Month: February 2023

The presidents of Kenya and Eritrea have wrapped up two days of talks by agreeing to remove visa requirements for their citizens as part of improving relations.

Kenya’s William Ruto and his Eritrean counterpart, Isaias Afwerki, also agreed to promote regional peace and stability even as Eritrea faces questions over alleged rights abuses in Ethiopia.

Afwerki said Eritrea would rejoin the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, an East African trade bloc.

“This is an obligation in the name of the people of the Horn region,” he said. “We have to assume responsibility and revitalize IGAD so that we can have a functional, real organization for the region is critical. Without that mechanism, ideas and goodwill will not be productive. We will have to create an institution that is functional and result-oriented so that we can say we have changed the face of the region.”

Eritrea suspended its IGAD membership in 2007 following a disagreement with Ethiopia over the presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia. In 2018, Eritrea and Ethiopia reestablished diplomatic relations and agreed to end years of hostility.

Ruto said he expects Eritrea to support the region’s ongoing security operations and peace efforts.

“I look forward to working with you to ensure that we stabilize Somalia, we eliminate terrorism and we build a much more secure region,” Ruto said. “I also look forward to working with you in resolving the issues in Sudan and South Sudan, and working with our brothers in Ethiopia to build a better region for all our people and ensuring we make this region attractive for investment, trade and business.”

Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbor, has been accused of widespread human rights violations in two conflicts that erupted in November 2020 between Ethiopian federal government forces and the Tigray rebel group.

Last November, the government in Addis Ababa and representatives from the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia signed a peace agreement.

Tigray officials and residents say Eritrean troops have yet to leave the region, months after signing a peace agreement that requires Asmara to withdraw its forces.

Afwerki dismissed the allegations against his troops.

“Why are you bothered about the Eritrean troops who are there or not there? Come out and not come out,” he said. “Let’s assume the peace process in Ethiopia is going on without any obstacles. We would like to see the agreement signed in Pretoria and Nairobi implemented on the ground so that we can secure peace and stability in Ethiopia for the benefit not only of Ethiopians but the whole region.”

Eritrea has denied its troops fought in Ethiopia’s conflict in Tigray region, but rights groups allege the troops committed atrocities, including punishing families of accused draft dodgers.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch on Thursday called for sanctions against Eritrea for the government’s alleged role in rounding up people and their family members who refused to participate in mandatory military service.

Laetitia Bader, who heads the Horn of Africa operation at Human Rights Watch, said since September of last year, the Eritrean conscription campaign has been targeting draft evaders.

“They have resorted to new methods of repression against families of alleged draft evaders. So, we found that they were detaining relatives, including older people, but they were also evicting people from their homes,” she said. “So, this was not only the security forces but alongside local officials that keep a list of households through a coupon system which enables people to have access to subsidized goods, and they were going door-to-door trying to identify individuals who were missing.”

The U.S.-based rights organization is urging the international community to pressure Asmara to reform what Human Rights Watch calls Eritrea’s abusive national service system. The rights group says the system continues to drive Eritreans into exile.

Source: Voice of America

A rash of killings across Africa has renewed focus on the risks facing those working to expose wrongdoing.

The killings of two journalists in Cameroon and a respected human rights defender in Eswatini, along with the suspicious death of a well-known editor in Rwanda have raised questions about whether justice will be done.

The cases also underscored the dangers of impunity ¬¬¬— with such incidents sending an unsettling message to government critics and the free press.

“There can be no doubt that when journalists are killed with impunity there is a chilling effect. It’s trite, but murder is the ultimate form of censorship,” Angela Quintal, head of the Africa program at the Committee to Protect Journalists, told VOA.

“The lack of consequences for those who kill or harm journalists obviously also emboldens others who believe they too can get away with it or allows those who threaten journalists to continue to do so,” she said.

In the case of Martinez Zogo, the Cameroonian journalist was forced into a car, having in vain sought help from a police station during the kidnapping. He was heard shouting “Help me, they want to kill me,” according to reports.

His body was found a few days later, naked and badly mutilated.

The media watchdog Reporters Without Borders said that Zogo’s “fingers were cut off, his arms and legs were broken in several places, and a steel rod was rammed into his anus.”

Two weeks later, Ola Bebe, a radio host and priest, was found dead close to his home in the capital.

The killings prompted a U.N. Human Rights spokesperson to call on authorities to “take all necessary measures to create an enabling environment for journalists to work without fear of reprisal.”

The Cameroon cases were not isolated.

