Heavily armed Somali opposition fighters held positions in parts of the capital of Mogadishu Monday, a day after clashes with government troops erupted over the president’s bid to extend his mandate, in the country’s worst political violence in years.Fighters used mounds of earth to barricade roads, while armed men and vehicles mounted with machine guns were stationed in opposition strongholds after the fighting that left three dead.”Both the Somali security forces and the pro-opposition fighters have taken positions along some key roads,” witness Abdullahi Mire told AFP.The fragile nation has not had an effective central government since the collapse of a military regime in 1991 led to decades of civil war and lawlessness fueled by clan conflicts.For more than a decade, conflict has centered on an Islamist insurgency by the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab.The political clashes on the streets of Mogadishu mark a dangerous new phase in a dispute triggered by failure to hold planned elections in February.FILE – Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo attends the London Somalia Conference’ at Lancaster House, May 11, 2017.President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, best known by his nickname Farmajo, earlier this month signed a law approved by parliament that extended his mandate by two years.On Sunday night, sporadic bursts of heavy gunfire rang out across the capital after fighting broke out between government forces and soldiers allied along clan lines to various opposition leaders.Three people — two police officers and one opposition fighter — were killed in the clashes, police said Monday.Tensions remained high with soldiers supporting the opposition vowing to remove the president by force.”Former president Farmajo is a dictator. … He wants to stay in power with force, we are against that, we will continue fighting until he leaves,” said military commander Abdulkadkir Mohamed Warsame, who backs former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire, and was running against Farmajo for the presidency.Warsame, who said the opposition was in control of the northern Hawle Wadag district, said “now we want to take over the presidency. … We will not stop our fighting, we can stop only when we die.”Clan divisionsThe fighting has sharpened clan divisions in the capital and set the stage for more violence along those lines, said Somalia analyst Omar Mahmood.”Any sort of miscalculation could happen. … It just takes one trigger-happy soldier to fire on the other side, and that’s going to erupt those dynamics,” the senior analyst for International Crisis Group (ICG) told AFP.Some residents in tense neighborhoods had begun leaving their homes.”We need both sides to stop the fighting, have sympathy with the children and elderly,” said Farah Hassan.While schools and universities were closed, life in some of the unaffected neighborhoods proceeded much as usual.Prime minister Mohamed Hussein Roble expressed disappointment Monday with the violence during Ramadan and urged security forces to “fulfil their national commitment and protect” the people of Mogadishu.’Violence is unacceptable’Farmajo’s four-year mandate expired in February before fresh elections could be held, leading to a constitutional crisis and to opposition leaders refusing to recognize him.The crisis mushroomed from a long-simmering disagreement between Farmajo and the leaders of Puntland and Jubaland, two of Somalia’s five semi-autonomous states, over how to conduct elections.Multiple rounds of U.N.-backed talks failed to find a solution, and parliament pushed through the bill extending Farmajo’s mandate for two years.The crisis has dismayed Somalia’s foreign backers, who have urged Farmajo to resume dialogue with the federal states.”The problem is, every time you have an outbreak of violence like this, it just further widens the gulf between the parties and really makes getting to any sort of agreement that much harder,” said Mahmood, the ICG analyst.The British embassy and European Union envoy in Mogadishu expressed alarm over the violence while the U.N. Mission in Somalia wrote on Twitter that “violence is not the solution” to the stalemate.
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Month: April 2021
Cameroonian Startup’s Online Veterinary App Helps Remote Breeders
A Cameroonian company has created a veterinary counseling app designed to help farmers and ranchers who live far away from veterinarians to detect animal diseases and give them guidance online.Cameroonian rabbit breeder Thierry Bayabon lost three-quarters of his stock to disease a few months ago. Like most small-scale Cameroonian farmers, he was not familiar with diseases that affect animals. Bayabon says the deaths could have been prevented, but it took too long to find a veterinarian to visit his remote farm. He says two weeks after the cases, as the situation was getting worse, he was successful in getting a veterinarian. The vet came on-site and was able to determine the problem.To help breeders like Bayabon avoid such costly losses, a Cameroonian startup designed the free online application, Veto.The app analyzes audio questions about symptoms, gives treatment advice, and helps breeders and ranchers share information.It also allows them to send photos and videos to actual veterinarians, like Mangoua Cédrick, for analysis.”In those villages, they have no vet personnel,” Cédrick said. “And with an advent of a zoonotic disease like tuberculosis, I mean, you taking the picture for the analysis may help you save life, because zoonoses are diseases that attack humans or that are transmissible between animal to human.”The Veto app’s main challenge is that it requires an internet connection, which is expensive and hard to come by in Cameroon’s remote villages.The app’s developers say they are working on the problem so it can be useful to more people raising livestock.Franklin Djomo, chief marketing officer for Veto, says their research and development teams are actively working to develop a module that is not connected to the internet so that it can operate in rural areas. While the veterinary diagnostic app has connection limitations, its practical use is not limited to Cameroon, or even West Africa. The Veto app is currently available in Cameroon’s official languages — French and English — and also in Arabic and Swahili.
