Category: Medical

Inter-communal clashes between Arabs and non-Arabs left at least 30 people dead and 40 others injured in Sudan’s West Darfur state on Sunday, according to eyewitnesses and officials.

Local militia supported by a paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces, attacked internally displaced persons in Kreinik camp and torched their houses, witnesses said.

The latest wave of fighting, which has been going on for weeks, stemmed from a dispute late Saturday between a customer and the owner of a cell phone store who was shot dead.

Arab fighters known as Janjaweed attacked the camp early Sunday morning after the murder.

Thirty bodies were brought to Kreinik Hospital and more than 40 others who were wounded were treated there, Mustafa Mohammed Zain, a medical assistant at Kirenik Hospital, told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus on Monday.

“Up to now we are still receiving wounded people even though the fighting stopped at around five a.m. this morning,” he said. “Some of them are in critical condition and some might die within the coming one or two hours.”

The hospital lacks basic medical equipment and does not have enough medical workers to respond to the wounded, Zain said. He called on state and national health authorities to urgently intervene.

“This is a big, rural hospital and it cannot be managed only by medical officers,” Zain said. “The government is supposed to send us doctors to help the situation.”

The hospital has run out of supplies like gauze and cotton, Zain said.

“We used all the reserve stock,” he said. “Medical workers are not safe and cannot go to the nearest location to get more medical supplies.”

The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan said an estimated 4,300 people have been displaced from the Jebel Moon area of West Darfur state in the last week due to fighting.

Mohammed Issa Alieu, the acting regional governor for Darfur, last week called the humanitarian situation in Jebel Moon “horrific” and appealed to aid agencies to quickly intervene.

Thousands of displaced families have fled to eastern Chad and are exposed to bad weather, Alieu said.

Adam Rijal, spokesman for the General Coordination for Refugees and Displaced in Darfur, a local advocacy group for IDP’s, told South Sudan in Focus that some political leaders in Sudan’s transitional government are behind what he calls “systematic” attacks on indigenous civilians in Darfur.

Renewed clashes erupted between different groups across the Darfur region shortly after the joint United Nations and African Union peacekeeping mission ended its mandate a year ago.

Rijal blames the United Nations Security Council for what he calls a unilateral decision to withdraw from the area without consulting the affected population in Darfur.

“We are supposed to have a voice on this decision because we are the ones facing the pain of the situation more than any other people,” he said.

Despite a peace agreement signed between the government and armed groups in Darfur more than a year ago, the area has seen repeated clashes between different ethnic communities.

A land dispute last month between communities in the Jebel Moon area led to clashes that left at least 17 people dead.

Under the Juba Peace Agreement, various forces were supposed to deploy a 12,000-strong presence in Darfur within 90 days to secure the area and provide protection for civilians.

Source: Voice of America

GABORONE, BOTSWANA — World health experts are still searching the origins of the omicron variant of the coronavirus. But in Botswana, where the variant was first reported, officials say what matters is that it was discovered, not where it came from.

Amid questions over the origins of omicron, a new and highly transmittable variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, Botswana says the focus should be on finding solutions to the pandemic.

Botswana and South Africa were the first to report the new variant, which is said to be highly contagious and has spread around the globe.

Initially, omicron was thought to have originated from Botswana, but the southern African country was quick to dismiss the reports.

President Mokgweetsi Masisi, in an interview with CNN Thursday, said the variant was detected in diplomats who visited Botswana but had passed through Europe.

“The diplomats came from a number of countries, their countries of origin, their countries of work station, and they passed through a number of countries to get to Botswana,” Masisi said. “Yes, some have been to Europe and some have been elsewhere. It would seem the very creation of this new virus is a result of intervention from a diversity of sources.”

But some scientists, including South African-based Richard Lessells, who was part of the team that discovered the new variant, say it is key to tracing the origins of the variant.

They argue, one key way out of a variant puzzle is to trace genetic origins, which is why it is matters to know where omicron originated.

Trevor Bedford, a computational virologist and professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the U.S. city of Seattle, is also involved in researching omicron’s origins.

He told U.S.-based National Public Radio that identifying the source of the virus would help scientists assess the potential threat of the variant through educated guesses.

For instance, he says, if omicron had been evolving out of sight in a large population of humans over a period of months, it could suggest the variant is less transmissible.

