceful than the ruling ZANU-PF. “MDC Alliance has been the victims of violence. The people of Zimbabwe are victims of violence perpetrated by ZANU-PF! Orchestrated, organized and sponsored by ZANU-PF government! It is an open secret that Mnangagwa and ZANU-PF are the archbishops of violence, they’re archbishops of causing harm within the Zimbabwean communities,” Hlatshwayo said.For the past two decades, Zimbabwe’s government has often used force to shut down opposition rallies and protests and intimidate MDC supporters ahead of elections. The violence triggered Western sanctions against Zimbabwean officials and their allies that have yet to be lifted. There were varying reactions to Mnangagwa’s accusation of the opposition as a violent party. Twenty-seven-year-old Stallos Sithole dismissed the call for unity. “So, for Emmerson in my view to say that we want unity he has been the center of violence. For the past 41 years Zimbabwe has never seen peaceful elections, has never had an uninterrupted decade without violence, so we have always been engaged in these vicious cycles of violence. For Emmerson to operate as a peace builder and someone who can unify aggressive forces is utter dross and hogwash for me as a young person,” Sithole said.Lameck Shiri is a vegetable vendor in Harare.Shiri said, “So, the president’s interview, the independence interview to me it shows that Zimbabweans are a diverse people because there are some issues, he discussed which are generally full of loopholes but at the same time, there are other issues which he addressed which show that there have been some strides that have been made by the ZANU-PF government under Mnangagwa though on the little political freedom and expression of free speech has been curtailed.” Mnangagwa, who took over from the late Robert Mugabe in 2017, says Zimbabweans are now enjoying more rights and freedoms than under his predecessor. In his Independence Day address, Mnangagwa promised a brighter and more prosperous Zimbabwe.
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Afghan Women Determined to Defend Hard-Fought Rights
Women’s rights leaders in Afghanistan and human rights advocates are expressing concern the hard-fought gains of the past 20 years are under threat from a potentially resurgent Taliban when U.S. and coalition troops depart later this year. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports on the determination of many to defend those rights.
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Czech Republic Urges EU, NATO Allies to Retaliate Against Russia over 2014 Explosion
The Czech Republic is urging European and NATO allies to take joint retaliatory action against Russia. It follows accusations that Russian spies were behind a huge explosion at a Czech arms depot in 2014 – and were part of a special unit that also carried out an attempted assassination in Britain. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.Camera: Henry Ridgwell
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Leaving Afghanistan Will Make Counterterrorism ‘Extremely Difficult’
The United States will face substantial hurdles if it has to return to Afghanistan — even briefly — to deal with new or growing terror threats once the military completes the planned withdrawal of forces from the country, a top U.S. general told lawmakers. The warning Tuesday from the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East and parts of South Asia comes as military planners are still working on how to bring home all 2,500 to 3,500 troops in Afghanistan starting next month, ending two decades of war. ”I don’t want to make light of it. I don’t put on rose-colored glasses and say it’s going to be easy to do,” said U.S. Central Command’s General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie Jr. as he told members of the House Armed Services Committee of the possible need for future counterterrorism missions. ”We’re examining this problem with all of our resources right now to find a way to do it in the most intelligent, risk-free manner that we can,” he said. “It’s going to be extremely difficult.” McKenzie told lawmakers Tuesday he has been ordered to provide Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin with options by the end of the month. Other officials are also looking at potential solutions. ”Work is under way to adapt, adjusting to the security environment and consider how to continue to apply pressure,” Amanda Dory, acting deputy assistant secretary of defense for plans and posture, told lawmakers. ”What I can say from the decision process that the president led with his national security team is that there was consideration of a range of scenarios for the future of Afghanistan,” she added.The lack of specifics, though, has worried Democratic and Republican lawmakers, and also former officials, since U.S. President Joe Biden announced his decision last week to move ahead with the withdrawal from Afghanistan.The most recent U.S. intelligence assessments warn that without the presence of U.S. and coalition troops, the prospects for peace in Afghanistan “will remain low,” and that any setbacks for Afghan security forces could give terror groups such as al-Qaida and Islamic State a chance to regenerate.U.S. and Western intelligence officials say that al-Qaida is down to just a few hundred fighters in Afghanistan, but many of them continue to be on good terms with the Taliban and, in some cases, are integrated into the Taliban’s existing command and control structure.JUST IN: @DoD_IG report -citing @DefenseIntel- finds #Taliban has NOT cut off #alQaida in #Afghanistan”The Taliban continues to maintain