The school year in Cameroon starts Monday with hundreds of schools in the troubled western regions reopening their doors for the first time in three to five years. Anglophone separatists previously used threats to keep the schools closed, but some rebels, for the first time, are saying they should be spared from the conflict.Cameroon’s government said Monday that several hundred schools reopened in its restive English speaking North West and South West regions. Most schools in the regions have been shut down for three to five years, since the start of a separatist conflict to carve out an English-speaking state from Cameroon and its French-speaking majority. Ngida Lawrence Che is the most senior government official in Nkambe, a western district. He says at least half a dozen schools that were sealed by separatists in the 17 villages that make up Nkambe have reopened.Cameroon, Nigeria Investigate Arms Traffickers Accused of Supplying Weapons to SeparatistsCameroon’s military said Thursday that some of the 40 arms traffickers arrested by police in Nigeria last week are regular suppliers of weapons to rebel groups in Cameroon”The turnout in these schools is so encouraging. Every single village of the sub division can boast of functioning schools,” said Che. “This time around, our populations are more than ever before determined that these schools must go operational. Proof is that the populations of these areas under the leadership of their traditional and religious authorities came out to clear the school campuses.”The government reports that separatists attacked or set fire to more than 200 schools between 2017 and 2019, and nearly all schools in the Northwest and Southwest regions were shut down. Teachers and school children escaped to safer localities.Capo Daniel is defense chief of staff for the Ambazonia Defense Forces, or the ADF, said to be the largest separatist group in Cameroon. He says ADF has also, for the first time in 5 years, given instructions for schools to reopen.”The future independent state of Ambazonia will not be governed by uneducated people,” Capo said. “That is why it is very important for us to institute this alternative educational system even in the middle of our struggle for separation from Cameroon.”Capo however warned government troops not to set foot on any school campus in the restive regions. He said fighters have been instructed to make sure the national anthem of Cameroon is not sung in English-speaking schools. Capo said any school that fails to respect ADF orders will be closed, and their teachers and students will be punished.Asheri Kilo is the secretary of state to Cameroon’s minister of education. She says children in areas where fighters still prohibit education should be admitted in schools in safer areas. She says the government will continue to deploy troops to make sure that all Cameroonian children in conflict zones have access to education.”You know that we are suffering the problem of insecurity, but while certain places get worse, other places are getting better and the minister has devised a way of using those teachers who were posted in places that are not exactly safe to go to places that are safe and make up the manpower so as to teach these children,” Kilo said.There was no immediate word Monday on how many students in the North West and South West regions had returned to school. For some, it will be the first time in class sine 2016.
…
Month: September 2021
Fortress Europe Takes Shape as EU Countries Fear Bigger Migration Flows
Four years ago, European leaders chided then U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall on America’s southern border with Mexico. “We have a history and a tradition that we celebrate when walls are brought down and bridges are built,” admonished Federica Mogherini, then the EU’s foreign policy chief.
But Europe now is accelerating its own wall-building for fear of future migration crises. Afghan migrants hide from security forces in a tunnel under train tracks after crossing illegally into Turkey from Iran, near Tatvan in Bitlis province, Turkey, Aug. 23, 2021.
In the near-term European Union governments are worried about an influx of Afghans and are hoping to persuade Afghanistan’s near neighbors to corral those fleeing the Taliban.
The U.N.’s refugee agency, UNHCR, has warned that up to 500,000 Afghans could flee their homeland by the end of the year. EU officials say they are considering spending a billion euros to induce Afghanistan’s neighbors to act as gatekeepers. But Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan appear reluctant and have warned they are only prepared to serve as transit countries for Afghan asylum-seekers. Saturday Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said a potential refugee wave toward Europe must not take place. Recently French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe should “anticipate and protect itself from a wave of migrants” from Afghanistan.
That counsel is being heeded by other European national leaders eager to stop Afghan refugees from entering Europe en masse, thereby hoping to avoid a repeat of the 2015-16 migration crisis, when more than a million asylum-seekers from the Middle East, sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia entered Europe, roiling European politics and fueling the rise of populist nationalist parties. FILE – Migrants stand in front of a barrier at the border with Hungary near the village of Horgos, Serbia, Sept.15, 2015.Last week at an emergency meeting in Brussels the interior ministers of the 27 EU member-states agreed “to act jointly to prevent the recurrence of uncontrolled, large-scale, illegal migration movements faced in the past.” The prospects of more Afghan refugees appearing on their borders has acted as a spur for Central European, Baltic and Balkan states to complete planned walls and to erect more razor-wire fences. Greece last month completed a 40-kilometer wall along its land border with Turkey and installed an automated surveillance system to try to prevent asylum seekers from reaching Europe. FILE – A policeman patrols alongside a steel wall at Evros River, near the village of Poros, at the Greek -Turkish border, Greece, May 21, 2021.“We cannot wait, passively, for the possible impact,” Greece’s citizen protection minister, Michalis Chrisochoidis, said announcing the completion of the project. “Our borders will remain safe and inviolable,” he added. Asylum-seekers from Afghanistan have made up 45% of recent arrivals to the Greek Islands this year, according to figures from the U.N. refugee agency.
In an interview Monday with Politico.eu, a news site, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson played down the determination of member states to keep the doors firmly bolted, saying she is convening a high-level resettlement forum later this month where member states, Britain, the U.S. and Canada will discuss commitments to resettle specific numbers of Afghan refugees.
“Of course, it’s voluntary but I expect them to step up,” she said. But several states, including Greece, Austria and Hungary, have already said they won’t. FILE – Migrants and refugees cross the border between Hungary and Austria, near Nickelsdorf, Austria, Sept. 10, 2015.
