Month: September 2022

Tigray’s Leadership Says Drones Used in Ethiopia’s Latest Airstrikes

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As the civil war in Ethiopia rages on, the head of the main hospital in the Tigray region’s capital says two airstrikes Wednesday morning have killed at least ten people.

The first airstrike hit Mekelle, the regional capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray region at around 7.30 a.m. Wednesday morning, according to Dr. Kibrom Gebreselassie, the director of the flagship Ayder hospital in the capital.

The Tigray region’s leadership and doctors at the hospital say the Ethiopian government is using drones for the latest attacks. VOA could not independently verify these allegations.

The second occurred shortly afterward. According to Dr. Kibrom, the attacks hit a “residential” part of the city, attacking civilians.

In total, he said, ten deaths have been confirmed so far. Hospital officials said that other cases were being rushed to surgery both at Ayder and the nearby Mekelle General Hospital.

A surgeon at Ayder Hospital told the Reuters news agency that the second strike hit rescuers who were trying to help people injured by the first attack.

Wednesday’s airstrikes are the latest of several to hit Mekelle since fighting resumed in Tigray in late August. The hostilities ended a truce declared by the federal government in March, which had allowed much-needed aid supplies to reach the northern region.

On Sunday, the Tigray regional leadership called for a cessation of hostilities and said they had set up a team of mediators ready to enter peace talks with the federal government, which has yet to respond to the statement.

Since then, heavy fighting has been reported along Tigray’s northern, southern and western borders.
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US Sets Up Swiss Fund for Afghan Reserves

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The United States said Wednesday it is setting up fund in Switzerland to manage $3.5 billion of Afghan reserves to be used to help stabilize Afghanistan’s economy.

A board of trustees will manage the Afghan Fund.

The U.S. Treasury said the fund will “protect, preserve and make targeted disbursements” of the Afghan money.

The funds could go toward items such as electricity imports, debt payments to international financial institutions and ensuring Afghanistan remains eligible for development aid.

The Taliban-run Afghan government has sought the return of billions of dollars in assets held in U.S. banks.

U.S. Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Ademeyo said in a letter that sending the money to Afghanistan’s central bank would put the funds at risk of not being used for the benefit of the Afghan people.

Some information for this report came from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Taliban Claim Killing 40 Insurgents in Turbulent Northern Afghan Province

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Taliban security forces in Afghanistan have launched a large-scale “clearance operation” against insurgent forces in parts of the turbulent northern Panjshir province, killing dozens of them and capturing many more.

Chief Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA Wednesday that the security action was carried out in three districts of the mountainous province to prevent “rebels” from threatening public security there.

“The clearance operation in Rekha, Dara and Afshar of Panjshir killed 40 rebels, including four commanders, and captured more than 100 others,” Mujahid said.

He said the operation was launched in response to subversive acts by insurgents earlier in the week. “Mujahedeen (security forces) concluded late last night and fighting has died down there.”

Growing insurgency

Critics say the anti-rebel offensive indicates the Taliban are struggling to contain the National Resistance Front, or NRF, a growing insurgency in Panjshir and parts of neighboring Baghlan province since taking over the war-torn country a year ago.

The NRF, which is led by Ahmad Massoud — an ethnic Tajik leader — has in recent months regularly claimed guerrilla attacks against Taliban forces in Panjshir, one of the smallest Afghan provinces. It is located just north of the capital, Kabul.

Until this week, the Taliban have consistently denied reports of widespread fighting in the area and dismissed the NRF as an “opposition force existing merely in social media,” saying they are in control of all of Afghanistan.

Sibghatullah Ahmadi, an NRF spokesman, accused via Twitter the Taliban of executing eight insurgent fighters after capturing them. He went on to claim that the action was in retaliation for repeated fatal NRF guerrilla attacks against Taliban forces over the past few days.

VOA was unable to immediately verify the Taliban or NRF claims from independent sources.

Last month, the Taliban appointed one of their senior military commanders, Abdul Qayum Zakir, to counter NRF activities, reportedly leading to the deployment of large number of security forces in and around Panjshir, with air assets supporting ground operations.

The Taliban regained power in August 2021 when the internationally recognized Afghan government security forces collapsed in the face of stunning nationwide attacks by the then-insurgent group and all international troops withdrew from the country.

