Reunion Wire

Here’s a look at what U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other top diplomats have been doing this week:

US-South America

Promoting democracy and managing migration are the focus of Blinken’s first trip to Ecuador and Colombia from October 19 to 21 as top U.S. diplomat. During a speech Wednesday in Quito, Blinken outlined challenges facing democracies in the Western Hemisphere but said he was optimistic they could be overcome.

Venezuela also looms large as the U.S. calls for political talks to resume between the Venezuelan government and the country’s opposition. U.S. officials this week discussed ways to tackle irregular migration, as Colombia hosts nearly 2 million Venezuelan migrants, and Ecuador also hosts a large number of migrants from Venezuela.

China also came up during Blinken’s South American trip. Ecuadorian officials described Beijing as “a commercial partner,” with Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso saying he wanted to secure a trade deal with China. Blinken told his Ecuadorian counterpart the U.S. was not asking countries to choose between Washington and Beijing, but he warned of risks of doing business with Chinese companies, saying “there really is no division between purportedly private enterprises and the state.”

US ‘One China’ Policy

Nicholas Burns, President Joe Biden’s nominee to be the next U.S. ambassador to China, took a tough line on dealings with China during his Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday. Burns said the U.S. was right to continue its “one-China policy” but that Washington was also right to oppose China’s unilateral actions that undermine the status quo and undermine the stability of the region. Noticeably, Burns used the wordings of Washington’s so-called one-China “policy,” which is different from Beijing’s one-China “principle.” The U.S. has “acknowledged” but has never endorsed the Chinese Communist Party’s claim of sovereignty over Taiwan.

Colin Powell’s legacy

Colin Powell, the first Black U.S. secretary of state and a top military officer, died Monday at age 84 from complications due to COVID-19 while battling multiple myeloma.

He is being remembered by America’s foreign service work force, who say Powell was devoted to ensuring the State Department was properly resourced, consulted and respected.

Powell, who shaped lasting U.S. policies toward Africa, also is being remembered on the continent for peacemaking, supporting the fight against AIDS and sounding the alarm against war abuses.

US-Haiti

Haitian protesters took to the streets this week to demand the release of 17 missionaries — 16 Americans and 1 Canadian — kidnapped on October 16 by the 400 Mawozo gang. An interagency team dispatched by the U.S. government is working closely with Haitian authorities to try to recover the missionaries. The State Department has raised its travel advisory for Haiti to Level 4: Do Not Travel.

Top US envoy to afghanistan steps down

The U.S. special envoy to Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad, stepped down from his post this week, less than two months after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Blinken announced Khalilzad’s departure in a statement Monday, saying the envoy would be replaced by his deputy, Thomas West. Talk of Khalilzad’s resignation had emerged since August after the Afghan Security Forces collapsed and the Taliban rapidly took control over the war-torn country.

Tigray violence

The U.S. remains gravely concerned by escalating violence in Tigray.

Forces in Ethiopia’s Tigray region said Monday that the Ethiopian government had launched airstrikes on the regional capital, Mekelle. The United States also was looking into the reported attack, with State Department spokesperson Ned Price saying the U.S. remained “gravely concerned by what has been escalating violence in Tigray for some time.”

China missile test

Top U.S. officials said Washington was paying close attention to China’s efforts to build up its military arsenal, amid reports Beijing took a major step forward two months ago by testing a hypersonic missile. Monday, the State Department said the U.S. was “deeply concerned” about the rapid expansion of China’s nuclear capabilities, which is deviating from Beijing’s decades-long nuclear strategy based on minimum deterrence.

Jerusalem consulate

The United States will move ahead with its plan to reopen the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem as Washington restores ties with the Palestinians and commits to a two-state solution. “As I said in May, we’ll be moving forward with the process of opening a consulate as part of deepening those ties with the Palestinians,” Blinken said during a Wednesday press conference. But he stopped short of providing a timeline.

Source: Voice of America

Botswana wildlife authorities have refuted reports the country’s rhinoceros population is on the verge of extinction due to poaching. The southern African country has battled a rise in poaching, with more than 60 animals killed in the last two years.

Department of Wildlife and National Parks Director Kabelo Senyatso said both rhinoceros and elephant poaching remain under control.

In a statement addressing poaching concerns, Senyatso said the government is committed to protecting the key species.

He added that, while isolated reports of poaching both the rhino and elephant continue to be reported, the government’s anti-poaching efforts are making progress.

But conservationist Neil Fitt said poaching incidents could have dropped due to the decrease in the number of rhinoceroses in the Okavango Delta.

“Rhino poaching could have subsided only because there is lot less numbers there,” Fitt said. “Elephant poaching is still happening, but we are getting very little reports because the government is not saying what is happening.”

In a bid to stem the poaching tide, government security forces have killed more than 20 poachers in the last two years as part of a zero-tolerance campaign that Botswana has enforced since 2013.