relations with alQaida…members were integrated into Taliban forces & command structures” per acting DoD Inspector General Sean O’Donnell— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) February 17, 2021There are also concerns about Islamic State-Khorasan, as the group’s Afghan affiliate is known. Intelligence officials say it has between 1,000 and 2,500 fighters and remains intent on conducting terror attacks against the West.Some high-ranking officials, including the director of the CIA, have expressed concerns about being able to track these groups without any presence on the ground. ”The U.S. government’s ability to collect and act on threats will diminish. That’s simply a fact,” CIA Director Bill Burns said last week, describing the risk as significant.Richard Myers, a retired four-star general who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the early years of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, said while there may be ways to compensate for the lack of intelligence, it is “a legitimate concern.””I would hope that we have thought about that and have made other plans to make sure that we still have enough intelligence to know what those groups are doing,” he told VOA’s Afghan service. “Without that, I think there’s a great probability that this could be a real danger for the rest of the world.”Yet despite such fears, the Biden administration has expressed confidence in what it describes as an “over the horizon” approach. ”We’ll reorganize our counterterrorism capabilities and the substantial assets in the region to prevent reemergence of terrorists — of the threat to our homeland,” Biden said last week when he announced his decision. “My team is refining our national strategy to monitor and disrupt significant terrorist threats not only in Afghanistan but anywhere they may arise.” In the case of Afghanistan, it appears to be a strategy that rules out the use of combat troops.”We’re going to go to zero in #Afghanistan” per @CENTCOM’s Gen McKenzie “There will be no US forces on the ground there””We will use a variety of means to monitor #alQaida & #ISIS…intelligence will decline” he says “But we will still be able to see into Afghanistan”— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) April 20, 2021 ”There’s no plans to reintroduce American boots on the ground in Afghanistan,” Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told reporters Monday when asked by VOA about countering potential terror threats to the homeland. ”I know of no discussions with the government in Kabul about reinserting counterterrorism forces inside Afghanistan,” he said. “We have robust counterterrorism capabilities around the world. … There’s not a parcel of earth that we can’t hit if we need to hit it.”Some analysts call such assessments overly optimistic, noting the U.S. has seen only limited success with a so-called whack-a-mole approach.”CT (counterterrorism) efforts without boots on the ground is a losing proposition,” said Bill Roggio, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, who has closely studied U.S. efforts in Afghanistan.”You may be able to occasionally kill senior al-Qaida and Islamic State leaders, but successes will be few and far between,” he said. “Jihadists are already based in Afghanistan, and their footprint will grow, and U.S. capabilities decrease.”There are other challenges, as well, including uncertainty about where the U.S. will be able to position counterterrorism assets, such as drones, in case they are needed.”At this time, we have none of those agreements in place,” U.S. Central Command’s McKenzie told lawmakers Tuesday, acknowledging diplomatic discussions are under way with countries in the region to secure necessary permissions.”We’ll look at all the countries in the region,” he said. “Some of them may be very far away.”
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Czech Republic Urges EU, NATO Allies to Retaliate Against Russia Over 2014 Explosion
The Czech Republic is urging European and NATO allies to take joint retaliatory action against Russia following accusations that Russian spies were behind a huge explosion at a Czech arms depot in 2014. They claim the spies were also part of a special unit that tried to assassinate a double agent in Britain.The central European country evicted 18 Russian embassy staffers over the weekend, saying they were identified as intelligence officers. “We succeeded in breaking up both of the big Russian (spy) operation cells, and for the Russian side, it will be very complicated to put them together again,” Acting Foreign Minister Jan Hamacek said Monday.Moscow has denied involvement in the 2014 explosion, which killed two workers at the site. The Kremlin expelled 20 Czech diplomats and other staff in retaliation for this week’s action.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 17 MB720p | 34 MB1080p | 74 MBOriginal | 255 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioSpeaking at a televised press conference Tuesday, Hamacek said, “We will call for collective action by European Union and NATO countries that will be aimed at a solidarity expulsion of identified members of Russian intelligence service from EU and NATO member states.”The explosion at the arms depot was initially thought to be an accident. Czech investigators, however, recently revealed they had discovered an email that had been sent to “Imex Group,” the company that operated the depot, prior to the blast. The message asked that two men be allowed to visit the site. The email was sent from an address, purporting to be from the National Guard of Tajikistan, which was later shown to be fake.
