Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday it’s not an isolated incident that over 200 children were found buried at a former Indigenous residential school.Trudeau’s comments come as Indigenous leaders are calling for an examination of every former residential school site — institutions that held children taken from families across the nation.Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in British Columbia said the remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, were confirmed this month with the help of ground-penetrating radar. She described the discovery as “an unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented” at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, the largest such school in the country.”As prime minister, I am appalled by the shameful policy that stole Indigenous children from their communities,” Trudeau said.”Sadly, this is not an exception or an isolated incident,” he said. ”We’re not going to hide from that. We have to acknowledge the truth. Residential schools were a reality — a tragedy that existed here, in our country, and we have to own up to it. Kids were taken from their families, returned damaged or not returned at all.”Beatings, abuseFrom the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 First Nations children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a program to assimilate them into Canadian society. They were forced to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages. Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died.The Canadian government apologized in Parliament in 2008 and admitted that physical and sexual abuse in the schools was rampant. Many students recalled being beaten for speaking their native languages. They also lost touch with their parents and customs.Indigenous leaders have cited that legacy of abuse and isolation as the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reservations.Plans are under way to bring in forensics experts to identify and repatriate the remains of the children found buried on the Kamloops site.Trudeau said he’ll be talking to his ministers about further things his government needs to do to support survivors and the community. Flags at all federal buildings are at half-staff.Opposition New Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh called Monday for an emergency debate in Parliament.”This is not a surprise. This is a reality of residential schools,” Singh said.”Two hundred fifteen Indigenous kids were found in an unmarked mass grave,” he said. ”Anytime we think about unmarked mass graves, we think about a distant country where a genocide has happened. This is not a distant country.”The Kamloops school operated between 1890 and 1969, when the federal government took over operations from the Catholic Church and operated it as a day school until it closed in 1978.Archbishop apologizesRichard Gagnon, archbishop of Winnipeg and president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, said he wanted to express “our deepest sorrow for the heartrending loss of the children at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.”The National Truth and Reconciliation Commission has records of at least 51 children dying at the school between 1915 and 1963. The commission identified about 3,200 confirmed deaths at schools but noted the schools did not record the cause of death in almost half of them. Some died of tuberculosis. The commission said the practice was not to send the bodies of the students who died at the schools to their communities. The commission also said the government wanted to keep costs down, so adequate regulations were never established.”This discovery is a stain on our country. It is one that needs to be rectified,” opposition Conservative lawmaker Michelle Rempel Garner said.Empty pairs of children’s shoes have been placed at memorials throughout the country.Perry Bellegarde, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, has said that while it is not new to find graves at former residential schools, it’s always crushing to have that chapter’s wounds exposed.The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations and the Saskatchewan government said they want Ottawa to help research undocumented deaths and burials at residential schools in the province.Federation Chief Bobby Cameron said finding the children’s remains and giving them proper burials is important to help First Nations communities and families find closure. The federation has compiled a list of initial sites where it hopes to complete radar ground searches.Sol Mamakwa, an opposition lawmaker with the New Democrat party in Ontario, also called on the government to search the grounds of other former residential schools.”It is a great open secret that our children lie on the properties of former schools. It is an open secret that Canadians can no longer look away from,” he said.
…
Month: May 2021
Amid Grief, Manhunt in Miami Continues for Three Gunmen
A manhunt continued into Memorial Day for three masked suspects who opened fire early Sunday morning outside a Miami banquet hall, killing two men and wounding 21 others, in a shooting authorities said had spread terror and grief through their communities.That anguish was reinforced Monday by a grieving father who interrupted a news conference just as the Miami-Dade Police Department’s director, Alfredo “Freddy” Ramirez III, was decrying the weekend’s gun violence and appealing for the community’s help in tracking down the shooters.”You killed my kid with no reason,” the distraught man yelled out as he was escorted away from cameras. Police would later confirm that the man, Clayton Dillard, is the father of one of two 26-year-old men who were gunned down outside the banquet hall that was hosting a rap concert.”That is the pain that you see. That is the pain that affects our community right there before you,” Ramirez said.On Monday, police released a snippet from surveillance video that showed a white SUV driving into an alley at the strip mall housing the El Mula Banquet Hall in northwest Miami-Dade, near Hialeah. The video shows three people getting out of the vehicle, one gripping a handgun, while the other two carried what police described as “assault-style rifles.”That’s when the gunmen sprayed bullets indiscriminately into the crowd, even though police said the assailants had specific targets in mind.Ramirez told the Miami Herald that the shooters waited between 20 and 40 minutes before attacking shortly after midnight. Police said some in the crowd returned fire.In all, 23 people were shot. In addition to the two fatalities, three others were in the hospital in critical condition. Because of privacy laws, police were not releasing the names of any of the victims.The SUV used in the shooting was later found Sunday submerged in a canal about 13 kilometers east of the banquet hall. Police said the vehicle was reported stolen two weeks ago.Sunday’s shooting came a little more than a day after a drive-by shooting claimed the life of one person outside another venue about 21 kilometers away in the Wynwood area. Six others were injured. Some witnesses likened the scene to a war zone after a barrage of dozens of bullets sent people scurrying in the night.”This is a weekend when we should be out remembering, enjoying time with loved ones, and instead, we’re here mourning,” Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said at Monday’s press conference.”These despicable shootings in Northwest Miami-Dade and in Wynwood are shameful acts of violence that have left innocent people dead and injured,” Cava said.Police said the two shootings were unrelated.Police said Sunday’s shooting appeared to stem from rivalries between two groups but declined to refer to those groups as gangs.Businessman and TV personality Marcus Lemonis, star of “The Profit,” pledged $100,000 toward a reward fund to help authorities capture the suspects.
