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Month: September 2024
China pushes smaller, smarter loans to Africa to shield from risks
Beijing — China’s years of splashing cash on big-ticket infrastructure projects in Africa may be over, analysts say, with Beijing seeking to shield itself from risky, indebted partners on the continent as it grapples with a slowing economy at home.
Beijing for years dished out billions in loans for trains, roads and bridges in Africa that saddled participating governments with debts they often struggled to pay back.
But experts say it is now opting for smaller loans to fund more modest development projects.
“China has adjusted its lending strategy in Africa to take China’s own domestic economic troubles and Africa’s debt problems into account,” Lucas Engel, a data analyst studying Chinese development finance at the Boston University Global Development Policy Center, said.
“This new prudence and risk aversion among Chinese lenders is intended to ensure that China can continue to engage with Africa in a more resilient and sustainable manner,” he told AFP.
“The large infrastructure loans China was known for in the past have become rarer.”
As African leaders gathered this week for Beijing’s biggest summit since the pandemic, President Xi Jinping committed more than $50 billion in financing over the next three years.
More than half of that would be in credit, Xi said, while the rest would come from unspecified “various types of assistance” and $10 billion through encouraging Chinese firms to invest.
Xi gave no details on how those funds would be dished out.
Loans redirected
China has for years pumped vast sums of cash into African nations as it looks to shore up access to crucial resources, while also using its influence as a geopolitical tool amid ongoing tensions with the West.
But while Beijing lauds its largesse towards the continent, data shows China’s funding has dwindled dramatically in recent years.
Chinese lenders supplied a total of $4.6 billion to eight African countries and two regional financial institutions last year, according to Boston University research.
The key shift concerns those on the receiving end: more than half of the total amount went to multilateral or nationally owned banks — compared with just five percent between 2000 and 2022.
And although last year’s loans to Africa were the highest since 2019, they were less than a quarter of what was dished out at the peak of nearly $29 billion eight years ago.
“Redirecting loans to African multilateral borrowers allows Chinese lenders to engage with entities with high credit ratings, not struggling individual sovereign borrowers,” Engel said.
“These loans reach private borrowers in ailing African countries in which African multilateral banks operate.”
Modest approach
China coordinates much of its overseas lending under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the massive infrastructure project that is a central pillar of Xi’s bid to expand his country’s clout overseas.
The BRI made headlines for backing big-ticket projects in Africa with opaque funding and questionable impacts.
But China has been shifting its approach in the past few years, analysts said.
It has increasingly funneled money into smaller projects, from a modestly sized solar farm in Burkina Faso to a hydropower project in Madagascar and broadband infrastructure in Angola, according to Boston University’s researchers.
“The increased volume of loans signals Africa’s continued importance to China, but the type of loans being deployed are intended to let Africans know that China is taking African concerns into account,” Engel told AFP.
This does not mean that Beijing is “permanently retrenching its investments and provision of development finance to the continent,” Zainab Usman, director of the Africa Program at the US-based Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said.
“Development finance flows, especially lending, (are) now starting to rebound,” she said.
No ‘debt traps’
African leaders have this week secured deals with China on a range of sectors including infrastructure, agriculture, mining and energy.
Western critics accuse China of using the BRI to enmesh developing nations in unsustainable debt to exert diplomatic leverage over them or even seize their assets.
A chorus of African leaders — as well as research by leading global think tanks like London’s Chatham House — have rebuked the “debt trap” theory.
“I don’t necessarily buy in the notion that when China invests, it is with an intention of… ensuring that those countries end up in a debt trap,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in Beijing on Thursday.
One analyst agreed, saying that for many Africans, China has “become synonymous” with life-changing roads, bridges and ports and the debt-trap argument ignores the “positive impact” Beijing has had on infrastructure development on the continent.
“The reality is some [African] countries have had a tough time fulfilling their debt repayment commitments due to a multiplicity of factors,” Ovigwe Eguegu, a policy analyst at consultancy Development Reimagined, said.
Engel, of the Boston University research center, said the argument mistakenly assumes that “China solely has short-term objectives in Africa.”