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Turkey Puts 108 Pro-Kurdish Party Officials on Trial
One hundred and eight prominent members of Turkey’s pro-Kurdish HDP went on trial in the capital, Ankara, Monday in connection with violent nationwide protests in 2014 that left 37 people dead.The protests were against the government’s failure to militarily intervene as the Islamic State was poised to overrun the predominantly Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane, on Turkey’s border.Speaking outside the courthouse Monday, HDP co-chair Mithat Sancar said the trial is politically motivated.”The party official called this a case of revenge which he said is the product of the defeats that the HDP has made the government suffer,” Sancar said.Ankara accuses the YPG Syrian Kurdish fighters defending Kobane of being terrorists no different from Islamic State militants.The government is vigorously defending the prosecution, claiming the defendants have to be held to account for the deaths in the 2014 unrest.But Emma Sinclair Webb of the New York-based Human Rights Watch said the case is part of an alarming trend.This is an entirely political trial as so many trials in Turkey are these days. This is part of a contentious effort to deplete the HDP to criminalize it,” Sinclair Webb said. “Basically evidence is based on political speeches and there is just no compelling credible evidence to pursue this case.”The defendants face life sentences on charges of murder, insurrection and inciting terrorism. Among those on trial is the HDP’s two former leaders, who are already in jail.The ruling AK Party accuses the HDP of being linked to the Kurdish rebel group the PKK, which is fighting the Turkish state, a charge the party denies. Columnist Sezin Oney of the Duvar news portal said the future of the party is now in doubt.”Probably the beginning of the end of the HDP, AK party officials have on various instances have mentioned their intention is to wipe out the HDP for good so it can’t make a comeback,” Oney said.Dozens of elected HDP mayors are already in jail, and advocates fear that prosecutors could be preparing what is designed to be a fatal blow to Turkey’s second-largest opposition party.
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WHO Pushes Routine Vaccinations Amid COVID Downturn
Thirty-seven percent of surveyed countries are still experiencing disruptions in vaccinating children against deadly diseases like measles compared to 2020 levels, according to a press release from the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
The disruptions stem from the COVID-19 pandemic, the groups say.
They also say 60 lifesaving campaigns are currently “postponed in 50 countries, putting around 228 million people — mostly children — at risk for measles, yellow fever and polio.”
As the world marks World Immunization Week 2021, which takes place in the last week of April, the groups are calling for countries to increase investments in vaccines.
The groups say investment could save 50 million lives by 2030.
“If we’re to avoid multiple outbreaks of life-threatening diseases like measles, yellow fever and diphtheria, we must ensure routine vaccination services are protected in every country in the world,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
Measles outbreaks have been reported in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Pakistan and Yemen, according to the groups. They added that further outbreaks were likely as children are not vaccinated.
“As COVID-19 vaccines are at the forefront of everyone’s minds, it is more critical than ever that children maintain access to other lifesaving vaccines to prevent devastating outbreaks of preventable diseases that have started to spread alongside the pandemic,” said David Morley, president and CEO of UNICEF Canada. “We must sustain this energy on vaccine rollout to also help children catch up on their measles, polio and other vaccines. Lost ground means lost lives.”
UNICEF said it delivered 2.01 billion vaccines in 2020 compared to 2.29 billion in 2019.