Panjshir was at the center of resistance against the Taliban when they were previously ruling the country (from 1996 to 2001) before being ousted by a United States-led foreign military intervention in Afghanistan days after the September 11, 2001 al-Qaida-plotted terror strikes against America. The province also played a crucial role in the U.S.-backed and -funded Afghan armed resistance against Soviet occupation of the country in the 1980s.

Massoud is the son of anti-Taliban mujahedeen commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, whom al-Qaida suicide bombers, posing as journalists, assassinated two days before the 9/11 attacks.

Critics are skeptical whether the NRF could pose a serious threat to the new Taliban rule. They say that unlike their previous stint in power, Taliban fighters are now better armed, possessing U.S. armored vehicles and other sophisticated military weapons left behind by the United States and NATO militaries.
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Nearly 100 Killed in Armenia-Azerbaijan Border Clashes

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Armenia and Azerbaijan reported nearly 100 troop deaths Tuesday in their worst fighting since a 2020 war over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region. 

The last wave of fighting over Azerbaijan’s tense Armenian-populated enclave ended in a fragile truce brokered by Russia.  

But on Tuesday, the defense ministry in Baku said, “50 Azerbaijani servicemen died as a result of Armenia’s large-scale provocation,” while Armenia earlier reported the deaths of at least 49 of its soldiers. 

Azerbaijan accused Armenia of violating the cease-fire after a night of clashes that renewed fears of another all-out conflict between the historic foes. 

Russia said it had reached a cease-fire between the warring parties that brought several hours of relative calm, but Azerbaijan later accused Armenian forces of “intensely” violating the agreement. 

“Despite the declaration of a cease-fire since 9 (Moscow time, 0600 GMT), Armenia is intensively violating the cease-fire along the border by using artillery and other heavy weapons,” Baku’s military said. 

Armenia appealed to world leaders for help after the fighting broke out, accusing Azerbaijan of trying to advance on its territory. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the leaders of both countries Tuesday, with his spokesman saying Washington would “push for an immediate halt to fighting and a peace settlement” between the neighbors. 

French President Emmanuel Macron called his Azerbaijan counterpart Ilham Aliyev on Tuesday to express “great concern” and urge a “return to respecting the cease-fire.” 

He also called for intensified negotiations and offered to contribute along with the European Union, the Elysee said. 

The Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan had earlier spoken with Macron, as well as calling Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Blinken to demand a response to “Azerbaijan’s aggressive acts.” 

Tuesday’s escalation came as Yerevan’s closest ally Moscow, which deployed thousands of peacekeepers in the region after the 2020 war, is distracted by its six-month-old invasion of Ukraine. 

Armenia’s defense ministry said clashes had subsided after the cease-fire but that the situation on the border was still “extremely tense.” 

The defense ministry in Yerevan said the clashes started early Tuesday, with Armenian territory coming under fire from artillery, mortars and drones in the direction of the cities of Goris, Sotk and Jermuk. 

“The enemy is trying to advance” into Armenian territory, it said in a statement. 

Azerbaijan, however, accused Armenia of “large-scale subversive acts” near the districts of Dashkesan, Kelbajar and Lachin, and said its armed forces were taking “limited and targeted steps, neutralizing Armenian firing positions.” 

Baku’s long-standing political and military sponsor Turkey blamed Armenia and urged it instead to “focus on peace negotiations.” 

Iran, which shares a border with both countries, urged “restraint” and a “peaceful resolution” to the fighting. 

The EU and the United Nations expressed concerns over the escalation and called for an end to the fighting. 

Before the cease-fire was announced, Armenia’s security council asked for military help from Moscow, which is obligated under a treaty to defend Armenia in the event of foreign invasion. 

Armenian political analyst Tatul Hakobyan said the escalation in fighting was a consequence of the “deadlock” in Armenian-Azerbaijani peace talks. 

“Azerbaijan wants to force Armenia to recognize Karabakh as part of Azerbaijan,” he told AFP. “The war in Ukraine has changed the balance of forces in the region and Russia, which is a guarantor of peace in the region, is in a very bad shape.  

“In this situation, Azerbaijan wants to get concessions from Armenia as soon as possible,” he added. 

Last week, Armenia accused Azerbaijan of killing one of its soldiers in a border shootout. 