But Botswana Minister of Health Edwin Dikoloti says tracing the variant’s origins will only stigmatize the country where it is traced.

“Where the virus originates from is not important. We are not going to be geo-politicizing this virus,” Dikoloti said. “What is important is to applaud our scientists, who have discovered or found this virus to make the world aware of it so that we can act quicker to reduce transmission.”

Dikoloti says Botswana will not disclose the nationalities of the four diplomats and their countries of origin.

President Masisi says Botswana and South Africa are paying the price for the discovery of omicron, after other countries placed travel bans on several African countries following the announcement.

Instead, he says the scientists who discovered and reported the variant should be celebrated.

“I would like to applaud our scientific community for their efforts in monitoring the variant and being the first to sequence the omicron variant of concern and making information available to the international community,” Masisi said. “The response by some countries to our detection of the omicron variant is unfortunate as it appears to have caused unnecessary panic amongst the public across the world.”

President Masisi describes the ban on mostly visitors from southern Africa as divisive.

“Even if they did not originate in Europe, I make no sense of these travel bans. These travel bans, if I were to be more candid, are nothing but a manifestation of neo-imperialist thinking,” Masisi said. “These travel bans, if I can be very direct, are very paternalizing and very divisive, and they undermine our belief systems in multilateralism. They question our confidence in proclaimed addiction to principles of human rights.”

While the new variant is said to be highly infectious, in Botswana, with a population of about 2.4 million people, the infection rate has been rather slow, with only 24 reported cases, all of them with mild symptoms.

While Botswana maintains it is not important to report the place of discovery of the omicron variant, scientists like Bedford and Lessells argue it is critical to find out where it came from in order help fight it.

Source: Voice of America

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Friday to allow international naval forces to continue using all necessary means to fight piracy off the coast of Somalia — but only for the next three months because the Somali government says there has been no piracy incident for over four years and it’s time end the operation.

The council had been renewing the authorization for regional organizations and countries to fight against piracy and armed robbery off the coast of the Horn of Africa nation for 12 months. But this year the Somali government, whose consent is required, objected to another yearlong renewal sought by the United States, which drafted the resolution, and agreed only to three months after negotiations with the U.S. and other council members.

“We believe that the Security Council resolutions on piracy and armed robbery off the coast of Somalia have successfully achieved its intended objective,” Somalia’s U.N. Ambassador Abukar Dahir Osman told the council after the vote.

He said 13 years after adoption of the council’s first resolution to fight piracy, the milestone of “four consecutive years of no single piracy incident and no piracy hostage held in Somalia is a true testament of federal government of Somalia’s ownership of the problem, in addition to our hard work in collaboration with our international partners.”

Osman said Somalia gave consent for a three-month extension of the mandate to allow a transition to bilateral arrangements within Somali national waters “to help us in the maritime security, which is the only sustainable way to preserve hard-earned gains.”

The Security Council resolution welcomed the steady decline in ship hijackings off the coast of Somalia since 2011 and that there have been no successful hijackings for ransom reported since March 2017. But it recognized “the ongoing threat that resurgent piracy and armed robbery at sea poses,” citing reports by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia, which continue to illustrate that piracy “has been repressed but not eradicated.”

The resolution commends the efforts of the European Union naval forces operation off Somalia, which was launched in December 2008, as well as African Union counter-piracy activities onshore in Somalia, and other naval efforts in the region, including by China, India, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

Three decades of chaos — from warlords to al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabab and the emergence of an Islamic State-linked group — have ripped apart Somalia, which only in the past few years has begun trying to rebuild and find its footing. Pressure on President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed to hold elections has intensified since scheduled elections on Feb. 8 failed to take place.

While noting improvements in Somalia, the Security Council said it also “recognizes that piracy exacerbates instability in Somalia by introducing large amounts of illicit cash that fuels additional crime, corruption and terrorism.”

Asked after the meeting what will happen to naval operations when the council mandate ends in three months, Niger’s U.N. Ambassador Abdou Abarry, who is the current council president, told The Associated Press: “We will continue the negotiations, and we will wait for the outcome of the negotiations between Somalia and the African Union.”

France’s political coordinator, Sheraz Gasri, told the council that three months is too short to allow the European Union and others to continue the naval operation “under proper conditions.”

