Month: October 2022

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.    

Russia and Ukraine trade allegations at Security Council

Russia called three meetings of the Security Council this week to press its allegations against Ukraine and its Western allies that they are building dirty bombs to use against Russia and to deny that Moscow had received drones from Iran in violation of a Security Council resolution. Western countries said the dirty bomb meetings were a waste of time and accused Russia of using the council to promote Kremlin disinformation. They have asked the U.N. to send investigators to Ukraine to examine drone debris to determine their origin.

In a private session, International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi updated the council on his efforts to establish a de-militarized protection zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The Russian-occupied facility has been repeatedly shelled during the conflict and has raised fears of a nuclear incident or accident.

Difficult winter ahead for millions of Syrians

The United Nations appealed Tuesday for more money and access to needy Syrians, as winter sets in and a cholera outbreak strains limited resources. At least 14.6 million people need assistance – more than at any other time during the 11-year civil war. In January, the U.N. Security Council will consider renewing the authorization for the cross-border aid operation from Turkey into northwest Syria. Russia has long sought to end the operation, and the already difficult negotiations will take place against the backdrop of council divisions intensified by the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, a new study of U.N. contracts in Syria found that a large share of donor funds went to companies owned by individuals with troubling human rights records or associated with the Bashar al-Assad regime. The report, by U.K.-based nongovernmental organization Syrian Legal Development Program and the Observatory of Political and Economic Networks, said nearly half of U.N. procurement funds went to “risky” or “highly risky” suppliers.

UNEP: Greenhouse gases need to be drastically cut by 2030

Ten days before leaders meet at the COP27 climate review conference in Egypt, the U.N. Environment Program warned Thursday that the window for preventing a climate catastrophe is quickly closing. The agency’s latest Emissions Gap Report says greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by 45% by 2030 to stop climate change. UNEP says the world is falling far short of the Paris climate agreement goals, with no credible pathway for limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius by the end of this century.

Rights expert calls for new strategy on Myanmar

The U.N. special rapporteur for Myanmar warns that unless the international community changes how it deals with the military junta in that country, the already catastrophic situation will only get worse. Tom Andrews told VOA in an interview this week that countries should form a coalition to implement a coordinated strategy to deprive the military of arms, fuel for their aircraft, financing and the legitimacy the junta seeks.

He singled out Myanmar’s civil society, human rights defenders and journalists as “heroes” who are risking their lives to document atrocities and deserve international support. The junta, he said, has committed crimes against humanity and war crimes.

More atrocities without peace in Ethiopia’s Tigray

A commission of independent U.N. experts examining rights violations and atrocities in the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region said Friday that without an end to the fighting, the risk of further atrocity crimes is growing. The U.N. International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia said that Ethiopian, Eritrean and Tigrayan forces have all committed violations in the hostilities that began two years ago, several of which rise to war crimes and crimes against humanity.  

Read more on the humanitarian crisis in Tigray:

WHO: Blockade of Humanitarian Aid to Tigray Puts Millions at Risk of Deadly Diseases

In brief

—  The International Organization for Migration said Monday that at least 5,684 migrants have died on European migration routes since the start of 2021. The agency said the numbers of deaths are rising on routes across the Mediterranean, on land borders to Europe and within the continent. The IOM said this highlights the need for more legal and safe pathways for migration.

— As protests across Iran enter their seventh week, the U.N. said Friday it is increasingly concerned about reports of increasing fatalities. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric condemned “all incidents that have resulted in death or serious injury to protestors” and reiterated that security forces must “avoid all unnecessary or disproportionate use of force against peaceful protestors.” The U.N. has called for accountability and for the Iranian authorities to respect human rights, women’s rights and the rights to peaceful assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of association.

—  The U.N. has expressed concern about outbreaks of cholera and watery diarrhea in at least 29 countries this year, including most recently, Haiti, Syria, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya. The situation is even more worrying, as the World Health Organization said recently there is a shortage of cholera vaccines due to the high number of outbreaks.

Good news

On Thursday, the governments of Lebanon and Israel signed separate letters with the United States delineating the maritime border, ending a yearslong dispute. The signing took place at the U.N. peacekeeping premises in south Lebanon. The letters will be deposited with the United Nations. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the agreement can promote increased regional stability and enhanced prosperity for both nations. The deal between the two enemies that have fought multiple wars removes a hurdle to each country being able to exploit hydrocarbon fields along the border.

Quote of note

“A war without witnesses, as you know, can be terrible.” 

Radhika Coomaraswamy, a member of the three-person U.N. International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia to reporters Friday on the need for access to conflict areas in northern Ethiopia.