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Zimbabwean Sculptor Uses Art to Combat COVID
Zimbabwean sculptor David Ngwerume is gaining attention for works inspired by the coronavirus pandemic. One of his collections urges people to get vaccinated. Another reminds people to take health measures, as he hammers home a message to curb the spread of the virus. Ngwerume’s latest piece is “Michael Jackson,” named after the late U.S. pop icon who was well known for wearing masks and a glove.Forty-year-old Zimbabwean sculptor David Ngwerume is making what he calls a “COVID-19 Gallery.” Forty-year-old Zimbabwean sculptor David Ngwerume in front of his exhibit, called “Arms,” in what he calls a “COVID-19 Gallery” in Harare, April 23, 2021. He encourages people to take the COVID jab to help the country reach its vaccination target of 60 percent by the end of the year. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)His exhibit, called “Arms,” encourages people to take the COVID jab to help the country reach its vaccination target of 60 percent by the end of the year.Another one, called “We are torn,” encourages people to sneeze into their elbows.And the most talked about one encourages people to mask up in an exhibit called: “MJ” – named after the late U.S. pop icon “Michael Jackson.”“The iconic Michael Jackson was the first celebrity to move around wearing a mask and gloves. When he was asked, he stood his ground and said the air is somehow polluted,” Ngwerume said. “Michael Jackson used his public figure position to highlight what he was seeing as what would come with the times; that we have the COVID pandemic. We are now wearing masks. At that time people thought he was trying to show off. He warned us. Now I am using his figure around this COVID pandemic on my art to show that Michael Jackson gave us a warning that: Mask up. His figure shows a finger pointing to us as a people to say: Mask Up.”Ngwerume has posted his pieces online to keep most people from coming to his studio and potentially spreading the coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 disease.New York-based art dealer Shingirai Mafara says he wants to hold an art exhibition to display the work of his fellow Zimbabwean David Ngwerume for a wider reach, April 23, 2021. (Columbus Mavhunga/SKYPE/VOA) Speaking via Skype, New York-based art dealer Shingirai Mafara says he wants to hold an art exhibition to display the work of his fellow Zimbabwean for a wider reach.”I find his pieces very, very pivotal not only putting Zimbabwean art sculpture on the map, because we are already back on the map but also sending to the entire world: let’s get vaccinated, let’s wear masks, let’s social distance, hold hands and try to see this together,” Mafara said. “These pieces are going to sit in the permanent collection of the United Nations World Health Organization or at a private collector’s residence. The work that David has created: a 100, 200 years from now you can look back and say in 2020/2021, we had a pandemic that killed millions and millions of people.”Ngwerume’s work has also caught the attention of a Zimbabwe government official.Josiah Kusena is the acting director of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe. Josiah Kusena, the acting director of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe, says the government appreciates artists who think outside the box, April 23, 2021. (Columbus Mavhunga/VOA)“The situation has taught our artists to be resilient, to be imaginative and creative in terms of sustenance – how do you eke a livelihood in such an environment which is not easy to operate when sources of income have been closed totally,” Kusena said. “So that creativity is not a surprise at all. It is also an appreciation by the artist that COVID-19 has destroyed livelihoods, but it is also an appreciation that there has been progress in research in terms of how do you contain COVID-19.”Zimbabwean Doctors Worried about Low Acceptance of COVID-19 VaccineFewer than 36,000 people received shots since 200,000 doses arrived in February Ngwerume says he hopes to work with art auctioneers and use part of the proceeds to get personal protective equipment or PPEs for Zimbabwe’s health workers.Zimbabwe’s doctors and nurses have struggled due to lack of adequate resources while working in the front lines of prevention and treatment during the coronavirus pandemic. Zimbabwe has more than 38,000 confirmed coronavirus infections and 1,550 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the global outbreak.
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Senegalese Divers, Activists Clean-Up Coast for Earth Day
Senegal banned single-use plastics a year ago, but the regulation has been poorly enforced and plastic waste still litters the coastline and threatens health. For Earth Day (April 22) this year, a group of Senegalese surfers, scuba divers, and activists took matters into their own hands and to set an example for others to follow. From bottles and bags to food wrappers and fishing nets, plastic waste is piling up on Senegal’s beaches, harming the environment that people and animals depend on. A bird stands atop a mound of rubbish overlooking a polluted canal in Dakar, Senegal, Apr. 23, 2021.Toxic chemicals from plastic leach into the water and can build up in fish, which are a vital part of the Senegalese diet. Senegal’s Ministry of Public Health notes links between plastic pollution and infertility, heart disease, cancer, and other health problems. “All of these products that are used by the industry can be dangerous,” said Public Health director Dr. Marie Khémesse Ngom Ndiaye. “In terms of pollution, they can attack all of our organs, but equally those of animals. But especially, as you’ve seen in all these documentaries and studies, it impacts marine life.” The Senegalese government passed a law in 2015 banning single-use plastics, but little changed. The law was rescinded to make way for new legislation that specifically targeted plastic cups, straws, plates, bags and bottles. It went into effect in 2020, but it’s still rarely enforced. “There is not necessarily enough information,” said Aisha Conte, president of Zero Waste Senegal. “The population, the users, are not well enough informed about the existence of this law and its different statutes.” Franck Chabert, owner of the Barracuda Dive Club, pulls rubbish from the sea floor during an underwater cleanup for Earth Day in Dakar, Apr. 23, 2021.To mark the anniversary of last year’s ban, and this year’s Earth Day, Dakar’s Barracuda Scuba Diving Club and activists held a coastal cleanup. Clean Senegal’s Khadim Diouf wore a plastic costume while sorting the waste to underscore the need to make an impact. Volunteers sort rubbish found under water and along the beach during an underwater cleanup for Earth Day in Dakar, Apr. 23, 2021.“I think we can do it — us, the citizens of the world,” he said. “I don’t just mean the citizens of Senegal, but the citizens of the world. Everyone must protect their environment. That’s what we must do.” Until then, Diouf and other activists said they will continue to campaign for a cleaner Senegal.