On Jan. 21, an outspoken critic of Africa’s last absolute monarchy, Eswatini lawyer and columnist Thulani Maseko, was shot dead through the window of his home.

He had been a constant thorn in the side of the government of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, and had been jailed for more than a year in 2014.

Amnesty International’s Southern Africa spokesperson Robert Shivambu told VOA at the time that Maseko’s death had sent a chilling message to pro-democracy activists and could signify an escalation in attacks against those who are openly seeking political reforms.

On Jan. 18, John Williams Ntwali, editor of Rwanda’s Chronicles newspaper, died when a speeding car hit the motorcycle he was traveling on.

The death of a journalist who had frequently faced threats in relation to his work raised questions among media watchdogs about whether it was really an accident.

Human Rights Watch noted that prior to his death, Ntwali had told a friend that he’d survived a number of “staged incidents” in Kigali, and a fellow Rwandan journalist told VOA that the night before he died, Ntwali had seemed anxious.

All three countries have poor records on RSF’s Press Freedom Index, with Rwanda placing 136, Cameroon 118 and Eswatini 131 out of 180 countries where 1 denotes the best conditions.

Still, authorities in each case have vowed to investigate.

This week, a Rwandan court identified the driver of the vehicle that hit Ntwali as Moise Emmanuel Bagirishya. A court convicted Bagirishya of involuntary manslaughter and fined him $920.

However, the trial was not open to the public and Bagirishya was not present for the sentencing.

CPJ’s Quintal says that the lack of transparency “merely feeds into the suspicions that all is not what it seems.”

“We cannot say for sure that it was indeed an accident until there are more facts and questions answered,” she said.

Michela Wrong, a British journalist and author of a book on Rwanda, Do Not Disturb. The story of a political murder and a regime gone bad, told VOA the country had a track record of political assassination.

“People die in road accidents in Africa every day, but Rwanda isn’t like any other African state,” she said. “This is a country with a track record of extrajudicial killings, mysterious disappearances and arbitrary arrests involving journalists, opposition party members and human rights activists.”

“Crucially, John Williams Ntwali told friends that he was receiving death threats, lived in constant fear, and had been repeatedly ordered to report to police headquarters. In that context, his death is highly suspicious,” Wrong said.

In the case of Maseko, many rights groups have intimated the government could have been connected to the killing. His death came just hours after the king, Mswati III, spoke against activists challenging his rule.

Government officials have angrily denied such claims.

Despite promising a swift investigation, no arrests have yet been made.

Eswatini government spokesperson Alpheous Nxumalo told VOA that authorities were investigating numerous crimes, and that “no one case is above the other.”

He added that Maseko’s murder “is indeed taken seriously but not in isolation from other cases.”

In Cameroon however, multiple arrests have been made in the killing of Zogo, including Justin Danwe, deputy head of Cameroon’s General Directorate for External Investigations.

Danwe, who confessed to participating in the kidnapping and murder, implicated other senior officials.

VOA sent an email to the Justice Ministry requesting comment but as of publication had not heard back.

More arrests came Monday, as police detained businessman Jean-Pierre Amougou Belinga and two of his associates.

In his reporting for Amplitude FM, Zogo had alleged that Belinga was involved in a public embezzlement scheme.

CPJ’s Quintal acknowledged the high-profile arrests as a “welcoming sign,” but she said “as yet, no one has been charged and very little has been made public.”

“There are ‘leaks’ from certain quarters, but there is a lot of smoke and mirrors and misinformation and even disinformation,” she said.

“Given the reality of Cameroon today where there is a power struggle between elites with an ailing President [Paul] Biya who has been in power for 40 years, we are watching to see how things play out and whether there will indeed be justice for Martinez Zogo,” she said.

Source: Voice of America

New UN Development Programme report findings challenge traditional assumptions about what drives people to violent extremism, and highlight urgent need to move away from security-driven responses to development-based approaches focused on prevention

New York, 7 February 2023— Hope of finding work is the leading factor driving people to join fast-growing violent extremist groups in Sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new report launched today by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Among nearly 2,200 interviewees, one-quarter of voluntary recruits cited job opportunities as their primary reason for joining, a 92 percent increase from the findings of a groundbreaking 2017 UNDP study.

Religion came as the third reason for joining, cited by 17 percent — a 57 percent decrease from the 2017 findings, with a majority of recruits admitting to having limited knowledge of religious texts.

Nearly half of the respondents cited a specific trigger event pushing them to join violent extremist groups, with a striking 71 percent pointing to human rights abuse, often conducted by state security forces, as ‘the tipping point’.