That, he said, “vastly underestimates [its] long-term vision… to shape a system of global governance that will be favorable to its rise.”
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Belarus’ Lukashenko pardons 30 political prisoners
Amy Kellogg — Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko announced Wednesday that he is pardoning another 30 political prisoners, the third such prisoner release in the past three months.
The names of those released were not published, but the country’s most famous prisoner of conscience, prominent opposition figure Maria Kalesnikava, is not expected to be included. She was part of the troika of women including Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya and Veronika Tsepkalo who ran a united campaign for change against Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election.
Even so, Kalesnikava’s sister Tanya Khomich is hoping the recent pardons are a signal to the world that Lukashenko may be ready to bargain for the freedom of other political prisoners in exchange for some sort of concessions.
Khomich also hopes that Luksashenko, who has held power in Belarus for the last 30 years, may be thinking of his own future, and could be open to appeals from Western countries to release the prisoners.
“Luksashenko doesn’t want to be forgotten once peace happens with Ukraine,” Komich told VOA. “He doesn’t want Belarus to be swallowed altogether by Russia either.”
There is mounting urgency in Kalesnikava’s case, because she and Belarus’ highest-profile prisoners have been held incommunicado for nearly 600 days. People close to them say there is a terrifying total blackout on any official details about their conditions.
Kalesnikava, along with Tsikhanouskaya’s husband Siarhei Tsikhanouski, 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and others, have been denied letters, lawyer visits and phone calls, according to supporters and families.
But whispers always manage to escape prison walls, and the latest to reach Khomich is that the1.7 meter tall Kalesnikava now weighs under 45 kilograms and is unsure she will make it out of detention alive.
“Just imagine,” Khomich said. “It is the 21st century, we are in the center of Europe and someone is starving. Maria is kept incommunicado. Please don’t let her die of hunger.”
Kalesnikava, who became critically ill in prison from a perforated ulcer, needs a special diet that is not provided for her, according to her sister.
Franak Viacorka, a senior adviser to government-in-exile chief Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, feels equal urgency about freeing political prisoners.
He said the 30 names on the list were serving short terms and were in for more minor “offenses,” such as commenting or liking anti-regime posts on social media. And while he says he is happy about anyone getting out of prison, he suggested the pardons are not a sign that Lukashenko is softening his stance, but simply attempting to clean up his image.
“State propaganda advertises this as a big humanitarian gesture by the regime,” Viacorka said. “It’s Lukashenko’s act before so-called elections next year to show how human he is and that he cares about people, because even his supporters are not happy about the cruel repressions that are taking place.”
Viacorka also said international diplomatic pressure was involved in Lukashenko’s move to pardon the 30 political prisoners, but that domestic public opinion also played a role. He noted that those pardoned will not be entirely “free,” but released from prison and monitored via secret services, with some possibly blocked from leaving the country.
“Most of them were forced to write a pardon letter to Lukashenko and confess to crimes they never committed,” he said. “This is also a form of humiliation for the people, but it also shows Lukashenko very well. He wants people to recognize his power. To humiliate them and make them recognize his power.”
Despite the pardons, Viacorka says the human rights situation in Belarus has deteriorated lately, with jail terms increasing from a few to 10 or 15 years. Political prisoners are forced to wear yellow badges so that other detainees know not to talk to them in the event of a chance encounter.
“They want to break them emotionally,” Tanya Khomich said, noting that her imprisoned sister alternates between an “isolation cell” and a “punishment cell,” describing each as small fetid rooms with hole-in-the-floor toilets. A major difference, Khomich said, is that in the isolation cell, Maria Kalesnikava can have her toothbrush and soap, while in the punishment cell, she is not allowed any personal items.
With repression this intense and the Belarusian KGB vigorously and effectively monitoring electronic communications, Viacorka said, opposition activity is now happening “offline.”
“People meet in private apartments, they distribute samizdat,” he said, describing clandestinely self-published material. “There are plenty of cyber partisans too. Belarus has good hackers.”