On Saturday, the EU’s migration commissioner, Margaritis Schinas noted the bloc’s external borders are much stronger now than they were when the continent was rocked by the 2015-16 migration influx, prompting a wave of wall building. EU member states have collectively constructed more than 1,000 kilometers of border walls or barbed-wire fences in recent years.Each day sees more wall building. In the 1990s there were just two walls built, by 2017 that jumped to 15. Spain, Greece, Hungary, Bulgaria, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Estonia, Norway, Lithuania and Poland have all in recent years completed new external walls. FILE – Bulgarian border police personnel stand next to a barbed wire wall fence erected on the Bulgaria-Turkey border near the town of Lesovo, on Sept. 14, 2016.France, Slovenia and Austria have even built border walls since 2015 along parts of their shared borders with other EU countries.
Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have been frantically wall-building and militarizing their borders with Belarus to stop record numbers of migrants, mainly from Iraq, crossing their borders.Poland Could Declare State of Emergency at Belarus Border Poland refuses entry to migrants, claiming Belarus is using them as political weapons They accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of orchestrating migrant crossings as a form of “hybrid warfare” against the EU for imposing sanctions in the wake of last year’s disputed elections, which were widely seen as rigged.
At a press conference last month, Lukashenko denied Belarus was seeking to blackmail Europe by trying to create a migrant crisis, but said he was reacting to foreign pressure.“We are not blackmailing anyone with illegal immigration,” he told journalists in Minsk’s Independence Palace. “We’re not threatening anyone. But you have put us in such circumstances that we are forced to react. And we’re reacting,” he said.
But it isn’t only the weaponization of migrants by EU foes or the more immediate turmoil in Afghanistan that’s caught the attention of worried EU policymakers and national leaders. A series of recent studies suggest that Europe will see much larger migration challenges in the coming decades. Migrants wait to disembark from a Spanish coast guard vessel in the port of Arguineguin, in the island of Gran Canaria, Spain, Sept. 1, 2021.
In a paper published earlier this year, researchers at the Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies warned that between now and 2030, climate change and conflict and political dysfunction in the EU’s neighboring regions, alongside massive population growth in Africa, will inevitably lead to a substantial increase in the numbers of people trying to migrate to the EU.
…
Belarus Court Gives Opposition Activists Lengthy Sentences
A court in Belarus on Monday sentenced two leading opposition activists to lengthy prison terms, the latest move in the relentless crackdown Belarusian authorities have unleashed on dissent in the wake of last year’s anti-government protests. Maria Kolesnikova, a top member of the opposition Coordination Council, has been in custody since her arrest last September. A court in Minsk found her guilty of conspiring to seize power, creating an extremist organization and calling for actions damaging state security and sentenced her to 11 years in prison. FILE – Maxim Znak, Belarus’ opposition activist and lawyer of Maria Kolesnikova, attends a court hearing in Minsk, Belarus, Aug. 4, 2021.Lawyer Maxim Znak, another leading member of the Coordination Council who faced the same charges, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Kolesnikova, who helped coordinate monthslong opposition protests that erupted after an August 2020 presidential vote, resisted authorities’ attempts to force her to leave the country. Kolesnikova and Znak stood trial behind closed doors, with their families only allowed to be present at the sentencing hearing on Monday. “For many, Maria has become an example of resilience and the fight between good and evil. I’m proud of her,” Kolesnikova’s father, Alexander, told The Associated Press on Monday. “It’s not a verdict, but rather the revenge of the authorities.” Belarus was shaken by months of protests fueled by President Alexander Lukashenko’s being awarded a sixth term after the August 2020 presidential vote that the opposition and the West denounced as a sham. He responded to the demonstrations with a massive crackdown that saw more than 35,000 people arrested and thousands beaten by police. Kolesnikova, 39, has emerged as a key opposition activist, appearing at political rallies and fearlessly walking up to lines of riot police and making her signature gesture – a heart formed by her hands. Kolesnikova spent years playing flute in the nation’s philharmonic orchestra after graduating from a conservatory in Minsk and studying Baroque music in Germany. In 2020, she headed the campaign of Viktor Babariko, the head of a Russian-owned bank who made a bid to challenge Lukashenko but was barred from the race after being jailed on money laundering and tax evasion charges that he dismissed as political. Babariko was sentenced to 14 years in prison two months ago. FILE – Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya speaks during her news conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, July 7, 2021. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)Kolesnikova then joined forces with former English teacher Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was running in place of her jailed husband Sergei, an opposition blogger, as the main candidate standing against Lukashenko, and Veronika Tsepkalo, wife of another potential top contender who had fled the country fearing arrest. The three appeared together at colorful campaign events that were in stark contrast to Lukashenko’s Soviet-style gatherings. In September 2020, as Belarus was shaken by mass protests, the largest of which drew up to 200,000 people, KGB agents drove Kolesnikova to the border between Belarus and Ukraine in an attempt to expel her from the country. In the neutral zone between the two countries, Kolesnikova managed to rip up her passport, broke out of the car and walked back into Belarus, where she was immediately arrested. Just before the start of her trial last month, Kolesnikova said in a note from prison that authorities offered to release her from custody if she asks for a pardon and gives a repentant interview to state media. She insisted that she was innocent and rejected the offer.