“Sub-Saharan Africa has become the new global epicenter of violent extremism with 48% of global terrorism deaths in 2021. This surge not only adversely impacts lives, security and peace, but also threatens to reverse hard-won development gains for generations to come.Security-driven counter-terrorism responses are often costly and minimally effective, yet investments in preventive approaches to violent extremism are woefully inadequate. The social contract between states and citizens must be reinvigorated to tackle root causes of violent extremism,” UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said.

“Journey to Extremism in Africa: Pathways to Recruitment and Disengagement*” *draws from interviews with nearly 2,200 people in eight countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, and Sudan. More than 1,000 interviewees are former members of violent extremist groups, both voluntary and forced recruits.

The report explores pathways out of violent extremism, identifying factors that push or pull recruits to disengage. Interviewees most often cited unmet expectations, particularly financial expectations, and lack of trust in the group’s leadership as their main reasons for leaving. It also presents gendered data to understand violent extremism from the perspective of women.

“Research shows that those who decide to disengage from violent extremism are less likely to re-join and recruit others. This is why it’s so important to invest in incentives that enable disengagement. Local communities play a pivotal role in supporting sustainable pathways out of violent extremism, along with national governments amnesty programmes,” UNDP Preventing Violent Extremism technical lead in Africa Nirina Kiplagat said.

To counter and prevent violent extremism, the report recommends greater investment in basic services including child welfare; education; quality livelihoods; and investing in young men and women. It also calls for scaling-up exit opportunities and investment in rehabilitation and community-based reintegration services.

This report is part of a series of three reports on the prevention of violent extremism, including the report, “Dynamics of Violent Extremism in Africa: Conflict Ecosystems, Political Ecology, and the Spread of the Proto-State” which analyses the latest dynamics of violent extremist groups in Sub-Saharan Africa and provides recommendations for specific development actions.

Source: UN Development Programme

Whether out-of-the-box thinking or a sign of desperation, scientists on Wednesday proposed the regular transport of moon dust to a point between Earth and Sun to temper the ravages of global warming.

Ideas for filtering solar radiation to keep Earth from overheating have been kicking around for decades, ranging from giant space-based screens to churning out reflective white clouds.

But the persistent failure to draw down planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions has pushed once-fanciful geoengineering schemes toward center stage in climate policy, investment and research.

Blocking 1%-2% of the Sun’s rays is all it would take to lower Earth’s surface by a degree or two Celsius, roughly the amount it has warmed over the last century.

The solar radiation technique with the most traction so far is the 24/7 injection of billions of shiny sulfur particles into the upper atmosphere.

So-called stratospheric aerosol injection would be cheap, and scientists know it works because major volcanic eruptions basically do the same thing. When Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines blew its top in 1991, it lowered temperatures in the northern hemisphere by about 0.5 Celsius for nearly a year.

But there are serious potential side-effects, including the disruption of rain patterns upon which millions depend for growing food.

However, a new study in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS Climate explores the possibility of using moon dust as a solar shield.

A team of astronomers applied methods used to track planet formation around distant stars — a messy process that kicks up vast quantities of space dust — to Earth’s moon.

Computer simulations showed that putting lunar dust at a gravitational sweet spot between Earth and Sun “blocked out a lot of sunlight with a little amount of mass,” said lead author Ben Bromley, a professor of physics at the University of Utah.

‘Balancing marbles’

The scientists tested several scenarios involving different particle properties and quantities in different orbits, looking for the one that would throw the most shade.

Moon dust worked best. The quantities needed, they said, would require the equivalent of a major mining operation on Earth.

The authors stressed that their study was designed to calculate potential impact, not logistical feasibility.

“We aren’t experts in climate change or rocket science,” said co-author Benjamin Bromley, a professor at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

“We were just exploring different kinds of dust on a variety of orbits to see how effective this approach might be,” he added. “We don’t want to miss a game changer for such a critical problem.”

Experts not involved in the study praised its methodology but doubted whether it would actually work.

“Placing moon dust at the gravity midpoint between Earth and Sun, can indeed reflect heat,” said University of Edinburgh professor Stuart Haszeldine.

“But this is like trying to balance marbles on a football — within a week most dust has spun out of stable orbit.”

For Joanna Haigh, an emeritus professor of atmospherics at Imperial College London, the study is a distraction.

The main problem, she said, “is the suggestion that the implementation of such schemes will solve the climate crisis whereas it just gives polluters an excuse not to act.”

Source: Voice of America