…
Morocco, Spain Trade Accusations of Violating Good ‘Neighborliness’
Morocco and Spain traded new accusations on Monday in a diplomatic row triggered by the Western Sahara territorial issue that led this month to a migration crisis in Spain’s enclave in northern Morocco.Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez described Morocco’s actions in appearing to relax border controls with the enclave of Ceuta as unacceptable and an assault on national borders.Morocco’s Foreign Ministry meanwhile blamed Spain for breaking “mutual trust and respect,” drawing parallels between the issues of Western Sahara and Spain’s Catalonia region, where there is an independence movement.The dispute was sparked by Spain admitting Western Sahara independence movement leader Brahim Ghali for medical treatment without informing Rabat.”It is not acceptable for a government to say that we will attack the borders, that we will open up the borders to let in 10,000 migrants in less than 48 hours … because of foreign policy disagreements,” Sanchez said at a news conference.Most migrants who crossed into Ceuta were immediately returned to Morocco, but hundreds of unaccompanied minors, who cannot be deported under Spanish law, remain.The influx was widely seen as retaliation for Spain’s decision to discreetly take in Ghali.Morocco regards Western Sahara as part of its own territory. The Algeria-backed Polisario seeks an independent state in the territory, where Spain was colonial ruler until 1975.Describing Spain as Morocco’s best ally in the European Union, Sanchez said he wanted to convey a constructive attitude toward Rabat but insisted that border security was paramount.”Remember that neighborliness … must be based on respect and confidence,” he said.Morocco’s foreign ministry said in a statement that Spain violated good neighborliness and mutual trust and that migration was not the problem.Rabat added that it has cooperated with Madrid in curbing migrant flows and in countering terrorism, which it said helped foil 82 militant attacks in Spain.The case of Ghali “revealed the hostile attitudes and harmful strategies of Spain regarding the Moroccan Sahara,” the ministry said in a statement.Spain “cannot combat separatism at home and promote it in its neighbor,” it said, noting Rabat’s support for Madrid against the Catalan independence movement.Separately, Ghali, who has been hospitalized with COVID-19 in Logrono in the Rioja region, will attend a Tuesday high court hearing remotely from the hospital, his lawyer’s office said.Morocco, which has withdrawn its ambassador to Madrid, has said it may sever ties with Spain if Ghali left the country the same way he entered without a trial.
…
At least 55 Killed in Eastern Congo Massacres, UN Says
At least 55 people were killed overnight in two attacks on villages in eastern Congo, the United Nations said on Monday, in potentially the worst night of violence the area has seen in at least four years.The army and a local civil rights group blamed the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamist armed group, for raiding the village of Tchabi and a camp for displaced people near Boga, another village. Both are close to the border of Uganda.Houses were burned and civilians abducted, the U.N. office for humanitarian affairs said in a statement.Albert Basegu, the head of a civil rights group in Boga, told Reuters by telephone that he had been alerted to the attack by the sound of cries at a neighbor’s house.”When I got there I found that the attackers had already killed an Anglican pastor and his daughter was also seriously wounded,” Basegu said.The Kivu Security Tracker (KST), which has mapped unrest in restive eastern Congo since June 2017, said on Twitter the wife of a local chief was among the dead. It did not attribute blame for the killings.”It’s the deadliest day ever recorded by the KST,” said Pierre Boisselet, the research group’s coordinator.The ADF is believed to have killed more than 850 people in 2020, according to the United Nations, in a spate of reprisal attacks on civilians after the army began operations against it the year before.In March, the United States labeled the ADF a foreign terrorist organization. The group has in the past proclaimed allegiance to Islamic State, although the United Nations says evidence linking it to other Islamist militant networks is scant.President Felix Tshisekedi declared a state of siege in Congo’s North Kivu and Ituri provinces on May 1 in an attempt to curb increasing attacks by militant groups.Uganda announced earlier this month that it had agreed to share intelligence and coordinate operations against the rebels but that it would not be deploying troops in Congo.
…
Russia’s Navalny Asks Court to End Prison Security Checks
Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny asked a court Monday to halt the hourly nighttime checks he has been subjected to in his penal colony. Speaking to the court in a video link from prison, Navalny charged that he has done nothing that would warrant the authorities’ decision to designate him as a flight risk, which has resulted in the checks. “I just want them to stop coming to me and waking me up at nighttime,” he told the judge in remarks that were broadcast by the independent Dozhd TV. “What did I do: Did I climb the fence? Did I dig up an underpass? Or was I wringing a pistol from someone? Just explain why they named me a flight risk!”He argued that the hourly nighttime checks “effectively amount to torture,” telling the judge that “you would go mad in a week” if subjected to such regular wake-ups.The court later adjourned the hearing until Wednesday.Navalny, the most determined political foe of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was arrested in January upon his return from Germany, where he had spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin — accusations that Russian officials reject.In February, he was handed a 2 1/2-year sentence for violating terms of a suspended sentence stemming from a 2014 embezzlement conviction, which he says was politically motivated.He went on a 24-day hunger strike in prison to protest the lack of medical treatment for severe back pain and numbness in his legs, ending it last month after getting the medical attention he demanded.While he still was on hunger strike, Navalny was moved from a penal colony east of Moscow, where he was serving his sentence, to the hospital ward of another prison in Vladimir, a city 180 kilometers (110 miles) east of the capital. He remains at that prison, where he said the nighttime checks continued, although they were less intrusive.With Navalny in prison, prosecutors have asked a Moscow court to designate his Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his network of regional offices as extremist groups. A bill, which has sailed quickly through the Kremlin-controlled lower house of Russian parliament, bars members, donors and supporters of extremist groups from seeking public office.The parallel moves have been widely seen as an attempt to keep any of Navalny’s associates from running in September’s parliamentary election.
…
Pakistani TV Talk Show Host Taken Off Air Allegedly for Criticizing Military
A popular television political talk show host in Pakistan said Monday his employer had removed him from the job for his criticism of the country’s powerful military.
