Month: September 2022

US Condemns Latest Round of Tigray Conflict 

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The White House has condemned last week’s resumption of conflict that threatens to fuel famine and destabilize the Horn of Africa, following the collapse of the five-month cease-fire in northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region.

“We condemn Eritrea’s reentry into the conflict, the continuing TPLF offensive outside of Tigray and the Ethiopian government’s airstrikes,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Friday.

She urged the parties to cease hostilities. “There is no military solution to the conflict.”

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) have blamed each other for the latest round of violence. The TPLF is an armed political movement that led the country as part of a ruling coalition for more than 20 years but has now been designated as a terrorist organization by Addis Ababa.

Jean-Pierre said U.S. Special Envoy for the Horn of Africa Mike Hammer is set to travel to Ethiopia this weekend to urge parties to engage in negotiations to end the nearly two-year-old conflict. This would be Hammer’s second visit in a month — he was there August 2 with his European Union counterpart, Annette Weber, to facilitate the beginning of talks.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that a return to active conflict “would result in widespread suffering, human rights abuses, and further economic hardships.”

Nearly half a million Ethiopians may have died from violence and famine and more than 1.6 million people have been displaced by this conflict, according to researchers at the University of Ghent.

US role

Washington can provide incentives for negotiations as it is the leading source of development assistance to Ethiopia and a key source of future investment that will be critical for rebuilding after the conflict, said Joseph Siegle, director of research at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, National Defense University.

“The United States can also reaffirm its commitment to accelerating efforts to help address the acute humanitarian crisis generated by the conflict,” Siegle told VOA. “It will also be important to reinforce to both sides that this conflict revolves around a political dispute — how Tigray can be reintegrated as part of a federal Ethiopia while retaining meaningful autonomy.”

Siegle said Washington can also clearly convey to regional actors, including Sudan, Egypt and the Gulf states, the need to refrain from amplifying the conflict. “If the Tigray conflict were to be regionalized, it would become even more difficult to resolve and could become more destabilizing for the region,” he said.

It is unclear how much pressure the Biden administration can wield to bring parties to the table. Last year, the administration suspended Addis Ababa from the tariff-free African Growth and Opportunity Act, which provides tariff-free access to the U.S. market for African manufacturers.
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US Ambassador to Sudan Vows to Support Country’s Transition to Civilian Rule

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The first U.S. ambassador to Sudan in 25 years has vowed to support the country’s transition to civilian rule. John Godfrey spoke while presenting his credentials Thursday to Sudan’s military-led government.

Godfrey presented his credential documents as the new U.S. ambassador to Sudan in a ceremony at Sudan’s presidential palace.

The document was presented to Sudan’s military leader, Abdul Fattah Al-Burhan, who led the coup against the civilian government in October last year.

Al-Burhan, the chairman of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council, welcomed the return of a U.S. ambassador to Sudan after a 25-year absence.

He stressed the importance of developing relations between Khartoum and Washington and said he hoped Godfrey’s appointment represents a new impetus for the two countries’ relationship.

Speaking to reporters in Arabic after the diplomatic ceremony, Godfrey expressed the commitment of the U.S. to build new relations with Sudan.

In Arabic, Godfrey said, “I am so happy to be the new ambassador of the United States in Sudan after more than 25 years. I am happy to have this opportunity to work in Sudan and get to understand its people and their cultures more closely.”

Godfrey was named by the White House as the new ambassador to Sudan in early January. The U.S. Congress approved his appointment in July, and he arrived in Khartoum last week to assume his post.

Ties between the United States and Sudan were severely strained under the three-decade rule of ousted President Omar al-Bashir, with Washington slapping crippling economic sanctions on Khartoum.

The U.S. government blacklisted Sudan in 1993 as a state sponsor of terrorism because the Bashir administration hosted al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden, who resided in the country between 1992 and 1996.

The ambassador’s arrival comes as Sudan reels from deepening unrest and a sinking economy.

Godfrey said the U.S government hopes to see an inclusive civilian-led government restored in Sudan to complete the remaining transitional period.

“We expect to see the establishment of a new government led by civilians in Sudan within a comprehensive dialogue that supports all Sudanese political parties,” he said, “including the democratic supporting forces.”

Godfrey previously worked as the acting special envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.

He also formerly worked as the acting deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
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Battle Over Energy Supplies Between Russia, West Heats Up 

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An energy battle between Russia and the West over the war in Ukraine revved up Friday with Moscow delaying the reopening of its main gas pipeline to Germany and G-7 nations announcing a price cap on Russian oil exports.

Russian energy giant Gazprom said it could not resume the supply of natural gas to Germany, just hours before it was set to restart deliveries through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline. Russia blamed a technical fault in the pipeline for the move, which is likely to worsen Europe’s energy crisis.

European Commission spokesperson Eric Mamer said Friday on Twitter that Gazprom acted under “fallacious pretenses” to shut down the pipeline.

Moscow has blamed Western sanctions that took effect after Russia invaded Ukraine for hindering the maintenance of the gas pipeline. Europe accuses Russia of using its leverage over gas supplies to retaliate against European sanctions.

Also Friday, finance ministers from the Group of Seven wealthy democracies said they would work quickly to implement a price cap on Russian oil exports.

