Month: July 2024

KENITRA, Morocco — Golden fields of wheat no longer produce the bounty they once did in Morocco. A six-year drought has imperiled the country’s entire agriculture sector, including farmers who grow cereals and grains used to feed humans and livestock.

The North African nation projects this year’s harvest will be smaller than last year in both volume and acreage, putting farmers out of work and requiring more imports and government subsidies to prevent the price of staples like flour from rising for everyday consumers.

“In the past, we used to have a bounty — a lot of wheat. But during the last seven or eight years, the harvest has been very low because of the drought,” said Al Housni Belhoussni, a small-scale farmer who has long tilled fields outside of the city of Kenitra.

Belhoussni’s plight is familiar to grain farmers throughout the world confronting a hotter and drier future. Climate change is imperiling the food supply and, in regions like North Africa, shrinking the annual yields of cereals that dominate diets around the world — wheat, rice, maize and barley.

The region is one of the most vulnerable in the world to climate change. Delays to annual rains and inconsistent weather patterns have pushed the growing season later in the year and made planning difficult for farmers.

In Morocco, where cereals account for most of the farmed land and agriculture employs the majority of workers in rural regions, the drought is wreaking havoc and touching off major changes that will transform the makeup of the economy. It has forced some to leave their fields fallow. It has also made the areas they do elect to cultivate less productive, producing far fewer sacks of wheat to sell than they once did.

In response, the government has announced restrictions on water use in urban areas — including on public baths and car washes — and in rural ones, where water going to farms has been rationed.

“The late rains during the autumn season affected the agriculture campaign. This year, only the spring rains, especially during the month of March, managed to rescue the crops,” said Abdelkrim Naaman, the chairman of Nalsya. The organization has advised farmers on seeding, irrigation and drought mitigation as less rain falls and less water flows through Morocco’s rivers.

The Agriculture Ministry estimates that this year’s wheat harvest will yield roughly 3.1 billion kilograms, far less than last year’s 5.5 billion kilograms — a yield that was still considered low. The amount of land seeded has dramatically shrunk as well, from 36,700 square kilometers to 9,540 square miles 24,700 square kilometers.

Such a drop constitutes a crisis, said Driss Aissaoui, an analyst and former member of the Moroccan Ministry for Agriculture.

“When we say crisis, this means that you have to import more,” he said. “We are in a country where drought has become a structural issue.”

Leaning more on imports means the government will have to continue subsidizing prices to ensure households and livestock farmers can afford dietary staples for their families and flocks, said Rachid Benali, the chairman of the farming lobby COMADER.

The country imported nearly 2.5 million tons of common wheat between January and June. However, such a solution may have an expiration date, particularly because Morocco’s primary source of wheat, France, is facing shrinking harvests as well.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization ranked Morocco as the world’s sixth-largest wheat importer this year, between Turkey and Bangladesh, which both have much bigger populations.

“Morocco has known droughts like this and in some cases known droughts that las longer than 10 years. But the problem, this time especially, is climate change,” Benali said.
…

your ad here

BUNDIBUGYO, Uganda — The drunken man kicked the saucepan off the fireplace, demanding to know why dinner was not ready. Then he struck his wife with a piece of firewood, triggering a fight. They grappled before being separated.

The skit about domestic violence had been staged for the benefit of villagers in western Uganda. Some looked puzzled. Some were amused. But others watched in horror as drama mirrored reality.

Here, in a remote farming community near the border with Congo, domestic violence mostly targets women. Those acting out the skit are not immune.

Eva Bulimpikya, who played a woman who fought back, said her real husband had attacked her the previous night after coming home late.

“He was drunk. From nowhere, he said, ‘Can you come and open?’ Because I was almost asleep, when I delayed to open he started complaining … Then he slapped me,” she said.

Years ago, she said, she was slapped so hard that her hearing was impaired. She still gets headaches.

A local nonprofit group that staged the skit says domestic violence is so widespread in this part of Uganda that it’s hard to find a woman who hasn’t been affected. The mountainous district of Bundibugyo is about 400 kilometers from the capital, Kampala.