Fitt said a multi-stakeholder approach to fighting poaching is key.

“The best that we can do is we all work together – the government, the private sector and NGOs. Sometimes you need to put your hand up and say we have got a problem, we need to solve it, and we need everyone to help, and we are open to all ideas, not just ideas that we like,” he said.

Map Ives, former director at Rhino Conservation Botswana, said there is a need for an intelligence-based approach to counter poaching.

“That intelligence comes in several layers,” Ives said. “You need local intelligence within the Okavango Delta. You need local plus intelligence, which is surrounding the Okavango Delta, and then you need regional intelligence that is from countries surrounding Botswana, including Namibia, Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe. And then you need international intelligence. This sort of intelligence requires a high level of trust, not only government but between the private sector and NGOs.”

According to a 2021 International Rhino Foundation status report released last month, the rhino population faces a significant poaching threat in Botswana.

But, the report notes, the government is taking steps to address the issue, including dehorning the rhinos to make them less attractive to poachers and relocating the animals to safer places.

Source: Voice of America

A prominent professor studying communication in Namibia says member countries in the 16-nation Southern African Development Community, or SADC, have enacted and drafted cybersecurity laws which infringe on citizens’ freedom of expression. Zimbabwe is one of the southern African nations that critics say has drafted strict cybersecurity laws in the region — awaiting President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s signature.

A professor in Namibia said most cybersecurity laws in the region infringe on the right to privacy and freedom of expression and are in need of revision.

Admire Mare is a professor of communication, journalism and media technology at Namibia University of Science. This week, he published a report examining how basic freedoms should be at the core of policies lawmakers should consider when drafting laws.

“Human rights should be at the center of policy making and drafting of legislation. If you miss that out you may actually end up infringing, curtailing the exercise of some of the basic rights that human beings must be able to [enjoy],” he said.

The report titled “Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Laws in the SADC Region: Implications on Human Rights,” looks at several countries in the region. However, Mare singles out South Africa as one of the few 16-nation member countries with laws taking citizens’ freedoms into account.

Tabani Moyo is the director of the Harare-based Media Institute of Southern Africa, or MISA, an organization with SADC member representatives, where the report was launched. He called on President Mnangagwa to rethink Zimbabwe’s Cyber Security and Data Protection Bill and reverse course from signing the bill into law. The bill was recently passed by parliament and critics say it punishes social media users for minor infractions.

Moyo said the bill, if signed as is, only empowers few people.

“It fails to provide protection for a whistleblower in a comprehensive manner. Secondly, it provides the security forces the power to snoop into our communication through the Cyber Security Center [Zimbabwe’s cybersecurity agency]. Thirdly, it is just impossible to define interference with personal data without [providing] legal oversight from the judiciary,” he said.

Moyo said the bill creates loopholes for authorities to abuse citizens similar to what is happening in Lesotho, Tanzania and Zambia.

Human rights advocates say authorities in these countries have routinely used laws to arrest opposition members and curtail their activities. But the bill has some supporters.

Lawyer and information and communications technology expert, Jacob Mutevedzi, praised Zimbabwe’s parliament for passing what he calls a “progressive and commendable cyber statute.”

“Prior to this law [bill awaiting signature to be implemented] the legal framework for cyber security and data protection in Zimbabwe was incoherent and half baked. The country lacked a comprehensive legal framework for the regulation of cybersecurity and data protection. The consolidation of cyber related offences and regulation of data protection under the current statute within a single framework is a welcome development which accords with regional practices,” said Mutevedzi.

Professor Mare, however, said it is also the responsibility of rights organizations like MISA to take action against the cyberlaws endangering journalists and citizens’ rights.

“Strategic litigation — we have seen in different countries — can be an opportunity that can be harnessed. Make use of public interest lawyers and to test the constitutionality of some of these proposed and enacted laws,” said Mare.

Zimbabwe’s government has for long insisted that it needs a tight cyberlaw to deal with what it calls “falsehoods” peddled especially on social media.

Source: Voice of America

Witnesses in Ethiopia’s Tigray region said at least two people were killed and several others were injured in two airstrikes Monday carried out by government forces on the regional capital, Mekelle.

Residents who spoke to VOA’s Tigrigna Service said the airstrikes hit two areas: the Enderta district in the morning and the Adi Haki market, later in the day.

The Ethiopian government initially denied launching the attacks, but the state-run Ethiopian Press Agency later acknowledged the airstrikes and said they targeted communications infrastructure.

“Action [was taken] against media and equipment used by the TPLF [Tigray People’s Liberation Front] terrorists in Mekelle,” the press statement said. The TPLF is a former member of the coalition that ruled Ethiopia for more than 30 years. In May, Ethiopia designated the group a terrorist organization.