“Nothing new for me. I was banned twice in the past. Lost jobs twice,” Hamid Mir, host of the Capital Talk political show on the private Geo News channel, wrote on Twitter.
The announcement comes just days after Mir delivered a speech, critical of the army, at a rally in Islamabad in support of fellow journalist Asad Ali Toor, who was beaten by unidentified assailants in his apartment in the Pakistani capital last week.
Geo News did not issue any statement in support of Mir’s claims. Officials at the network did not respond to VOA’s query about the issue.
“Survived assassination attempts but cannot stop raising voice for the rights given in the constitution. This time, I am ready for any consequences and ready to go at any extent because they are threatening my family,” Mir alleged in his tweet, without naming any individual or Pakistani institution. Nothing new for me.I was banned twice in the past.Lost jobs twice.Survived assassination attempts but cannot stop raising voice for the rights given in the constitution.This time I m ready for any consequences and ready to go at any extent because they are threatening my family. https://t.co/82y1WdrP5S— Hamid Mir (@HamidMirPAK) May 31, 2021
It was not immediately clear whether the television station had banned Mir under pressure from any Pakistani institution. Local journalists’ groups demanded an explanation from the news network’s runners.
Information Minister Fawad Hussain Chaudhry wrote in the Urdu language on Twitter that the government had nothing to do with the working of any broadcast groups, saying all of them are functioning under relevant constitutional clauses and independently decide to air their programs and appoint teams for them. Mir was shot in 2014 in the southern Pakistani port city of Karachi and seriously wounded. He and his family at the time had blamed the country’s prime spy agency, ISI, for plotting the attack, charges officials vehemently denied. FILE – Pakistani journalists chant slogans during a protest against the attack on political talk show host Hamid Mir, outside the press club in Karachi, April 20, 2014.
Local and international press freedom advocates often accuse the Pakistani military and its spy agencies of intimidating and orchestrating attacks on journalists, charges army officials and the government reject as unfounded.
The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan condemned the decision to take Mir off the air after “he spoke fervidly” against curbs on freedom of expression in the country.
“We demand that Mir be allowed to resume his professional duties immediately and the threats against him taken seriously and addressed,” the watchdog wrote on Twitter.
Amnesty International also stressed in a statement that censorship, harassment and physical violence must not be the price journalists pay to do their jobs. It wrote on Twitter that “the punitive action” against Mir “severely undermines the responsibility media outlets and authorities have to protect free speech in an already repressive environment.”
Toor told police his attackers had identified themselves as ISI operatives before assaulting him. Chaudhry and the spy agency rejected the charges as baseless and politically motivated. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, and no arrests have been made.
…
Amid France’s Africa Reset, Old Ties Underscore Challenge of Breaking With Past
After outlining a fresh chapter in French-African relations, with calls for massive economic support for Africa and visits to Rwanda and South Africa last week, President Emmanuel Macron is back home to confront familiar and thorny problems in France’s former colonies, underscoring the challenges of breaking with the past.At front and center is Mali, buffeted by its fifth coup since independence from Paris in 1960 — and the second in less than a year. To the east, Chad is also unsettled by a controversial political transition, following the April death of longstanding leader Idriss Deby. Both countries are key allies in France’s counter-terrorism operation in the Sahel.Russians and Malian flags are waved by protesters in Bamako, Mali, during a demonstration against French influence in the country on May 27, 2021.Farther south, Paris fears Russia’s growing influence in the Central African Republic — among that of other newer foreign powers — including Moscow’s alleged role in fueling anti-French sentiments.Taken together, some analysts say, these developments, combined with France’s legacy in Africa — and, in some cases, Macron’s own actions — may make it harder to deliver on his promises of change.“Emmanuel Macron is trapped in a contradictory position,” Africa specialist Antoine Glaser told French television station TV5 Monde.“He wants to get out of FrancAfrique by turning to anglophone countries like Rwanda and South Africa,” he said, referring to the tangle web of business and political interests with France’s former colonies, “but he’s bogged down in the francophone countries.”Moving forward, looking backMacron states otherwise, as he looks for new ways and new places to exert French influence on the continent. At a May summit in Paris, he called on richer countries to invest massively in Africa’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and echoed Washington’s call for a patent waiver on COVID-19 vaccines — calls he reiterated during his visit to South Africa on Friday. COVID-19 is the disease caused by the virus.The French leader also organized a special donors’ conference on Sudan — another country outside Paris’ traditional sphere of influence — and announced plans to cancel Khartoum’s $5 billion bilateral debt.Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore, left, Chad President Idriss Deby, center, and France President Emmanuel Macron arrive for a picture during the G5 Sahel summit on June 30, 2020, in Nouakchott, Mauritania.The calls fit into Macron’s broader reset of relations with the continent since taking office in 2017. Visiting Burkina Faso later that year, he promised to return plundered artifacts to former colonies, a pledge several other European governments have since echoed.