Representatives of the group, Ourganda, affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, said they were compelled to act in 2022 when they encountered a woman and her child who had been attacked by her drunken partner. The child’s head had swollen, and his mother worried he might die.

Ourganda led efforts to prosecute the offender, who was jailed for six months and is now on peaceful terms with his wife. The rare prosecution energized locals and launched the group’s campaign to fight what it saw as the normalization of domestic violence. At the time, 47 of 50 women it surveyed in Bundibugyo said they had experienced violence in the previous week.

The group, working in 10 villages, focuses on instilling fear in offenders as much as educating them. An accused perpetrator is asked to sign a “reconciliation form” in which they pledge never to commit the same offense.

Signing the form prevents an escalation that might lead to police involvement, but the form is also kept as evidence for possible prosecution if the agreement is breached, said Vincent Tibesigwa Isimbwa, Ourganda’s leader in Bundibugyo. Only five of about 100 people have violated the agreement so far, he said.

An expert on gender-based violence in Uganda, Angella Akoth of ActionAid Uganda, said such work targeting perpetrators is recommended, calling it “male engagement strategy.”

The men who separated the fighting couple in the skit were members of a real-life “Mankind Club,” one of many set up by Ourganda to respond as quickly as possible to outbreaks of violence. Thomas Balikigamba, a local man who was jailed for six months over domestic abuse, said he warns others of the harshness of incarceration. “In our drinking points, I always tell members of our group that it is very bad to fight at home,” he said.

The women who sat around the couple were described as “Soul Sisters,” with the role of counseling women or offering them shelter and clothing when they are kicked out of their homes.

Men who are “bleeding internally” — a euphemism for women-on-men violence — are also encouraged to seek support, Isimbwa said: “Any form of violence, we should not tolerate it.”

Domestic violence is a global curse. World Health Organization figures from 2021 show that one in three women worldwide has been subjected to some form of it. In Uganda, a 2020 survey by U.N.-backed local authorities found that 95% of women and girls had experienced physical or sexual violence, or both, after turning 15.

Isimbwa said he has been threatened by some locals for trying to empower women. But Ourganda aims to take its work to more villages and “create rapport” with local officials who make or break efforts to prosecute offenders, he said.

“We have created more awareness in communities. Now people tend to know what they are supposed to do. They try their level best to make sure that they don’t violate other people’s rights,” he said.

Many in Bundibugyo who spoke to The Associated Press said domestic violence is often sparked by financial disputes and disagreements over sex — quarrels that can be intensified by alcoholism and illiteracy.

Most cases are never prosecuted. Out of 2,194 cases of teenage pregnancy in 2023 — a broad category that encompasses some forms of domestic violence — only 54 were reported to the police in Bundibugyo, said Pamela Grace Adong, the district’s probation and social welfare officer. Bundibugyo is home to around 20,000 people.

“It is now going up,” she said of gender-based violence. “For example, last year we got around 575 cases … But this year – this is now June – we have around 300.”

Ourganda’s mediation work helps to police communities, she said.

In the town of Sara-Kihombya, a collection of mud houses across from the Seventh-day Adventist church run by Ourganda, many men congregate in bars in the morning and stay the whole day.

Domestic violence is said to rise between October and February, peak season for harvesting the cocoa plants dotting the volcanic soil. Some couples fight over how to share the earnings, many residents said.

If a man returns home from selling cocoa and the woman asks for some money, “that is war,” said Linda Kabugho, a kindergarten teacher who said that until recently she was repeatedly attacked by her husband.

The 23-year-old Kabugho, who dropped out of secondary school when she became pregnant in 2022, said she would fight with her husband when he came home feeling miserable over his soccer betting losses. “He brings all the anger on me,” she said. “We fight, we fight, we fight.”

Last year she reached out to local officials who introduced her to Ourganda. The couple were counseled by a group of Soul Sisters, and she is now one of them. The man was warned he risked going to jail if he beat his wife again.

Kabugho said her husband had not beaten her in many months, and she thinks of him as a responsible man.