…
Families of MH17 Airline Crash Victims to Speak in Court
Dozens of relatives of the 298 victims of Malaysian Airlines flight 17, shot down over rebel-held eastern Ukraine in 2014, will begin giving testimony on Monday at the murder trial of four fugitive suspects accused of carrying out the attack.The aircraft was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur when it was hit by what international investigators and prosecutors say was a Russian surface-to-air missile.Three Russians and a Ukrainian citizen, all suspected of having key roles in the separatist forces, are on trial for murder. Moscow has refused to extradite those in Russia and denies all responsibility. The Dutch government holds Moscow responsible.The plane crashed in a field in territory held by pro-Russian separatists fighting against Ukrainian forces.The court has scheduled three weeks to hear the relatives speak and will also review around a hundred written statements provided by other family members.Ria van der Steen will be the first of 90 relatives from eight countries who will be allowed to address judges and defense lawyers about the impact of the crash on their lives.After years of collecting evidence, a team of international investigators concluded in May 2018 that the launcher used to fire the missile belonged to Russia’s 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade.The fugitive suspects have been on trial for a year and a half. Only one sent lawyers to represent him so the case is not considered to be entirely tried in absentia under Dutch law.Proceedings moved to a critical stage in June when prosecutors began presenting evidence and will start calling witnesses.
…
Taliban Claim Victory in Panjshir Valley
The Taliban announced Monday they had conquered the northern Panjshir Valley, ending the only armed resistance to their rule in Afghanistan. “This victory brings an end to the war across the nation and paves the way for a peaceful life and prosperity in an atmosphere of independence,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement. There was no immediate reaction from the opposition forces, known as the National Resistance Front and led by commander Ahmad Massoud. The Taliban claimed the victory hours after Massoud said he welcomed proposals from religious scholars for holding peace talks with the Taliban if they pull back their forces from his native Panjshir. Ahmad Massoud made the offer through a post on his organization’s Facebook page on a day when Taliban forces claimed they had fought their way into the provincial capital, Bazarak, after seizing the rest of the province.Multiple sources also confirmed the killing of the NRF’s official spokesman, Fahim Dashty, along with Massoud’s cousin, General Abdul Wudood, during Sunday’s fighting.
“The National Resistance Front is ready to stop the war immediately in order to achieve stable peace, if the Taliban group ends its military attacks and movements in Panjshir and Andarab,” the Facebook post quoted Massoud as saying. Andarab is a district in the neighboring Baghlan province and sits at the entrance to Panjshir.
Massoud’s statement came in response to reports in Afghan media that said a council of religious scholars had called on the Taliban to accept a negotiated settlement to end the fighting. Panjshir is the last remaining area of armed resistance to the Taliban’s rule since they captured the other 33 Afghan provinces, including the capital, Kabul, last month in a lightning blitz as Western-trained government forces collapsed and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
But a week later the NRF, which comprises members of U.S.-trained Afghan security forces and local tribal militias, retook Andarab and two other adjoining districts in Baghlan.
The Taliban denounced the attack as a breach of their general amnesty for all members and politicians of the ousted Afghan government. They repeatedly had urged NRF leaders to surrender their arms and find a negotiated settlement to the security crisis.
The talks eventually broke down, with each side blaming the other for their failure, prompting the Taliban to stage a major offensive several days ago that retook the lost ground.
The advances also paved the way for the Taliban to assault and enter Panjshir, home to the country’s Tajik ethnic minority and located north of the capital, Kabul.
In social media posts, Taliban officials, responding to the conditional offer of talks, said their forces were pressing ahead with the offensive to clear Panjshir of the armed resistance, adding that fighting was ongoing inside Bazarak.Militiamen loyal to Ahmad Massoud, son of the late Ahmad Shah Massoud, take part in a training exercise, in Panjshir province, northeastern Afghanistan, Aug. 30, 2021.The claim could not be verified from independent sources, and both the adversaries have issued inflated details about their gains since the fighting broke out.
Massoud’s father successfully defended the province when the Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
Taliban government
The lack of control over all of Afghanistan has apparently prevented the Taliban from announcing a new government.
The Islamist group is under international scrutiny to deliver on pledges that their system of governance will represent all Afghan ethnic groups and respect human rights, particularly those of women, unlike their previous exclusive hardline regime in Kabul.
On Saturday, small groups of women activists took to the streets in Kabul and in parts of western Afghanistan, demanding respect for their rights and representation in the new government.
Taliban fighters broke up a rally of about a dozen women in the capital to stop them from heading to the presidential palace.
Footage circulating on social media showed demonstrators, who had been confronted by armed Taliban fighters, covering their mouths and coughing, with one woman saying the security guards had used tear gas to disperse the rally.
“They also hit women on the head with gun magazines, and the women become bloody,” said one of the demonstrators who identified herself as Soraya.
“Taliban blocking protest by beatings and tear gas: unfortunately, this is pretty much on brand for a group that relies on brute force to suppress dissent,” tweeted Patria Gossman, associate Asia director for Human Rights Watch.
The Taliban imposed a brutal justice system and banned women from work and prevented older girls from receiving an education when the fundamentalist group previously seized power in Afghanistan.
Taliban leaders, however, have promised to install an inclusive government in Kabul that they say will allow women to work and receive an education within the framework of Islamic law, or Sharia. Many Afghans doubt the reliability of their pledges.
“It will be an inclusive strong central and sustainable system or government,” Bilal Karimi, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, told VOA on Friday.
…
Tanzania Suspends Second Newspaper in Less Than a Month
Tanzania suspended on Sunday another newspaper accused of false stories even though President Samia Suluhu Hassan had pledged to uphold media freedoms quashed by her predecessor. Raia Mwema, a leading Swahili-language weekly, was suspended for 30 days from Monday, for “repeatedly publishing false information and deliberate incitement,” Gerson Msigwa, the government’s chief spokesperson, said in a statement. Msigwa cited three recent stories, including one about a gunman who killed four people in a rampage through a diplomatic quarter of Tanzania’s main city Dar es Salaam. The article linked the gunman to ruling party Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM), the statement read, adding that the article violated a 2016 media law. The newspaper’s management did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Last month, the government suspended the Uhuru newspaper, owned by the CCM party, for publishing what it called a false story saying Hassan would not vie for office in 2025. That was the first newspaper suspension in Hassan’s tenure. The CCM said after the suspension that Uhuru’s board had already suspended three top managers, including the CEO, over the story, and was investigating why the story was published. Hassan took office in March following the death of predecessor John Magufuli, who was Africa’s most prominent COVID-19 sceptic and banned several newspapers during his six-year rule. Within weeks of taking office, Hassan called for all the outlets banned by Magufuli to be allowed to reopen immediately.
