Month: August 2024

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Abidjan, Ivory Coast — Families of Burkina Faso civilians killed in a massacre have accused the army of exposing them to their militant killers by making them leave their village to dig a trench.

Armed men carried out the attack in the village of Barsalogho in north central Burkina Faso on Saturday, killing dozens of civilians and security personnel, local sources said.

A group linked to al-Qaeda, known by its Arabic initials JNIM, claimed responsibility and said it had seized control of a local militia headquarters.

A group representing victims’ families, the Justice Collective for Barsalogho, said in a statement seen by Agence France-Presse on Tuesday that Burkina Faso military officials had “obliged people, through threats, to take part in construction work, against their will.”

It said they forced the locals to dig a trench 3 kilometers (1.86 miles) from the village for forces to use in fighting off the militants.

The collective demanded that investigations be carried out to determine who was responsible for the alleged order.

In two videos apparently documenting the massacre —circulated on social media and attributed by various sources to JNIM — assailants in military dress are seen firing automatic weapons at a trench containing at least 91 bodies.

Authorities have not given a toll.

A member of the collective, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals by the army, told AFP they helped bury victims in mass graves that contained “more than 100 bodies.”

Rebels affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have waged an insurgency in Burkina Faso since 2015 that has killed more than 20,000 people, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

A security source earlier claimed that “the response of the soldiers” and auxiliary troops “made it possible to neutralize several terrorists and avoid a greater tragedy.”

After taking power in a coup in September 2022, Burkina’s junta leader Ibrahim Traore vowed to make fighting terrorism a priority.

This year he issued a call to civil auxiliary fighters who are aiding the army to “mobilize local people to dig trenches to protect yourselves” until machinery could be delivered.
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WASHINGTON — The United States is urging certain foreign nations not to fuel Sudan’s civil war by arming fighting factions, as the country faces one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.

Meanwhile, Washington has also called on Sudan’s warring sides to enforce a code of conduct to reduce abuses, noting that the army is considering the proposal after its rival paramilitary forces have agreed to it.

More than 25 million people face acute hunger and more than 10 million have been displaced from their homes since fighting erupted in April 2023 between the Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, the State Department said.

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen a significant proliferation of the number of external actors that are playing a role on both sides,” and they are not putting the interest of the Sudanese people “at the core of this,” said Tom Perriello, U.S. special envoy for Sudan.

“In addition to UAE [the United Arab Emirates] supporting the RSF,” Perriello told reporters on Tuesday, “we see foreign fighters coming in from across the Sahel. We’ve seen Iran, Russia, other negative actors on the SAF side.”

U.S.-brokered peace talks on Sudan that concluded last week in Geneva failed to end the country’s 16-month conflict. But one of the warring sides, the RSF, agreed to a code of conduct pledging to avoid violence against women, exploitation at checkpoints and the destruction of crops.

Perriello said that the U.S. has presented the proposal to the SAF leaders who were absent in the Switzerland negotiations.

“They have the code of conduct in front of them. We hope to get a response from them in the coming days,” Perriello said.

The United States has accused the SAF and RSF of war crimes, with the RSF specifically charged with ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity targeting the indigenous African-origin people of Darfur.

During the talks in Geneva, the U.S., along with representatives from the African Union, the United Arab Emirates, the United Nations, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, focused on reopening three humanitarian corridors — the Western border crossing in Darfur at Adre, the northern Dabbah Road from Port Sudan and the southern access route through Sennar.

Later this week, the U.S. will have a first formal follow-up with the heads of delegations.

Humanitarian assistance deliveries have resumed via two of the three routes: across the border at Adre from Chad and along the Dabbah Road into famine-stricken areas of Sudan.

In a statement late Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed the reopening of humanitarian corridors, saying lack of humanitarian aid access into Darfur over the past six months has exacerbated the historic levels of famine and acute hunger across Sudan, particularly within the Zamzam camp.
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Nairobi, Kenya   — The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the continent needs 10 million doses of mpox vaccines to stop the spread of the disease, which it recently declared a public health emergency.