“A least now I can sleep. I can eat very well,” she said. “We are somehow safe, and I am somehow safe.”
…

your ad here

Dakar, Senegal — Mali’s army and its Russian allies suffered a major setback and significant losses on Saturday while fighting separatists in the country’s north, a spokesman for the rebels told AFP. 

The West African nation’s military leaders, who took power in a 2020 coup, have made it a priority to retake all of the country from separatist and jihadi forces, particularly in Kidal, a pro-independence northern bastion. 

“Azawad fighters are in control in Tinzaouaten and further south in the Kidal region,” said Mohamed Elmaouloud Ramadane, a spokesman for an alliance of predominantly Tuareg separatist armed groups called CSP-DPA. 

“Russian mercenaries and Malian armed forces have fled,” he added. “Others have surrendered.” 

He also shared videos of numerous corpses of soldiers and their allies. 

“The Malian army has retreated,” a local politician told AFP, citing at least 17 dead in a provisional toll. 

“The CSP people are still in Tinzaouaten. The army and Wagner are no longer there,” he said, referring to the Russian mercenary group.  

Fighting also took place further south toward Abeibara, the politician said.  

A former United Nations mission worker in Kidal said: “At least 15 Wagner fighters were killed and arrested after three days of fighting” adding that “the CSP rebels have taken the lead in what happened in Tinzaouaten.”  

Mossa Ag Inzoma, a member of the separatist movement, claimed that “dozens and dozens” of Wagner fighters and soldiers had been killed and taken prisoner. 

Fighting on a scale not seen in months broke out Thursday between the army and separatists in the town of Tinzaouaten, near the border with Algeria, after the army announced it had taken control of In-Afarak, a commercial crossroads in Kidal.  

Mali has been unsettled by violence by jihadi and criminal groups since 2012. 

A junta led by Colonel Assimi Goita took power in 2022 and broke the country’s traditional alliance with France, in favor of Russia. 
…

your ad here

Port Sudan, Sudan — Besieging Sudanese paramilitary forces pounded El Fasher on Saturday, witnesses said, killing 22 people in Darfur’s last city outside their control, according to a hospital source. 

El Fasher has become a key battleground in the 15-month-long war pitting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against the regular Sudanese army. 

The battle for the North Darfur state capital, seen as crucial for humanitarian aid in a region on the brink of famine, has raged for more than two months. El Fasher is the only capital RSF doesn’t hold. 

Witnesses said El Fasher had come under heavy artillery bombardment by the RSF on Saturday. 

“Some houses were destroyed by the shelling,” one witness said. 

A doctor at the city’s Saudi Hospital told AFP on the condition of anonymity that the “bombardment of the livestock market and the Redeyef neighborhood killed 22 people and wounded 17.” 

A pro-democracy activist group said it had counted 22 bodies and the casualty toll was expected to rise. 

There was no immediate comment from the RSF, which has in the past denied shelling civilian targets. 

Over 300,000 people have fled their homes in El Fasher due to the fighting which started in April, the United Nations said. 

Saturday’s attack was the deadliest reported bombardment since the start of the month, when 15 civilians were killed in the shelling of another city market. 

Intense fighting for El Fasher erupted on May 10, prompting a siege by the RSF that has trapped hundreds of thousands of civilians. 

Last month, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding an end to the siege. 

U.S. mediators are expected to make a new attempt in Switzerland next month to broker an end to the fighting. The talks are due to start on August 14. 

Previous negotiations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, have failed to put an end to the fighting which has displaced millions, sparked warnings of famine and left swathes of the capital Khartoum in ruins. 
…

your ad here

ABUJA, Nigeria — As the sun blazes down in Abuja, Ahmed Bukar turns on his home air conditioner to a blast of hot air. The cooling gas that the appliance runs on is leaking from the charging valve on the unit. A technician had recently helped him refill the air conditioner with gas, but he didn’t test for possible leaks. 