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Questions Over Missing Billions Pose Challenge for Erdogan
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan could be finding himself cornered over opposition claims that his government $128 billion squandered in defending Turkey’s currency, the lira.Throughout Turkey, giant banners emblazoned with the words “where is the $128 billion?” hang from party offices of the main opposition, People’s Republican Party, CHP. Advertising trucks and vans carry images asking the same question, along with posters on billboards across the country, some with just the words “$128 billion Where?”In Istanbul, the governor ordered the banners taken down, claiming they violated COVID restrictions. Video of the police taking down the huge posters in the middle of the night went viral on social media, only fueling more interest.The CHP has countered by simply using the number 128, which has become synonymous with demands for accounting of the lost billions of dollars.Meral Aksener, the firebrand leader of the opposition Good Party, iyi, joined in the assault on the government, “Turkey has become the land of disappearance under the great illusionist Erdoğan,” quipped Aksener in an address to her parliamentary party deputies this month.”Vaccines are missing,” and “128 Billion USD and the Minister of Powerpoint (referring to former Finance Minister Berat Albayrak) who lost the money is also missing,” she said, referring to opposition claims that more than one million imported COVID vaccines are unaccounted for – a claim the government denies. Albayrak, Erdogan’s son-in-law, has not been seen public since reports said he was forced to quit in November.Under the finance minister’s two-year stewardship, billions of Turkey’s foreign currency reserves were used to prop up the currency, as he confounded economic orthodoxy of keeping interest rates low, despite rising inflation.A man is reflected at a foreign currency board in a currency exchange shop, in Istanbul, Turkey, March 22, 2021.Albayrak followed Erdogan’s unorthodox view that low-interest rates reduce inflation rather than the widely held belief that high rates are needed to tame rising prices.Analysts warn the growing controversy over the opposition’s slogan, “What happened to $128 billion,” is threatening to engulf Erdogan.”The question drives Mr. Erdogan furious because it is essentially an assault on the integrity of his son-in-law Mr. Berat Albayrak,” said political consultant Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners. “It also implies AKP cronies might have absconded with part of Central Bank F/X sales.”Economic hardship caused by the COVID pandemic, with rising unemployment and inflation, mean that questions over missing billions of dollars are striking a chord in the country. In recent weeks, the question “What happened to 128 billion” has been among the top three search questions on Google in Turkey. Erdogan on Wednesday accused the opposition of carrying out a campaign of “lies.””This money was not gifted to anyone or wasted,” Erdogan told members of his ruling parliamentary. “It simply changed hands and went to economic actors… and a large part of it has returned to the central bank,” he added.Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during his ruling party’s congress in Ankara, March 24, 2021. (Credit: Turkish Presidency)But the president caused alarm in the financial markets when he said 165 rather than 128 billion had been used defending the currency and that he would support such a policy again if needed. The Turkish lira plummeted after the comments.”Erdogan is now saying $165 billion (were) used in two years to defend the lira. That is a huge sum spent on a failed FX intervention strategy,” tweeted Timothy Ash, a senior Emerging Market Analyst of Blue Ray Investments. “I cannot think of another country that wasted such huge sums on a failed defense of the lira. Disastrous,” he added.Falling approval ratingMany analysts see Turkey’s economic woes as the main factor behind Erdogan and his AKP Party’s slide in opinion polls. For the first time, the party’s support, according to polls, has fallen below 30%.Observers say Erdogan’s struggle to contain the 128 campaign indicates a far broader problem facing the president. Having dominated Turkish politics for nearly two decades, they say he now appears to be heading into enemy territory.”For the first time, the AK Party is obliged to a defensive strategy, and because it does not know how to play, it responds with kick and slap to every attack,” said veteran pollster Bekir Agirdir of the Konda polling company.The 128 campaign, using both traditional and modern means of communication and its slick presentation, is also a sign that Erdogan is facing a galvanized and effective opposition that appears to have a finger on the nation’s pulse.”The economic conditions in the country are getting harder, the government seems to be losing the grip of the pandemic, and to be honest, the opposition is playing tough,” wrote political columnist Murat Yetkin for the website Yetkin Report.
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Government Documents Show Russia Considering Using Convicts to Build Railway
Russia is considering using convicts to expand a railway line in the far east, a government document showed, as Moscow faces migrant labor shortages due to COVID-19.Restrictions linked to the pandemic have prompted many migrant workers to leave Russia and authorities have warned construction projects could be slowed down.Russia has already brought in soldiers to build a segment of its Baikal-Amur Mainline railway (BAM) in the far east to transport more coal and metal to ports for export to Asia.It is now also considering convict laborers to work on the line which is being expanded as part of a more than 6 trillion rouble ($79 billion) plan to upgrade and construct infrastructure.A document drawn up by Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin’s office ordered the transport ministry, the Federal Penitentiary Service and Russian Railways, the state company that runs the vast national rail network, to assess the feasibility of using convicts to build railways.The document, first reported by Kommersant newspaper and reviewed by Reuters on Monday, ordered the three bodies to assess the possibility of using convicts to work on the construction of railway infrastructure on the Baikal-Amur Mainline and the Trans-Siberian railways by May 14.Russian Railways and the transport ministry declined to comment.A spokesman for Khusnullin did not immediately comment. The government and prison service did not immediately respond to requests for comment.Prisoners from the Soviet Union’s vast GULAG labor camp system were used in the 1930s to build portions of BAM and develop large swathes of Siberia.