“There’s a risk of a security vacuum, which would be disastrous for Somalia and for the region as a whole,” she warned. “Indeed, the operation is not just limited to restricting piracy, it’s also stopping weapons and arms trafficking for the Shabab and the security of boats for food supplies and supplies of humanitarian assistance to Somalia.”

Gasri said France will continue listening to Somali authorities and “takes note of their will to coordinate the struggle against piracy.” In return, she said, France asks that Somalia recognize that such an evolution needs “concerted efforts” and that maritime security can’t be separated from the country’s overall security transition.

Ireland’s U.N. Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason echoed France’s concern about the threat to the EU’s operation, which she said “crucial.”

Source: Voice of America

LONDON —

The Duchess of Sussex on Thursday won the latest stage in her long-running privacy lawsuit against a British newspaper publisher over its publication of parts of a letter she wrote to her estranged father.

The Court of Appeal in London upheld a High Court ruling that the publisher of The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline website unlawfully breached the former Meghan Markle’s privacy by reproducing a large chunk of the handwritten letter she sent her father, Thomas Markle, after she married Prince Harry in 2018.

Associated Newspapers challenged the decision at the Court of Appeal, which held a hearing last month. Dismissing the appeal, senior judge Geoffrey Vos told the court Thursday that “the Duchess had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the letter. Those contents were personal, private and not matters of legitimate public interest.”

The publisher said it was “very disappointed” and was considering an appeal to the U.K. Supreme Court.

In a statement, Meghan, 40, condemned the publisher for treating the lawsuit as “a game with no rules” and said the ruling was “a victory not just for me, but for anyone who has ever felt scared to stand up for what’s right.”

“What matters most is that we are now collectively brave enough to reshape a tabloid industry that conditions people to be cruel, and profits from the lies and pain that they create,” she said.

Associated Newspapers published about half of the letter in five articles in August 2018. Their lawyers disputed Meghan’s claim that she didn’t intend the letter to be seen by anyone but her father.

They said correspondence between Meghan and her then-communications secretary, Jason Knauf, showed the duchess suspected her father might leak the letter to journalists and wrote it with that in mind.

The publisher also argued that the publication of the letter was part of Thomas Markle’s right to reply following a People magazine interview with five of Meghan’s friends alleging he was “cruelly cold-shouldering” his daughter in the run-up to her royal wedding.

But Vos said that the article, which the Mail on Sunday described as “sensational,” was “splashed as a new public revelation” rather than focusing on Thomas Markle’s response to negative media reports about him.

In their appeal, Associated Newspapers had also argued that Meghan made private information public by cooperating with Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand, authors of “Finding Freedom,” a sympathetic book about her and Harry.

The duchess’ lawyers had previously denied that she or Harry collaborated with the authors. But Knauf said in evidence to the court that he gave the writers information, and discussed it with Harry and Meghan.

Knauf’s evidence, which hadn’t previously been disclosed, was a dramatic twist in the long-running case.

In response, Meghan apologized for misleading the court about the extent of her cooperation with the book’s authors.

The duchess said she didn’t remember the discussions with Knauf when she gave evidence earlier in the case, and said she had “absolutely no wish or intention to mislead the defendant or the court.”

Meghan, a former star of the American TV legal drama “Suits,” married Harry, a grandson of Queen Elizabeth II, at Windsor Castle in May 2018.

Meghan and Harry announced in early 2020 that they were quitting royal duties and moving to North America, citing what they said were the unbearable intrusions and racist attitudes of the British media. They have settled in Santa Barbara, California, with their two young children.

In her statement Thursday, Meghan said she had been subject to “deception, intimidation and calculated attacks” in the three years since the lawsuit began.

“The longer they dragged it out, the more they could twist facts and manipulate the public [even during the appeal itself], making a straightforward case extraordinarily convoluted in order to generate more headlines and sell more newspapers — a model that rewards chaos above truth,” she said.

Associated Newspapers had argued the case should go to a trial on Meghan’s claims against the publisher.

Associated Newspapers said in a statement Thursday that it believed “judgment should be given only on the basis of evidence tested at trial,” especially since “Mr. Knauf’s evidence raises issues as to the Duchess’s credibility.”