Dr. Cherinet Gebru works at Mekelle’s flagship Ayder Referral Hospital. He told VOA there were nine victims admitted Monday after the first airstrike.

“From the three people who were initially admitted, two were already dead. One was 12 years old. He was a child, and the other one was 14 years old, and we couldn’t help save them,” he said.

The doctor said the staff at the hospital is monitoring other victims who survived. However, the doctor added, the hospital lacks the medical equipment and medicine to provide proper care, especially for helping those admitted with serious injuries.

Gebremedhin Haylay, a Mekelle resident, said he was on his way to an area called Enda Gabriel, walking with friends when the airstrike hit the Adi Haki market. “There were the three of us and I was hit. My left hand and both my legs are injured,” he told a VOA reporter who visited Ayder Hospital.

Another witness, who says he saw injured people in the area, Jemal Kedir, said the bombardment hit an area no more than 30 meters from the market.

“When they [the Ethiopia’s federal government] say we are targeting leadership [the TPLF], it is a lie,” he said.

Getachew Reda, a TPLF spokesperson, accused Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, of being unwilling to end the conflict. “He has never been for peace, only the appropriate use of sticks can prod him into considering such path. The #AirStrikeonCivilians in #Mekelle is proof positive that he will do everything to terrorize our people, especially when his forces are losing on the battlefield,” he said in a Twitter post Tuesday. “If people had illusions he could keep his promise to resolve the conflict peacefully, yesterday’s attack should make it clear that only sticks are effective.”

The Ethiopian federal government has been engaged in an armed conflict with fighters from the northern Tigray region for nearly a year.

Mekelle has not seen large-scale fighting since June, when Ethiopian forces withdrew from the area and Tigray forces retook control of most of the region. Following that, the conflict continued to spill into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.

Last week, Tigray forces said the Ethiopian military had launched a ground offensive to push them out of Amhara.

Source: Voice of America

Cameroon’s French-speaking towns on the border with the English-speaking western regions are creating militias to stop separatist incursions. The militias say separatists are entering French-speaking towns to steal food and weapons for their movement or acting independently as armed criminals.

Cameroon’s military on Monday said it held several top security meetings in the capital, Yaounde, to examine the spillover of the separatist crisis from the English-speaking western regions to French-speaking areas.

Cameroon’s defense minister Joseph Beti Assomo said the military will never allow fighters to transfer the peril they cause in the English-speaking Southwest and Northwest regions to French-speaking border localities. He said he is reinforcing the military presence and increasing financial and material means to stop the separatists from entering French-speaking towns and villages.

Speaking on state radio, Assomo did not disclose the number of troops deployed to stop the separatists.

The military says French-speaking regions infiltrated by separatists include Mbouda, Galim, Babadjou, Babisenge, Foumban, Foumbot and Bafoussam. Two of these places, Foumbot and Bafoussam, are large commercial areas.

The military says there have been at least 60 attacks by separatist fighters in French-speaking localities with dozens of lives lost.

On social media, separatist groups have denied that fighters are looting. But they acknowledge attacks on several military positions, saying that they do so to seize weapons.

Rigobert Nchinda, a cattle rancher who relocated from Galim to Mbouda, said last week that suspected separatists seized five cows and money from him.

Nchinda said civilians live in total fear. He says many people are deserting border villages because of the recent frequent attacks and looting by suspected separatists. Business is at a standstill. To speak the truth, those of us remaining in border localities with English-speaking regions are not comfortable with rising insecurity caused by separatists who are infiltrating, Nchinda adds.

Defense Minister Assomo said civilians should assist the military by reporting suspects and strangers in their localities.

François Franklin Etapa is the most senior government official in Bamboutos, the district where Galim is located.

Etapa said militia groups have been created in all villages and towns on the border with the English-speaking Northwest to stop the incursions.

Etapa said Bamboutos is facing repeated assaults from secessionists because of its geographical location, near English-speaking regions. He said separatist attacks have dampened the spirits of civilians. He said he has decided to create vigilantes in all villages to help fight separatists who cross over from the English-speaking areas to commit atrocities in French-speaking border areas.

Etapa said people should not think that by promoting vigilantes, the country is handing over its duty of protecting citizens to militias. He said the militias should collaborate with traditional rulers, community leaders, the administration and the military by reporting strangers and armed men in the towns and villages.

Civilians and NGOs already contribute food and money to assist the militias. Many of the militiamen go out with locally made guns, machetes and bows and arrows to face intruders.

The military also says vigilantes should signal troops when armed men are spotted in the towns and villages.

Cameroon’s separatists have been fighting since 2017 to create an independent English-speaking state in the majority French-speaking country’s western regions.

The conflict has cost more than 3,000 lives and forced 550,000 people to flee to French-speaking regions of Cameroon or into neighboring Nigeria, according to the United Nations.

Source: Voice of America