In August, Azerbaijan said it had lost a soldier and the Karabakh army said two of its troops had been killed and more than a dozen wounded. 

The neighbors fought two wars — in the 1990s and in 2020 — over the region. 

The six weeks of brutal fighting in autumn 2020 ended with a Russian-brokered cease-fire. 

Under the deal, Armenia ceded swathes of territory it had controlled for decades, and Moscow deployed about 2,000 Russian peacekeepers to oversee the fragile truce. 

During EU-mediated talks in Brussels in May and April, Aliyev and Pashinyan agreed to “advance discussions” on a future peace treaty. 

Ethnic Armenian separatists in Nagorno-Karabakh broke away from Azerbaijan when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. The ensuing conflict claimed around 30,000 lives. 

 
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Africa Reflects on Queen Elizabeth’s Mixed Legacy

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As Africa reflects on the legacy of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth, Kenyans remember how a princess visiting the country in 1952 left a queen. Analysts note how Elizabeth helped steer the end of Britain’s empire and exploitative colonial rule. But while relations were repaired and improved under the monarch, colonialism left lasting wounds.

The queen’s accession to the throne came as African colonies clamored for independence and she had to supervise the elimination of the British colonial empire.

Macharia Munene, professor of history at the United States International University Africa in Nairobi, said the queen’s reign saw a transition from empire to commonwealth.

“She was able to adjust to the reality of the imperial decline,” Munene said, “and then transform that imperial decline to a good thing, something common that people can be part of, that is the Commonwealth.”

To some Africans, British colonial rule is synonymous with exploitation. They blame the queen, the representative of British interests, for atrocities during that period.

That includes Gitu wa Kahengeri, the secretary general of the Mau Mau War Veterans Association, who was detained during the fight for independence in Kenya.

“I personally will not forget that I was incarcerated for seven years,” he said. “I cannot forget I was put together with my father. I cannot forget I left my children for seven years without food, without education. That, I will never forget.”

But with territorial colonialism now decades gone, memories of British rule in Africa are fading, and people’s views of the queen have changed.

“She was many things to many people,” Munene said. “To the colonial subjects at the time of colonialism, she was the symbol of the evil that was colonialism. With independence, she was able to transform herself to a likeable person. And as a person, she was likeable.”

Queen Elizabeth was widely admired and seen as a role model by many on the continent. Among them is Benedict Yartey from Ghana.

“The legacy she has left will keep her name deeply rooted in the hearts of generations to come,” Yartey said.

Sophia Emmanuelle from South Africa was sympathetic about the queen’s death.

“For me, it’s just sad,” she said. “I can’t really say I take it personally, but I mean it’s sad for people around the world and especially for England.”

Tunde Kamali of Nigeria took a philosophical view of the queen’s death.

“I have never known any other ruler that lasted that long,” Kamali said. “So, for this now to have happened, it only means that every man has an end.”

Analysts say Queen Elizabeth’s biggest legacy is the creation of the Commonwealth. And with the death of the queen, the future of that legacy now lies with King Charles III.
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Russia Offers Excuses for Taliban Closing Schools for Girls

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From the world’s second-smallest state, Monaco, to the most populous country, India, representatives from more than 20 governments and international organizations on Monday condemned the Taliban’s policies of shutting down secondary schools and denying other fundamental rights to Afghan girls and women.

Even Pakistan, the purported benefactor of the Taliban, voiced concern at a United Nations dialogue on human rights in Afghanistan about the denial of education for Afghan girls. The dialogue was part of the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 51st session, which opened Monday in Geneva.

Russia and China notably did not join in the criticism. A Russian diplomat pointed to progress made for women’s rights under the Taliban.

“We note efforts by the new Afghan government to ensure the rights of women and girls in the areas of marriage and property inheritance,” a Russian representative told the U.N. event, adding that more than 130,000 women are employed in the health and education sectors.

No Taliban representative was present at the event because the U.N. does not recognize the Taliban’s so-called Islamic Emirate as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. Instead, diplomats of the former Afghan government are still accredited as Afghan representatives at U.N. headquarters in New York and Geneva.

The Russian diplomat further said that some schools were closed because the Taliban could not afford to set up segregated classrooms for girls. He blamed the United States and other Western donors for freezing aid to Afghanistan and imposing sanctions on the Taliban which, according to the Russian diplomat, have adversely affected the Afghan education sector.