“For sure, colonialization has left a strong imprint,” Macron told the weekly Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper, in a lengthy interview published Sunday. “But I also told young people in Ouagadougou (in 2017) that today’s problems aren’t linked to colonialism, they’re more caused by bad governance by some, and corruption by others. These are African subjects, and relations with France should not exonerate leaders from their own responsibilities.” Ouagadougou is the capital of Burkina Faso.Yet Macron has also gone further than his predecessors in acknowledging France’s blame for past injustices. He set up fact-finding commissions to examine Paris’ role in Algeria’s war of independence and in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide. While both reports were critical, Macron ruled out official apologies.Still, he has followed some of the reconciliatory actions recommended by the Algeria commission. And in Kigali on Thursday, he turned the problem around, asking Rwandans instead to forgive France for its role in the mass killings, while saying France had not been an accomplice in them.”His words were something more valuable than an apology. They were the truth,” Rwandan President Paul Kagame said of Macron’s speech, calling it “an act of tremendous courage.”French President Emmanuel Macron, center, and his wife Brigitte Macron, left, welcome Chadian Prime Minister Albert Pahimi Padacke, right, for a dinner with leaders of African states, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, May 17, 2021.Continuation or break?Yet in Rwanda and elsewhere, Macron’s actions have also drawn controversy—reflecting, some analysts say, a continuation rather than a break with the past. Some question Macron’s visit to Kigali, for example, noting its increasingly authoritarian leader.In Chad, where Macron was the only Western leader to attend Deby’s funeral, Paris appeared to initially endorse the military council that took over after Deby’s death, and which is headed by his son. While the body has promised eventual elections, some opposition activists claim its existence amounts to an effective coup d’etat.Days later, Macron appeared to backtrack, saying France supported a democratic and inclusive transition and not a “succession plan.”“For too long, France’s view remained short-sighted and purely military: Chad was no more than a provider of troops for regional wars,” Chad expert Jerome Tubiana wrote in Foreign Policy magazine.Deby’s death, he added, was a potential game changer Paris should seize.“If France renews with a new junta the same deal it had with Deby — fighters in exchange for political, financial, and military backing — it will miss that long-awaited turning point when democratic change in Chad could actually become a reality,” he added.In Mali, by contrast, France and the European Union have denounced the country’s latest coup as “unacceptable.” Macron warned West African leaders they could not support a country without “democratic legitimacy or transition,” he told Le Journal du Dimanche, threatening to pull French troops from the country if it tipped to “radical Islamism.”The president has long floated an eventual drawdown of France’s 5,100-strong counter-insurgency operation in the Sahel, hoping also to beef up other European forces in the region, to help shoulder the fight.But analyst Glaser believes Mali’s latest military takeover could make it harder, not easier, to fulfill that goal.“This situation puts him in a delicate position,” Glaser said of Macron. “He wants to get out of FrancAfrique and keeps saying … that the solution in Africa is political, not military. So, when Mali faces major problems politically, his whole strategy is undermined.”
…
Brazil to Host Copa America as Pandemic-Hit Argentina Withdraws
Next month’s Copa America soccer tournament will take place in Brazil, the South American Football Confederation (CONMEBOL) said on Monday, as it thanked President Jair Bolsonaro for stepping in after original host Argentina pulled out after a surge of COVID-19 cases.
The surprise decision, which relocates the competition from one South American coronavirus hot spot to another, means the oldest international tournament in the world will kick off as planned on June 13, with the final on July 10.
“The Brazilian government has shown agility and decisive thinking at a crucial moment for South American football,” CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez said in a statement.
“Brazil is in a time of stability, it has proven infrastructure and recent experience in hosting a tournament of this magnitude.”
Brazil hosted the Copa America in 2019 and the World Cup in 2014.
The decision is a boost for Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain who has railed against lockdowns and urged Brazilians to return to normal life.
In a separate tweet, CONMEBOL thanked Bolsonaro for “opening the country’s doors to what is now the safest sporting event in the world.”
The president’s office directed questions to the sport department at the Ministry of Citizenship, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
460,000 Dead
More than 460,000 people have died from COVID-19 in Brazil, the second highest number in the world after the United States, and the vaccination roll-out has stuttered. But Argentina is struggling with a recent spike. According to a Reuters tally, Brazil has reported 204 infections per 100,000 people in the last seven days, compared to 484 per 100,000 in Argentina.
Large protests took place across Brazil on Saturday against Bolsonaro’s handling of the pandemic.
Huge social demos also shook Brazil during the 2013 Confederations Cup but vice president Hamilton Mourao told reporters in Brasilia he did not expect more demonstrations during the Copa America and said he thought Brazil was a “less risky” choice than Argentina. With no fans expected to attend, the risk was diminished, he said.
But many others in Brazil, where soccer is a national obsession, were outraged by the decision.
“The authorities act as if Brazil had advanced vaccination as in the United States. It will be difficult to cheer for the national team,” prominent journalist Guga Chacra wrote in a tweet.
The CONMEBOL announcement comes less than 24 hours after Argentina said its outbreak meant it could no longer host.
This year’s Copa America was to be the first featuring joint hosts, but Colombia was removed as co-host on May 20 after a wave of protests demanding social and economic change spread across the country.
CONMEBOL hoped Argentina could then host all 28 games or share them with South American neighbors.
Organizers had been reluctant to cancel the lucrative tournament. The last Copa America, held in Brazil in 2019, brought in $118 million in revenue.
Although no decision has yet been made on venues, many of the stadiums Brazil built or reformed for the 2014 World Cup could be candidates to host matches, with the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro or the Mane Garrincha stadium in the capital Brasilia possible locations.
One source told Reuters that venues in Brasilia, Natal, Manaus and Cuiaba will be used. CONMEBOL said it would reveal the host cities “in the coming hours.”
The last-minute decision also throws up some complicated questions for the Brazilian national federation (CBF). The Brazilian league was not due to be halted for the Copa America and at least 70 league games are scheduled to be played during the month-long tournament.
News reports in Brazil said Flamengo will ask the CBF to suspend the league for the duration of the Copa.
…
Attacks on Election Offices in Nigeria Raise Concerns
Nigerian political observers are expressing concern over the many attacks on the facilities of Nigeria’s electoral body – the Independent National Electoral Commission, or INEC. INEC officials say the commission has recorded at least 42 attacks on its facilities since the last polls in 2019.
Nine attacks occurred in 2019 and 21 others took place last year. But in the last four weeks, 12 more offices of the commission have either been set ablaze or vandalized.
The latest incident occurred Sunday in southeastern Imo state. Ballot boxes, voting cubicles, power generators and utility vehicles were destroyed.