In Abuja and across Nigeria, air conditioners sprout from the walls as the appliance turns from a middle-class luxury into a necessity in an increasingly hot climate. The industry is governed by regulations prohibiting the release of cooling gases into the air – for example, by conducting leak tests after an appliance is fixed. Still, routine release of gases into the atmosphere because of shoddy installations, unsafe disposal at the end of use, or the addition of gas without testing for leaks is a common problem in Nigeria, though unlawful. 

The cooling gases, or refrigerants, have hundreds to thousands of times the climate warming potency of carbon dioxide, and the worst of them also harm the ozone layer. Following global agreements that promised to limit these gases from being spewed into the air, like the Montreal Protocol and Kigali Amendments, Nigeria has enacted regulations guiding the use of these gases. But enforcement is a problem, threatening Nigeria’s commitments to slash emissions. 

“Those laws, those rules, nobody enforces them,” said Abiodun Ajeigbe, a manager for the air-conditioning business at Samsung in West Africa. “I have not seen any enforcement.” 

‘I was not taught’ 

The weak regulatory system for the cooling industry in Nigeria is evident in the rampant lack of proper training and awareness of environmental harm caused by refrigerants among technicians, according to Ajeigbe. And it is common to see. 

After uninstalling an air conditioner for a client who was moving to another neighborhood, Cyprian Braimoh, a technician in Abuja’s Karu district, casually frittered the gas from the unit into the air, preparing it to be refilled with fresh gas at the client’s new location. 

If he followed the country’s regulations, he would collect the gas into a canister, preventing or minimizing the gas’s environmental harm. Technicians like Braimoh and those who serviced Bukar’s appliance without testing for leaks are self-employed and unsupervised. But they often get customers because they offer cheaper services. 

“I was not taught that; I only release it into the air,” said Braimoh, who originally specialized in electrical wiring of buildings before fixing air conditioners to increase his income options. He received patchy training that did not include the required safety standards for handling refrigerants. And he still did not conduct a leak test after installing the air conditioning unit at his client’s new location, which is required by the country’s cooling industry regulations. 

Installations done by well-trained technicians who follow environmental regulations can be costlier for customers. It’s often the case in Nigeria, where hiring the services of companies like Daibau, who later helped Bukar fix his leaks, could result in higher costs. 

Manufacturers who offer direct refrigeration and air-conditioning installation services to big commercial customers have tried to self-regulate with safety training and certifications for their technicians, Ajeigbe said. 

Potent greenhouse gases 

According to industry professionals and public records, the most common air conditioners in Africa still use what’s known as R-22 gas. This refrigerant is less harmful to the ozone layer compared to the older, even more damaging coolants called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). CFCs have been largely eliminated, thanks to the 1987 Montreal Protocol, which was created to protect the ozone layer, the vital shield in the atmosphere that protects against cancer-causing ultraviolet rays. 

But R-22 is 1,810 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Just one pound of the coolant is nearly as potent as a ton of carbon dioxide, the most common greenhouse gas, but while CO2 can stay in the atmosphere for over 200 years, R-22 stays in the atmosphere for around 12 years. R-22 air conditioners also have low energy efficiency and most of the electricity powering them in Africa is from fossil fuels. 

Nigeria plans to phase out the R-22 refrigerant by January 1, 2030. But with lax enforcement, meeting the phaseout target is in doubt, Ajeigbe said. 

Newer air conditioners that use a family of gases called hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) don’t harm the ozone and consume less electricity. But HFCs are still potent greenhouse gases and account for around 2% of all human-caused warming in the atmosphere. 

One HFC, R-410A, which is still a common refrigerant in Europe and the United States, has a warming potential 2,088 times greater than that of carbon dioxide and lasts roughly 30 years in the atmosphere. Air conditioners running on it are the next most common in Africa. 

Another HFC, R-32, is 675 times more potent than CO2, lasts about five years in the atmosphere, and is more energy-efficient. But it is just “marginally” in the African market, Ajeigbe said. 

Air conditioners running on HFCs are more expensive, meaning they’re less popular than the more polluting ones, according to sellers and technicians in Abuja and Lagos. 

A wider problem 

It’s not just Nigeria. In Ghana, the cooling industry also struggles to get technicians to comply with environmental standards. 