According to Viacorka, many of these “cyber partisans” are state employees that secretly help the opposition, which provides Western countries information about what and whom in Belarus to sanction. There are also groups trying to assist Ukrainians and to keep Belarus officially out of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Still, Viacorka said the opposition in exile is actively discouraging people inside Belarus from engaging in any open political activity at this moment of chaos, with war ongoing in Ukraine.
“We shouldn’t sacrifice people lightly while we don’t have clarity,” he said. “Lukashenko makes mistakes. We want to be ready when the moment is right. Right now, we are at the peak of terror.”
And while Lukashenko’s regime has silenced Maria Kalesnikava and other opposition activists by jailing them, the Belarusian people have not forgotten these prisoners, Viacorka said.
Noting the prominent role that women play in the opposition, he added: “I see what they say about woman power. The toxic masculinity of Lukashenko versus the female empathy of our leaders is what makes our movement so sustainable.”
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Zelenskyy meets top military leaders in Germany as the US announces additional aid to Ukraine
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met Friday with top United States military leaders and more than 50 partner nations in Germany to press for more weapons support as Washington announced it would provide another $250 million in security assistance to Kyiv.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the meeting of the leaders was taking place during a dynamic moment in Ukraine’s fight against Russia, as it conducts its first offensive operations of the war while facing a significant threat from Russian forces near a key hub in the Donbas.
So far, the surprise assault inside Russia’s Kursk territory has not drawn away President Vladimir Putin’s focus from taking the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, which provides critical rail and supply links for the Ukrainian army. Losing Pokrovsk could put additional Ukrainian cities at risk.
While Kursk has put Russia on the defensive, “we know Putin’s malice runs deep,” Austin cautioned in prepared remarks to the media before the Ukraine Defense Contact Group met. Moscow is pressing on, especially around Pokrovsk, Austin said.
Recent deadly airstrikes by Russia have renewed Zelenskyy’s calls for the U.S. to further loosen restrictions and obtain even greater Western capabilities to strike deeper inside Russia. However, the meeting Friday was expected to focus on resourcing more air defense and artillery supplies and shoring up gains on expanding Ukraine’s own defense industrial base, to put it on more solid footing as the final days of Joe Biden’s U.S. presidency wind down.
Zelenskyy said he would continue to press for the long-range strike capability. “Strong long-range decisions by partners are needed to bring the just peace we seek closer,” Zelenskyy said Friday on Telegram.
Western partner nations were working with Ukraine to source a substitute missile for its Soviet-era S-300 air defense systems, Austin said.
The U.S. is also focused on resourcing a variety of air-to-ground missiles that the newly delivered F-16 fighter jets can carry, including the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, which could give Ukraine a longer-range cruise missile option, said Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer, who spoke to reporters traveling with Austin.
No decisions on the munition have been made, LaPlante said, noting that policymakers would still have to decide whether to give Ukraine the longer-range capability.
“I would just put JASSM in that category, it’s something that is always being looked at,” LaPlante said. “Anything that’s an air-to-ground weapon is always being looked at.”
For the past two years, members of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group have met to resource Ukraine’s mammoth artillery and air defense needs, ranging from hundreds of millions of rounds of small arms ammunition to some of the West’s most sophisticated air defense systems, and now fighter jets. The ask this month was more of the same — but different in that it was in person, and followed a similar in-person visit Thursday in Kyiv by Biden’s Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer as Zelenskyy shores up U.S. support before the administration changes.
Since 2022, the member nations together have provided about $106 billion in security assistance to Ukraine. The U.S. has provided more than $56 billion of that total.
The German government said Chancellor Olaf Scholz plans to meet Zelenskyy in Frankfurt on Friday afternoon.
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‘Impartial force’ must be deployed to Sudan: UN experts
GENEVA — Flagrant rights violations by Sudan’s warring parties require the deployment of an “independent and impartial force” to protect millions of civilians driven from their homes, UN experts said Friday.
An independent fact-finding mission uncovered “harrowing” violations by both sides since April last year “which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” they said.
The conflict pits the national army led by General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces of his former deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.
It has triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed, and the experts said 8 million civilians have been displaced while a further 2 million people have fled to neighboring countries.
Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the fact-finding mission, created late last year, called for “urgent and immediate action to protect civilians.”