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Sources: More than 30 Nigerian Soldiers Killed in Militant Attack
Militants overrun an army base in northeastern Nigeria, killing more than 30 soldiers before pulling back in the face of air strikes, sources said.The attackers were believed to belong to the regional offshoot of Islamic State. They hit the base in Mainok town in northeast Borno state on Sunday afternoon, three soldiers and a local resident told Reuters.Rising insecurity across Nigeria has killed scores of soldiers and civilians this year. Just over a month ago, about 30 soldiers were killed in four attacks by Islamist militants in northeast Nigeria.A military spokesman reached by phone said they would issue a statement on the incident but declined to comment further.The sources told Reuters that 33 soldiers were killed in Sunday’s attack. The militants wore military camouflage and arrived in around 16 gun trucks and six mine-resistant military vehicles, one of the soldiers said. After several hours, they captured the base and soldiers called in airstrikes.More soldiers were killed when militants ambushed reinforcements sent to help, the soldier sources said. A resident said the attackers also set ablaze the town’s police headquarters.”I saw them while fighting with soldiers,” resident Ba Umar Abba Tuja told Reuters. “When the fighter jet started hovering in the air, the (militants) fled to the community and hid in the primary school.”Tuja said the militants left around midnight.Mainok is roughly 55 km (30 miles) from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. An Islamist insurgency has plagued northeast Nigeria for more than a decade, killing more than 30,000 people and displacing at least 2 million.Islamic State West Africa Province, which broke away from Boko Haram several years ago, now stages its own attacks on soldiers and civilians in the region.
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India Posts 5th Consecutive Day of 300,000-Plus New COVID-19 Infections
India reported 352,991 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday, the fifth consecutive day of more than 300,000 coronavirus infections in the South Asian nation as it deals with a catastrophic second wave of the pandemic. The country’s health care system has collapsed in the wave, with hospitals filled beyond capacity and unable to care for any new patients and a shortage of oxygen canisters so dire that some COVID patients are literally gasping for air. Municipal workers prepare to bury the body of a person who died of COVID-19, in Gauhati, India, Apr. 25, 2021.India also posted 2,812 deaths Monday, another record one-day number, as crematories have been busy night and day setting fire to the dead. The capital New Delhi has extended a lockdown that was set to expire on Monday for another week. The second wave has been blamed on the spread of more contagious variants of the virus, plus the easing of restrictions on large crowds when the outbreak appeared to be under control earlier this year Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has come under fire for holding packed political rallies and allowing an annual Hindu religious festival that attracted millions of pilgrims, urged all Indians to get vaccinated in his monthly radio address Sunday and not be swayed by what he called “any rumor about the vaccine.” India has administered almost 138 million doses of the vaccine, but only 1.6% of its estimated 1.4 billion people are fully vaccinated, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. People wearing protective face masks wait to receive a vaccine for the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a vaccination center in Mumbai, India, Apr. 26, 2021.World sends badly needed aid The crisis has prompted members of the international community to rush critically needed medical supplies to India. U.S. President Joe Biden announced Sunday that the United States will send raw materials to produce vaccines, plus ventilators, rapid diagnostic testing kits and personal protective equipment. From his Twitter account, he said, “Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, we are determined to help India in its time of need.” But the administration is also under growing pressure to release its warehoused stockpile of COVID-19 vaccines to India, including the two-shot AstraZeneca vaccine, which has not been approved for use in the U.S. On ABC’s Sunday morning public affairs show “This Week,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the president’s top medical adviser, said that a proposal for the U.S. to send more than 20 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine “is up for active consideration.” Several transport planes left Britain Monday for India, carrying hundreds of items including ventilators and oxygen concentrators, which collects atmospheric air and converts it into pure oxygen. Other countries, including France and Germany have said they will also help, along with India’s longtime arch-foe Pakistan. India now has more than 17.3 million total cases — just second behind the United States — including 195,123 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins. India’s death toll is fourth behind the U.S., Brazil and Mexico. Thailand, which has banned travelers from India, is undergoing its own surge of new coronavirus cases. The government ordered the closure of movie theaters, gyms and parks beginning Monday and lasting until May 9, as it posted 2,048 new cases, bringing its overall casualty rate to 57,508 infections, including 148 coronavirus-related fatalities.EU to allow vaccinated US touristsMeanwhile, Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, told The New York Times Sunday that American tourists who have been fully vaccinated will be allowed to visit the European Union this summer. Greece to Lift Quarantine Rule for More Inbound Visitors Restrictions on coronavirus-free visitors from more countries including Australia and Russia from MondayVon Der Leyen said the rapid pace of vaccinations in the United States, along with advanced talks between officials in the U.S. and the EU. over the issue of official vaccine certificates as proof of immunity, will enable the 27-member bloc’s executive body to restore trans-Atlantic travel. And Hong Kong and Singapore announced Monday they would launch a two-way “travel bubble” beginning May 26 that would do away with mandatory quarantine periods for visitors to either destination. The bubble was initially set to begin last November, but was postponed due to a surge of COVID-19 infections in Hong Kong.