However, experts say the global shortage of mpox vaccines will affect any inoculation drives in Africa.  

Professor Salim Abdool Karim, a virologist at the Nelson Mandela School of Medicine in Durban, South Africa, said there are currently three types of vaccines for mpox, but they are hard to obtain. 

“They aren’t available, and if people are to start manufacturing them now, it will take quite a while before doses will become available,” he said, adding that price is also an obstacle. “They sell for between $100 to $200 a dose, and you need to give everybody two doses. So that’s a very expensive vaccine.”   

The mpox ailment, formally known as monkeypox due to its original discovery in monkeys in Denmark, was first detected in humans in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been the epicenter of the current outbreak.  

Karim said mpox, which previously did not pose serious health concerns, has been mutating and the current strain is worrying, especially for Africa’s younger population, which is more susceptible. 

“If left unchecked, we will see mpox spread quite rapidly. And the reason it will spread rapidly is because it is now sexually transmitted. And we’ve seen from other sexually transmitted infections like HIV … that sexually transmitted infections can spread quite widely in Africa,” he said.   

Since July, mpox cases have been detected in Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda, as well as the DRC. 

Kenya has recorded two cases, and hopes to receive vaccine doses as part of the international effort to stop transmission of the disease. 

Kenyan Ministry of Health officials, however, say they are worried about the global vaccine shortage.  

“Africa requires 10 million doses,” said Dr. Patrick Amoth, director general for health in Kenya. “What could be available up to the end of the year is two million doses, if the …  manufacturer of the vaccine repurposes its manufacturing capacity to stop manufacturing — or scale down the manufacture of — other vaccines and prioritizes manufacture of the mpox vaccine.

“So, in terms of priority, of course it will be pegged on the number of cases that each and every country gets. So, for now, we cannot even … start talking about vaccination if we have only recorded two cases of the disease.”   

Amoth said there is no cause for alarm as the country has put in place measures to deal with the outbreak of the disease.   

“We have formed rapid response teams to be able to support counties in terms of contact tracing and other logistics required, including case management,” he said.  

Karim is challenging African countries to move toward developing their own vaccines locally, saying he worries wealthy countries could be hoarding the available vaccines for their own citizens. 

“I’m pretty convinced that if African scientists put their heads together, we can make an mpox vaccine and we can manufacture it right here in Africa,” he said. “It’s not rocket science. It just needs the investments to be made to do that.”   

As the wait for vaccines continues, health experts say testing, contact tracing, and public education are the best strategies in dealing with the outbreak in Africa, at least for now.  
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Nairobi, Kenya — Few countries have been hit harder by climate change than Kenya, where more frequent droughts and floods have become a fact of life for much of the country. One woman who won a contest to be named Miss Climate Kenya is working to build climate resilience and convince people to adapt to a changing world. At the same time, a farmer in western Kenya is denying the existence of climate change and defending the exploration of fossil fuels in Africa.

Over the past two decades, new weather patterns have become all too common in eastern Africa, killing off crops, pasture and livestock. Conversely, Kenya saw heavy flooding that killed dozens of people and displaced tens of thousands more this year.

Twenty-four-year-old Dorcas Naishorua, who was named Miss Climate Kenya in May, has experienced what climate change can do to lives and livelihoods. Naishorua is a member of the Maasai tribe. Her community relies on livestock for survival. Members move from one place to another in search of water and pasture for their animals to survive. 

“Since the onset of the serious climate crisis, I have personally been affected by it,” she said. “The same livestock my parents depended on to take me to school, most of them were lost during the drought, and due to that, I had to cut short my education.”

Naishorua said she is using her platform to educate her community about climate change and how to deal with its effects.

“We have stopped lamenting,” she said. “Now we have a drought. What changes are we bringing? So, through my capacity, I have been engaging with different rescue centers. I have been with different schools in tree growing and sensitization what is a tree and what tree to plant where I have been doing that on my platforms.”