“Given the failure of the warring parties to spare civilians, it is imperative that an independent and impartial force with a mandate to safeguard civilians be deployed without delay,” Othman said.
The mission found evidence of “indiscriminate” airstrikes and shelling against civilian targets including schools and hospitals as well as water and electricity supplies.
“The warring parties also targeted civilians… through rape and other forms of sexual violence, arbitrary arrest and detention, as well as torture and ill-treatment,” the mission said.
“These violations may amount to war crimes.”
‘Wake-up call’
In August, the United States convened talks in Geneva aimed at ending the brutal war, achieving progress on aid access but not a cease-fire.
It also announced visa sanctions on an unspecified number of individuals in South Sudan, including government officials, accused of obstructing the delivery of humanitarian aid for 25 million Sudanese facing severe hunger.
The U.N.-mandated experts based their findings on testimony from dozens of survivors of the fighting now in Chad, Kenya and Uganda — but not in Sudan, where authorities failed to respond to four requests to visit.
Sudan’s government also declined to comment officially on the mission’s findings.
Its report “should serve as a wake-up call to the international community to take decisive action to support survivors, their families and affected communities, and hold perpetrators accountable,” Mona Rishmawi, a member of the mission, said in a statement.
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Indian opposition parties name LGBTQ+ activists to key posts
NEW DELHI — India’s main opposition Congress party this week set up a new internal group to promote LGBTQ+ rights while another party has named a person from the community as its spokesperson, in the first such political recognition after many setbacks.
The country’s top court in 2018 decriminalized homosexuality but greatly disappointed the LGBTQ+ community last year when it declined to legalize same-sex marriage and left it to parliament to decide.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has also said the legislature is the right platform to rule on the contentious issue, and this week invited the public to share views on how best to ensure that policies for the community are inclusive and effective.
Same-sex relations are mostly a taboo in the largely conservative country of 1.42 billion people, and the government told the Supreme Court last year that such marriages were not “comparable with the Indian family unit concept of a husband, a wife and children”.
Congress, whose political clout has risen after doing much better than expected in the April-June general election, this week named LGBTQ+ activist Mario da Penha as the head of its new unit for the community under its All India Professionals’ Congress division.
This follows Congress’s poll promise to bring in a law to legalize civil unions between same-sex couples.
Da Penha said on X it was the “only representative framework for queer people within any recognised national political party in India”.
Anish Gawande, who last month became the first person from the community to become the spokesperson for a big party, the opposition Nationalist Congress Party – Sharadchandra Pawar, said da Penha’s appointment was “a major moment for queer inclusion in Indian politics.”
Gawande earlier said on social media of the Nationalist Congress appointment: “If you’d told me 10 years ago that it would be possible to be out and in Indian politics, I would have scoffed in disbelief.”
The federal government says it has taken a host of measures for the community, which includes enabling same-sex couples to access government food programs as families, open joint bank accounts and choose each other as nominees, and seek medical and other care without discrimination.
The Department of Social Justice and Empowerment said in a statement on Sunday it had invited inputs from the public to ensure that policies and initiatives for the community are inclusive and effective.
It did not mention any law to recognize marriages between same-sex couples.
A spokesperson for the ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Kenya school fire kills 17 students, police say
NAIROBI, Kenya — At least 17 children died after a fire ripped through their primary school dormitory overnight in central Kenya, police said Friday.
The blaze in Nyeri county’s Hillside Endarasha Academy broke out at around midnight, police said, engulfing rooms where the children were sleeping.
The primary school caters to some 800 pupils, aged between roughly 5 and 12.
“There are 17 fatalities from this incident and there are also others who were taken to hospital with serious injuries,” national police spokesperson Resila Onyango told AFP.
“The bodies recovered at the scene were burnt beyond recognition,” she said.
Police said the average age of the victims was around 9 years old.
Several others were injured, Onyango said, 16 of them seriously, and had been rushed to a nearby hospital.
“More bodies are likely to be recovered once (the) scene is fully processed,” she said.
The cause of the fire remains unknown, she said, but an investigation had been launched.
President William Ruto expressed his condolences for those killed.