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During Ramadan, Somalia’s Displaced People Rely on the Kindness of Others
Hassan Mohamed, a father of six, sits outside a makeshift shelter that he calls home, cuddling his youngest child. The shelter is made of sticks and pieces of cloth.“We were uprooted from our previous settlement, and you can see the condition we are living in,” he told VOA.Mohamed lives in a camp for internally displaced persons, or what the U.N. calls IDPs.There are more than 2 million IDPs spread across Somalia, most of whom depend on humanitarian assistance, according to U.N.Mogadishu is home to more than half a million IDPs living in crowded camps with poor sanitation, where COVID-19 can spread rapidly.“We survive on a handful of rice received from a distribution point in the camp’s kitchen,” Mohamed said. “That is the only food we get to break our fast and it is not enough. Our situation is dire, and we need more aid.”Like Mohamed and his family, people in this camp were forced to leave their homes in Lego village, Lower Shabelle region, due to clan-related conflict. Their homes were razed, livestock stolen by militia from rival clans and they have sought shelter in the camp located in the outskirts of Mogadishu.In addition to the conflict, recurrent drought, floods and locust invasions have contributed to an increase in the number of IDPs.Need remains highIn the holy month of Ramadan, vulnerable families like Mohamed’s rely heavily on food aid to survive amid a surge in COVID-19 infections. Families rush to the food kitchen to receive their daily rice portion.Mohamed’s wife has joined other women waiting to receive their share of hygiene products, including face masks, from volunteers who visit the camp. The products are donations from Life Makers, a youth-led initiative that comes together each year during Ramadan to help families in need.Mustafa Mukhtar is the chairperson of Life Makers. He says the volunteer-driven organization is not affiliated with religious or political groups. The goal is to encourage young people so they can contribute to development within the community. They come to the camp every day to oversee the distribution of food to vulnerable families.“We came across these newly displaced people in this neighborhood, who are unable to feed their families because they have no source of income,” Mukhtar said. “We have set up this kitchen that feeds over 800 people each day. We help these families to break-fast with the food that we cook here.”The need for humanitarian assistance remains high, particularly during Ramadan.Ahmedweli Abukar Ahmed is the director general in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management. He said the federal government of Somalia is facing challenges to meet the needs of the displaced people living in different camps across Mogadishu.“It is a coincidence that at a time when we are grappling with the effects caused by the second wave of coronavirus infections, and it is also the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan,” he told VOA. “This is the time when needy people really need assistance. Our ministry is engaging to the best of our ability to smoothly help these people break their fast during this holy month of Ramadan.”Like many in the camp, Mohamed and his family will make it through Ramadan on a meager daily ration of donated cooked rice. Nonetheless, he said, they remain hopeful that other well-wishers will come to their aid.
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EU Will Let Vaccinated Americans Visit This Summer, Top Official Says
A top European Union official said Sunday that Americans who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 should be able to travel to Europe by summer, easing existing travel restrictions.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told The New York Times that the union’s 27 members would accept, unconditionally, all those who are vaccinated with vaccines that are approved by the European Medicines Agency. The agency has approved the three vaccines used in the United States.”The Americans, as far as I can see, use European Medicines Agency-approved vaccines,” von der Leyen said. “This will enable free movement and travel to the European Union.”She did not say when travel could resume. The EU largely shut down nonessential travel more than a year ago.European Union countries agreed this month to launch COVID-19 travel passes that would permit people who have been vaccinated against the disease, recovered from an infection or have tested negative to travel more easily.