What we are watching next week

On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council will hold an informal meeting on the weeks of protests in Iran sparked by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The United States and Albania have called the meeting to highlight “the ongoing repression of women and girls and members of religious and ethnic minority groups in Iran.” Briefers will include Nobel Laureate and human rights defender Shirin Ebadi and Javaid Rehman, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in Iran.
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The U.N.’s refugee agency said Friday that destruction from flooding has displaced more than 3.4 million people in west and central Africa.

UNHCR said Friday that Nigeria’s worst floods in a decade have killed hundreds, displaced 1.3 million residents and affected over 2.8 million people in the west African nation of 218 million.

Survivors had to scurry to higher ground as water submerged farmland and infrastructure. Many have been living in camps for the internally displaced that were set up to help people fleeing simmering violence in the region, among other troubles.

“The climate crisis is happening now – destroying livelihoods, disrupting food security, aggravating conflicts over scarce resources and driving displacement,” UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado said. “The link between climate shocks and displacement is clear and growing.”

The agency noted that the government in Chad, where floodwaters affected more than 1 million people, has declared a state of emergency. Floods also have killed hundreds of people and displaced thousands in in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, UNHCR said.

The downpours in West Africa contrast with the worst drought in 40 years in the Horn of Africa.

Nigeria records flooding every year, often as a result of inadequate infrastructure and non-adherence to environmental guidelines. Authorities in September blamed this year’s floods on water overflowing from some local rivers, unusual rainfalls and the release of excess water from the Lagdo dam in neighboring Cameroon’s northern region.
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A commission of independent U.N. experts examining rights violations and atrocities in the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region says that without an end to the fighting, the risk of further atrocity crimes is growing.

“Atrocity crimes are imminent unless there is a cessation of hostilities,” commission member Radhika Coomaraswamy told reporters Friday at the United Nations.

The U.N. International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia warned in their report delivered Thursday to the General Assembly committee that deals with human rights, that Ethiopian, Eritrean and Tigrayan forces have all committed violations in the hostilities that began two years ago. Commission Chair Betty Murungi said several of these violations rise to war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The report outlines the dire humanitarian situation in the northern Tigray region, where 6 million people have been cut off from supplies and services by the federal government’s blockade.

“We focused first on the dire humanitarian situation in Tigray and found that the widespread denial and obstruction of access to food, medicine and basic services amounted to a crime against humanity, as well as the war crime of using starvation as a method of warfare,” said commission member Steven Ratner, an American law professor.

The three-member commission created by the Human Rights Council last December also found that the federal government targeted civilians in Tigray with shelling, air strikes and drone attacks.

Addis Ababa has rejected the commission’s report.

Ethiopia’s U.N. ambassador, Taye Atske Selassie, told the General Assembly committee Thursday the report is “incoherent and sketchy” and is intended to intensify political pressure against his government.

“The commission is merely an instrument that will later serve as justification for intervention and sanctions,” Selassie said.

The commission found that Tigrayan forces also committed serious crimes, including large-scale killings of Amhara civilians, rape and sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, torture, looting and destruction of civilian property.

“To the degree that there have been allegations of isolated wrongdoing by Tigray forces, the Government of Tigray takes those allegations seriously and will ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice,” the regional authorities said in a statement when the U.N. commission’s report was first published in September.

The report says rape “has been perpetrated on a staggering scale” since the fighting began in November 2020. Survivors in Tigray have implicated the Ethiopian National Defense Force, Eritrea Defense Forces and the Amhara militia, Fano. Women were raped, gang raped, held as sex slaves and violated with objects.

Sexual violence by Tigrayan forces was documented in areas of neighboring Amhara, where some survivors testified that their rapists told them they were avenging the rape of Tigrayan women and girls.

While the commission said grave violations of international law have been carried out, they did not go so far as to deem it a genocide.

“We didn’t have a pattern in which we could at this point say that genocide was happening or could not be happening,” said Coomaraswamy, a lawyer who has investigated atrocities in her native Sri Lanka and in Myanmar.

“But we do say that because of the indicators that are now present at this particular moment in Ethiopian history, and with what is going on at the moment, that there is a possibility that atrocity crimes — that could include genocide — can happen unless the international community, the African Union, stop the cessation of hostilities,” she said.

On Tuesday, African Union-mediated peace talks began in South Africa between the federal government and Tigrayan leaders. The commission welcomed the talks, saying it hopes they will lead to an end to the fighting, the resumption of humanitarian access and the return of peace and security for the people.