…
Marchers Walk 7,000 Steps for Canadian Pair Detained by China
Hundreds of supporters of two Canadian men being held on what Ottawa says are specious charges marched 7,000 steps through the Canadian capital on Sunday to mark the pair’s 1,000th day of “unjust” detention in China. Similar events in support of Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig were held elsewhere in Canada and across the world in cities including Brussels, New York, Washington, Seoul and Singapore. “These are unjust detentions,” Kovrig’s wife Vina Nadjibulla told AFP. “These marches are about solidarity with our Michaels, they’re about honoring their strength and resilience and also calling for action to finally break the stalemate, to bring them home and do everything possible to end this injustice,” Nadjibulla said at the start of the rally. The two men were arrested in December 2018 and accused of espionage in what Ottawa has said was retaliation for its detention on a US warrant of a prominent Chinese national, Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou. A decision is expected in coming months on whether to send Meng to the United States to face fraud charges related to alleged violations of Iran sanctions by the Chinese tech giant. Spavor, a businessman, and former diplomat Kovrig went on trial in March. Spavor was handed an 11-year jail sentence just as final arguments in Meng’s extradition trial got underway last month. No decision has been announced in Kovrig’s case. The seemingly tit-for-tat arrests plunged Ottawa-Beijing relations into a deep freeze, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling the charges against the Michaels “trumped up.” On Sunday US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned what he called “arbitrary detentions” by China. “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Canada and the international community in calling for the PRC to release, immediately and unconditionally, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig,” Blinken said in a statement, referring to the People’s Republic of China. ‘A difficult milestone’ The Ottawa rally was attended by Canadian Foreign Minister Marc Garneau and several opposition MPs, as well as the US ambassador to Ottawa. “This is a difficult milestone,” Nadjibulla, holding back tears, told the crowd. “It’s been 1,000 days — the heartbreak, the pain, the injustice is real. The heaviness, I feel it, we all feel it.” She said her husband had described his ordeal in letters from prison, adding, “One of the things that he does in his windowless, small cell every day is to pace 7,000 steps.” “He walks in circles, 7,000 steps, often holding a book, reading, reciting songs, prayers — five kilometers of courage and contemplation. And today, he will not be alone in that walk. We will accompany him, all of us,” she said. “He knows that this event is happening,” she added. “He knows that we’re with him. That gives him strength.” Michael Spavor’s brother Paul told reporters his brother “spends a lot of his time reading, meditating, doing yoga.” “One thousand days is a long time,” he said. “Today is just another day, but it’s another day that goes by without our Michaels being back with us.”
…
Blinken to Visit Qatar, Germany for Afghanistan Diplomacy
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to Qatar on a trip that will also take him to Germany for talks with important U.S. allies on the situation in Afghanistan. “Departing for Doha, Qatar and Ramstein, Germany where I’ll have the opportunity to thank our Qatari and German friends in-person for the outstanding support they’ve given to safely transit U.S. citizens, Afghans, and other evacuees from Afghanistan,” Blinken tweeted late Sunday. Qatar was a key hub for the massive U.S. airlift out of Kabul and a first point of landing for thousands of Afghan refugees following last month’s Taliban takeover. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is also visiting U.S. allies in the Middle East to thank them for their help in the evacuations from Afghanistan, and with U.S. troops. His stops include Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. “I’m on my way to the Gulf to personally thank our partners there for supporting the Afghanistan evacuation effort. Operation ALLIED REFUGE would not have been possible with our friends in the Gulf. Their support saved lives,” Austin tweeted Sunday.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives to board an aircraft from Joint Base Andrews, Md., on Sept. 5, 2021, to travel to Doha, Qatar and Ramstein, Germany.Blinken told reporters Friday that while in Germany he will head to Ramstein U.S. Air Force Base to thank the U.S. troops and meet with Afghan refugees. Blinken also said he will head a virtual 20-nation ministerial meeting on Afghanistan Wednesday alongside German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. He said the 20 countries “all have a stake in helping to relocate and resettle Afghans and in holding the Taliban to their commitments.” The Taliban have promised to grant safe passage to those Afghans and others who want to leave the country, but many Afghans doubt the reliability of their pledges. In his remarks Friday, Blinken again defended the U.S. departure from Afghanistan, saying a relatively small number of American citizens remain in the country and the State Department is in active contact with all of them. He said the U.S. remains committed to helping any American who wants to leave and to helping Special Immigrant Visa candidates and other Afghans who have helped the United States. The Biden administration has come under criticism from Republican lawmakers, human rights groups and others for its handling of the evacuation from Afghanistan after the Taliban took control in Kabul on August 15.