“Our thoughts are with the families of the children who have lost their lives in the fire tragedy,” he said in a post on X.
“This is devastating news.”
He said he had instructed officials to “thoroughly investigate this horrific incident,” and promised that those responsible will be “held to account”.
The school is located around 170 kilometers north of the capital Nairobi, in Nyeri county.
The Kenyan Red Cross said it was on the ground assisting a multi-agency response team.
In a post on X, it said it was “providing psychosocial support services to the pupils, teachers and affected families”.
Deadly blazes
There have been numerous school fires in Kenya and across East Africa.
In 2016, nine students were killed by a fire at a girls’ high school in the Kibera neighborhood of Nairobi.
In 2001, 67 pupils were killed by an arson attack on their dormitory at the Kyanguli Mixed Secondary School David Mutiso in Kenya’s southern Machakos district.
Two pupils were charged with the murder, and the headmaster and deputy of the school were convicted of negligence.
In 1994, 40 school children were burned alive and 47 injured in a fire that ravaged the Shauritanga Secondary School for Girls in the northern region of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.
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20 years after Beslan ‘special operation’, a legacy of violence, lies and dead children persists
Ethiopia releases opposition politicians from prison
ADDIS ABABA, ethiopia — The Ethiopian government has freed seven Oromo Liberation Front, or OLF, members who have been in prison for more than four years.
A spokesperson for OLF Lemi Gemechu told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service that the seven were released on Thursday from the different prisons where they had been held.
He identified the seven as Abdi Regassa, Dawit Abdeta, Lammi Begna, Michael Boran, Kenessa Ayana, Gada Gabisa and Gada Oljira.
“Before their release, there was a process that took all day,” Lemi said.
“Just now, the Oromo Liberation Front leaders who have been imprisoned for over four years at different sites have been released, including Abdi Regassa, members of the executive committee and other officials well-known among the people, all seven of them, are now released and here at home,” he said.
Abdi is a prominent member of the OLF who once was the commander of the military wing of OLF.
The release took place at Burayu police station outside Addis Ababa.
Some of the released detainees are members of the executive committee while others are central committee and executive members of the OLF.
Lemi said they welcomed their release and congratulated their supporters and those who advocated for their release.
On his Facebook page, Lemi posted a picture of the seven standing with the leader of OLF, Dawud Ibsa.
In a statement issued Thursday on Facebook, OLF said the members were released on bail. OLF said they were detained for “exercising their legitimate political rights” and said their detention was “unjust.”
The opposition members were detained in 2020 for what rights groups at the time described as “purely political” reasons.
The Ethiopian government has not yet officially commented on the release of the opposition figures.
The United States has also welcomed the release of OLF detainees.
“We remain ready to support negotiations aimed at ending the violence and promoting durable peace for all Ethiopians,” the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs said in a post on X.
Human Rights Watch had been calling on the Ethiopian authorities to release the seven senior members of the opposition political party.
Meanwhile, the family of Taye Dendea, the detained former Ethiopian state minister of peace, has expressed their disappointment with the Supreme Court’s decision to deny him bail.
Taye’s wife, Sintayehu Alemayehu, told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service that she is sad because of the decision of Ethiopia’s federal Supreme Court.
The court on Wednesday upheld the decision by a lower court to reject the bail request by Taye.
Taye appeared before a court in Addis Ababa on Wednesday to find that his bail request had been rejected. The former state minister was arrested in December last year after he posted comments criticizing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
Police accused him of collaborating with groups aiming to destabilize Ethiopia. It also accused him of using social media platforms to endorse violence.
A lower court acquitted Taye of these charges without requiring him to present a defense but ordered him to defend against the third charge concerning the illegal possession of firearms.
This story originated in VOA Horn of Africa Service.
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Channel One Russia personality indicted over alleged violations of US sanctions
Russia struggles to sell Arctic gas amid tightening Western sanctions
Russia appears to be struggling to find buyers for its liquefied natural gas from a flagship Arctic development after the West imposed sanctions, forcing Moscow to store the gas in a huge container vessel in the Arctic Sea. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Sanctions complicate Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project
Islamabad — Pakistan Federal Minister for Petroleum Musadik Malik said Wednesday that international sanctions have caused complications for the Iran-Pakistan cross-border natural gas pipeline project.