“We call on the U.S. and the U.K. and their satellites — instead of issuing new demands to the Taliban, to begin fulfilling their own obligations for the past conflict,” he said, adding that the current crisis in Afghanistan was a result of the past two decades of U.S. intervention there.

While calling for the return of girls to secondary schools in Afghanistan, a Chinese representative also avoided criticizing the Taliban’s policy.

“We call on the countries concerned to respect sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country and to lift unilateral sanctions,” the Chinese representative said.

Monday’s statement was the strongest that any Russian official has made in support of the Taliban.

“The Russian representative’s statements in Geneva aren’t consistent with what Russia has said before in other settings about Afghanistan,” John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA.

“As recently as this June, Russia agreed to a strongly worded statement by the U.N. Security Council about Afghanistan in which the Security Council as a bloc, including Russia, called on the Taliban to let girls go to school.”

Even the Taliban have not said that Western sanctions and the resulting economic problems have forced them to shut secondary schools for girls. Taliban officials have offered religious and cultural justifications for their decision against secondary education for girls.

“We recognize that the economic crisis is impacting the humanitarian situation. We agree about that. But the idea that it’s responsible for the fact that [the] Taliban do not let girls go to secondary schools is absurd. It is preposterous. It is a lie,” said Sifton.

Women ‘erased’

The U.N. and human rights groups accuse the Taliban of implementing policies that are aimed at erasing women from the public spheres.

“There is no country in the world where women and girls have so rapidly been deprived of their fundamental human rights purely because of gender,” Richard Bennett, U.N. special rapporteur on Afghanistan, told the U.N. Human Rights Council’s 51st session.

“Do you know what that feeling is, to be erased?” Mahbouba Seraj, an Afghan women’s rights activist, asked the same session. “I’m erased, and I don’t know what else to do. … How many times am I supposed to yell and scream and say, ‘World, pay attention to us. We are dying’?”

The Taliban have defended their policies toward Afghan women while accusing the U.N. and rights activists of spreading “malicious propaganda” against their de facto government.

“Today, nothing threatens the lives of women in Afghanistan, and no woman or her loved ones die in the war or raids,” said a Taliban statement issued in response to Bennett’s report. “There are 181 public and private universities open for men and women in the country, and thousands of women work in education, higher education, public health, passport and national identification bureaus, airports, police, media, banks and other sectors.”

Such statements, however, are viewed with deep skepticism outside Taliban circles.

The Taliban have become increasingly authoritarian, clamping down on freedom of expression and denying people their civic and political rights, the U.N. has reported.

At the U.N. event, representatives from many countries called for stronger international pressure on the Taliban to respect women’s rights.

“Anyone seeking to participate in the international system must respect [women’s rights]. If we don’t all insist on that, then shame on us,” said Michèle Taylor, U.S. representative to the U.N. Human Rights Council.

In April, the U.N. General Assembly suspended Russia from the Human Rights Council because of the country’s reported atrocities in Ukraine.
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Pakistan Scrambles to Deliver Aid as Flood Death Toll Rises

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Pakistan scrambled to deliver aid to those most in need on Tuesday as the death toll from record-breaking floods in this impoverished Islamic nation rose further, with no respite in sight from the unprecedented monsoon rains.

The rains started early this year — in mid-June — and swept away entire villages, bridges and roads, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless. At one point, a third of the country’s territory was inundated with water.

Authorities said the overall death toll reached 1,481 on Tuesday, with 54 more people dying in rain-related floods in the past 24 hours, with the majority of those deaths in the hard-hit province of Sindh. Experts have said that climate change has been blamed in large part for the deluge, the worst in recent memory.

Sherry Rehman, Pakistan’s minister for climate change, warned that the rains, which had abated late last month only to restart this week, are predicted to continue lashing much of the country in the coming weeks.

Rehman also expressed fears the downpours would hamper ongoing rescue and relief operations in flood-hit areas, where swirling deluges from overflowing rivers, fast melting glaciers and floods have already affected 33 million people.

So far, rescuers have evacuated 179,281 people from flood-hit areas.

It will take up to six months to drain water in flood-hit areas, officials say. Waterborne diseases have already sickened thousands of people in flood-stricken areas — and now there are fears of mosquito-borne dengue fever. Mosquitos have spread, due to stagnant waters following the flooding.