The G-7 ministers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States said the amount of the price cap would be determined later “based on a range of technical inputs.”

“This price cap on Russian oil exports is designed to reduce [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s revenues, closing an important source of funding for the war of aggression,” said German Finance Minister Christian Lindner.

The jockeying for control of energy supplies comes as Russian and Ukrainian forces engaged in fighting near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, where U.N. inspectors are seeking to avert a potential disaster.

Ukraine’s military said Friday that it had carried out strikes against a Russian base in the southern town of Enerhodar, near the nuclear power plant.

Russia and Ukraine accuse each other of shelling near the facility. Kyiv also accuses Moscow of storing ammunition around the plant and using it as a shield for carrying out attacks, charges Russia denies.

Inspectors from the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have visited the Zaporizhzhia plant, braving artillery blasts to reach the facility on Thursday.

Ukraine’s nuclear agency, Energoatom, on Friday accused Russia of “making every effort” to prevent the IAEA mission from learning the real situation at the facility.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Thursday, “Ukraine did everything to make this mission happen. But it is bad that the occupiers are trying to turn this IAEA mission — a really necessary one — into a fruitless tour of the plant.”

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi, leading the inspection group, told reporters Thursday the agency was “establishing our continued presence” at Europe’s biggest nuclear facility. He said it was obvious that the “physical integrity” of the Zaporizhzhia plant “has been violated several times.”

Grossi said, “I worried, I worry, and I will continue to be worried about the plant.”

The Zaporizhzhia plant has been controlled by Russia since the earliest days of its invasion but is operated by Ukrainian engineers.

With the nuclear plant in a war zone, world leaders have expressed fears it could be damaged and result in a radiation disaster like that at Ukraine’s Chernobyl plant in 1986.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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What’s Behind Violence in Ethiopia’s ‘Other’ Conflict?

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In Ethiopia’s Gambella region, a June attack on the capital by rebels has raised fears of more civil war spreading in the country.

In Gambella city, security has been beefed up. Officials say local police have started working in cooperation with troops recently sent to the region by the federal government.

A major attack by two rebel groups, the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and the Gambella Liberation Front (GLF), caught the city by surprise in June. Local media said up to 37 people were killed.

Analysts said it was the first time the Oromo conflict, a decades-old fight among local, federal forces and ethnic Oromo rebels, had reached Gambella city.

One witness, Abdu Abubeker, a civil servant, recounted seeing the OLA enter the city. He said the shooting began around 6 a.m.; no one was expecting it, so no one was prepared.

The groups got as far as the regional council building, he said. “They entered the city from three directions. I think the Gambella Liberation Front was leading the OLA.”

Less than a week later, in the Oromia region, OLA militants killed around 400 ethnic Amhara.

The rapid uptick in violence in what Human Rights Watch calls Ethiopia’s “other conflict” has led some to question whether it constitutes a second civil war for the country.

Information from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project shows that from August 2021 to July 2022, there were 3,784 deaths linked to the OLA, compared with 651 the previous year.

Fuel for insurgency

William Davison, an analyst with International Crisis Group, a Belgium-based research organization, said the increased violence is the result of long-standing grievances related to Oromo self-determination and lack of political representation in Ethiopia’s federal system, especially since the current government came to power in 2018.

“I think that added fuel to the Oromo Liberation Army insurgency, after a failure to reintegrate those fighters and their rebellion,” Davison said.

The Oromo are the largest ethnic group in the country.

Davison was asked if the conflict is as significant as Ethiopia’s headline-grabbing war with Tigrayan rebels in the north of the country.

“It probably doesn’t immediately threaten the regional government authority in Adama or the federal government authority in Addis Ababa,” he said, “but it is affecting a huge number of people in Oromia, as well as leading to direct violence that’s killing combatants and civilians.”

For now, Gambella is calm, but less than 10 kilometers beyond its outskirts, there are regular firefights with the OLA, local police say.

Local officials are keen to project stability. Chankot Chote, head of the Gambella Regional State Peace and Security Office, said that with the help of the special forces, federal police and regular police, and the community, the situation has improved. He added that although the OLA is trying to attack on the outskirts of town, it will never enter the city again.

The OLA is an offshoot of another rebel group, the Oromo Liberation Front, which signed a peace deal with the Ethiopian government in 2018.
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Treatment Improves Cognition in Down Syndrome Patients

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A new hormone treatment improved the cognitive function of six men with Down syndrome by 10% to 30%, scientists said this week, adding the “promising” results may raise hopes of improving patients’ quality of life.

However, the scientists emphasized the small study did not point toward a cure for the cognitive disorders of people with Down syndrome and that far more research is needed.

“The experiment is very satisfactory, even if we remain cautious,” Nelly Pitteloud of Switzerland’s Lausanne University Hospital, co-author of a new study in the journal Science, said Thursday.

Down syndrome is the most common genetic form of intellectual disability, occurring in about one in 1,000 people, according to the World Health Organization.

Yet previous research has failed to significantly improve cognition when applied to people with the condition, which is why the latest findings are “particularly important,” the study said.

Recent discoveries have suggested that how the gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) is produced in the brain can affect cognitive functioning such as memory, language and learning.