Election officials are evaluating the extent of the damage but say an initial assessment shows it could significantly affect their ability to conduct credible elections in the affected places.
Political analysts like Jibrin Ibrahim, a senior fellow at the Center for Democracy and Development, agree that attacks on facilities coupled with Nigeria’s general security challenges and separatist calls in two areas will affect polls.
“When some people are saying, ‘We want out of the nation,’ others are saying let’s just vote and keep the nation, it becomes a difficult context to ensure that there’s a level playing ground for election,” Ibrahim said.
Officials blame unidentified armed groups and the separatist group Indigenous People of Biafra, or IPOB, for the latest attacks. IPOB advocates for an independent state in a part of Nigeria that tried to break away more than 50 years ago.
The government has not commented on the attacks.
In recent months, Nigeria has seen an escalation in violence by armed criminal groups, as well as the rising profile of IPOB and another separatist movement in southwestern Nigeria.
But political analyst and co-founder Youth Hub Africa Rotimi Olawale says insecurities can only delay elections but not hinder them.
“I am assured that the 2023 general elections will hold as scheduled. In 2019, the election was moved for a couple of weeks to allow for better management of the security architecture in the northeastern part of Nigeria. At the very worst-case scenario, I suspect that the elections in 2023 might also be moved for a few weeks,” Olawale said.
Last week, INEC chief Mahmood Yakubu declared attacks on election offices a national emergency and met with top security chiefs to address the problem.
At a meeting Thursday, Nigerian security units pledged to support the commission by beefing up security around election offices.
However, expert Ezenwa Nwagwu says the attacks are politically driven and will likely escalate before the next polls.
“The Nigerian political elite [is] not innovative. They have not found any other means of negotiating for power except violence. You’re going to see that towards next year, there will be the escalation of this violence,” Nwagwu said.
INEC is approaching a major gubernatorial election, set for this November. Next month, the commission will begin a voter registration process for Nigeria’s general polls in 2023.
Experts say the security situation will determine both turnout and the credibility of the process.
…
Cameroon Investigates Missing $335 Million in COVID Funds
Cameroon rights groups, opposition parties and local media are asking the government to publish its findings after most of a $335 million loan from the IMF could not be accounted for. At least 15 officials have appeared before commissions of investigation.
A government statement read on Cameroon state media Monday calls on civilians to remain calm as investigations on missing funds continue. The statement from government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi states that justice will take its course.
The statement comes after Cameroon rights groups and opposition asked the government to explain what happened to about $335 million loaned by the International Monetary Fund to fight COVID-19. Cameroon says within the past week, 15 ministers have appeared at the audit bench of the Supreme Court and a special criminal tribunal to account for the funds. Joseph Lavoisier Tsapy is legal adviser to the opposition Social Democratic Front Party and a member of the Cameroon Human Rights League. Tsapy says the Cameroon Special Criminal Tribunal should have ordered their arrest after the audit bench of the Supreme Court found out that some ministers stole COVID-19 funds. He says the money should have been invested to save lives and assist suffering people. He says he wants to make it clear that government ministers in Cameroon do not have immunity like lawmakers. In June 2020, SDF lawmakers complained that the awarding of COVID-19 contracts did not respect procurement procedures and gave room for massive corruption. Local media like Equinox Radio and TV, Roya FM reported gross cases of embezzlement.
In one case, the Ministry of Scientific Research received $9 million to produce the drug chloroquine. The ministry instead bought chloroquine amounting to 30 percent of the funds from China. Other cases involve overbilling and failure to render services or provide supplies after payment. André Luther Meka speaks for the ruling CPDM party, to which all of the ministers called up for questioning belong.
Meka says Cameroonians should stop asking for ministers to either be punished or to refund COVID-19 funds. He says Cameroon considers all suspects innocent until found guilty by the law courts. He says Cameroon President Paul Biya has a strong political will to punish everyone who has either mismanaged, embezzled or siphoned state money. Angelbert Lebong is a member of the Cameroon Civil Society. He says President Biya should explain to the Cameroonian people how his government has managed the COVID-19 funds. FILE – Cameroon President Paul Biya attends the Paris Peace Forum, France, Nov. 12, 2019.He says Biya should for once speak out against embezzlement and publicly condemn his collaborators who have stolen COVID-19 funds. He says Cameroon has more serious life-threatening issues to handle than the heavily publicized receptions Biya gives diplomats in his office. Last month, Human Rights Watch urged the IMF to ask Cameroon to ensure independent and credible enquiry on the management of COVID-19 funds before approving a third loan. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in Cameroon in March 2020, the IMF has approved two emergency loans to the central African state totaling $382 million.