“With 584,246 people in camps throughout the country, (the) health crisis could wreak havoc,” Rehman said in a statement.

She added that so far, the southern port city of Karachi has registered an outbreak of dengue fever. Karachi is also the capital of Sindh province, one of the regions worst affected by the floods.

The floods have also destroyed crops, including 70% of the onion harvest, along with rice and corn, Rehman said. Much of the country’s agriculture belt is underwater and Pakistan is in talks with several nations to import wheat. Iran has already dispatched fresh vegetables to Pakistan.

In Sindh, officials said more downpours could delay the return of about 600,000 people from camps to their villages, towns and other urban areas. Strong winds the previous day blew away several relief camps in remote areas in Sindh.

Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s government has started distributing money to those who lost homes in the flooding to help them restart their lives.

State media also quoted Sharif as telling his Cabinet on Tuesday that despite the fact that Pakistan emits less than 1% of heat-trapping carbon dioxide, it faces widespread damages from climate-induced floods, disproportionately more than other nations.

The floods have damaged 1.7 million homes, according to the National Disaster Management Agency. Thousands of pregnant women are living in tents and makeshift homes.

Initially, Pakistan estimated that the floods caused $10 billion in damages, but authorities now say the damages are far greater. The devastation has forced the United Nations to urge the international community to send more help.

So far, U.N. agencies and various countries, including the United States, have sent about 90 planeloads of aid. Last week, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres traveled to flood-hit areas in southern and southwestern Pakistan to see first-hand the extent of the disaster.

“I appeal for massive support from the international community as Pakistan responds to this climate catastrophe,” Guterres tweeted from Pakistan. Earlier, he had called on the world to stop “sleepwalking” through the dangerous environmental crisis.

As Pakistani authorities contend with the unprecedented flooding, security forces are also struggling with militant attacks. According to Pakistan’s military, three soldiers were killed in the country’s northwest by militant fire from across the Afghan border. The attack hit a border security post in Kurram, a district in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The military in a statement said the shooting came from the Afghan side of the frontier.

On Tuesday, a roadside bomb struck a vehicle carrying local village leaders and police in the flood-hit Swat Valley in the northwest, killing five people, including two policemen. No group claimed responsibility for the bombing, and Saeed Khan, a police officer in Swat, said they are still investigating.
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Ukraine War Overshadows SCO Summit in Uzbekistan

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Excitement is building in Uzbekistan ahead of this week’s Shanghai Cooperation Organization meeting, where Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will be the most prominent among more than a dozen world leaders visiting the Central Asian nation.

“The world is coming to Samarkand” has been the theme of the preparations for the annual meeting, to be hosted by the group’s current chairman, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

“All SCO member states are our closest neighbors, friends and strategic partners,” he said in a prepared statement ahead of the summit.

Mirziyoyev, who believes that Samarkand, the medieval capital of the empire of Uzbekistan’s national hero Amir Temur, will be a dramatic backdrop for the gathering of leaders from eight SCO member and three observer states alongside several dialogue partner countries.

Putin and Xi, who are expected to meet one-on-one on the sidelines of the two-day event, will be joined by leaders from India, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan and Tajikistan.

Leaders from the SCO observer nations — Belarus, Iran and Mongolia — are also expected at the September 15-16 summit, with the leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey and Turkmenistan invited as special guests. Afghanistan’s future in the group is not certain because of the Taliban takeover.

The SCO was originally a Chinese vehicle, founded as the “Shanghai Five” to help settle lingering border disputes. Today, its member states include more than 3.5 billion people. Mirziyoyev aims to boost its unity and impact. “After a three-year pandemic that has caused serious disruption in trade, economic and industrial ties, the countries and peoples of the SCO need to communicate directly,” he said Monday in Tashkent.

But Evan Feigenbaum, vice president at the Carnegie Endowment in Washington and a former deputy assistant secretary of state, says that unity has been elusive.

“The group struggles to tackle core security issues because it includes longtime antagonists like India and Pakistan. And it has struggled to drive regional economic integration because it is neither a trade pact nor an investment vehicle and its members often disagree about specific infrastructure and development schemes,” he told VOA.

The biggest challenge to Uzbekistan’s big summit lies to the west—in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Some SCO members like Kazakhstan have publicly signaled their discomfort with Russia’s war.

