Month: September 2021

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization is calling for action to stem food loss and waste, which it says are a major cause of hunger and malnutrition around the world.

FAO experts say countries currently are producing enough food to feed the nearly eight billion people who populate the world. Yet more than 800 million are going hungry. 

Another two billion people, they say, are suffering from nutrition deficiencies, which can cause serious health problems.

The deputy director of the FAO’s food and nutrition division, Nancy Aburto, says millions of children suffer stunting and wasting, which are deadly forms of undernutrition, and one in three adults are overweight or obese. 

That, she says, is another form of undernutrition caused by inadequate vitamins, minerals and unhealthy diets.

“The high cost of healthy diets has put healthy diets out of reach for billions of people around the world, in every region around the world including Europe,” said Aburto. “And this trend has been seen to get worse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Without healthy diets, we can never address the problems of hunger and malnutrition.”

A 2019 FAO study found an estimated 14 percent of food produced globally spoils or is ruined from post-harvest to the point of sale. Another study by the U.N. Environment Program this year shows an estimated 17 percent of food that is available to consumers is wasted.

The United Nations says around one third of all food or 1.3 billion tons of food produced globally ends up rotting in retail market or consumer trash bins. U.N. economists value the loss at around $1 trillion a year.

Aburto warns the U.N. will never reach its sustainable development goal of zero hunger by 2030 if food loss and waste continues unchecked. She says the ongoing problem also undermines the sustainability of global food systems for the future.

“Food loss and waste account for approximately 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions,” said Aburto. “While food is lost or wasted, all of the resources that went into producing that, including water, land, energy, labor, and capital all go to waste. Reducing food loss and waste can lead to greater availability and accessibility of healthy diets and reduce hunger and malnutrition but this is not guaranteed.”

The FAO has declared this Wednesday to be International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Food Waste.

Aburto says reducing food loss and waste would lead to healthier, more nutritious diets, decrease world hunger, and result in environmental benefits. 
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Ugandan police have rearrested two opposition lawmakers on charges of treason just minutes after they were released on bail in another case in which they stand accused of murder. The National Unity Party lawmakers deny the charges, which they say are politically motivated.

Police spokesperson Fred Enanga in a statement said authorities were holding legislator Ssegirinya Muhammed on fresh charges.

Earlier Monday, upon his release, security personnel traveling at high speed pursued the vehicle that had picked up Ssegirinya from a prison in the Wakiso district. When it pulled over, they forcefully put him into their vehicle.

Enanga said they were holding Ssegirinya at the special Investigations division for further processing.

“We want to inform the public that Honorable Ssegirinya Muhammed has also been rearrested on fresh charges of treason and incitement to violence by the joint security task team of investigators,” said Enanga.

The other lawmaker, Allan Ssewanyana, was rearrested outside the prison gate minutes after his release on Friday evening.

The two legislators, both members of the National Unity Platform party, were arrested earlier this month.

They were accused of being involved in a recent spate of murders in Masaka district in central Uganda that left close to 30 people dead. Many of the dead were killed with machetes.

The state charged the lawmakers with three counts of murder and attempted murder. In their most recent court appearance, prosecutors told the judge they were still investigating the lawmakers and amended the charge to terrorism, aiding and abetting terrorism.

Shamim Malende, the lawyer for both legislators and from whose vehicle Ssegirinya was forcefully taken, said authorities keep changing the charges against the men with no valid evidence.

“When they speak of inciting violence in Uganda, when they speak of treason, when they speak terrorism, unlawful assembly, those are political cases in Uganda. I think there’s a problem. It is either fooling the nation or it is that they do not want to speak the truth. It’s now looking like persecuting the political opponents, people who belong to the National Unity party or are against government bad policies,” said Malende.

Joel Ssenyonyi, the National Unity Platform spokesperson, said the rearrest of the legislators is President Yoweri Museveni’s way of fulfilling his word when he said he would destroy the party led by musician-turned-politician Bobi Wine.

“You know these guys are bushmen. They were in the bush as rebels and that’s why they are behaving like bushmen, disregarding court orders. Court releases somebody on bail and you say no, we shall rearrest them as they get out of jail. And that’s what Mr. Museveni is doing,” said Ssenyonyi.