…
Pakistan’s COVID-19 Positivity Rate Dips, But ‘We Aren’t Out of the Woods’, Official Tells VOA
Pakistan reported Monday that the national coronavirus positivity rate had remained well below 5% over the past week, with the country’s top health official attributing the declining trend to “effective” government policies, including restrictions on public movement and effective screening of international travelers.Officials recorded 43 deaths and detected more than 2,100 new cases in the last 24 hours, raising the national tally of deaths to nearly 21,000 and infections to more than 921,000 since the pandemic hit the South Asian nation early last year.The national positivity ratio decreased to just over 4% from more than 11% a couple of weeks ago.Last week, health authorities reported the detection of the first case of a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus which has caused record infections and deaths in neighboring India, threatening Pakistan’s gains against the disease.But Faisal Sultan, an infectious disease physician who is also special assistant to the prime minister on national health services, told VOA that an “effective” screening system for international travelers and other measures to deal with the health crisis have so far enabled the country to keep the situation under control in a country of about 220 million.“I would say we are not out of the woods yet, but it seems at this point that I don’t foresee an India-like situation,” Sultan, who is directing all health-related interventions and measures against the pandemic, told VOA in a detailed interview at his office in Islamabad.People queue to receive the first shot of the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine at a vaccination center in Karachi, Pakistan, May 8, 2021.“We really do think that to reach our targets, we need to go over the 500,000 a day mark, perhaps the 600,000 a day mark. So, I think that we really need to ramp up our vaccinations.”Sultan said government surveys have found that “at least two-thirds” of the Pakistani population is willing to get vaccinated.“So, the vaccine centers will have to go close to their homes. It will have to be easy and accessible. It will have to be so easy that in the United States, even normal retail pharmacies were allowed to do the vaccination,” he said.Sultan said the government really needed “to get at least a quarter of its population” in dense urban areas vaccinated before Pakistan “can even talk about any relaxation” in coronavirus-related restrictions, including asking those inoculated against the disease to remove their masks.Health care systemPrime Minister Imran Khan’s government, which took office in August 2018, has from the outset focused on the country’s underfunded and largely neglected national health care system.The focus, Sultan noted, enabled the government to timely position itself to combat the pandemic, despite critical economic challenges facing Pakistan.“We added over 7,000 oxygenated beds into the health care system across Pakistan. The second expansion that was done is even more important — a 66% increase in the medical oxygen capacity was done. Had we not done that, we would have faced a crisis. We came to about 90% capacity in the ongoing third wave,” Sultan explained.A vendor refills oxygen cylinders which will supply private hospitals for COVID-19 patients, in Karachi, Pakistan, April 26, 2021.Pakistan initially received vaccine donations from close ally China to launch the national vaccination drive in early March before purchasing large quantities of vaccine doses to ensure supplies for the national campaign.“They came out, gifted us the first lot, although we had told them we can pay for it. But they insisted. I think it speaks volumes about the level of trust and cooperation between China and Pakistan,” Sultan said.The Pakistani government is using the Chinese-made Sinovac, Sinopharm and CanSino vaccines. It has also received just over a million doses of AstraZeneca under a United Nations-backed program for poor nations, known as COVAX.Pakistani officials say they are in conversations with several suppliers, and the government will have procured about 20 million additional vaccine doses by end of July.“The only challenge is, in an environment where everybody wants the vaccine, to have a steady supply so that you don’t run out of it. This is a challenge that will stay for the rest of the world,” Sultan said, noting that Pakistan was in talks with several suppliers to secure enough doses to sustain domestic supplies.Beijing has also trained Pakistani staff and established a facility at Islamabad’s National Health Institute, where the one-dose CanSino vaccine is being filled from the concentrate provided by China. Sultan noted that the rare facility has the capacity to roll out about 3 million doses of CanSino a month to help boost the vaccination drive.“It may be a small step for us that we have started filling the vaccine from concentrate. But it is a vital step toward actually manufacturing the vaccine in Pakistan, and I think it may take a few months,” he said.
…
Turkish Agents Capture Nephew of US-Based Cleric Overseas
Turkish agents have captured a nephew of U.S.-based Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen in an overseas operation and have brought him to Turkey where he faces prosecution, Turkey’s state-run news agency said Monday.Selahaddin Gulen, who was wanted in Turkey on charges of membership in a terror organization, was seized in an operation by Turkey’s national spy agency MIT, the Anadolu agency reported. The report did not say where he was seized or when he was returned to Turkey. Gulen’s nephew, however, was believed to be residing in Kenya.His case is the latest in a series of forced repatriation of people affiliated with Gulen’s movement, which the Turkish government blames for a failed coup attempt in 2016. Gulen, a former ally of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who now lives in exile in Pennsylvania, has rejected the accusations of involvement in the coup attempt.Turkey has designated his network a terrorist group, which it has named the Fethullahist Terror Organization, or FETO.Erdogan announced earlier in May that a prominent member of Gulen’s network had been captured but did not provide details.On July 15, 2016, factions within the Turkish military used tanks, warplanes and helicopters in an attempt to overthrow Erdogan. Fighter jets bombed parliament and other spots in Turkey’s capital. Heeding a call by the president, thousands took to the streets to stop the coup.A total of 251 people were killed and around 2,200 others were wounded. Around 35 alleged coup plotters were also killed.
…
Turkey’s Erdogan Under Renewed Pressure Following Mafia Boss Accusations
The Turkish government is facing accusations of arming and funding jihadists in Syria. The allegations are just the latest by an exiled mafia boss in a weekly YouTube broadcast that are putting the Turkish president in an increasingly tight spot.
Among the many allegations being spread by Sedat Peker on YouTube is one that allegedly implicates the Turkish government of arming and buying oil from Syrian jihadists. In one of his broadcasts Peker explains in detail how key aides of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ran the scheme.
Peker, who analysts say once enjoyed close ties to Turkey’s rulers, started broadcasting weekly Sunday videos on a YouTube channel, alleging government misdeeds after he was forced to flee the country.
Analyst Atilla Yesilada says the mafia boss has a growing audience.
“It is huge. He is easily attracting audiences in excess of four and five million per video. And everything he says is scrutinized in the opposition channels. So, I would say everyone knows about what he is saying. Obviously, the most damaging is him opening the 1990s file, the extrajudicial killings,” Yesilada said.
Peker alleges former interior minister Mehmet Aga was the head of a shadowy organization known as the “deep state,” which is said to have been responsible for a series of assassinations of prominent journalists dating back to the 1990s. Aga is closely linked to Erdogan, and his son Tolga is a parliamentary deputy for the ruling AKP, Turkey’s ruling party. FILE – A photo taken May 26, 2021, in Istanbul, Turkey, shows a YouTube broadcast by exiled mob boss Sedat Peker on a mobile phone.Aga has denied the allegations. Erol Onderoglu of Reporters Without Borders says there is a need for government transparency.
“This should be part of a parliamentary investigation first, but I think that it will never be possible without the Turkish government naming some state actors in this period. So, transparency today should calm public opinion today and show respect to victims’ families,” Onderoglu said.