Subsequent investigations found the two men were traveling under false documents. They have since been identified as the suspects in the 2018 nerve-agent poisoning in Britain of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, who barely survived. A local woman died after being exposed to the nerve agent.Suspects identified
The investigative website Bellingcat identified them as Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, both officers in Russia’s GRU military intelligence. Their unit, 29155, is believed to focus on sabotage and subversion, says Russia analyst Ian Bond of the London-based Center for European Reform.
“They seem to be extremely active in a number of parts of Europe, and of course apart from them, we have seen the assassination of the Chechen-Georgian exile (Zelimkhan) Khangoshvili in Berlin, for which a Russian is on trial in Germany, and we’ve still got the MH17 trial going ahead in The Hague, and we’ve had other Russian citizens assassinated elsewhere in the EU,” Bond told VOA.
MH17 refers to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17. The aircraft was shot down July 17, 2014, by a Russian-made Buk missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists. The Russian military has said the missile that downed the aircraft, killing all 298 people on board, came from the arsenals of the Ukrainian army, not from Russia.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, expressed support Monday for the Czech Republic’s expulsion of Russian diplomats. “These diplomats have been identified by the Czech intelligence to be Russian military service agents, and the European Union stands united and in solidarity with the Czech Republic.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the Czech accusations “groundless” and accused the West of “a massive anti-Russian psychosis.”
Tensions between Moscow and the West have deepened in recent weeks, as Russia has deployed military hardware and tens of thousands of troops along the Ukrainian border. The European Union has called for de-escalation.Escalation risk in Ukraine”The Russian military buildup at the Ukrainian border is very concerning. It is more than 150,000 Russian troops massing on the Ukrainian borders and in Crimea. The risk of further escalation is evident. We have to commend Ukraine for its restrained response, and we urge Russia to de-escalate and to defuse tensions,” the EU’s Borrell told reporters Monday.
Russia also has jailed the main opposition leader, Alexey Navalny. Doctors say he is in critical condition in a prison hospital after going on a hunger strike when he was denied urgent medical treatment. Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning last year and was arrested when he returned to Moscow in January following lifesaving treatment in Germany.The Russian president is trying to whip up support at home, says analyst Bond.”Putin hasn’t had a particularly good 12 months. Russia has one of the highest excess death rates from COVID-19 in the world. The economy is pretty stagnant, and the IMF is forecasting that it will stay pretty stagnant for a while. And the protests about the arrest of Navalny in January were the largest Russia had seen in quite a long time.”The United States imposed new sanctions on Russia this month over alleged cyberattacks and other “malign” acts. U.S. President Joe Biden has proposed a summit with his Russian counterpart.Europe must act fast in imposing its own measures, Bond said. “It’s hard to know what would jog Europe to impose further sanctions if it weren’t an example of state-sponsored terrorism of this kind. I can’t describe it in any other way — arranging the explosion of an ammunition dump which killed two people — it’s hard to see that as anything other than state terrorism.”That also sends a signal to Putin that there isn’t unity yet, even within the EU, about the need to take really firm measures to deter the sorts of activities that he has been authorizing in Europe over the last several years. And I think that will only embolden him unfortunately.”Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in the attacks on European soil and says its troop buildup on the Ukrainian border is in response to what it claims is increased military activity by the United States and NATO forces.