The legislators’ rearrest comes just days after the president clashed with Chief Justice Alphonse Owinyi Dollo over granting bail to capital offense suspects.

While the chief justice argued that bail was a constitutional right, Museveni argued that if anyone is arrested for murder, giving that person bail is a provocation and abominable.
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Burkina Faso’s war against Islamist militants has seen security forces criticized for human rights abuses. The battle to win hearts and minds has moved to a new stage, with soldier-singers using their talents to promote the armed forces. Clair MacDougall reports from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
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Female circumcision, known as female genital mutilation (FGM), is illegal in Kenya but is still being forced on young girls in some areas. Cases increased after schools closed due to the pandemic, but one survivor is fighting the practice in an ethnic Somali community. Brenda Mulinya reports from Garissa, Kenya.

Camera and produced by: Amos Wangwa
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Mali’s interim government appears ready to cast aside long-standing counterterrorism partnerships with the United States and France, saying that both countries have failed to make Mali any safer. 

But at the same time, Mali’s prime minister says reports of a deal to bring in mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group are just “rumors and allegations.” 

“The security situation keeps deteriorating by the day,” Choguel Maiga told VOA in an interview on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly late Sunday.

“Despite the fact that Mali has a lot of partners on the ground, we have to find new partners who can help improve the security situation,” Maiga added. “We can seek partnership either with Russia or with any other country.” 

Reports of a deal between Mali’s interim government and Russia’s Wagner Group first emerged earlier this month, with Reuters reporting that Mali would pay $10.8 million a month to bring in about 1,000 mercenaries to train Mali’s military and provide security for senior officials.

‘A real concern’ 

U.S. and French officials have expressed their growing concern that the introduction of Russian mercenaries will do more damage than good. 

“We don’t think looking to outside forces to provide security is the way forward,” a senior administration official said Friday in response to a question from VOA about the potential deal with Moscow. “That is not how to best start down the road to true stability.” 

French officials have also expressed growing alarm, both in public and private, about the possible deal with the Russian firm. 

“We want the return of the Malian state, not the arrival of Russian mercenaries,” French Defense Minister Florence Parly tweeted last week. “We are for the sovereignty of Mali, not for its weakening.” 

Another official with knowledge of the matter called the potential deployment of Wagner mercenaries “a real concern.” 

“Such a perspective is not a viable and reasonable solution for Mali and the Sahel,” the official told VOA on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the situation, adding that Malian officials need only to look at developments in the Central African Republic to see the dangers. 

“The situation we are currently observing in Central Africa, a country in which more than 2,000 Wagner mercenaries are present, reinforces our view that such a force is pursuing a predatory agenda,” the official said. “Wagner is exploiting mining areas and controlling Central Africa customs and, above all, is guilty of serious abuses against the civilian population abuses highlighted by the U.N. in several reports.” 

Russia has denied any abuses by contractors there. 

Mali’s prime minister, while denying that a deal with Wagner had been finalized, dismissed the idea that the U.S., France and other countries had any right to criticize the interim government. 

“All those countries of the international community which are opposing any partnership between Mali and the Wagner Group, all those countries are present there for the past eight years,” Maiga told VOA. 

“I can only say that the government of Mali is assessing the situation, is seeking better ways,” he said. “The day we reach any agreement we will say it, and everybody will know. Whether it is with the Russian state, whether it is with another entity, people will find out.” 

Moscow open to deal 

In contrast to denials from Malian officials, however, Russian officials have welcomed talk of the potential deal with Wagner. 

“They are combating terrorism,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a news conference at the U.N. on Saturday. “And they have turned to a private military company from Russia in connection with the fact that, as I understand, France wants to significantly draw down its military component.” 

“We don’t have anything to do with that,” Lavrov said, adding, “at the government level, we are also contributing to providing for military and defense capacities of Mali.” 

Many Western governments, though, insist that there is little practical difference between the Kremlin and the exploits of the Wagner Group, run by Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin. 

Prigozhin, sometimes called “Putin’s cook” because of his catering company’s work for Russian President Vladimir Putin, is thought to have extensive ties to Russia’s political and military establishments, according to U.S. intelligence officials. 