Feigenbaum noted that while China has “fostered a strategic entente with Moscow” to counter Washington, “it has tried to straddle on the war by leavening its diplomatic support for Russia with a policy of complying with most Western sanctions.”

In attending the SCO summit, Xi is making his first trip outside China in nearly three years. “If he abandons this ‘Beijing straddle’ and leans ever harder into Chinese support for Russia, he risks driving a wedge with Central Asian neighbors while injecting rancor into the group” instead of the “unity” Mirziyoyev wants.

Uzbekistan’s one-year SCO chairmanship “has fallen in a dynamic and fraught period when one global era comes to an end and another begins,” Feigenbaum said.

VOA’s conversations with Uzbek intellectuals and professionals reflect this excitement but also cynicism about the summit.

Javohir Kudratov, a doctor, believes that Uzbekistan seeks prestige, credibility and investment by staging such a grandiose event in its “Silk Road jewel city,” highlighting that SCO members generate a quarter of the world’s GDP.

“Millions within the bloc rightly want concrete results and benefits from this event. But we also realize that the summit looks more like a ‘chaykhana’ for the leaders of countries who don’t get along and who have not been out for a while,” says Kudratov.

Chaykhana is a Central Asian teahouse where men meet dally over a cup of tea, share traditional dishes like plov, and discuss current affairs. It’s not a place for solutions but can enable candid exchanges.

Feruza Azimova, a young researcher in Tashkent, agreed with Kudratov, adding that each guest will come with his list of grievances and proposals. “I’m not sure what we gain from this summit other than private discussions. I doubt those will translate into anything real that we can see and feel.”

Uzbekistan has built dozens of new structures in Samarkand for this summit, spending millions. It’s useful investment, say officials, since the city needs world class hotels, business centers and conference halls.

Uzbeks are also excited about the expected talks between the leaders of Russia and China, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Iran and Turkey.

“Let’s see whether we just get dry official statements,” said a Samarkand-based entrepreneur who has business interests in Turkey, Russia and China. Requesting anonymity, he pointed to deep corruption within the SCO, arguing that the bloc is still run by Moscow and Beijing, no matter how hard Uzbekistan has pushed for relevance by focusing on security, economy and climate.

“The SCO is strong if each of us is strong,” Mirziyoyev said in his Monday statement. “The ongoing armed conflicts in different parts of the world destabilize trade and investment flows, exacerbate the problems of ensuring food and energy security.”

“Global climate shocks, growing scarcity of natural and water resources, decline in biodiversity, spread of dangerous infectious diseases have exposed the vulnerability of our societies as never before.”

The SCO has no history of tackling these issues, although it has developed cooperative structures on, for example, counternarcotics.

Sharofiddin Tulaganov, a political commentator in Tashkent, told VOA that the world should be pragmatic about the summit.

“It’s an annual event hosted by a chair. While it is remarkable that Xi will attend because he has not been out in the international arena since the pandemic, and the Russian leader has not been traveling much abroad because of the war in Ukraine, we still don’t know what these presidents will discuss,” he said.

“I expect Beijing to act as calm as ever, without emotion, urging the SCO to be more effective but not necessarily pushing for it to compete with NATO and act against the West.”

Tulaganov sees India and Pakistan taking the same geostrategic line. “These countries don’t want the SCO to position itself as an anti-Western bloc. Tashkent shares that view, promoting a “Samarkand spirit” of peace, mutual trust, and respect.

“China and Turkey are the only states at the summit who can ask Putin to stop the war in Ukraine, but we don’t know how they do that. It’s a polarized world and Uzbekistan clearly does not want to be pushed around and pressured to choose a side.”

Since Russia, China, Belarus, and Iran are all under Western sanctions, they may express their resentments toward Washington and Brussels. But no expert VOA talked with expects Washington or Brussels to be angered at Uzbekistan.