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Volcano on St. Vincent Still Erupting
The prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines appealed for international help Tuesday as the Caribbean island nation begins to tackle the daunting cleanup from a series of volcanic eruptions that have not stopped. ”The lives and livelihoods of our people have been terribly affected,” Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves told reporters in a video press conference. ”We are in a dire situation, frankly.” About 20,000 people were evacuated from the area nearest to La Soufrière volcano on the north side of St. Vincent after it began erupting on April 9 for the first time in 42 years. The island nation has a population of about 110,000. In some areas, ash is a meter deep, and it has given the normally green and lush island an apocalyptic appearance. No one was killed in the eruptions, which the prime minister said have spewed more than 100 million cubic meters of ash on the island and into the sea, and has been carried as far away as India. But damage has been extensive to agriculture, homes and the island’s tourism industry.”The humanitarian relief for the prolonged period is going to be huge,” Gonsalves said. “The cost is massive, no question about that, before we reach reconstruction.”He estimates that rebuilding will run to the hundreds of millions of dollars.The United Nations launched a humanitarian appeal for $29.2 million on Tuesday to assist the most vulnerable with basic needs, including clean water, food and shelter, as well as to help initiate recovery. Last Thursday, the United Nations released $1 million from its emergency fund to help with urgent needs.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 18 MB480p | 25 MB540p | 33 MB720p | 72 MB1080p | 134 MBOriginal | 778 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioUnited Nations Barbados and Eastern Caribbean visit the volcano Red Zone in St. Vincent. (Video courtesy of United Nations)The world body is also deploying a team of a dozen experts this week to work with the government to assess what is needed to clean up and safely dispose of the massive amounts of ash, as well as to evaluate the ecological impact, Didier Trebucq, U.N. resident coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, said.Trebucq added that there is still a lot of uncertainty as eruptions continue.”We felt a tremor this morning,” he told reporters. “Two days ago, we could see another eruption.”Gonsalves said when La Soufrière last erupted in 1979, it did so over a period of about seven months. Prior to that, in 1902, it went on even longer.But should the volcano cease erupting sooner, the island nation will not be entirely at ease. Hurricane season starts in six weeks, and this year, it is forecast to be very active.
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Cameroonian Startup Creates Soil Analysis Kit for Farming Efficiency
Cameroon farmer Rostand Simeu, 26, last year spent all his savings to start a plantain and banana plantation. But, like all new farmers, he has struggled with efficient production. Simeu said the bananas have been growing for 13 months. He said this raises a lot of questions.Simeu heard about a Cameroonian company that helps farmers in remote areas to analyze their soil quality and to help choose crops. Technology startup Clinic Agro created a kit with a mobile application called Clinic Sol for instant soil testing. Founder Pyrrus Koudjou said he invented the kit to help farmers who were losing money. He said it is very important today for the farmer to be able to analyze his soil. Why, asks Koudjou? Because knowing his soil means being able to secure his investment, reduce the use of pesticides and input costs, and improving productivity and agricultural profitability.Most Cameroonians work in farming as agriculture is one of the main staples of the economy, but experts said many farmers are not trained to analyze soil for efficiency. Agronomist Rodrigue Ngono trains farmers at the state’s Binguela Practical School of Agriculture.He said soil analysis is key to getting better results and leads people toward “precision farming.” It is about determining the exact amount of nutrients that a plant will need, said Ngono, in order for it to be produced [most] profitably. For farmer Simeu, the Clinic Sol analysis shows his soil quality is poor and very acidic. The app recommends he switch to planting cucumbers, lettuce, eggplant, pineapple, or cassava. After the results, farmer Simeu said he does not intend to stop farming, especially since he now has a partner with Clinic Agro, which is supporting him. He said he will move to new land, test new samples of soil, and then move on to crops other than plantains. Clinic Agro said in just one year, since its creation, its mobile kit has tested soil quality for nearly one thousand farms in Cameroon.