Lawyer Mark Stephens, who specializes in media law and is not connected to the case, said he believed the publisher will appeal, though it would be unusual for Britain’s Supreme Court to take such a case. He said the publisher could also try to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights.

“There’s an issue of principle here, which is whether this case should be finished before a trial without disclosure, without testing the evidence,” Stephens said. The ruling did not settle questions about whether the letter to Thomas Markle was “always intended for Meghan’s side to publish and to leak and to use as briefing material,” he added.

Associated Newspapers “have a right to this trial, and I think that that is just going to protract the pain for Meghan Markle,” Stephens said.

Source: Voice of America

Zimbabwe has announced a nine-hour curfew and compulsory 14-day quarantine for anyone arriving in the country, to prevent the spread of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Zimbabwe is the first country in southern Africa to enact such restrictions since the emergence of the variant, which spreads more easily. The rules come just ahead of the holiday season, when many Zimbabweans living abroad hope to return home to visit family.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, in a televised address Tuesday night, said the government was closely monitoring what he called an “ominous development” following the discovery of the Omicron variant in neighboring South Africa.

“Government has decided on new enhanced measures to strengthen our national response and to protect our nation from impact of a likely fourth wave which the new variant omicron will most certainly aggravate,” said Mnangagwa. “With immediate effect, the following measures will now apply: All returning residents and visitors have to undergo PCR testing and will be quarantined at [their] own cost for days recommended by the WHO, even if they present a negative PCR test result from elsewhere.”

Opposition MDC Alliance Vice President Tendai Biti immediately criticized the new rules, saying on social media he had been left “hopeless” after a “loony decision made” by the government.

Dr. Norman Matara, the head of the Zimbabwe Association for Doctors for Human Rights, says the government has been proactive in trying to keep omicron – initially named B.1.1.529 – from crossing the borders.

“But we are also worried by the restrictions, especially the decision to quarantine returning residents, citizens and also travelers who test negative for COVID-19 with two PCR results,” said Matara. “We think that these restrictions are nothing more than punishment. They are just knee-jerk decisions based on emotion rather than scientific evidence or common sense. They also destroy tourism sector and business in Zimbabwe.”

Independent political commentator Kudzai Mutisi concurs that the measures are too harsh and will put more fatigue on the vaccination program in Zimbabwe.

“You promote vaccination by incentivizing vaccination. So, if someone has been vaccinated you try to reduce inconvenience to them,” said Mutisi. “And you put inconvenience to those that have not vaccinated; that way you push people to get vaccinated, because we are no longer in the era of lockdowns, lockdowns were there before we had vaccines, lockdowns were there before we knew about this virus – now a lot is known about this virus, and we now have vaccines. So, it is time to vaccinate and not to lock down.”

Zimbabwe has fully inoculated just above 2.8 million people since February, when it began its vaccination program to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. The government wants to vaccinate at least 10 million Zimbabweans by the end of the year, a figure which some say might be difficult to reach given the scarcity of resources and short time left.

President Mnangagwa said he would review his new measures to contain the omicron variant after 14 days.

Source: Voice of America

Uganda’s armed forces say they have launched joint airstrikes with the Democratic Republic of Congo against Islamist militants that Uganda blames for suicide bombings this month in its capital.

In a tweet Tuesday morning, Ugandan Brigadier General Flavia Byekwaso announced that Ugandan forces, together with Congolese allies, had launched joint air and artillery strikes against camps of the rebel Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF.

She confirmed the attack to VOA.

“Yes, it’s true, there’s a joint operation going on this morning on ADF positions.”

Ugandan officials blame the ADF for recent suicide bombings in the capital, Kampala, that killed five people, minus the bombers.

The ADF has been fighting the Ugandan government since 1996 and claims affiliation with the Islamic State militant group.

Earlier this month, while addressing the country on the security situation, President Yoweri Museveni said members of the ADF would be pursued wherever they are.

Byekwaso told VOA that Tuesday’s airstrikes in Beni, in eastern Congo, were a long-term wish.

“This has been a wish, actually for both presidents. Because ADF is not only a threat to Uganda, but a threat within the region and a threat to DRC itself. I think this has been something that we’ve been looking for, for quite some time,” Byekwaso said.

Prior to Tuesday’s airstrikes, Museveni said 12 ADF members had been killed and 106 arrested in Uganda since June.

Source: Voice of America