GnRH hormones regulate how much testosterone and estrogen are produced, and increased levels of it help spur puberty.

“We wondered if this hormone could play any role in establishing the symptoms of people with Down syndrome,” said Vincent Prevot, study co-author and head of neuroscience research at France’s INSERM institute.

Research on mice

The team first established that five strands of microRNA regulating the production of GnRH were dysfunctional in mice specifically engineered for Down syndrome research.

They then demonstrated that cognitive deficiencies — as well as loss of smell, a common symptom of Down syndrome — were linked to dysfunctioning GnRH secretion in the mice.

The team then gave the mice a GnRH medication used to treat low testosterone and delayed puberty in humans, finding that it restored some cognitive function and sense of smell.

A pilot study was conducted in Switzerland involving seven men with Down syndrome aged 20 to 50.

They each received the treatment through their arm every two hours over a period of six months, with the drug delivered in pulses to mimic the hormone’s frequency in people without Down syndrome.

Cognition and smell tests were carried out during the treatment, as were MRI scans.

Six of the seven men showed improvement in cognition with no significant side effects, and none showed a change in sense of smell.

“We have seen an improvement of between 10% to 30% in cognitive functions, in particular with visuospatial function, three-dimensional representation, understanding of instructions as well as attention,” Pitteloud said.

The patients were asked to draw a simple 3D bed at several stages throughout the therapy. Many struggled at the beginning but by the end the efforts were noticeably better.

‘Improve quality of life’

The authors acknowledged some limitations of the study, including its size and that the choice of patients was “pushed by their parents.”

“The clinical trial only focused on seven male patients — we still have a lot of work to do to prove the effectiveness of GnRH treatment for Down syndrome,” Pitteloud said.

A larger study involving a placebo and 50 to 60 patients, a third of them women, is expected to begin in the coming months.

“We are not going to cure the cognitive disorders of people with Down syndrome, but the improvement seen in our results already seems fundamental enough to hope to improve their quality of life,” Pitteloud said.

Fabian Fernandez, an expert in cognition and Down syndrome at the University of Arizona who was not involved in the research, hailed the “tour de force study.”

He told AFP that while it is “difficult to envision” how such an intensive treatment could be used for young people, it might be better suited to delay the Alzheimer’s disease-related dementia suffered by many adults with Down syndrome.

It was also difficult to predict how such an improvement could impact the lives of people with the condition, he said.

“For some, it could be significant, however, as it would enable them to be more independent with daily living activities such as maintaining and enjoying hobbies, finding belongings, using appliances in the home and traveling alone.”
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Pakistan’s Catastrophic Rains Threaten National Food Security  

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Weeks of catastrophic flooding in Pakistan, triggered by climate change-driven erratic monsoon rains, have raised fears of acute food shortages and further spread of waterborne deadly diseases in the country of about 220 million people.  

 

Pakistani officials estimate a third of the South Asian nation, an area the size of the United Kingdom, has been left underwater by the flooding, destroying almost half of its croplands.  

 

The United Nations said Friday that the torrential rains “have broken a century-long record,” dumping more than five times the 30-year average for rainfall in some provinces.  

 

This has caused widespread flooding and landslides, with severe repercussions for human lives, property and infrastructure, according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.  

 

“Initial estimates on the ground suggest that at least 3.6 million acres of crops/orchards across the country have already been affected. The livestock sector has also experienced severe losses, with over 733,000 livestock reportedly killed,” it said. 

 

Since mid-June, when seasonal rains began, more than 1,200 people have been killed, including 416 children, and at least 6,000 others have been injured. More than 1.1 million houses have been washed away or damaged, and 33 million residents in 80 hardest-hit districts will require some form of assistance, according to Pakistani officials. 

 

Nearly 500,000 people are in relief camps, while many more are displaced and being hosted by other households. 

 

The Pakistan military said Friday that its rescue teams had evacuated an additional 2,000 people from calamity-hit districts, bringing to 50,000 the total number of individuals moved to safer locations since rescue operations began. 

 

Southwestern Baluchistan, southern Sindh and parts of central Punjab provinces have been badly hit by the floods.  

 

The U.N. Population Fund says at least 650,000 pregnant women and girls, 73,000 of whom are expected to deliver in the next month, are among the victims. It says many of the women lack access to health care facilities and support they need to deliver their children safely. 

 

“Most births in Pakistan happen at home, and with almost 1 million homes destroyed, many women don’t know where they will deliver their babies,” Human Rights Watch said Friday.

“Pakistan’s disastrous floods highlight not only how the effects of the climate crisis are unevenly shared geographically, but also the disproportionate impact on women and girls,” the group said. 

 

Fears of more child deaths 

 

Abdullah Fadil, the Pakistan representative of the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said Friday that at least 18,000 schools had been damaged or destroyed in the floods, which have affected an estimated 16 million children, including 3.4 million who need humanitarian support. 

 

“Many children are now at heightened risk, without a home, school or even safe drinking water,” Fadil said. “There is therefore a risk of many more child deaths. And the situation will only continue to deteriorate as winter is just eight weeks away in some parts of the country.” 