…
Surviving Member of Terror Cell in Paris Attacks to Go on Trial
The sole surviving member of the terror cell that massacred 130 people in Paris in November 20 was a pot-smoking party man who dabbled in petty crime before falling in thrall to the Islamic State group. All eyes will be on Salah Abdeslam on Wednesday when he goes on trial in Paris along with 19 others over the worst terror attack in France’s history. But those hoping that the so-called 10th man of the Islamic State attacks will tell all about what drove him to be part of the macabre plot risk being disappointed. Since his arrest after a massive four-month manhunt that ended in a shootout with police in Belgium, Abdeslam has maintained near-total silence on his role in the bloodshed. Nine other gunmen and suicide bombers died in the carnage, including Abdeslam’s brother Brahim, who blew himself up in a bar. Like Brahim he was equipped with a suicide belt, but he did not activate the device, which was found in a rubbish bin in southern Paris several days after the killings. The 31-year-old, who has French citizenship but grew up in Belgium, is accused of playing a key logistical role in the attacks. He drove the three suicide bombers who blew themselves up outside the Stade de France to their destination. Abdeslam also rented cars and hideouts and drove across Europe in the months before the attacks to collect jihadists who had slipped into the continent unnoticed among masses of migrants. He told police shortly after his arrest that he too had been primed to carry out a suicide attack at Stade de France, one of six venues targeted in the Paris attacks, but that he had backed out at the last minute. Investigators have cast doubt on that claim, saying they believe he was intent on seeing through his mission but was hamstrung by a faulty explosive belt. Whatever the outcome of the trial he is likely to spend many years behind bars, being just three years into a 20-year sentence for attempted murder over the firefight with Belgian police. One of the world’s most-wanted suspects spent the immediate aftermath of the Paris attacks eating fries and chatting with two unsuspecting teenagers in the stairwell of a Paris high-rise while waiting to be driven across the border to Belgium. It was only when his mugshot was released by police days later that the pair realized the man who was looking over their shoulder at a news item about the attacks was one of the chief suspects. In the Brussels suburb of Molenbeek, where he grew up, Abdeslam was known for his bad-boy lifestyle of petty crime, smoking weed and gambling. An inveterate clubber, he also had a reputation as a womanizer. His multiple brushes with the law included a conviction for attempted robbery in 2010 with a childhood friend, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the coordinator of the Paris attacks who was shot dead by French police in a siege a week later. Abdeslam, who grew up in a family of five children, worked as a technician for the Brussels tram network but was fired for skipping work in 2011. In later years, he spent much of his time hanging out in a cafe run by Brahim. Friends of the brothers say they became hooked on the Islamic State after the Sunni radical group proclaimed a caliphate in Iraq and Syria in 2014. They say they stopped drinking, showed a new-found interest in Islam and huddled with other would-be jihadists to imbibe IS propaganda. In February 2015, Belgian police summoned Salah Abdeslam to discuss Abaaoud who had appeared in a gruesome video from Syria, showing him driving a pick-up truck that was dragging mutilated bodies to a mass grave. “Apart from the jihad, he’s a good guy,” said Abdeslam, who claimed to oppose IS thinking despite having also shown interest in traveling to Syria. His rare public utterances since his arrest have shown he remains wedded to Islamist ideology. At his Belgian trial in 2018 he rejected the court’s legitimacy saying he trusted only “in Allah.” During questioning by a French magistrate in 2018 he justified terror attacks on France saying: “Muslims defend themselves against those who attack them.” An unrepentant Abdeslam is also believed to be the author of a letter found by Belgian police on a computer in 2016, in which he declared he “would have liked to be among the martyrs” and is ready to “finish the job.” His former Belgian lawyer, Sven Mary, was scathing about his client in a newspaper interview in 2016, although this is disputed by his lawyer in the current trial, Olivia Ronen. “He has the intelligence of an empty ashtray. He’s extraordinarily vacuous,” Mary said. “I asked him if he had read the Koran, and he replied that he had researched it on the internet,” Mary said.
…
Taliban Pledge Safety for Humanitarian Workers, UN Says
The United Nations humanitarian chief met Sunday with leaders of the Taliban, who pledged to guarantee the safety of humanitarian workers and aid access in Afghanistan, a U.N. spokesman said. Martin Griffiths was in the Afghan capital on Sunday and is to have several days of meetings with Taliban leadership amid a looming humanitarian disaster in the country newly under the control of the hardline Islamists. “The authorities pledged that the safety and security of humanitarian staff, and humanitarian access to people in need, will be guaranteed and that humanitarian workers — both men and women — will be guaranteed freedom of movement,” a statement from UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. Griffiths reiterated in the meeting that the humanitarian community was committed to delivering “impartial and independent humanitarian assistance,” the statement added. He also called on all parties to ensure the rights and safety of women, both those contributing to aid delivery and civilians. Women’s freedoms in Afghanistan were sharply curtailed under the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule. The Taliban delegation, led by the group’s co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, thanked U.N. officials for the “promised continuation of humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people” and assured them “of cooperation and provision of needed facilities,” according to a statement posted on Twitter by Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen. 1/2Mullah A. Baradar, Deputy-Amir, IEA for Political Affairs and Head, PO and his delegation met Martin Griffiths, UN Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs at the foreign Ministry in Kabul, today. The UN delegation promised continuation of humanitarian assistance— Suhail Shaheen. محمد سهیل شاهین (@suhailshaheen1) September 5, 2021The U.N. says Afghanistan is mired in a humanitarian crisis affecting 18 million people, or half the population. Even before the Taliban ousted the Western-backed government on August 15, Afghanistan was heavily aid-dependent, with 40% of the country’s GDP drawn from foreign funding. But the future of aid missions in the country under the Taliban has been a source of concern for the U.N. and aid groups, despite Taliban pledges of a softer brand of rule than during their first stint in power. Many Afghans doubt the reliability of their pledges and many countries are taking a wait and see approach. Several relief organizations have previously confirmed to AFP they were in talks with the Taliban to continue their operations or have received security guarantees for existing programs. The U.N. said this week humanitarian flights had resumed to several Afghan provinces.