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Authorities in Somalia Hail Progress in Malaria Fight
As the world marks World Malaria Day (April 25), several African countries continue to battle the impact of a preventable disease claiming thousands of lives. In sub-Saharan Africa alone, malaria has claimed an estimated 380,000 lives in 2018 according to the World Health Organization (WHO). But there are some signs of hope in Somalia.This year’s theme was reaching the “Zero Malaria” target as the WHO celebrated the achievement of those countries that are on the verge of eliminating the disease.While Somalia is still not malaria-free, the country’s authorities say there has been some progress in the past three years in decreasing the number of deaths from the disease. That is welcome news for the Horn of Africa nation struggling to curb other challenges, including drought and lack of security. Dr. Ali Abdulrahman, manager of Somalia’s national malaria control department, pointed out that deaths from malaria have declined, from 31 in 2018, 22 in 2019 to five last year.”There was a lot of interventions we have done including distribution of long-lasting insecticide nets to the target population, especially IDPs (internally displaced persons) and other vulnerable and indoor residual spraying were done in the riverine areas and also case management was going on in all health facilities in the country that was interventions done to reduce cases,” Abdulrahman said.Somalia has a weak health care system and is poorly resourced, according to the WHO. Due to decades of insecurity and conflict, the country’s institutions struggle to provide access to malaria prevention and treatment to those at risk of contracting the disease, including pregnant women and children. Falestine Mohamed Abukar, a mother of three who lives in an internally displaced persons camp in Mogadishu, said she paid $40 last year to get medicine from a local pharmacy where she was referred when she tested positive for malaria and typhoid.She said she was very weak in bed and when she visited the nearest health center but the health care providers said they did not have the medicine. They then referred her to get it from private pharmacies and pay out of pocket.Dr. Jamal Amran from the country’s World Health Organization office says WHO is working with Somali authorities to improve access to malaria medication. “This year will start to do rapid assessment needs of IDPs and other neglected groups like nomads to see how and what the factors are preventing them to utilize health services properly. And based on all findings, we will, along with other partners, develop [a] specific strategy for health services for these minorities, and of course, with the involvement with civil society groups and the community and also workers especially now with COVID-19,” Amran said.Hailed as a possible breakthrough, a new malaria vaccine has shown to be 77% effective in early trials to combat the disease. And once approved for use, countries like Somalia could benefit in continuing their fight against malaria and meet the malaria-free goal.
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Pakistan Offers India Key Medical Supplies
Pakistan has offered to provide essential medical supplies to rival India, which is in the grip of a devastating nationwide coronavirus surge and struggling to meet critical hospital needs, including medical oxygen.The offer comes amid months of ongoing backchannel talks involving top intelligence officials of the nuclear-armed neighboring countries seeking to reduce tensions and normalize bilateral ties.“As a gesture of solidarity with the people of India in the wake of the current wave of COVID-19, Pakistan has offered to provide relief support to India,” said a Pakistani foreign ministry statement issued late on Saturday. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the coronavirus.The supplies include ventilators, personal protective equipment, digital X-ray machines and other related gear.There was no immediate response from India.Pakistan said that authorities of both countries can work out modalities for a quick delivery of the relief items and explore possible ways of further cooperation “to mitigate the challenges posed by the pandemic.”“This is a very generous and significant offer, not just because it’s offering to provide supplies to its enemy, but because Pakistan itself is facing a rapidly growing COVID surge,” tweeted Michael Kugelman, deputy Asia program director at the Wilson Center, a Washington-based research group.The offer came on the same day Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, in a tweet, prayed for the “speedy recovery” of Indians affected by the virus. “We must fight this global challenge confronting humanity together,” Khan said.I want to express our solidarity with the people of India as they battle a dangerous wave of COVID-19. Our prayers for a speedy recovery go to all those suffering from the pandemic in our neighbourhood & the world. We must fight this global challenge confronting humanity together
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) FILE – A Pakistan Army soldier stands guard at a hilltop post near the Line of Control (LoC) in Charikot Sector, Kashmir, July 22, 2020.Indian and Pakistani mainstream newspapers have written extensively about the secret negotiations in recent days but officials on both sides have declined to confirm the process.“It is an opportune time for us to take a strategic pause,” Pakistan’s daily Dawn newspaper quoted an official as saying on Saturday. “We need a break from the cycle of violence and focus on domestic issues,” said the official. Kashmir is said to be the focus of the discussions. The Himalayan region is split between the two countries. Both claim all of it and have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since India and Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947.“The path of dialogue will be bumpy, but if we stay the course we can reach our objectives,” the daily Dawn newspaper quoted a senior official as saying. Bilateral tensions have dangerously escalated since August 2019, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government revoked the semiautonomous status of India-administered majority-Muslim Kashmir and declared it a union territory.Pakistan denounced the move and quickly downgraded all ties with India, saying it would do so until the neighbor reversed its Kashmir-related actions. Islamabad said the Indian actions violated a longstanding United Nations resolution, which recognizes the region as a disputed territory.New Delhi rejected the objection as an interference in its internal affairs but the ensuing months witnessed intense deadly clashes between the Indian and Pakistani militaries along the de facto Kashmir border, known as the Line of Control (LOC).Sikh pilgrims return from Pakistan after celebrating the Baisakhi festival at India-Pakistan Wagah border, about 35 kms from Amritsar, April 22, 2021.Mutual tensions have gradually eased since February when Indian and Pakistani border commanders agreed to halt military skirmishes and reinstitute a 2002 LOC cease-fire, a move that reportedly stemmed from the backchannel negotiations.In back-to-back statements last month, Khan and Pakistan’s military chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa, advocated a “stable” relationship with India. They both called for a peaceful settlement to the long-running Kashmir dispute. Bajwa stressed that “it is time to bury the past and move forward,” saying the rivalry between the two South Asian countries “is dragging the region back to the swamp of poverty and underdevelopment.”