 

He said that communities were increasingly having to resort to open defecation without adequate sanitation, putting them at high risk of contracting diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dengue and malaria. 

 

Pakistani and U.N. officials said relief and rescue operations were still hard to conduct, noting that more than 5,000 kilometers of roads and 243 bridges had been damaged or destroyed by floodwaters.  

 

“Yet lifesaving rescue and relief efforts are indispensable, and UNICEF is distributing humanitarian supplies in all affected provinces,” Fadil said. The supplies include drinking water; hygiene kits; medicines; water purification tablets; vaccines; therapeutic food for children, pregnant and lactating women; and mosquito nets.

“The sad reality is, as we have seen all around the world, climate change is making extreme weather events more frequent and more destructive, and it is children who are too often paying the price.”

Fadil noted that Pakistan ranks 14th out of 163 countries on UNICEF’s Children’s Climate Risk Index, placing the country in the “extremely high risk” category in the index. 

 

‘Monsoon on steroids’   

 

The U.N. has appealed for $160 million in aid to help tackle what it said was an “unprecedented climate catastrophe.”   

 

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will arrive in Pakistan on September 9 to visit flood-hit areas.  

“The Pakistani people are facing a monsoon on steroids,” Guterres said while speaking at the launch of the U.N. flash funding appeal on Tuesday. 

 

“Let’s stop sleepwalking towards the destruction of our planet by climate change. Today, it’s Pakistan. Tomorrow, it could be your country,” he warned. 

 

Weather officials forecast more rains and flash flooding during September, raising fears that wheat-growing famers would be unable to have their croplands free of floodwaters by early October when they undertake planting.  

 

“If floodwaters recede by that time, sowing might be possible, but if floods continued to inundate areas in Sindh and Punjab, then it’s highly likely that critical wheat shortage may occur in Pakistan,” said Mohsin Hafeez, the country representative for the International Water Management Institute.  

 

“Such a situation may force the [Pakistan] government to import more wheat from the global market, which will add pressure on the existing import bill.” Hafeez told VOA that global wheat prices have risen since the outbreak of the Ukraine war, and a low crop output in Pakistan would add to the financial troubles facing the cash-starved Pakistani government.

Meanwhile, more humanitarian relief flights arrived on Friday from countries such as Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. China, the United States, France, Iran, Britain, Azerbaijan, Norway and Kazakhstan are among the countries that have provided or pledged flood relief aid to Pakistan.

The U.S. military said Friday that it was sending an assessment team to Pakistan to determine what support it could offer through the U.S. Agency for International Development as part of Washington’s response to the flooding crisis.

General Michael Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, said in a statement that he discussed the matter by phone with Pakistan’s army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and expressed “his condolences for the people of Pakistan.”
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UN: Scale, Scope of Humanitarian Crisis in Flood-Hit Pakistan Unprecedented

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U.N. agencies are quickly mobilizing resources and staff to assess the damage and provide aid needed to assist millions of people made homeless and destitute by flooding in Pakistan.

Extensive rains, which have pummeled Pakistan since June, have inundated the country, putting a third of it under water. The United Nations said more than 1,100 people are known to have died, over 6,000 have been injured, 33 million have been left homeless and hundreds of thousands of buildings and infrastructure damaged or destroyed.

Aid agencies said bridges have been destroyed and roads turned into mud, cutting off access to many people in distress. The World Health Organization warns the floods are having a catastrophic impact on the health situation.

WHO representative in Pakistan Palitha Mahipala said major health risks are unfolding and will continue to unfold in the months to come as more rain is forecast. Speaking in the capital, Islamabad, he warned that people are ill-equipped to fend off disease outbreaks in camps lacking safe water and sanitary conditions.

“Major health concerns already reported with the spread of diarrheal diseases, skin infections, respiratory tract infections, malaria, and dengue fever,” Mahipala said. “Rains continue and projections are that floods will worsen further over the coming days, with even greater humanitarian and public health impact.”

Mahipala said there is an urgent need to scale up disease surveillance, restore damaged health facilities and ensure sufficient medicine and health supplies are obtained. He said mental health assistance and psychosocial help must be made available for affected communities.

He said the monsoon rains and floods have damaged and destroyed nearly 2,000 public and private health facilities. The loss of the clinics will seriously affect the ability of sick and injured people to get treatment they need.

Mahipala said shortages of health workers and limited health supplies also are disrupting health services and increasing the health risks for children and pregnant and lactating women.
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E-Commerce Company Jumia Launches Drone Deliveries in Ghana

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Africa’s largest e-commerce company, Jumia, launched the first commercial drone delivery service on the continent this week, offering delivery of products across Ghana.

After more than three months of testing in the town of Omenaku, Jumia and California-based instant-delivery service Zipline have started delivering products to homes.

The service is available nationwide in the West African country. Jumia says it has made 100 delivery flights so far.

“Today, we believe it’s a great enabler for service for far-flung areas in Africa, very quickly in good speed and also with a great amount of sustainability and safety,” said Apoorva Kumar, Jumia’s chief operations officer.

A March 2022 Forbes report shows that Africa lags in access to energy and road networks, but the continent has made significant strides in internet penetration, which is estimated at 70%. So digital entrepreneurs are using technology to solve problems that are typically reserved for more traditional forms of infrastructure.