…
Key Dates in Guinea Since Independence
Army officers on Sunday staged a coup in Guinea. Here are some key dates in the history of the troubled west African country since independence from France in 1958.1958: IndependenceOn October 2, 1958, Ahmed Sekou Toure declares independence, a few days after a referendum rejected membership in a Franco-African community proposed by then French leader Charles de Gaulle.Sekou Toure is elected president in January 1961. The country turns socialist in 1967.Guinea Soldiers Claim They’ve Staged a Successful Coupountry’s government, however, said an attack on the presidential palace had been repulsedToure in power for 26 yearsThe “father of independence” becomes a Third World hero but turns into an iron-fisted ruler who is blamed for the disappearance of about 50,000 people, according to human rights groups. Hundreds of thousands flee the country.1984-2008: Conte’s ruleOn April 3, 1984, a week after Toure’s death, a military junta takes power led by Colonel Lansana Conte. He puts down a coup attempt in 1985 and a deadly army mutiny in 1996.Conte is elected president in 1993 and reelected twice in votes disputed or boycotted by the opposition.In early 2007, massive protests against the “Conte system” are put down, claiming more than 180 lives, according to humanitarian groups.2008 coupOn December 23, 2008, soldiers seize power in a bloodless coup the day after Conte died of an undisclosed illness at age 74.The government swears allegiance to the junta led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara.In September 2009, security forces open fire at a stadium where thousands of opposition members are holding a rally.At least 157 people are killed and around 100 women are raped.In December, junta chief Camara is wounded as his top aide shoots him in the head.2010: Alpha Conde, first elected presidentIn January 2010, transitional President Sekouba Konate signs a deal with Camara, setting up a presidential election.On November 7, Alpha Conde becomes Guinea’s first democratically elected president. He survives unscathed when soldiers attack him at his home in the capital Conakry on July 19, 2011.He is reelected on October 11, 2015, after polls marred by violence and fraud allegations.2013: Ebola epidemicAn epidemic of the hemorrhagic disease Ebola breaks out that will last until 2016 and claim more than 2,500 lives.Conde’s third termStarting in October 2019, the prospect of a third term for Conde sparks fierce opposition, with dozens of civilians killed during protests.A new constitution adopted on March 22, 2020, after a referendum boycotted by the opposition allows Conde to run for a third term.Conde is declared the winner of a presidential vote on October 18, 2020, as top challenger Cellou Dalein Diallo and other rivals cry foul.
…
Libya Frees Saadi Gadhafi, Son of Former Leader
Libyan authorities have released Saadi Gadhafi, a son of the former leader Moammar Gadhafi, who was ousted and killed during a 2011 uprising, a Libyan official source and a unity government source said on Sunday.Saadi Gadhafi fled for Niger during the NATO-backed uprising but was extradited to Libya in 2014 and has been imprisoned since then in Tripoli.He immediately departed on a plane to Istanbul, the official source said.Libya has suffered chaos, division and violence in the decade since the uprising. The Government of National Unity was installed in March as part of a peace push that was also meant to include elections planned for December.Gadhafi’s release resulted from negotiations that included senior tribal figures and Prime Minister Abdulhamid Dbeibeh, the official source said. Another source said the negotiations also involved former Interior Minister Fathi Bashagha.In 2018 the Justice Ministry said Saadi Gadhafi had been found not guilty of “murder, deception, threats, enslavement and defamation” of the former football coach and player Bashir Rayani.
…
Brazil-Argentina World Cup Qualifier Halted by COVID-19 Controversy
Brazil’s World Cup qualifying match against Argentina was dramatically suspended shortly after it began Sunday as controversy over COVID-19 protocols erupted.The match at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena between the two giants of South American football came to a halt when a group of Brazilian public health officials came onto the pitch, triggering a melee involving team staff and players.Argentina’s players trudged off the pitch to the locker room as the furor raged. Argentina captain Lionel Messi later re-emerged from the tunnel without his team shirt on as confusion swept around the stadium.The stunning intervention came just hours after Brazil’s health authorities said four players in Argentina’s squad based in England should be placed in “immediate quarantine” for breaching COVID-19 protocols.According to Brazil’s National Health Surveillance Agency (ANVISA), Premier League players Giovani Lo Celso (Tottenham), Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa), Emiliano Buendia (Aston Villa) and Cristian Romero (Tottenham) provided “false information” upon their entry to Brazil.Romero, Lo Celso and Martinez were all in the Argentina starting lineup that kicked off Sunday’s game, triggering the intervention onto the field of officials wearing ANVISA shirts.The four Premier League players were accused of failing to disclose that they had spent time in the United Kingdom in the 14 days prior to their arrival.”We got to this point because everything that ANVISA directed, from the first moment, was not fulfilled,” ANVISA director Antonio Barra Torres said on Brazilian television.”(The four players) were directed to remain isolated while awaiting deportation, but they did not comply. They went to the stadium and they entered the field, in a series of breaches,” the official added.A government order dating from June 23 prohibits the entry into Brazilian territory of any foreign person from the United Kingdom, India or South Africa, to prevent the spread of variants of the coronavirus.”ANVISA considers that this situation represents a serious health risk and recommends that the local health authorities (of Sao Paulo) order the immediate quarantine of the players, who are prohibited from taking part in any activity and from remaining on Brazilian territory,” the agency said in a statement earlier Sunday.ANVISA said Brazil’s Federal Police had been notified so that “the necessary measures are taken immediately.”Brazilian website Globoesporte said the Argentina Football Association (AFA) could request an exceptional authorization from authorities in Sao Paulo to allow the players to take the field against Brazil.The controversy comes after nine Brazilians based in the Premier League failed to travel to South America following objections from their clubs.