Media outlets reported that Iran had warned Pakistan to complete its part of the project or face an $18 billion penalty — news that sparked a debate days later in Pakistan’s lower house, the National Assembly.
Responding to a question by a lawmaker on the floor of the house regarding Iran’s final notice, Malik said, “This is a deeply complicated matter and involves international sanctions.”
Malik did not provide more details about sanctions, but said the government is available to discuss the complications.
He rejected the penalty figure of $18 billion, saying, “I do not know where it has come from.”
In response to a query regarding reports of Iran’s notice, Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said last week that Pakistan had taken note of the development.
“Pakistan and Iran have robust channels of communications including this matter. We have always said that we would like to resolve all issues [with Iran] through friendly consultations,” she said during a briefing.
Petroleum Minister Malik, during an informal conversation on the gas pipeline project with local journalists in March, confirmed that Pakistan would present its case to the U.S. and seek an exemption from sanctions.
“We cannot bear American sanctions. We will present our stance to the U.S. We want to complete this project but without any sanctions,” Malik told journalists.
However, Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Baloch, also in March, said that the project is progressing “in conformity with our commitment to the Iran-Pakistan pipeline.” She emphasized that Pakistan perceives no grounds for objections from external parties as the construction activities are confined within Pakistani territory.
During a briefing Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that helping Pakistan address its energy shortage was a priority for the United States. He added, however, that “we will continue to enforce our sanctions against Iran. We also advise anyone considering a business deal with Iran to be aware of its possible ramifications.”
Pakistan experts say Pakistan failed to meet its commitment to build its part of the pipeline for several reasons, including a volatile security situation in Balochistan, where the pipeline is supposed to pass. Gas pipelines are not safe in restive Balochistan and Baloch insurgents frequently target gas pipelines in the resource-rich southwestern province bordering Iran.
“In my opinion, however, Pakistan’s real worry is U.S. sanctions,” said Naveed Hussain, an editor of the Pakistan English daily newspaper The Express Tribune. “It has declared force majeure, but Iran says Pakistan had signed the agreement while being fully cognizant of [the] U.S. sanctions risk, especially when India had withdrawn from the project for the same reason.”
Khaleeq Kiani, who writes about the economy for the Pakistan English daily newspaper Dawn, told VOA, “The U.S. stance is clear, and recently it imposed sanctions on companies providing equipment to Pakistan missile programs, that was a clear indication to Pakistan to not proceed with the pipeline project.”
In April, the U.S. imposed sanctions on four entities — one based in Belarus, and the other three in China — for supplying missile‐applicable items to Pakistan’s ballistic missile program, including its long-range missile program.
Despite that precedent, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Mohammad Ishaq Dar, said at a May press briefing that Pakistan would not succumb to international pressure on the pipeline project.
“We will not let anyone use their veto,” Dar said, without naming the United States.
Dar’s remarks came weeks after Donald Lu, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, told a U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that importing gas from Iran would expose Pakistan to U.S. sanctions.
Pakistan is facing gas shortages and relies on subsidized gas, putting pressure on the national exchequer, Petroleum Minister Malik said on the house floor Wednesday.
Originally envisaged as the Iran-Pakistan-India pipeline, the project was reduced to a bilateral agreement after India pulled out in 2008. Tehran and Islamabad signed a 25-year contract in 2009 to export gas from Iran through a 2,400-kilometer gas pipeline to be built jointly by both countries.
While Iran has completed its pipeline section, Pakistan keeps dragging its feet on the project. In 2019, the two countries revised their contract, and Islamabad committed to building its portion of the pipeline by 2024.
This story originated in VOA’s Deewa Service.
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US warns Russian hackers: ‘We are onto you’
Washington — The United States has charged five Russian intelligence officers and one Russian civilian in connection with a major cyberattack, described by U.S. prosecutors as the first shot in the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine.