However, economists such as Ken Gichinga say that poor addressing systems for homes are still a major obstacle to drone delivery.

“Droning, if it is marked well with geo-mapping, can open up the industry in terms of delivery, but for good delivery we need to have a proper addressing system,” Gichinga said. “We don’t have them like in the west, proper addressing systems.”

According to the United Nations conference on trade and development, Africa also is lagging in key aspects of e-trade because of connectivity issues, lack of payment systems, and various government policies.

Less than 40% of African countries have adopted data privacy legislation, economist Wohoro Ndohho told VOA. If consumers fear their personal information will be shared with the wrong party, he said, the drones-for-delivery business may not take off.

“Africa is ready for drones to the extent that, in one sense, it leads to the whole question of building infrastructure,” he said. “For example, what is done in Rwanda, another part of Africa where they have used drones in delivery of medicine, but there must be an underlying legal system that support taking advantage of drones.”

Jumia operates in 11 African countries, with more than 30 warehouses. The group hopes to expand drone delivery services across the continent in the future.
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South Africa Reaches Deal With India to Boost Domestic Vaccine Production

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The Serum Institute of India signed a deal this week with South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare to make four vaccines used in Africa.

The deal has been hailed as saving local vaccine production, which was at risk of shutting down after receiving no orders for a COVID vaccine. But medical aid group Doctors Without Borders says more efforts are needed for vaccines to be fully produced in Africa for Africans.

Four routine pediatric vaccines — pneumococcal vaccine, rotavirus vaccine, polyvalent meningococcal vaccine and hexavalent vaccine — will be made in South Africa with products from bulk drug substances supplied by India’s Serum Institute.

In addition to the 10-year agreement, South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare also anticipates receiving grant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, CEPI.

“The partnership represents an important step for preventing the kinds of gross inequities of access to life-saving vaccines that emerged during the COVID pandemic,” said CEPI’s chief executive officer, Richard Hatchett. “We are proud to be part of an effort that will secure critically needed vaccine manufacturing capacity in Africa, for Africa so that it can be ready when it faces future epidemic or pandemic threats.”

But Candice Sehoma with Doctors Without Borders’ Access Campaign in South Africa is calling for more than just fill-and-finish deals.

“I think it’s a great step towards realizing the improvements in the African continent’s manufacturing capacity, particularly looking at vaccines. And actually looking into routine vaccines. I think that, for me, is a great step,” Sehoma said. “But I think, definitely, we could do with a lot more and even a full sharing of technology, so that we don’t find ourselves waiting in line for vaccines that are coming from high-income countries.”

Petro Terblanche, managing director of the South African company Afrigen, which reproduced Moderna’s MRNA COVID vaccine, says Aspen’s deal with the Serum Institute may not be healthy for other companies on the continent, as it could drown out local competition.

“So, the manufacturing capacity and the technology capabilities and the reach of the Serum Institute is very dominant, it is very, very powerful. However, if Serum Institute is prepared to do partnerships with Africa and South Africa for end-to-end manufacturing and technology transfer to Africa, it’s a positive development,” Terblanche said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, deputy director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, says the agreement is an important step for African vaccine manufacturing.

“It has responded to African Union heads of state and government calls that 30 percent of our continent’s requirements for human vaccines be procured from Africa manufacturers. And we look forward to this being motivation for more expanded manufacturing of vaccines here on the continent of Africa,” Ouma said.

According to the Africa CDC, less than 1% of vaccines currently used on the continent are locally manufactured.

Aspen’s Group Communications Consultant Shauneen Beukes says they cannot comment on calls for the full African production of vaccines at this stage.
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G7 Finance Chiefs Agree on Russian Oil Price Cap but Level Not Yet Set

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Group of Seven finance ministers agreed Friday to impose a price cap on Russian oil aimed at slashing revenues for Moscow’s war in Ukraine while keeping crude flowing to avoid price spikes, but their statement left out key details of the plan.

The ministers from the group of wealthy industrial democracies confirmed their commitment to the plan after a virtual meeting. They said, however, that the per-barrel level of the price cap would be determined later “based on a range of technical inputs” to be agreed by the coalition of countries implementing it.

“Today we confirm our joint political intention to finalize and implement a comprehensive prohibition of services, which enable maritime transportation of Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products globally,” the G-7 ministers said.

The provision of maritime transportation services, including insurance and finance, would be allowed only if the Russian oil cargoes are purchased at or below the price level “determined by the broad coalition of countries adhering to and implementing the price cap.”

The ministers said they would work to finalize the details, through their own domestic processes, aiming to align it with the start of European Union sanctions that will ban Russian oil imports into the bloc starting in December.

The G-7 consists of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

The ministers said they would seek a broader coalition of oil importing countries to purchase Russian crude and petroleum products only at or below the price cap, and they will invite their input into the plan.

Some G-7 officials have expressed concerns the price cap would not be successful without participation of major importers such as China and India, which have sharply increased their purchases of Russian crude since Moscow launched its invasion in February. But others have said China and India have expressed interest in buying Russian oil at an even lower price in line with the cap.