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, “poor servicing practices prevalent” in the country are largely driven by consumers, who choose low-trained technicians on price considerations and neglect recommended standards. 

In Kenya, the demand for cooling systems is growing as temperatures warm, the population grows and electricity access expands. Air conditioners running on R-22 are still very common in Kenya, but the National Environmental Management Authority told The Associated Press there have not been new imports since 2021, in line with 2020 regulations. 

The regulations require technicians handling refrigerants and cooling appliances to obtain a license, but that is not enforced, technicians told AP, leaving space for environmentally unsafe practices. 

“You just need to be well-trained and start installations. It’s a very simple industry for us who are making a living in it,” said Nairobi-based technician Jeremiah Musyoka. 

One cooling gas that’s energy-efficient and less harmful to the atmosphere, R-290, is slowly gaining traction as an alternative for refrigeration and air conditioning in developed markets like the European Union. The demand for efficient heat pumps is rapidly expanding in the EU, but adoption in Africa remains insignificant because of cost barriers and limited awareness. 

Countries like Nigeria, Ghana and Kenya have also identified R-290 as the product that will ultimately replace HFCs, but models using it are not commercially available. And they still have to worry about specialized training for technicians because of R-290’s high flammability. 

“It worries me there is not enough training and existing regulations are not enforced,” Ajeigbe, manager at Samsung, said. But he said enforcing the import ban on banned gases and the appliances that use them would make a difference. 

Anastasia Akhigbe, a senior regulatory official at Nigeria’s National Environmental Standards and Regulations Agency, added that increasing awareness among appliance importers, technicians and consumers about the environmental impacts of certain refrigerants would also help. 

“Enforcement is a known challenge, but we are moving gradually,” Akhigbe said.
…

your ad here

nairobi, kenya — The U.S. government has sanctioned three rebel leaders accused of fomenting political instability, conflicts and civilian displacement in the Democratic Republic of Congo. 

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on Thursday imposed sanctions on Corneille Nangaa, leader of the Congo River Alliance, a rebel group accused of seeking to overthrow the government and driving political instability in the DRC. Nangaa was previously targeted with sanctions in 2019.

Washington also sanctioned Bertrand Bisimwa, the leader of the March 23 movement rebel group, for destabilization and human rights violations. Charles Sematama, deputy military leader of another rebel group, Twirwaneho, was also sanctioned.

‘They are standing with them’

Great Lakes region political researcher and analyst Ntanyoma Rukumbuzi said the United States is trying to show it cares about the DRC and wants to punish those who want to create instability in the central African nation.

“The U.S. wants to convince the Congolese, the general audience, that they are standing with them and paying attention to what is happening in the DRC,” said Rukumbuzi. “They can still do something to push or force the rebel groups to stop fighting. As you can see, some of these sanctions seem to disregard and overlook the entire complexity of the violence in eastern DRC.”

In a statement, the U.S. government said the action it is taking reinforces its commitment to hold accountable those who seek to perpetuate instability, violence and harm to civilians to achieve their political goals.

The M23 as a group is also under U.S. sanctions. For several years, it has been fighting the Congolese army and other rebel groups in the east of the country. According to United Nations estimates, more than 7.2 million Congolese are displaced due to conflicts.

Oliver Baniboneba, a Congolese refugee living in Uganda, said U.S. sanctions won’t end the suffering of the Congolese.

There is a country with money that is supporting Nangaa, said Baniboneba. “It will continue to fund him, and the killing goes on,” he said.

High hopes for sanctions

The Congolese government has accused Rwanda of supporting the M23 rebel group, a claim denied by Kigali. Rukumbuzi also said the sanctions won’t stop the operations of the rebel groups.

“They have been fighting for several reasons,” said Rukumbuzi. “There are different individuals and groups who have something to fight for. It may disturb them and try to understand and possibly try to dispatch roles to different individuals, but this won’t stop the rebels from fighting.”

The U.S. hopes the sanctions against the leaders and groups will change their violent ways and persuade them to find a peaceful means to address their grievances instead of killing and displacing innocent people from their homes.
…

your ad here