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Malawi President Proposes Switch from Growing Tobacco
Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera said Tuesday the country should move away from growing tobacco, although it contributes to more than 60 percent of the country’s earnings, because he sees no future in continuing to grow it.At the opening of tobacco selling season, Chakwera said Malawi should switch to other cash crops like cannabis, which was legalized last year for industrial and medicinal use.He said Malawi’s tobacco industry is dying largely because of low demand on the international market due to ongoing global anti-smoking campaigns, championed by the World Health Organization.”And we need an exit strategy to transition our farmers to crops that are more sustainable and more profitable,” Chakwera said. “I am therefore calling on the Ministry of Agriculture to begin consultations with all stakeholders to come up with a timeframe within which Malawi’s economy will be completely weaned from tobacco.” Griffins Kaliza is seen in his tobacco farm in Malawi’s central Mchinji district. (Lameck Masina/VOA)The president said growing cannibis, better known as marijuana, would be a smart substitute for Malawian farmers. “Recently, we enacted a law which allows the growing of industrial cannabis,” he said. “This will also help farmers to earn a lot of money because there is a lot of money in it.” Chakwera said in the meantime, there is a need to end the market monopoly which results in low tobacco prices in the country. “Addressing this power imbalance, (it) is for the Ministry of Agriculture to work with Tobacco Control Commission on ways of attracting more buyers beyond the nine we currently have,” he said. “In that way, there is more competition and less monopoly among buyers. Because monopoly is one of the factors that contributes to the disempowerment of the farmers.” In March, Malawi’s government signed an agreement with tobacco leaf buyers and set a minimum price of about $230 per kilogram. In the past, buyers would offer as little as $0.50 per kilogram of tobacco. FILE – A Malawian tobacco farm employee is at work during a grading process at a tobacco farm in Zomba Municipality, Malawi, May 20, 2014.Betchani Tchereni, an economics lecturer at the University of Malawi, supports the call to stop growing tobacco, but said it won’t be easy. “Yes, he (Chakwera) is very right. But at the beginning, first, the second and maybe even the third year, it will be tough for us to acclimatize to the new stuff,” Tchereni said. “But we just have to go to the new stuff. We just have to go into ground nuts, beans, industrial hemp — research has shown us that that’s where money is.” Some farmers said the call to stop tobacco farming is disappointing. Isaac Sambo, a tobacco farmer in central Malawi’s Kasungu district, said he was surprised to hear the president’s recommendation, and had expected the president to help find more tobacco markets. Sambo added that it is very difficult to switch to other crops, and that not all crops can adapt to some weather conditions.Chakwera said he knows that many farmers will not like the idea of switching from tobacco, but he will not shy away from telling the truth.
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European Public Broadcasters Facing Twin Threats
The pandemic has boosted audiences for Europe’s public service media, with Europeans turning to fact-based news, according to the broadcasters’ trade association and academic studies. Television, radio and digital channels all have shown upswings, especially in western Europe. But while the public has appeared to have been appreciative, the continent’s public broadcasters are facing a twin threat. Central Europe’s populist governments have been or are seeking to reduce their editorial independence, transforming them into official mouthpieces, warn rights campaigners and journalists. And in western Europe, center-right governments are coming under mounting pressure from conservative lawmakers and populists to defund public broadcasters. FILE – Czech Republic’s Prime Minister Andrej Babis makes a statement during a media videoconference at an EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, July 20, 2020.Attention in recent weeks has focused on Czech Television, and what critics of the populist government of Prime Minister Andrej Babis say are efforts to politicize its governing board and undermine the broadcaster’s senior management team ahead of October’s parliamentary elections. Last week, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), a trade association, urged Czech lawmakers to protect the independence of the country’s public broadcaster, saying Ceska Televize is “the most used news brand in the Czech Republic, with 60 percent of everyone in the country using the service at least weekly.” The EBU’s president, Delphine Ernotte Cunci, and the association’s director general, Noel Curran, noted it also was “trusted by more Czechs than any other news brand.” They based their assertions on data and surveys compiled by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. “In recent months, it has become alarmingly clear that the Czech Republic’s government is trying to exert pressure on that very independence, directly and indirectly,” they said. FILE – An operator works in the master room of the European Broadcast Union (EBU) in Geneva, Nov. 13, 2007.Last November, the broadcaster’s supervisory council — which oversees operations, appoints the broadcaster’s director-general and approves the budget — was abruptly removed. The country’s parliament voted last week on a slate of new council members, all affiliated with the ruling ANO party. The broadcaster’s current, and embattled, director-general, Petr Dvořák, told local media, “The aim is not to change one person in a leading position, but to change the whole Czech Television, its behavior and functioning.” He warns the populist plan is to keep the broadcaster formally looking like an independent one, but it will be made to reflect the views of the ruling party. “The same has happened in Poland,” he added. Dvořák expects to be ousted soon. Krzysztof Bobinski of the Society of Journalists in Poland worries that public broadcasters in 11 European Union member states are at high risk of coming under control of ruling parties. Bobinski is urging the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to work more closely together to highlight how “too many EU governments are using public media to skew public debate in their