Enforcing the cap would rely heavily on denying London-brokered shipping insurance, which covers about 95% of the world’s tanker fleet, and finance to cargoes priced above the cap. But analysts say alternatives can be found to circumvent the cap and market forces could render it ineffective.

Despite Russia’s falling oil export volumes, its oil export revenue in June increased by $700 million from May because of prices pushed higher by its war in Ukraine, the International Energy Agency said last month.

The G-7 finance ministers’ statement follows up on their leaders’ decision in June to explore the cap, a move Moscow says it will not abide by and can thwart by shipping oil to states not obeying the price ceiling.

Pricing concerns

The U.S. Treasury has raised concerns the EU embargo could set off a scramble for alternative supplies, spiking global crude prices to as much as $140 a barrel, and it has been promoting the price cap since May as a way to keep Russian crude flowing.

Russian oil prices have risen in anticipation of the EU embargo, with Urals crude trading at an $18-to-$25 per barrel discount to benchmark Brent crude, down from a $30-to-$40 discount earlier this year.
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Rising Salinity Threatens Rice Crop on Southeast Asia’s Sinking Coastline

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Worldwide, coastal saltwater is creeping farther and farther inland, tainting the land and water with enough salt to kill crops. In Asia, saltwater intrusion is making it nearly impossible for some farmers to grow the region’s staple food. Elise Cutts has more.
Videographer: Sun Narin, Vietnamese Stringer in Vietnam
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Top Taliban Cleric Among 18 Killed in Afghan Mosque Bombing

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A suicide bomber struck a packed mosque in western Afghanistan Friday, killing at least 18 worshippers, including a prominent cleric loyal to the ruling Taliban.

Police officials said the influential slain scholar, Mujibur Rahman Ansari, was leading afternoon prayers at his Guzargah Mosque in the city of Herat, bordering Iran, when the powerful bomb went off. 

At least 24 worshippers also were wounded in the attack and the death toll was expected to rise, according to local police and witnesses.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the chief Taliban spokesman, denounced the fatal attack on Ansari and vowed the perpetrators would be brought to justice. “The country’s courageous and influential scholar was martyred in a brutal cowardly attack,” he said on Twitter. 

Ansari had been a vocal critic of the country’s former U.S.-backed governments for allowing Western militaries’ deployment in Afghanistan over the past two decades. He was seen as a strong supporter of the then-insurgent Taliban and had called for the beheading of those opposing the return of the Taliban to power a year ago.

The Taliban took over the conflict-torn country in August 2021 when all U.S.-led foreign troops withdrew from the country after almost two decades of war with the insurgents.

There were no immediate claims of responsibly for Friday’s deadly bombing. But the suspicions fell on the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s Afghan branch, known as the Islamic State-Khorasan Province (ISIS-K).

The terror outfit has claimed credit for plotting a series of attacks in recent months against mosques in Afghanistan, killing, among others, high-profile pro-Taliban clerics.

Sunni-based ISIS-K militants, who consider Shiite Muslims to be infidels, also have routinely carried out bombings against places of worship and gatherings of Afghan Shiite minority in the country, killing scores of people. 

The Taliban also follow Sunni Islam, the dominant stream in Afghanistan, but they have engaged in intense deadly clashes with ISIS-K since its emergence in Afghanistan in 2015. 

Taliban security forces have raided ISIS-K cells in Kabul and elsewhere in the country in recent weeks, claiming they have significantly degraded the group’s ability to launch major attacks.
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Germany Agrees to Pay $28M to Families of 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre Victims

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Germany and the families of Israeli athletes murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics have agreed on a compensation offer totaling $28 million, according to an interior ministry spokesperson on Friday.

Last month, the families had said they were unhappy with the latest German compensation offers and that they planned to boycott a ceremony on Monday in Munich marking the 50th anniversary of the attack in protest.

The federal government will contribute $22.5 million, while $5 million will come from the state of Bavaria, and $500,000 will come from Munich, said the spokesperson.

On September 5, 1972, members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage at the poorly secured athletes’ village by Palestinian gunmen from the radical Black September group.

Within 24 hours, 11 Israelis, five Palestinians and a German policeman were dead after a standoff and subsequent rescue effort erupted into gunfire.
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VOA Exclusive: Ukrainians Forcibly Transferred to Russia ‘Had No Choice’ 

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Human Rights Watch issued a report Thursday documenting the forcible transfer of Ukrainian citizens to Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, which HRW says constitutes war crimes and potential crimes against humanity.

The 71-page report, We Had No Choice: “Filtration” and the Crime of Forcibly Transferring Ukrainian Civilians to Russia, includes interviews with 18 people who went to Russia — 15 from the Mariupol area, one from Donetsk and two from the Kharkiv region. It said Russian and Russian-affiliated authorities also subjected thousands of Ukrainians to a form of compulsory, punitive and abusive security screening called filtration.

Rachel Denber, deputy director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at HRW, discussed the organization’s work in Ukraine with Natalya Churikova of VOA’s Ukrainian Service in an interview Wednesday.

This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: Who did you interview for this report? Were they Ukrainians in Russia?