“We know that Americans and Europeans understand the geopolitical predicament Uzbekistan and rest of Central Asia are in,” said Tulaganov.
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In Photos: Queen Elizabeth’s Final Journey from Scotland to London

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The coffin of Queen Elizabeth is flown to London from the Scottish capital of Edinburgh after lying in St. Giles’ Cathedral. In London, her coffin will be driven to Buckingham Palace, her official home.
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Queen Elizabeth’s Legacy in Africa a Mixed Bag

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As Africa reflects on the legacy of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, Kenyans remember how a princess visiting the country in 1952 left a queen. Analysts note how Elizabeth helped steer the end of Britain’s empire and exploitative colonial rule. But while relations were repaired and improved under the monarch, colonialism left lasting wounds, as Juma Majanga reports from VOA’s Africa News Center in Nairobi, Kenya. VOA footage by Amos Wangwa.
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Plastics, Waste Burning on Agenda at African Environment Conference  

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More than 50 African environment ministers are gathering in Senegal this week for the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment. Plastics and the harmful burning of waste are high on the agenda.

The conference is taking place in the wake of major flooding and drought throughout the continent, which have aggravated food insecurity, damaged vital infrastructure and cost fragile economies billions of dollars.

On top of these disasters is the issue of plastic pollution and the burning of waste, which releases methane and other harmful gases into the environment.

Richard Munang is the deputy regional director of the United Nations Environment Program’s Africa office.

“If that is not addressed, it will not only end up creating inconvenience in the cities, but at the same time the open burning is causing outdoor pollution. And so, converting that waste into opportunities like recycling plastic waste into plastic tiles, where young people can learn skills, will create jobs,” he said.

About 600,000 million Africans die from air pollution-related illnesses each year, according to the U.N. Environment Program.

The ministers in attendance will also discuss the development of an international agreement on plastic pollution — a major issue in African countries where waste management systems and anti-littering education are often lacking.

“We have to ensure that Africa calls out the major causes: the producers who cause the problem of plastic to take action in curbing plastic production, removing harmful substances in the production and looking at the redesign of the product,” said Griffins Ochieng, the executive director of the Center for Environmental Justice and Development.

John Kerry, the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, is expected to attend the conference Wednesday and Thursday to discuss methane emissions, climate adaptation and waste management.

Badgie Dawda, the executive director of Gambia’s National Environment Agency says he hopes the event will allow attendees to create meaningful partnerships that span the globe.

“It is important for us to work as a team, look at areas of concern, and maximize how best we can work on those issues. The environment has no boundaries. What affects us here also goes to other parts of the world,” he said.

The conference will continue through Friday.
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EU Wants to Assess Media Mergers for Media Pluralism, Editorial Independence

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The European Union wants to enact tougher rules for media groups seeking to acquire smaller rivals on whether their deals ensure media pluralism and safeguard editorial independence, according to draft EU rules seen by Reuters.

The Media Freedom Act (MFA), which the European Commission will present later this week, comes during concerns about media freedom in Poland, Hungary and Slovenia.

The EU is also worried about the allocation of some countries’ state advertising to pro-government outlets to influence the media.

The rules will apply to TV and radio broadcasters, on-demand audiovisual media services, press publications and very large online platforms and providers of video-sharing platforms.

They will need to be thrashed out with EU countries and lawmakers before they can become law in a process likely to take a year or more.

The concerns around media freedoms have grown ahead of European Parliament elections in 2024.

“It should be considered whether other media outlets, providing different and alternative content, would still coexist in the given market(s) after the media market concentration in question,” the document said.

Editorial independence safeguards should consider undue interference by owners, management or governance structures, it added.

The proposed rules also require regulators to examine whether the merging companies would remain economically sustainable if there was no deal.

The EU executive and a new European Board for Media Services can offer their opinions on whether the two criteria have been met.

State advertising to media service providers should be transparent and non-discriminatory, the document said.

The proposed rules set out the right of journalists and media service providers not to be detained, sanctioned, subjected to surveillance or search and seizure by EU

governments and regulatory bodies.
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‘Spend With Ukraine’ – New Online Platform Promotes Ukrainian Companies Amid War

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In addition to fighting on the front lines, Ukrainians are fighting on the economic battlefront. Businesses are trying to survive, and with a bit of help, succeed. A new online platform helps them do just that. Lesia Bakalets has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Andre Sergunin.
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Armenia, Azerbaijan Clash Along Border 

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Fresh clashes broke out Tuesday between Armenia and Azerbaijan, with each side reporting casualties and blaming the other for the violence.

Armenia said Azerbaijani forces attacked several points near the border, killing 49 Armenian soldiers.