favor and thus threaten the quality of the democratic processes and the rule of law.” Babis’s moves to change public broadcasting in the Czech Republic are mirroring actions elsewhere in the young democracies of Central Europe. After it won power, Poland’s Law and Justice Party clipped the wings of the country’s public network, TVP. The OSCE’s observation mission of Poland’s 2019 parliamentary elections noted in its report of “a lack of impartiality in the media,” especially of TVP’s coverage. FILE – Polish Television (TVP) studios and headquarters are seen in in Warsaw, Poland, May 17, 2015.Reporters Without Borders says Poland’s public media outlets “have been transformed into government propaganda mouthpieces.” The group has raised similar concerns about public media in Hungary. During the country’s 2019 elections, leaked audio recordings emerged of editors instructing reporters to favor Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz party in their coverage. Populist leaders say the criticism is unfair and that public broadcasters have been the mouthpieces of liberals and the left for years. Slovenia Prime Minister Janez Jansa accuses his country’s public service media of regularly dishing out “fake news.” FILE – Slovenia’s Prime Minister Janez Jansa attends a news conference in Vienna, Austria, March 16, 2021.He has dubbed the Slovenian Press Agency a “national disgrace” and says reporters working for public broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija are paid too highly and spread “lies.” His government wants to amend the country’s media laws so they can increase state influence over public-service media. The criticism in Central Europe by populists of public broadcasters is echoed by counterparts in western Europe, who identify public media as liberal and accuse it of being hostile towards them and of being dominated by a metropolitan mindset out of step with the lives and thinking of millions of ordinary Europeans, especially those living in rural and de-industrialized areas. Germany’s populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been locked in a war of words for years with the country’s public broadcasters. In 2017, it went to the courts to try to get more airtime for its representatives, accusing the broadcasters of routinely shunning them. Executives of German public-service television broadcaster ZDF have admitted they often have been too focused on covering issues and events in the country’s large metropolitan areas and have not been providing enough coverage of the rural east. They say that’s something they are seeking to rectify. FILE – German television network ZDF crew members dismantle their setup in Marseille, July 18, 2007.In Britain, the ruling Conservatives have long had a strained and ambivalent relationship with the BBC, which they accuse of liberal bias. Libertarians object in principle to public funds being used. The BBC is funded largely by an annual television license fee charged to all British households, businesses and organizations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts and iPlayer catch-up. The Conservatives pledged in 2019 to reform the BBC and review its funding. There has been a growing movement in recent years to abolish license fees, and a growing number of Britons have been refusing to pay it. FILE – Pedestrians walk past a BBC logo at Broadcasting House in London, Britain, Jan. 29, 2020.”There’s no need for the BBC,” according to Alex Deane, a PR consultant and former Conservative government adviser. He says resentment toward the BBC is not based on right or left politics but instead is rooted in “cultural issues and topics like Brexit and patriotism.” And he says in the digital age, there are plenty of commercial news and entertainment sources. But the BBC’s defenders say it is respected both in Britain and around the world for its reliability, the strength of its journalism and its impartiality, and they highlight how in times of crisis, it is the preferred source of news for Britons over commercial rivals. Ninety-three percent of the British population tuned in to BBC television or radio during the first two weeks of the 2003 war in Iraq, according to surveys. At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, when British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the start of strict new coronavirus restrictions, more than 15 million viewers watched the BBC’s coverage, double the number who turned to commercial rivals.
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EMA Finds Link Between Johnson & Johnson Vaccine and Blood Clots
Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said Tuesday it found a possible link between the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and rare forms of blood clots, but that the drug’s benefits outweigh its risks.
In its statement Tuesday, the EMA said that its drug safety group, the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC), after reviewing all available evidence, concluded that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine’s product information should include a warning about unusual blood clots with low blood platelets.
The committee concluded that the events should be listed as very rare side effects of the vaccine.
The EMA gave a similar assessment of the AstraZeneca vaccine which also was found to have a possible link to rare blood clots.
The EMA reviewed the Johnson & Johnson vaccine following a small number of reports from the United States of serious cases of unusual blood clots associated with low levels of blood platelets among people who had received the vaccine – one of which had a fatal outcome. As of April 13, more than 7 million people in the U.S. had received Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine.
All cases occurred in people under 60 years of age within three weeks of vaccination, the majority in women.
The reports prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration to recommend a “pause” in the use of the vaccine in the United States while further evaluations were carried out.
On Monday, top U.S. immunologist and Chief Presidential Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci told reporters the pause on the use of the vaccine could be lifted as early as this week.
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Pakistan Lawmakers Debate French Envoy’s Expulsion
Pakistan’s parliament began debating a resolution Tuesday on whether the French ambassador should be ordered to leave the country over the publication of anti-Islam caricatures in France.