Denber: So, the people who we interviewed were Ukrainians, Ukrainian citizens who had been forcibly transferred to Russia. So, about the time when we spoke to them, they were no longer in Russia. They had already made it out of Russia, for the most part. They were already in the countries of the European Union or Georgia.

VOA: How do you define forced deportation?

Denber: I think this is a really important question because … a forced transfer is a war crime and a potential crime against humanity. In order for it to apply in a situation like in Ukraine, where it’s an armed conflict and one side is bringing people to the opposite side or to other occupied areas, for the term, force transfer, to be applicable, you don’t have to actually put a gun to somebody’s head, or you don’t have to drag them in handcuffs.

What we documented was how Russian authorities, Russian forces, or forces that were affiliated with Russia, pretty much just made clear to Ukrainians to whom they were offering evacuation on a bus that they had no other choice. And that’s, in fact, the title of the report.

They pretty much told them they had no other choice, that they had to … get on this bus. Sometimes they said, “Well if you stay, it’ll be so much worse for you. You’re not going to survive.” Or sometimes they didn’t say anything at all. In some cases, they didn’t tell people where they were taking off to. In other cases, these forces rounded people up from shelters, from the streets, sometimes also from house-to-house searches, and put them on buses to so-called DNR, [Donetsk People’s Republic] and then onward to the Russian border.

VOA: What would be the legal way for Russia to deal with this situation? That they are in a state of war, and they really want the population to be safe?

Denber: The legal way would be to ensure that there was transportation offered to Ukrainian-held areas. Their responsibility was to make that available, because it wasn’t impossible. People who were fleeing either the Mariupol area, or even people who had been through filtration, if they had access to their own transportation, if they had their own car, or if they had enough money to hire a car, they were able to drive away and drive to Ukrainian-held areas. It’s just that if you didn’t have the money, you had no other choice [but] to get on a bus. And that’s the definition of forced transfer.

VOA: What about the filtration camps and the separation of families? We know that families are trying to escape together.

Denber: I think that almost everyone we talked to who went through filtration felt that they were in a very coerced situation. Some people felt like they were hostages. Some people felt like they were being accused of a crime. So, this was a very abusive process that had no legal framework whatsoever. Look, the Russian authorities are entitled to set up a screening process for people who are voluntarily going to Russia. That’s not what the case was here. And second of all, even if they’re setting up a screening process for security reasons for people who are voluntarily going to Russia, there are certain boundaries and limits that they need to observe.

There is nothing that could justify the scope of the screening that they were undertaking … by getting people’s biometric data. That’s hugely invasive, and it’s also consistent with what Russia is doing domestically. They’re using all kinds of mechanisms in order to scrape people’s biometric data with the purpose of controlling them. …

[Also,] they’re asking their opinions about the war. Their opinions about the military. Their opinions about Putin. Why is that? There is no real justification for that other than to intimidate people. And then they were invasively looking into people’s telephones and scraping everything they could. We don’t know what’s happened to that data.

VOA: In the report, you say that some of the civilians who were detained from the Mariupol area who were suspected of sympathizing with this battalion were put in the camp where Ukrainian prisoners of war were recently killed. Do you have any data about this?

Denber: So, all of the information that we got, we got from interviewing people — and quite detailed interviews. We interviewed many people who had been through the filtration process. We specifically asked people about what happened to people who flunked the filtration process, who the Russian or Russian-affiliated forces detained after they finished the gathering of data and the interviews, then the interrogations. And we understand that people told us that they have heard that people were taken to various other locations, including what their fate was after that. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to follow up on those things.

We did get details of one case of a man who was held because he flunked the filtration process, and he was eventually released. He didn’t want to talk about [his] experience, and he also talked about his son who was picked up in Mariupol and held for several weeks. He was suspected of being affiliated with the Ukrainian military, and … it was pretty clear that he was quite badly beaten.

VOA: Ukrainian authorities say almost 6,000 Ukrainian children are being deported to Russia, and some of them are being put up for adoption. Have you come across any of these cases?

Denber: In our report, we documented only one case of a forced transfer of children. And that was, of course, [the] transfer of 17 children who had been in an institution in Mariupol, and they were forcibly transferred. Somebody who ran the institution had a plan to get them out of Mariupol, and he was intercepted by some DNR person who took the children to the DNR. And that was it. We didn’t document any other cases other than that, but that doesn’t mean that those cases don’t exist.

VOA: We asked the U.N. refugee agency about their numbers, and they said the Russian Federation gives them the numbers, and they put them up for the public in their portal, and that Russia has become the biggest country to receive Ukrainian refugees. They said they didn’t have the means to check the numbers independently. Would your report be a basis for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to change the definition on the status of the Ukrainians in the Russian Federation?

Denber: That’s an excellent question. Our report certainly raises questions about how to define the people who have crossed the Ukrainian border into Russia. Look, we can’t say how many people were forcibly transferred into Russia. We don’t know. But we do know that large numbers of people were, because there were busloads and busloads and busloads of people. We do know that people were rounded up en masse and put on buses in this manner that is coercive. … It’s very hard to say exactly how many people were displaced from Ukraine and who ended up in Russia. It’s very hard to say how many of those people who ended up in Russia are genuinely refugees. How many of them are forcibly transferred. How many of them went voluntarily to Russia. It’s a very difficult numbers game.