…
Police Clash with Opponents of Serbian Church in Montenegro
Arriving in a military helicopter, the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro was inaugurated in the state’s old capital on Sunday amid clashes between police and protesters who oppose continued Serb influence in the tiny Balkan nation.Hospital officials in the city of Cetinje said at least 60 people were injured, including 30 police officers, in clashes that saw police launch tear gas against the demonstrators, who hurled rocks and bottles at them and fired gunshots into the air. At least 15 people were arrested.Sunday’s inauguration ceremony angered opponents of the Serbian church in Montenegro, which declared independence from neighboring Serbia in 2006. Since Montenegro split from Serbia, pro-independence Montenegrins have advocated for a recognized Orthodox Christian church that is separate from the Serbian one.Evading road blockades set up by the demonstrators, the new head of the Serbian church in Montenegro, Metropolitan Joanikije, arrived in Cetinje by a helicopter along with the Serbian Patriarch Porfirije. TV footage showed the priests being led into the Cetinje monastery by heavily armed riot police holding a bulletproof blanket to shield them.Patriarch Porfirije later wrote on Instagram that he was happy that the inauguration was held but added that he was “horrified by the fact” that someone near the monastery wanted to prevent the ceremony “with a sniper rifle.” The claim could not be immediately independently verified.The demonstrators set up barriers with trash bins, tires and large rocks to try to prevent church and state dignitaries from coming to the inauguration. Chanting, “This is Not Serbia!” and “This is Montenegro!,” many of the protesters spent the night at the barriers amid reports that police were sending reinforcements to break through the blockade. Tires at one blockade were set on fire.Montenegrins remain deeply divided over their country’s ties with neighboring Serbia and the Serbian Orthodox Church, which is the nation’s dominant religious institution. Around 30% of Montenegro’s 620,000 people consider themselves Serb.Metropolitan Joanikije said after the ceremony that “the divisions have been artificially created and we have done all in our power to help remove them, but that will take a lot of time.”In a clear demonstration of the sharp political divide in Montenegro, President Milo Djukanovic, the architect of the state’s independence from Serbia, visited Cetinje while the current pro-Serb Prime Minister Zdravko Krivokapic went to Podgorica to welcome the Serbian patriarch.While Krivokapic branded the protests as “an attempted terrorist act,” Djukanovic said the protesters in Cetinje were guarding national interests against the alleged bid by the much larger Serbia to impose its influence in Montenegro through the church.Djukanovic accused the current Montenegrin government of “ruthlessly serving imperial interests of (Serbia) and the Serbian Orthodox Church, which is a striking fist of Serbian nationalism, all against Montenegro.”Montenegro’s previous authorities led the country to independence from Serbia and defied Russia to join NATO in 2017. Montenegro also is seeking to become a European Union member.In Serbia, President Aleksandar Vucic, who has been accused by the opposition in Montenegro of meddling in its internal affairs in conjunction with Russia, congratulated Joanikije on his inauguration and praised the government for going ahead with the ceremony despite the clashes.”Cetinje is a town where some 90% of the people are against the Serbian Orthodox Church, where there is hate towards everyone who is not Montenegrin,” Vucic said in Belgrade. “This is not a real hate, it’s hate that is induced by certain politicians in Montenegro, so it was quite logical to expect what happened there.”The U.S. government urged all sides “to urgently de-escalate the situation.” “Religious freedom and the freedom of expression, including to peacefully assemble, must be respected,” the U.S. embassy said.Joanikije’s predecessor as church leader in Montenegro, Amfilohije, died in October after contracting COVID-19.
…
Taliban Stop Planes of Evacuees from Leaving but Unclear Why
At least four planes chartered to evacuate several hundred people seeking to escape the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan have been unable to leave the country for days, officials said Sunday, with conflicting accounts emerging about why the flights weren’t able to take off as pressure ramps up on the United States to help those left behind to flee.An Afghan official at the airport in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif said that the would-be passengers were Afghans, many of whom did not have passports or visas, and thus were unable to leave the country. He said they had left the airport while the situation was sorted out. The top Republican on the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, however, said that the group included Americans and they were sitting on the planes, but the Taliban were not letting them take off, effectively “holding them hostage.” He did not say where that information came from. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the accounts.The final days of America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan were marked by a harrowing airlift at Kabul’s airport to evacuate tens of thousands of people — Americans and their allies — who feared what the future would hold, given the Taliban’s history of repression, particularly of women. When the last troops pulled out on August 30, though, many were left behind. The U.S. promised to continue working with the new Taliban rulers to get those who want to leave out, and the militants pledged to allow anyone with the proper legal documents to leave. But Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas told “Fox News Sunday” that American citizens and Afghan interpreters were being kept on six planes.”The Taliban will not let them leave the airport,” he said, adding that he’s worried “they’re going to demand more and more, whether it be cash or legitimacy as the government of Afghanistan.” He did not offer more details.The Afghan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject, said it was four planes, and their intended passengers were staying at hotels while authorities worked out whether they might be able to leave the country. The sticking point, he indicated, is that many did not have the right travel papers. Residents of Mazar-e-Sharif also said the passengers were no longer at the airport. At least 10 families were seen at a local hotel waiting, they said, for a decision on their fates. None of them had passports or visas but said they had worked for companies allied with the U.S. or German military. Others were seen at restaurants.The small airport at Mazar-e-Sharif only recently began to handle international flights and so far only to Turkey. The planes in question were bound for Doha, Qatar, the Afghan official said. It was not clear who chartered them or why they were waiting in the northern city. The massive airlift happened at Kabul’s international airport, which initially closed after the U.S. withdrawal but where domestic flights have now resumed.Searing images of that chaotic evacuation — including people clinging to an airplane as it took off — came to define the final days of America’s longest war, just weeks after Taliban fighters retook the country in a lightning offensive.Since their takeover, the Taliban have sought to recast themselves as different from their 1990s incarnation, when they last ruled the country and imposed repressive restrictions across society. Women and girls were denied work and education, men were forced to grow beards, and television and music were banned.Now, the world is waiting to see the face of the new government, and many Afghans remain skeptical. In the weeks since they took power, signals have been mixed: Government employees including women have been asked to return to work, but some women were later ordered home by lower-ranking Taliban. Universities and schools have been ordered open, but fear has kept both students and teachers away.Women have demonstrated peacefully, some even having conversations about their rights with Taliban leaders. But some have been dispersed by Taliban special forces firing in the air.Some signs of normalcy have also begun to return. Kabul’s streets are again clogged with traffic, as Taliban fighters patrol in pickup trucks and police vehicles — brandishing their automatic weapons and flying the Taliban’s white flag. Schools have opened, and moneychangers work the street corners. Among the promises the Taliban have made is that once the country’s airports are up and running, Afghans with passports and visas would be allowed to travel. More than 100 countries issued a statement saying they would be watching to see that the new rulers held to their commitment.Technical teams from Qatar and Turkey arrived in recent days and are working to get the civilian airport operational.On Saturday, state-run Ariana Airlines made its first domestic flights, which continued on Sunday. The airport is without radar facilities, so flights are restricted to daylight hours to allow for visual landing, said official Shershah Stor.Several countries have been bringing in humanitarian supplies. The Gulf state of Qatar, where the Taliban maintained a political office since 2013, is making daily flights into Kabul, delivering humanitarian aid. Bahrain also announced humanitarian assistance deliveries.