The proposed resolution is the outcome of a deal Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government negotiated in overnight talks with leaders of the radical Islamist party Tehreek-e-Labaik Pakistan (TLP) to defuse days of deadly, nationwide anti-France demonstrations. A supporters of Tehreek-e-Labiak Pakistan, a banned Islamist party, prepares to hurl back a tear gas canister fired by police to disperse protests over the arrest of their party leader Saad Rizvi, in Karachi, Pakistan, Monday, April 19, 2021. The…The TLP has agreed to call off its protests across the country, said Pakistani Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed while sharing details of the understanding.
Ahmed added that all cases registered against activists of the group under anti-terror laws for their involvement in recent violent protests will also be withdrawn.
The government, he said, has also agreed to withdraw last week’s decision outlawing the TLP and to release leaders as well as activists of the group detained during the protests.
Attempts by police to disperse the demonstrations sparked violent clashes, leaving four policemen and six protesters dead. Officials said more than 800 people, mostly law enforcers, were among those injured in the clashes. Supporters of Tehreek-e-Labiak Pakistan, a radical Islamist political party, chant slogans during a protest against the arrest of their party leader, Saad Rizvi, in Lahore, Pakistan, April 15, 2021.The resolution calls for the expulsion of the French envoy and it would be up to the lawmakers to vote in favor or against it. The text of the resolution, however, stressed the (Pakistani) state alone is authorized to deal with foreign policy matters and “no individual, group or party are allowed to exert undue illegal pressure regarding such matters.” “The optics of tabling a resolution calling for the expulsion of the French ambassador are not good for Islamabad, as it’s essentially caving in to the TLP’s core demand,” Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia program at Washington’s Wilson Center, told VOA. “That said, the Parliament has an opportunity to reject the resolution, and that would be a major victory not just for the government, but also for a state that has repeatedly treated religious hardliners with kid gloves,” Kugelman said.
Khan’s ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party holds a simple majority in the legislative house.
The TLP has been agitating and demanding since November that Islamabad expel the French envoy, citing French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement defending media rights in France to republish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad, an act denounced by Muslims as blasphemous.
The latest protests in Pakistan erupted April 12 after authorities detained TLP chief Saad Rizvi, saying the cleric was planning to lead a march on Islamabad to pressure the government into expelling the French ambassador.
The action angered Rizvi’s supporters, who took to streets across Pakistan, blocking scores of highways and refusing to disperse until the government released their leader.
The government barred local media from covering the protests before ordering a police crackdown to disperse the rallies. The security action cleared almost all sit-ins, but TLP activists continue rallying in Lahore, the capital of eastern Pakistan, where the group is headquartered.
In a televised address to the nation Monday evening, Khan defended the actions against TLP and said the expulsion of the French ambassador would not stop extremists in the West from insulting the Prophet Muhammad. FILE – In this March 16, 2020, file photo, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan gives an interview to The Associated Press, in Islamabad, Pakistan.
“It doesn’t make any difference to France. If we keep protesting our whole lives we would only be damaging our own country,” Khan said. He noted that expulsion of the French diplomat would mean cash-starved Pakistan cutting all ties with the European Union, one of the largest destinations for Pakistani textile exports.
Khan again urged Western governments to criminalize any insulting remarks against the Prophet Muhammad and treat offenders the same way they do those who deny the Holocaust.
The Pakistani leader called for all Muslim-majority countries to collectively lobby Western leaders to convince them that insulting the Prophet Muhammad in the name of freedom of speech hurts followers of Islam.
”When 50 Muslim countries in one voice tell them that if something like this happens in any country, we will go for a trade boycott on them and stop buying their goods,” Khan insisted.
The far-right TLP, along with demonstrations against France, has pressured the Pakistani government into not repealing or reforming the country’s harsh blasphemy laws, which critics say often are used to intimidate religious minorities and settle personal disputes.
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Fearing COVID Slump, Spain Tries to Deter Migrants
Spain’s leaders worry a world economic slowdown caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could send large numbers of African migrants to Europe, using Spain as a gateway. In this report narrated by Jonathan Spier, Alfonso Beato in Barcelona reports that Spanish authorities are holding thousands of West African migrants, including potential asylum seekers, in emergency camps set up on the Canary Islands.Camera: Alfonso Beato
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