The commission spent a week in Addis Ababa in July and hoped to receive permission for “unfettered access” to Tigray, which regional authorities support. But the Ethiopian federal government so far has not granted their request.

“A war without witnesses, as you know, can be terrible,” commission member Coomaraswamy emphasized.
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Residents in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, are struggling with water shortages after authorities announced rationing because of a drop in the level of the city’s main water source, the Ruvu River.

Dar es Salaam’s water authorities said they would shut off piped water to the city’s nearly 6 million people every other day until water levels recover. But rain has been sparse in Tanzania, as it has in neighboring East African nations, and meteorologists are warning of a prolonged dry season.

That spells trouble for Elizabeth Maemo, who used to earn huge profits from her small street restaurant in Dar es Salaam. Now, she is losing money because of the drought and the increase in the price of water.

Currently, she said, “I buy one bucket for 700 shillings, and I use around 15 gallons a day. I can say that in my business the scarcity of water has affected me a lot.” Maemo, 52, added that “I have lost many customers, as they have no faith in the water I am using.”

Authorities said the water supply from the Ruvu River has dropped from 466 million liters to about 300 million liters a day, whereas the city normally consumes an estimated 500 million liters a day.

Residents are now relying on a local network of boreholes and wells. Those without a source of water nearby are left with no option but to buy from private vendors – and with demand high and supply low, prices have risen.

Suphian Msofe, one of the private vendors, said that “for the six years that I have delivered water across Dar es Salaam, this is the moment I’m generating a huge profit. But when you look at the water that we sell, it is salty and not suitable for drinking. It can at least be used for cooking and washing services.”

With global warming causing frequent heat waves, activists say the city needs a long-term solution to its water challenges.

Frowim Mshumbus is an environmental activist from the One Planet network, which advocates steps to tackle climate change. He said commercial activity along the Ruvu River has contributed significantly to lower water levels. “What I think should be done to solve the challenges,” he said, “is to educate people about the importance of these water sources and the best way to protect them.”
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The search for sustainable peace in South Sudan hit another obstacle this week as infighting erupted within the ruling SPLM party. Riek Machar, the country’s first vice president, was expelled from his position as SPLM vice chairman. The dismissal pours cold water on years of efforts to heal rifts among South Sudan’s top leaders – the same rifts that caused the country’s civil war.

Riek Machar was the party’s first vice chairman, a spot that placed him in a strategic position to claim the SPLM presidency if President Salva Kiir, who is also SPLM chairman, were to opt out of party politics.

Kuol Atem, SPLM secretary for political affairs, said this week that Machar and party Secretary General Pagan Amum have been taken off the party register because they are trying to build up their own parties.

“Though his office is just less than 200 meters away from the SPLM national secretariat and the same distance from the President Saliva Kiir’s, he continues to organize his party as we are all eyewitness to that effect. Comrade Pagan is busy with Real SPLM Party, abroad and the Rome process; and SPLM is being held hostage.”

Though associated with the SPLM in Opposition (SPLM-IO), Machar insists that SPLM-IO is not a registered party and thus he never ditched the mother party as claimed by Atem.

Puok Both Baluang is the acting press secretary in the Office of First Vice President.

“The decision made by President Salva Kiir faction to dismiss comrade Riek Machar and comrade Pagan Amum, from SPLM and also…as first deputy chair of the party and secretary general of the party, it is unconstitutional based on the SPLM constitution. They are elected members. Such dismissal or replacement is only possible if there is a national convention of SPLM, not a faction.

There are 14 registered political parties in South Sudan, according to records at the Political Parties Council. However, in reality there are more than 50 parties operating in Juba alone.

That includes several factions of the SPLM, including Machar’s, Amum’s and President Kiir’s. The last, which is the original SPLM party, is known as SPLM-in-Government.

It was a split between Kiir and Machar that triggered South Sudan’s six-year civil war in December 2013.

Abraham Kuol Nyuon, an associate professor of political science at the University of Juba, says the removal of Machar and Amum from their positions in the main party is ultimately a dispute over which faction is legitimate.

“So this removal is about the ownership of the party symbol, it is about the ownership of the emblem and it is about the ownership of the party of SPLM.”

Analysts say parties with the SPLM tag will likely have an advantage with voters in the next elections, slated for late 2024.

South Sudan is currently run by a transitional government, which recently extended its mandate by another two years.

Professor Kuol says the country should expect such bickering at party levels in the run up to the elections.
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South African investigators have arrested the former head of the country’s national power provider, Eskom, on corruption charges. South African analysts say while this is a significant step toward tackling state graft, it won’t fix the country’s worsening energy crisis.