…
Afghan Opposition Leader Ready for Conditional Peace Talks with Taliban
The commander of an armed opposition group in Afghanistan said Sunday he welcomed proposals from religious scholars for holding peace talks with the Taliban if they pull back their forces from his native northern Panjshir province. Ahmad Massoud made the offer through a post on his organization’s Facebook page on a day when Taliban forces claimed they had fought their way into the provincial capital, Bazarak, after seizing the rest of the province.Multiple sources also confirmed the killing of the NRF’s official spokesman, Fahim Dashty, along with Massoud’s cousin, General Abdul Wudood, during Sunday’s fighting.Blinken to Visit Qatar, Germany for Afghanistan DiplomacyAlso, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will visit US allies in Persian Gulf to hold talks on Afghanistan
“The National Resistance Front is ready to stop the war immediately in order to achieve stable peace, if the Taliban group ends its military attacks and movements in Panjshir and Andarab,” the Facebook post quoted Massoud as saying. Andarab is a district in the neighboring Baghlan province and sits at the entrance to Panjshir.
Massoud’s statement came in response to reports in Afghan media that said a council of religious scholars had called on the Taliban to accept a negotiated settlement to end the fighting. Panjshir is the last remaining area of armed resistance to the Taliban’s rule since they captured the other 33 Afghan provinces, including the capital, Kabul, last month in a lightning blitz as Western-trained government forces collapsed and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
But a week later the NRF, which comprises members of U.S.-trained Afghan security forces and local tribal militias, retook Andarab and two other adjoining districts in Baghlan.
The Taliban denounced the attack as a breach of their general amnesty for all members and politicians of the ousted Afghan government. They repeatedly had urged NRF leaders to surrender their arms and find a negotiated settlement to the security crisis.
The talks eventually broke down, with each side blaming the other for their failure, prompting the Taliban to stage a major offensive several days ago that retook the lost ground.
The advances also paved the way for the Taliban to assault and enter Panjshir, home to the country’s Tajik ethnic minority and located north of the capital, Kabul.
In social media posts, Taliban officials, responding to the conditional offer of talks, said their forces were pressing ahead with the offensive to clear Panjshir of the armed resistance, adding that fighting was ongoing inside Bazarak. White House Again Pledges to Get Americans Out of Afghanistan Republican lawmaker says Taliban blocking exit flights, executing interpreters who assisted United States
The claim could not be verified from independent sources, and both the adversaries have issued inflated details about their gains since the fighting broke out.
Massoud’s father successfully defended the province when the Taliban ruled most of Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
Taliban government
The lack of control over all of Afghanistan has apparently prevented the Taliban from announcing a new government.
The Islamist group is under international scrutiny to deliver on pledges that their system of governance will represent all Afghan ethnic groups and respect human rights, particularly those of women, unlike their previous exclusive hardline regime in Kabul.
On Saturday, small groups of women activists took to the streets in Kabul and in parts of western Afghanistan, demanding respect for their rights and representation in the new government.
Taliban fighters broke up a rally of about a dozen women in the capital to stop them from heading to the presidential palace.
Footage circulating on social media showed demonstrators, who had been confronted by armed Taliban fighters, covering their mouths and coughing, with one woman saying the security guards had used tear gas to disperse the rally.
“They also hit women on the head with gun magazines, and the women become bloody,” said one of the demonstrators who identified herself as Soraya.
“Taliban blocking protest by beatings and tear gas: unfortunately, this is pretty much on brand for a group that relies on brute force to suppress dissent,” tweeted Patria Gossman, associate Asia director for Human Rights Watch.
The Taliban imposed a brutal justice system and banned women from work and prevented older girls from receiving an education when the fundamentalist group previously seized power in Afghanistan.
Taliban leaders, however, have promised to install an inclusive government in Kabul that they say will allow women to work and receive an education within the framework of Islamic law, or Sharia. Many Afghans doubt the reliability of their pledges.
“It will be an inclusive strong central and sustainable system or government,” Bilal Karimi, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, told VOA on Friday.
…