VOA: Can Ukraine use your report as evidence in the International Court of Justice, where it has sued Russia for human rights violations?

Denber: I hope that anybody who is interested in justice will use our report as evidence of the crime of forced transfers. … We documented a number of cases, and I very much hope that our report is used by anybody who’s looking for justice.

VOA: In which case does forced deportation represent a crime against humanity?

Denber: It would have to do with the scale and the numbers. I think once we see who actually was forcibly transferred, we could talk about whether it was systematic, and whether it was combined with other crimes.

VOA: What would be the benchmark?

Denber: I really couldn’t say. I think that’s something the court would have to determine.
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Russia Shuts Key Pipeline as West Accuses Putin of Weaponizing Energy

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Russia this week shut off a major gas pipeline to Germany as Europe and the U.S. accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of “weaponizing” energy. And as Henry Ridgwell reports from London, there are growing environmental concerns about an unexplained Russian gas flare close to the Arctic.
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Islamic Fatwas — Are They Laws or Opinions?  

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Immediately after British American writer Salman Rushdie was stabbed in New York on August 12, a decades-old fatwa given by the founder of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, became the buzzword as the prima facie cause for the attack.

The 24-year-old attacker has not cited the fatwa as his motive for the stabbing, only that he did not like Rushdie and perceived The Satanic Verses, Rushdie’s controversial book, of which he reportedly had read only a few pages, as insulting Islam.

Despite several statements by Iranian officials, including a 1998 statement by former President Mohammad Khatami that the Islamic Republic was not supporting Khomeini’s fatwa to kill Rushdie, it is still believed to be in force, primarily because of the influence of the man who issued it.

“Khomeini’s fatwa carries immense potency because he’s not only followed but revered by the global Shia community,” Khaled Beydoun, a law professor at Wayne State University, told VOA.

A fatwa can be the opinion of a mufti, or scholar of Islamic laws, like Khomeini, or an official pronouncement by an Islamic institution.

“A fatwa can be about a simple personal matter such as missing a prayer, or it could be about a controversial issue such as embryo cloning or transgender operation,” said Jonathan Brown, a professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown University.

The enforcement of a fatwa depends largely on who the mufti is, rather than what its contents are.

There are also other limitations.

“A fatwa issued in Afghanistan may have some weightage there … but a religious leader in America pronouncing something has very limited impact, because Muslims live in a non-Muslim society where there are laws, and the laws say that you cannot go and kill people simply because someone issued a fatwa,” said Akbar Ahmed, the Ibn Khaldun chair of Islamic studies at American University. “So, immediately, you have [a] block in implementing such a fatwa.”

Fatwa is not law

For centuries, thousands of fatwas have been issued by numerous scholars and institutions. There are fatwas against Western colonialism, nuclear weapons, tobacco, terrorism and suicide bombing. A 2008 fatwa was issued by a Pakistani religious scholar against Pakistan’s former President Asif Ali Zardari for his alleged flirting with Sarah Palin, then a U.S. vice presidential candidate. There are also fatwas in support of vaccination, singing and women’s rights.

“A fatwa is not a legal decree. A legal decree is issued by a court,” Ahmed said.

But some fatwas carry as much weight as the law in a country.

Fatwas issued by the Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia or by the Supreme Leader of Iran are enforceable as laws, and fatwas declared by state muftis in Malaysia are published in the official newspaper.

“There is no equivalent Muslim institution to the Vatican and the pope in Roman Catholicism. Fatwas only have the relevance of the governmental body and religious institution that seek to enforce them. This in no way diminishes how a fatwa can become important as part of geopolitical culture wars, and in the case of Salman Rushdie, tragically led to real harm,” Hatim El-Hibri, assistant professor of media at George Mason University, told VOA.

Absent endorsement from a government or when a mufti has no followers, a fatwa remains the opinion of an individual.

In 1996 and 1998, al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden reportedly signed two fatwas declaring Islamic jihad against the United States.

No Muslim government endorsed al-Qaida’s fatwas, but there were several other fatwas against al-Qaida itself and terrorism that are supported by many Islamic scholars and official entities in several Muslim-majority countries.

Need for fatwas

The origins of fatwas go back to the early days of Islam when Muslim leaders responded to questions about the religion’s take on various mundane matters.

“After the Prophet Muhammad, when questions arose, they were answered through fatwas by the Companions [of the Prophet],” said Georgetown’s Brown, adding that the practice has evolved over the centuries as an Islamic custom.

“Fatwa is not unique and distinct only to Islam,” said Beydoun of Wayne State. Leaders of other faith groups also offer religious opinions about new issues that are not already answered by their religions or issues that need religious clarification, he said.

While some fatwas have raised concerns, as they herald far wider security and human rights consequences, through others, social and political reforms and progressive ideas have been propagated in various Muslim communities, experts say.

“To view fatwas with negative connotations will be part and parcel of the broader cultural Islamophobia that we live in,” Beydoun said.

Khomeini’s 1989 fatwa has received global condemnation across religious communities, and many Muslim writers and activists have condemned the attack on Rushdie. But whether it still propels individuals to act upon it is open for debate.
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