The Justice Department unsealed the superseding indictment Thursday, accusing the Russians of carrying out the January 2022 “WhisperGate” malware attack that sought to debilitate Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure ahead of the Russian invasion the following month.
“The WhisperGate campaign included the targeting of civilian infrastructure and Ukrainian computer systems wholly unrelated to the military or national defense, that include government agencies responsible for emergency services in Ukraine, the judiciary, food safety and education, seeking to sap the morale of the Ukrainian public,” said U.S. Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen.
The attack “could be considered the first shot of the war,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Bill DelBagno, speaking alongside Olsen during a news conference in Baltimore, Maryland.
DelBagno said the WhisperGate campaign also targeted the United States and dozens of NATO allies, going as far as to infiltrate a U.S. government agency based in Maryland while simultaneously accessing U.S. bank accounts.
“The FBI, along with our law enforcement partners and allies, will relentlessly hunt down and counter these threats,” he said. “This type of cyber warfare will not be tolerated. The scope of Russia’s crimes cannot be ignored.”
Thursday’s superseding indictment, the result of an FBI operation named “Toy Soldier,” builds on charges first filed in June against 22-year-old Russian Amin Stigal, a civilian accused of leveraging malware to aid Russian intelligence ahead of the invasion of Ukraine.
As part of the attack, Stigal and the agents with Unit 21955 of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff, or GRU, used the cyberinfrastructure of some U.S.-based companies to launch what first appeared to be ransomware attacks, but which were actually designed to wipe out critical data.
The new indictment names Stigal’s Russian GRU accomplices as Vladislav Borovkov, Denis Denisenko, Yuriy Denisov, Dmitriy Goloshubov and Nikolay Korchagin.
FBI officials said the GRU unit has also operated under the names Cadet Blizzard, Ember Bear and Dev-0586, carrying out cyberattacks on critical infrastructure across Europe, Central America and Asia.
In addition to the new charges, U.S. officials said they are offering a reward of up to $10 million for each of the Russians named in the criminal complaint.
The officials said they are also working with Interpol to serve notices that could help lead to the arrest of the six Russians.
“They are marked people,” Olsen said. “We know who they are. There’s a reward on their head, and we’re going to pursue them relentlessly.”
“The message is clear,” he said. “To the GRU, to the Russians, we are onto you.”
In addition to the charges, the FBI and its partners on Thursday issued a cybersecurity advisory telling organizations and companies to fix known vulnerabilities that could be exploited by the GRU’s Unit 21955.
The Russian Embassy in Washington has yet to respond to a VOA request for comment.
Meanwhile, some U.S. allies announced their own plans to crack down on Russian intelligence.
Estonia on Thursday announced it has attributed a 2020 cyberattack on three of its government ministries and is seeking the arrest of three members of the GRU’s Unit 21955.
“Russia’s aim was to damage national computer systems, obtain sensitive information and strike a blow against our sense of security,” Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in a statement.
“Estonia condemns any malign activity, including cyberactivity that threatens our institutions, our citizens and our security,” Tsahkna said.
Thursday’s charges by the U.S. against Russian agents are the latest in a series of measures by Washington to crack down on what it describes as Moscow’s malign activity.
Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Justice Department charged a U.S. television presenter for Channel One Russia and his wife with sanctions evasion.
On Wednesday, the U.S. charged two Russian nationals employed by the Kremlin-backed RT media outlet with funneling almost $10 million to a U.S.-based media company to spread pro-Russian disinformation.
The Justice Department on Wednesday also announced the takedown of 32 internet domains linked to what officials described as a separate Russian operation aimed at influencing the U.S. presidential election.
VOA’s United Nations correspondent Margaret Besheer contributed to this report.
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Ukrainians react to conscription drive with mixed feelings, many questions
A new conscription law has been in force in Ukraine for more than three months, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the mobilization has been going according to plan. But studies suggest Ukrainians are ambivalent about the law. Lesia Bakalets in Kyiv looks at the reasons. Videographer: Vladyslav Smilianets
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Botswanan police, protesters clash over executive powers bill
Gaborone, Botswana — Police and protesters clashed outside Botswana’s National Assembly in Gaborone on Wednesday as members of parliament voted on a bill that would have given the president sweeping powers to appoint civil servants holding key positions.