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Chad Junta Refuses to Negotiate With Rebels
Chad’s new ruling junta said Sunday it would not negotiate with rebels in the north of the poor Sahel country and asked for help from neighboring Niger to capture their leader.”The time is not for mediation, nor for negotiation with outlaws,” Azem Bermandoa Agouna, spokesman of the military council that took power last week following the death of veteran leader Idriss Deby Itno.On Saturday, the rebels of the Libya-based Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT) said they were prepared to observe a cease-fire, but a junta spokesman said the two sides were at war.”They are rebels, which is why we are bombing them. We are waging war, that’s all,” Agouna said. Deby reportedly died in battle early last week after fighting in which hundreds of FACT rebels were killed, according to the army.On Sunday, claiming that FACT leader Mahamat Mahadi Ali had fled into Niger, the junta appealed to help from its neighbor to track him down.”Chad calls for the cooperation and solidarity of Niger … to facilitate the capture and bringing to justice of these war criminals,” Agouna said in a statement.Deby was buried last Friday in a state funeral attended by French President Emmanuel Macron.France, the former colonial power in Chad, threw its support behind Deby’s son, Mahamat, 37, who took the helm as head of the junta with a pledge to hold elections in 18 months.Chad was thrown into turmoil by Deby’s death, which was announced Tuesday, the day after he was declared the winner of an April 11 election, giving him a sixth mandate after 30 years at the helm.He was a linchpin in the fight against the Sahel’s jihadi insurgency, and Macron pledged at the ceremony: “France will never let anyone, either today or tomorrow, challenge Chad’s stability and integrity.”
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German Contender Wants Tougher Stance on China, Russia
A leading contender to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor this fall has called for “dialogue and toughness” toward China when it comes to defending democratic values and human rights.Annalena Baerbock, the environmentalist Greens’ candidate for chancellorship, told the weekly Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung that Europe should use its economic might to block Chinese goods made with forced labor and avoid communications technologies that endanger European security.”We are currently in a competition between systems: authoritarian powers versus liberal democracies,” she said in an interview published Sunday.Baerbock cited China’s investment in infrastructure and energy grids through Central Asia to Europe as “brutal power politics.””We Europeans mustn’t kid ourselves,” she said, adding that the 27-nation European Union needs to act accordingly to defend its values, such as by using a recent investment accord between Brussels and Beijing to address more strongly the issue of China putting its Uyghur minority into forced labor.Baerbock, a graduate in international law, also took aim at Russia, in particular its support for rebel groups in Ukraine and the recent massing of Russian troops along Ukraine’s border.She backed Ukraine’s right to apply for membership in NATO and the EU but said “the most important thing right now is to increase the pressure on Russia so that the Minsk accord is adhered to.” That accord seeks to peacefully end the conflict in eastern Ukraine with Russia-backed rebels that has left at least 14,000 dead since 2014.Against the backdrop of Moscow’s aggressive behavior, Baerbock criticized the German government’s support for an underwater pipeline bringing Russian natural gas to Germany. “I would have long withdrawn political support for Nord Stream 2,” she said.The Greens have called for closer cooperation with the United States to defend liberal values worldwide, but Baerbock suggested that the goal of having NATO members spend 2% of their gross domestic product on defense should be revisited in light of the pressing need to invest large sums to curb climate change. She also suggested Europe’s defense contribution could also come in the form of a cybersecurity center.”A blanket 2% goal, on the other hand, won’t achieve greater security,” she said.The Greens emerged from the pacifist and environmental movements of the 1970s and 1980s, but in recent years have backed limited military deployments abroad, provided they are tied to U.N. resolutions.Baerbock said the future of U.S. nuclear weapons stationed in Europe could be raised again as part of the disarmament negotiations between Moscow and Washington. A poll published Sunday by weekly Bild am Sonntag put the Greens narrowly ahead of Merkel’s center-right Union bloc.Germans will elect a new parliament September 26 that will then choose who should become the country’s next chancellor. Merkel is not running for a fifth term.The survey, conducted by polling firm Kantar, found 28% of respondents planned to vote for the Greens, against 27% for the Union bloc. The center-left Social Democrats are expected to receive about 13% support while the far-right Alternative for Germany would get 10%. The poll of 1,225 voters found the pro-business Free Democrats would receive 9% and the Left party would get 7% of the vote.
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