But as some activists try to build climate resilience, Kenyan farmer Jusper Machogu is attracting the attention of climate change deniers or skeptics, and his social media network is growing by the day.

Just today, he shared a video on X of former U.S. President Donald Trump denying climate change and said, “I think he represents some of my views, and so I kind of like him.”

Machogu, a farmer in Kisii, Kenya’s highland region, says he denies climate change is taking place because he believes it is hard to predict weather patterns.

Mochugu, who is also an agricultural engineer, says he supports the exploration and use of fossil fuels, which scientists have shown to be a major factor in global warming due to the emission of carbon dioxide. 

Machogu says clean energy sources cannot replace fossil fuels like oil and gas.

“We have plenty of fossil fuels,” he said. “We have plenty of natural gas. We have it in Uganda. We have it in Nigeria. We have oil in Angola, Namibia, all of these countries. But now we’re being told that we should not use that to flourish. We should not use it.” 

And he spoke of the importance of fossil fuels.

“And most people don’t realize how important, how crucial fossil fuels are,” he said. “Like we can’t have steel if we don’t use fossil fuels; there is no way to produce steel minus fossil fuels. Most people have heard that solar and wind are going to save the world, but solar and wind is just electricity.”

African farmers have experienced severe impacts from climate change. Weather patterns have become unpredictable, making it difficult for them to prepare land, grow food, and harvest on time.

Environmental earth scientist Edward Mugalavai says climate change skeptics could be won over with greater development of clean energy sources. 

“When you touch on the issue of fossil fuel, then it is like you are telling people you reduce industrialization,” he said. “That cannot happen. But what we are coming up with is to come up with green energy solutions where people can continue to industrialize but use green energy that does not pollute the environment. But if you have alternatives, people can easily accept the changes that are taking place.”

Naishorua, Kenya’s Miss Climate, said those denying climate change should check how their environment has changed over the years.

If that is too difficult to observe, she said, then they should take care and protect the environment around them.
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Cairo, Egypt — The collapse of the Arbaat Dam in Sudan’s eastern Red Sea state over the weekend flooded nearby homes and killed at least 30 people following heavy rains, a U.N. agency said.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said late Monday, citing local officials, that the actual number of fatalities from the collapse on Sunday might be higher. Additionally, about 70 villages around the dam were affected by the flash flooding, including 20 villages that have been destroyed.

The Arbaat Dam, which is about 38 kilometers (nearly 25 miles) northwest of Port Sudan, was massively damaged because of heavy rains. In areas west of the dam, the flooding either destroyed or damaged the homes of 50,000 people — 77% of the total population living there. Those affected urgently need food, water and shelter, OCHA warned, adding that damage in eastern parts of the dam is still being assessed. 

More than 80 boreholes collapsed because of the flooding, OCHA said citing officials, while 10,000 heads of livestock are missing, and 70 schools have been either damaged or destroyed.

Heavy rain and flooding across Sudan this month impacted more than 317,000 people. Of those impacted, 118,000 people have been displaced, exacerbating one of the world’s biggest displacement crises due to the ongoing war in the country.

Tuesday marks 500 days since Sudan plunged into war after fighting broke out between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF.

The conflict began in the capital, Khartoum, and raged across Sudan, killing thousands of people, destroying civilian infrastructure, and pushing many to the brink of famine. More than 10 million people were forcibly displaced to find safety, according to the U.N.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), or Doctors Without Borders, said in a statement Tuesday that “this is a shameful moment” for international humanitarian organizations, which for more than 16 months, “have failed to provide an adequate response to the country’s escalating medical needs — from catastrophic child malnutrition to widespread disease outbreaks.”

“At the same time, heavy restrictions from both warring parties have drastically limited the ability to deliver humanitarian aid,” MSF said. 

Abdirahman Ali, CARE’s Sudan country director warned in a statement Tuesday that the war “shattered” the health care system, “leaving countless without care.”

More than 75% of health care systems have been destroyed since the war began, according to a World Health Organization estimate in July.
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