Opposition members of parliament boycotted the vote, while protesters, waving placards, protested the bill outside. Members of the remaining ruling party failed to raise enough votes to pass the bill.
Opposition party leader Dithapelo Keorapetse said the bill, if it had been approved, would have given too much power to the president.
“Today was a momentous day in that the evil constitution amendment bill, which sought to clothe the president with enormous powers to appoint the chief justice, to appoint the court of appeal president, to appoint the secretary of the IEC [Independent Electoral Commission], died,” Keorapetse said.
Minister for State President Kabo Morwaeng blamed the opposition and civil society organizations for misleading the nation on what he called a progressive bill. He said the bill contained clauses that would have improved citizens’ lives, including provisions on health rights, the right to strike and workers’ rights.
Motheo O Mosha, a nongovernmental organization, was behind Wednesday’s protests. Chairperson Morena Monganja said some members were hurt during clashes with the police.
“Many of our activists were beaten,” she said. “We have one who is in hospital with injuries. We look at this event of citizens trying to express their displeasure at a certain piece of legislation and being met with this kind of violence as very unacceptable in a democracy.”
Morwaeng said protesters did not seek the required permit to hold the demonstration.
The proposed law was rejected a day before Botswana’s parliament was dissolved as the country prepares for next month’s general election.
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Docking of Russian naval ship in South Africa sparks controversy
Johannesburg — South Africa’s Ukrainian Association has expressed outrage that a Russian naval vessel was recently allowed to dock for several days at Cape Town harbor. Critics say the incident calls into question Pretoria’s purported neutral stance on the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
The Ukrainian Association in South Africa said it was dismayed to learn the Russian naval training ship Smolnyy had anchored at the Port of Cape Town in late August.
While the vessel was docked in South Africa, Russian bombardments in Ukraine killed scores of people, including children, the association’s Dzvinka Kachur said.
“Meanwhile, a Russian military training ship docks in Cape Town reportedly strengthening military ties between the countries,” said Kachur.
The Russian consulate general in Cape Town said on its X account August 30 that the ship’s command had met with South African naval counterparts and hosted a reception “aimed at strengthening bilateral ties.”
Russian state news agency Tass also reported the ship’s “unofficial” port call. It said the ship had undertaken a long-distance voyage that included stops in Cuba and Venezuela so that 300 cadets from the Russian Ministry of Defense could conduct a maritime practice.
“The Ukrainian Association of South Africa urges the government to stop all military cooperation with Russia immediately,” said Kachur.
Some South African officials appeared taken by surprise when asked to comment on the ship’s visit. The mayor of Cape Town told the local Daily Maverick newspaper that he had been unaware of the port call and said it “seems to have been under the radar.’’
In response to a request from VOA for comment, the South African National Defense Force issued a statement confirming the vessel had been docked in Cape Town for re-supply purposes. It added that South Africa “as a sovereign state has a right and responsibility to accept the docking of foreign vessels as a maritime nation.”
The statement noted, “There are currently three foreign vessels in South African waters, including a Ukrainian vessel,” that is here for repairs.
But the Democratic Alliance, the former opposition party that is now part of South Africa’s new coalition government, condemned the incident as “cozying up to Russia.”
Chris Hattingh is a member of parliament for the Democratic Alliance.
“The latest incident, the berthing of Smolnyy, a Russian navy Baltic Fleet training vessel in Cape Town after visiting Venezuela and Cuba, underlines the contradiction of President [Cyril] Ramaphosa’s utterances of non-alignment in the Russia-Ukraine conflict,” he said.
The African National Congress, which has the most seats in parliament, has ties with Moscow dating back to when the former USSR backed its struggle against apartheid. They are also both BRICS members.
Pretoria has been criticized for not condemning the invasion of Ukraine and for hosting Russian warships in controversial joint exercises last year. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also visited and was warmly welcomed in 2023.
In May of last year, U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety alleged that South Africa had covertly provided arms to Russia when a different ship docked in Cape Town.
The South African government set up an independent investigation into the matter, which ultimately found no evidence of that.
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