The U.S. State Department sanctioned Prigozhin and Wagner back in July 2020, as well as several front companies for the group’s operations in Sudan. 

VOA’s Bambara, French to Africa and Hausa services contributed to this report. 
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At least 37 villagers were killed in Nigeria’s north during an attack on a remote village on Sunday, according to witnesses. 

The attack in the Kaura council area in the restive Kaduna state was blamed on a prolonged religious crisis between Hausa-Fulani residents, who mostly reside in the northern part of the state, and the Christians who are concentrated in the south. 

Residents and health workers at the hospitals where corpses and the injured were taken told The Associated Press that assailants arrived at the Madamai village in large numbers with guns and machetes on Sunday evening.

A police spokesman in Kaduna said he has not been briefed about the incident in the area known as a violence hotspot. In August, five people were killed and some houses were burned down during a similar violence outbreak in Kaura. 

On Sunday, “37 people were killed; 35 dead bodies (were) discovered in the village, two (died) in the hospital,” said Derek Christopher, a local nurse at the General Hospital Kafanchan. He said the initial death toll was 30 as of Sunday night. 

Those injured were given urgent medical attention before being referred to the Bingham University Teaching Hospital in Plateau state, which is about 115 kilometers (70 miles) away from the village. 

At the hospital in Plateau, Sunday Eze said he narrowly escaped after being shot by the assailants. 

“They shot me on my hand,” he said, and, when asked how many the gunmen were, added ruefully: “They were plenty; these people.” 

Another resident who is overseeing care for those injured said that the attackers were Fulani herdsmen, referring to herders from the Fulani tribe who have been clashing with the predominantly Christian communities in southern Kaduna for many years. 

“We have gunshots and we have machete cuts,” said Cecilia Simon, a resident doctor. “In the hospital here, we are six (that arrived from the village). This thing is not our fault; maybe it is the fault of the government.” 

In Nigeria’s middle belt and central regions, deadly clashes between local communities and Fulani herdsmen continue in a cycle of violence that has defied measures introduced by authorities including the deployment of thousands of security operatives to restore peace. 

Security operatives deployed to violence hotspots usually leave those areas once their special security operation is over, leaving the remote communities yet again with an inadequate security presence. 

Arrests are rarely carried out, and in Kaduna state, authorities have been accused of failing to act on the reports of government panels set up to investigate the crisis. 

 
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Botswana is set to emerge this week from an 18-month state of emergency that will remove the president’s emergency powers and end pandemic restrictions on trade and gatherings. While many shops, bars, and restaurants want to get back to normal, some in Botswana’s alcohol industry say it’s too soon to lift restrictions on night spots.

The minister of trade and industry, Kgafela Mmusi, says the end of the edict, set for this Thursday, means businesses can revert to normal trading hours. This includes the reopening of nightspots. 

That should be welcome news to Botswana’s alcohol industry, which employs around 50,000 people, including those who work at bars, breweries and distributors. 

But Botswana Beverages Association president Peter Noke warns some establishments might not be ready to reopen. 

Those that do will likely have restrictions, including a ban on dancing.

He said they have requested that dance floors be converted into seating areas.

“There should be sufficient spacing between the tables and there will be no dancing,” he said. “If one wishes to dance, they can only do so while seated.”

Music promoter Zain Aftermath says the decision to eliminate the dance floor is ill-advised. 

“How are you going to open clubs and then say people should not dance? It doesn’t make sense. I wouldn’t leave my house to go to a nightclub, pay and buy alcohol so that I can sit on a chair. It is going to affect attendance in a huge way,” he said.

Workers’ union leader Johannes Tshukudu welcomes the reopening as entertainment industry workers have been mostly out of work since March of last year. But he too, urges caution. 

“We don’t expect full capacity at the beginning, we may decide to have half capacity at the venues so that at least so that we use that as an observation element. We don’t want to see this thing [opening of night clubs] as a trap by the government to justify reintroducing the state of emergency,” he said.

Minister Kgafela says the government will keep an eye on nightspots to ensure compliance with the rules. 
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