Matshela Koko, the former head of state power provider Eskom, was charged Thursday with multiple counts related to corruption, fraud and money laundering.

The lawyer leading the charge for the National Prosecuting Authority, Andrea Johnson, said in a statement, “This arrest is about accountability and rule of law … it is imperative for the country and its people that we serve without fear, favor or prejudice.”

Koko’s wife, two stepdaughters and other officials under his tenure also were charged in the complex case, which involves more than $121 million in power station construction contracts.

Analysts say the charges show growing momentum in efforts to tackle widespread corruption in state institutions.

“I think what this sends out is [the message] that if you are in a position of power and authority and you commit corruption, that the precedent has been clearly set that you can and will be held accountable,” said Gareth Newham, head of justice and violence prevention for the Institute of Security Studies in Pretoria. “So, it’s a very important principle that has now been established, and one of those lacking for too long in South Africa.”

Eskom was just one institution targeted in state graft — called state capture — under the nearly decade-long tenure of former president Jacob Zuma that was investigated by a judicial inquiry.

Among the inquiry’s recommendations was to strengthen the National Prosecuting Authority.

Current President Cyril Ramaphosa has done just that, by adding an independent directorate to the authority and giving it more resources, as part of his anti-corruption mandate.

Newham said the investigation into Koko exemplifies the potential of a strengthened public prosecutor.

“I think it shows that the hard work that has been undertaken within the National Prosecuting Authorities since the beginning of 2019 is starting to pay off,” he said.

Koko has maintained his innocence, and his arrest doesn’t mean a political win for Ramaphosa.

Analysts point out that other high-ranking officials implicated in the graft inquiry continue to hold offices under Ramaphosa’s watch.

“He has the authority as the president of the country, as the leader of the administration to remove certain people now on all levels of government… which he’s not doing,” said Ina Gouws, a political scientist at the University of the Free State.“If he’s waiting for the National Prosecuting Authority to do his job for him, when it comes to getting rid of caterers who are implicated in corruption, then you can imagine how badly that goes for the country.”

The trial, set to take place in March, will not fix Eskom and the country’s energy crisis.

The utility is billions of dollars in debt and implementing daily blackouts due to breakdowns at power stations.

“The recovery of funds from the likes of people that have been arrested recently is quite frankly, trivial at this stage,” said Clyde Mallinson, an independent energy expert. “If Eskom had an infinite budget, as we speak, and if they had an infinite amount of coal, we would still be where we sit at the moment, because it’s time that we’ve lost.”

While the public may welcome the prospect of accountability for corruption at Eskom, Mallinson said they can’t expect the blackouts to end any time soon.
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The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is planning on replacing its naira currency to reduce excess cash, inflation and crime. Although the currency could be in circulation as early as mid-December, Nigerians will have until the end of January to exchange the old bills, after which they will cease to be legal tender.  

This is the first time Nigeria will have changed the design of its currency in two decades.  

The bank will redesign and print new bills for the 200, 500 and 1,000 naira denominations, CBN governor Godwin Emefiele told journalists during a news conference in Abuja.   

The action is part of authorities’ efforts to halt the slide of the country’s official tender, which has lost more than 35 percent of its value in the past year. The CBN said the measure will help tackle the issue of counterfeit notes and recall large amounts of money outside the bank’s control.   

It will also stifle access to money used as ransom by terrorists and kidnappers. These kidnap-for-ransom gangs often demand huge sums, usually delivered to them in cash.   

Emefiele pointed out that the currency in circulation had more than doubled since 2015, a “worrisome trend that cannot continue to be allowed.”  

Authorities say now more than 85% of the total money in circulation is outside the vaults of banks.   

But while some analysts praise the move — saying it could address excessive flow and stashing of cash ahead of the elections next February — others, like economic expert Emeka Okengu, say it is ill-timed.   

Okengu argued that, “You don’t stop counterfeiting by changing the currency, you do so by finding those involved and getting them arrested. This is not the time. Eighty percent of Nigeria is under water both economically and financially.” He pointed out that the change was too close to the general elections and that, “If they waited for twenty years, nothing stops them from waiting another six months.”  

Security expert Senator Iroegbu also questioned the decision.   

“The reason they gave on the surface sounds genuine,” Iroegbu told VOA, “But when you look at it holistically you begin to ask questions. How practical is this and why now? Most times they always cite insecurity. What is the benefit of such exercise on security? This policy will only affect the poor masses.” 
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How satellite imagery and artificial intelligence helped the government of Togo deliver COVID-19 relief to its neediest citizens.
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