But Erdogan is dismissing the allegations.
Speaking to his party’s deputies, the Turkish president claimed the accusations are part of an international conspiracy to oust him.
But Peker’s allegations continue, accusing the son of Erdogan’s close confidant, former prime minister Binali Yildirim, of cocaine smuggling, and turning Turkey into one of the biggest hubs for importing and distributing drugs into Europe. Yildirim dismissed the allegations.
Analysts point out Erdogan is experienced at weathering political storms. But analyst Yesilada says, unlike in the past, Turkey is in the midst of an economic crisis and record-low opinion poll ratings for Erdogan.
“These are all unmistakable signs of Armageddon for Erdogan approaching. It will really take a miracle to repair the reputational damage that is caused by the Peker videos. The picture that emerges is that this is a government set for personal benefit and for the benefit of cronies and [one that] has completely lost interest in the voters,” Yesilada said.
Peker is promising more YouTube videos that he says will share more intimate secrets he claims he learned from spending two decades in the inner circles of the ruling party.
…
UNICEF Says Malnutrition Spikes for Haiti Kids Amid Pandemic
Severe acute childhood malnutrition is expected to more than double this year in Haiti as the country struggles with the coronavirus pandemic, a spike in violence and dwindling resources, a UNICEF report said Monday.
More than 86,000 children under age 5 could be affected, compared with 41,000 reported last year, said Jean Gough, UNICEF’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean.
“I was saddened to see so many children suffering from malnutrition,” she said after a weeklong visit to Haiti. “Some will not recover unless they receive treatment on time.”
Severe acute malnutrition is considered a life-threatening condition.
In a slightly less dangerous category, acute malnutrition in kids younger than 5 in Haiti has risen 61%, with some 217,000 children expected to suffer from it this year, compared with 134,000 last year.
Overall, UNICEF said, about 4.4 million of Haiti’s more than 11 million inhabitants lack sufficient food, including 1.9 million children.
Gough told The Associated Press during a recent visit to a hospital in the southern city of Les Cayes that UNICEF has only a one-month supply left of a special food paste given to children in need and is seeking $3 million by the end of June.
Officials said the pandemic also has disrupted health services, with childhood immunization rates dropping from 28% to 44%, depending on the vaccine. The decrease has led to a rise in diphtheria cases as health workers brace for an expected measles outbreak this year.
UNICEF noted that unvaccinated children also are more likely to die from malnutrition.
Lamir Samedi, a nurse who works at a community health center in the southern town of Saint-Jean-du-Sud, said the target was to vaccinate 80% of children in the area, but they had yet to reach 50%.
Among the children hospitalized is 11-month-old Denise Joseph, who lay quietly in a crib in Les Cayes after being diagnosed with tuberculosis two weeks ago.
“She never eats,” said her grandmother, Marie-Rose Emile, who is caring for the infant since her mother also is ill. Emile is struggling to provide for the baby, saying she has barely harvested any beans, corn or potatoes this year.
Gough, the UNICEF official, said she was discouraged by the dismal numbers of malnutrition and drop in childhood immunizations. She said more outreach services are needed because not enough people are visiting community health centers.
Among those visiting a health center for the first time was 27-year-old Franceline Mileon, who brought her young child after hearing a health official with a bullhorn in her neighborhood announcing that a vaccination program had begun. She sat on a bench, coddling her baby, as she waited for a nurse to weigh her.
Overall, UNICEF said it needs nearly $49 million this year to meet humanitarian needs in Haiti, adding that little of that amount has been pledged. The agency $5.2 million of that amount would go toward nutrition and $4.9 million for health, including childhood immunizations.
…
Polls Open in Somaliland’s Local and Parliamentary Elections
Polling stations have opened in the self-proclaimed republic of Somaliland as voters go to the polls to elect their parliamentary and local representatives. Long queues were reported in the early hours of Monday in the capital Hargeisa. Some of the voters have been queuing up to two hours prior to the opening of polling stations at 7:00 a.m. local time. The President of Somaliland Muse Bihi Abdi told VOA Somali that the election should be conducted in a peaceful manner.President Muse Bihi Abdi speaks to the media after casting his vote in the presidential election in Hargeisa, in the semi-autonomous region of Somaliland, in Somalia, Nov. 13, 2017.“If one has a dispute when the election passes, the argument should be calm and civil,” he said. “You should not undermine the interest of the nation. Complain peacefully, the court is open.” More than 1 million people have registered to vote, a record in Somaliland. The previous presidential election in November 2017 recorded just over 700,000 registered voters, according to government figures. Somaliland held six popular elections, and three presidential elections since 2003. But this will be only the second time that Somaliland holds parliamentary elections. The current members of parliament were elected in 2005, but quotas, allocation of seats, prioritizing presidential, electoral laws have delayed parliamentary elections multiple times, observers say. Among those voting today is a 17-year-old first time voter Amira Ahmed. “This will be the first time I get to participate in Somaliland national elections,” she told VOA. “I’m very happy.” Another voter, Mustafe Mohamed Abdullahi, said he received a text message from the election commission the day before, reminding him where he has registered to vote. “They told me that I got my ballot in Badda As [a neighborhood in Hargeisa]. They said I should cast my vote there as a citizen. So, I’m ready,” he said. In the parliament, there are 246 candidates from the three registered political parties vying for the 82- seat House of Representatives. Rights activists say 13 female candidates are participating in the parliamentary elections alone in a broader effort to increase women’s representation. There is just one female lawmaker in the current parliament. Civil rights activist and former Somaliland representative to the United Kingdom Ayan Mahamoud has been advocating for the candidates from the marginalized minority Gaboye communities, and women. According to a report published by the Minority Rights Group International, an advocacy group focusing on global minority rights, the Gaboye “have traditionally been considered distinct and lower-caste groups.” “The two most pressing issues are rights of minority groups such as Gaboye communities and women,” she told VOA. “There’s one Somaliland woman representative now, but fortunately we have 13 standing. If they are voted in at least, we will have 10 %.” The Gaboye community has no representation in current parliament, Mahamoud says. She has been urging voters to correct that record. “It’s only fair and just to break with the horrible past and stigmatization of our Gaboye communities,” she said. “Democracy is about equality and fairness and not only about the will of the majority.” The Somaliland National Electoral Commission increased the number of polling stations to 2,709 from 1,642 in 2017 due to the expected higher turnout.The increase in the number of registered voters have been attributed to the participation of youth in the election. This is also the first time in Somaliland that two elections — parliament and local councilors — take place at the same time. The voting also coincides with two historic milestones in Somaliland. It was 20 years ago Monday when Somaliland adopted the constitution that enshrines the multiparty democratic system. Also, this month, Somaliland commemorated 30 years since declaring secession from the rest of Somalia. Despite holding democratic elections, Somaliland failed to gain international recognition as an independent state. But this did not stop the presence of international observers. There are 103 international election observers who have arrived to witnesses the election proceedings, President Abdi said. They include observers from Europe and Africa, among them the former President of Sierra Leone Ernest Bai Koroma.H.E. former President of Sierra Leone Ernest Bai Koroma on election preparedness tour in Hargeisa today. #Somalilandelection2021#Somalilandis30yearspic.twitter.com/jyK6w0NHaI— John Githongo (@johngithongo) May 30, 2021Official results could take days to be announced.