Azerbaijan said Armenian forces fired on its positions, leaving an unspecified number of casualties.

The two countries have had a decades-long conflict involving the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which is inside Azerbaijan but populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.

A six-week war in 2020 killed more than 6,600 people and saw Azerbaijan reclaim territory in and around the region.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on the two sides to “end any military hostilities immediately,” saying in a statement that there is no military solution to the conflict.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry also urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to resolve the conflict through political and diplomatic means.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Hospital Official: Airstrike Hits Capital of Ethiopia’s Tigray Region

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An airstrike wounded at least one person on Tuesday in Mekelle, the capital of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, a hospital official said, two days after Tigrayan forces said they were ready for a cease-fire with the federal government.

The strike hit the business campus of Mekelle University and Dimitsi Woyane TV station, which is run by the regional government, said Kibrom Gebreselassie, the chief executive officer at Ayder Referral Hospital. He cited a witness who arrived with a man wounded in the strike.

Getachew Reda, spokesperson for the regional government, said on Twitter that the business campus had been hit by drones.

Ethiopian military spokesperson Colonel Getnet Adane and government spokesperson Legesse Tulu did not respond to requests for comment.

The airstrike is the third to hit Mekelle since the nearly two-year-old conflict resumed late last month after a five-month cease-fire. Each side blames the other for the renewed fighting.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which governs Tigray, said on Sunday it was ready for a cease-fire without preconditions and would accept an African Union-led peace process. 

Diplomats described the offer as a potential breakthrough. The Ethiopian government has not yet officially responded.

Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, appointed as the AU’s chief mediator, met with the American envoy to the Horn of Africa region, Mike Hammer, on Monday, Djibouti’s former ambassador to Ethiopia, Mohamed Idriss Farah, who was also present, said in a tweet.

The TPLF dominated national politics for nearly three decades until Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed came to power in 2018.

The TPLF accuses Abiy of centralizing power at the expense of Ethiopia’s regions. Abiy denies this and accuses the TPLF of trying to reclaim power, which it denies.

Journalists arrested

The conflict has also repeatedly spilled into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.

Two Amhara journalists who publicly criticized the federal government were arrested last week, according to a police document seen by Reuters. The Amhara region, Ethiopia’s second most populous, has been a key part of Abiy’s powerbase.

Gobeze Sisay, the founder of Voice of Amhara, was accused of supporting the TPLF on social media. Meaza Mohamed, a journalist with Roha Media, was accused of encouraging Amhara people to allow the TPLF to pass through their areas, the police document showed.

“Amhara people, especially those close to the Tigrayan border — we are tired of war,” Gobeze said in a Facebook post a week ago.

Amhara journalists, politicians and militia members were among thousands arrested during a regional crackdown in May; some still remain in prison.

An Ethiopian government spokesperson, the head of the Ethiopian Media Authority and a police spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said last month it had documented the arrest of at least 63 journalists and media workers since the conflict erupted.
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Kenya Swears in President Ruto After Heated Elections

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Kenya’s new president, William Ruto, was sworn in Tuesday after a tightly contested election and a narrow win against his rival, Raila Odinga, who declined to attend the inauguration.

Tens of thousands of Kenyans and at least 20 heads of state gathered at Moi International Sports Center in Nairobi to witness the ceremony.

Many people tried to force their way into the stadium, and Kenya’s Red Cross communications manager Peter Abwao said first responders treated about 40 people with minor injuries.

“There were those who tried to jump over the fence and then some fell. Some sustained cuts,” Abwao said. “There were no major injuries as such, and they have been given first aid. Our teams are on the ground in case of anything, but the situation is calm.”

Ruto takes the reins of power from outgoing President Uhuru Kenyatta, his former boss.

As deputy president, Ruto fell out with Kenyatta, who supported Odinga in last month’s election.

Odinga lost with 6.9 million votes to Ruto’s 7.1 million in an election marked by low voter turnout, a split election commission, and allegations of fraud by Odinga.

Despite supporting Odinga, Kenyatta welcomed the incoming president with a tour of State House, the Kenyan president’s official residence.

He urged Ruto to work for all Kenyans without favoritism.

President Ruto faces the daunting tasks of lowering a high cost of living and managing a massive debt after years of borrowing.

He vowed to work for all Kenyans, reduce external borrowing, and deal with corruption.
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