…
UN Urges Independent Probe as Colombia Unrest Death Toll Rises
Colombia’s government resumed negotiations with demonstrators to end more than a month of protests Sunday, as the UN called for an independent investigation after at least 13 people died in clashes in the city of Cali. President Ivan Duque’s team and some of the demonstration representatives resumed talks in Bogota after nearly a week’s pause. But a resolution seemed far off, as the protesters denounced the Duque administration’s “complicit silence” in the face of “excessive” use of force by law enforcement. The government responded that an agreement could be reached once the blockades choking up the country’s transport infrastructure are lifted. In just over a month of unrest, 59 people have died across Colombia according to official data, with more than 2,300 civilians and uniformed personnel injured. The NGO Human Rights Watch says it has “credible reports” of at least 63 deaths nationwide. The crackdown by the armed forces on the anti-government protests has drawn international condemnation, and on Sunday UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet voiced “deep concern” over the ongoing violence. Cali deathsClashes in Cali, Colombia’s third-largest city and one of the major centers of the protests, pitted police against armed civilians late Friday, leaving 13 dead, according to officials. Calling for an investigation, Bachelet’s office said it had received reports that 14 people had been killed, and that 98 people were injured, 54 of them by firearms. It added it had been told that armed individuals, including an off-duty judicial police officer, had opened fire on demonstrators, journalists covering the protests, and passers-by.A man (L) against the national strike faces a man who supports it, during a demonstration in opposition to road blockades and violence, after a month of national protests, in Bogota, on May 30, 2021.The policeman was subsequently beaten to death by a crowd, it said, and in parts of Cali civilians were seen firing shots at demonstrators as police looked on. A witness to the troubles in the neighborhood of Melendez on Friday told AFP a group was marking the one-month anniversary of the protests when “shots rang out.” “They started massacring people,” said the 22-year-old, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, and claimed the shots came from five people in civilian clothes “hiding behind the trees.” “It is essential that all those who are reportedly involved in causing injury or death, including state officials, are subject to prompt, effective, independent, impartial and transparent investigations,” Bachelet said in a statement, calling for those responsible to be held accountable. The police said in a statement it would investigate claims that its members were “permissive with the actions of armed civilians.” In Colombia, the police fall under the command of the military. Bachelet’s office also said it had received information of at least 30 people arrested in Cali since Friday, and highlighted concerns about the whereabouts of some of them. “The fair trial and due process rights of those detained need to be ensured,” the commissioner said. ‘Dousing fire with gasoline’ On Saturday, Duque was booed by a crowd as he appeared in public in Cali. The president, who was there Friday to Sunday and chaired a security meeting, had ordered more than 1,100 soldiers to be deployed to the western city. Some in Cali’s poorer neighborhoods told AFP the military deployment to their city made them more fearful, not less. “If something happens, we cannot call the police because they are the ones who are killing,” said Lina Gallegas, a 31-year-old community activist. Luis Felipe Vega, a political scientist at Javeriana University, likened the deployment to “putting out a fire with gasoline.” Cali security secretary Carlos Rojas described scenes in the south of the city as “almost an urban war.” In Cali, as across the country, poverty, joblessness, inequality and the fallout from the coronavirus epidemic have sparked widespread anger and resentment. The protests, which began on April 28, were initially against a proposed tax increase Colombians said would leave them poorer even as they struggled with pandemic-related losses of income. The proposal was quickly withdrawn, but the protests morphed into a wider denunciation of the government and the armed forces. Blockades burning Barricades have been kept burning countrywide and blocked dozens of key roads, causing shortages of many products. According to authorities, some 87 blockades have been set up throughout the country, mainly in the vicinity of Cali. Duque has deployed 7,000 troops across the country to help clear and patrol the blockaded roads. Over the weekend white-clad demonstrators took to the streets of Bogota, Medellin and other cities to demand an end to the protests and blockades. “Today we go out peacefully to demand an end to the strike… all the road closures and blockades are affecting the national economy and are generating more poverty,” Bernardo Henao, a 63-year-old lawyer and cattle rancher, told AFP at one of the gatherings. Colombia is also struggling to contain the coronavirus situation in the country. On Saturday it reported a record daily coronavirus death toll of 540.
…