Month: August 2022

Lying on a small bed next to her mother, 14-month-old Aisha Usman stares blankly, her eyes sunk in their sockets and rib cage visible.

She is the latest arrival at a treatment center for severely malnourished children in Nigeria’s northeast, where a long-running Islamist insurgency has uprooted millions, forcing farmers to abandon fields and causing food shortages.

Some 1.74 million children under the age of 5 face acute malnutrition in the area, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says.

The militant Boko Haram group and its offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province have been fighting Nigerian security forces in the northeast for over a decade, displacing more than 2 million people and killing hundreds of others, aid agencies say.

At the treatment center at Damaturu Hospital, in the Yobe state capital, Aisha’s mother Fatima said there were days when her family goes to sleep hungry because of a lack of food.

That is because in her Babangida village, some 50 kilometers from Damaturu, Islamist insurgents forced villagers to abandon their farms, she told Reuters. She used to fetch firewood for sale but says that stopped as it became too dangerous to venture into the forest.

“Sometimes we are getting food to eat, and at times we don’t,” the 35-year-old said.

Her daughter weighs 4.7 kg (10 lb), less than half the average weight of children her age. Some of the little girl’s organs were shutting down when she arrived at the hospital, a doctor said.

She has been given an injection and started receiving food via a tube, and the doctor said she was slowly responding and improving.

The United Nations’ OCHA needs $1 billion this year to assist 5.5 million people, including women and children, with food aid in the three states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe.

The OCHA has raised 42% of the required funds eight months into the year, according to a briefing to reporters.

Some international donors have shifted funding elsewhere, including Ukraine, Ethiopia and Afghanistan, which are also facing increased humanitarian needs, the OCHA says.

Up to 5,000 children in Nigeria’s northeast, however, are at risk of dying in the next two months if funding does not come through, said John Mukisa, a nutrition sector coordinator for U.N. agencies.

Across from Fatima’s bed, 21-year-old Sahura Hassan brought her son to the Damaturu treatment center because he had stopped eating, had a fever, could not sit and was severely dehydrated.

“Most of the problem we notice in these local government areas is due to poor access to food due to the insecurity, and there is food insufficiency in each of the households,” Japhet Udokwu, the doctor in charge of the treatment center, told Reuters.

Farming sustains livelihoods in the northeast, but insecurity, the rising cost of fertilizer and diesel, as well as flooding and drought due to changing climate, have combined into a powerful force that is upending lives.

Nigeria’s government says it is winning the fight against insurgents in the northeast and that some areas have now been cleared of militants and are safe for villagers to return and farm.

Source: Voice of America

Angolans and foreign dignitaries gathered Sunday for the funeral of long-serving ex-leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who died in Spain in July but whose burial was delayed by a family request for an autopsy.

The funeral of Dos Santos, who died in a clinic in Barcelona on July 8 at the age of 79, is taking place days after an election appeared to have returned his MPLA party to power in results that have been disputed by the country’s main opposition coalition.

Dos Santos and his family dominated Angolan politics for the 38 years that he ruled, up to 2017. His formerly Marxist party, the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), in power for nearly five decades, looks almost certain to have won Wednesday’s election.

Heads of state and senior ministers from around the continent, as well as the president of Angola’s former colonial ruler Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, were slated to attend.

The presence of foreign VIPs has enabled authorities to seek to head off possible protests over the disputed provisional results.

“Due to the state funeral of the late former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, the national police appeals to all citizens, civil society and organized groups that intend to organize activities on Saturday and Sunday, to contain themselves out of respect for the former head of state,” Angola’s National Police said in a statement reported by the Lusa news agency Saturday.

With 97% of ballot counted, the electoral commission has given the MPLA and President Joao Lourenco a 51% majority, with the main opposition the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola, or UNITA, trailing with 44.5%.

UNITA’s leader, Costa Junior, has rejected the results as fraudulent, and there have been sporadic protests that were quickly shut down by police. The electoral commission has said the process was fair and transparent.

Both Lourenco and Junior were expected to attend the funeral.

Dos Santos’ body was returned to the country last weekend, after being delayed by a full autopsy that had been requested by his daughter, Tchize. A Spanish judge ruled the death was from natural causes.

Thousands of Angolans came out onto the streets to pay their respects to Dos Santos on Saturday.

“I am here and tears came to my eyes because this moment is not easy,” said 39-year-old Filomeno Augustinho. “If we got here today it was (because) of the stability (Dos Santos) gave us.”

But opposition supporters — who include poor Angolans left most socially unequal countries — were less enthusiastic.

“Right now our attention is focused on the election,” Dionisia Domingos, 38, who works in administration in a company in Luanda, told Reuters.

“The funeral seems to be … to divert the attention of the international community and the population (from) the election results and the fraud.”

Authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Source: Voice of America

Libya’s capital was quiet early Sunday, a day after the worst fighting there for two years killed 32 people and injured 159 as forces aligned with a parliament-backed administration failed to dislodge the Tripoli-based government.

Roads in the city were busy with motorists, shops were open, and people were clearing away smashed glass and other debris from Saturday’s violence, with burned out vehicles lining some streets in central Tripoli.

The fighting has raised fears of a wider conflict in Libya over the political standoff between Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah in Tripoli and Fathi Bashagha, who seeks to install a new government in the capital.

Bashagha’s attempt on Saturday to take over in Tripoli was his second such attempt since May.

However, airline companies said early on Sunday that flights were operating normally at Tripoli’s Mitiga airport, a sign that the security situation had eased for now.

The health ministry said on Sunday that 32 people were killed in Saturday’s violence and 159 were injured, up from a ministry source’s previous estimate of 23 deaths and 87 injured.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate end to the violence and for genuine dialogue to get around Libya’s political impasse.

Bashagha’s failure to oust Dbeibah showed that despite a period of realignment among armed factions in and around the capital, the Tripoli government can still count on a military coalition able to fight off its enemies.

Several groups aligned with Bashagha in Tripoli appeared to have lost control of territory inside the capital on Saturday, while attempts by forces to the west and south of the city to advance into it appeared to have failed.

A main military convoy that set out from Misrata, east of Tripoli, where Bashagha has been based for weeks, turned back before reaching the capital.

A major commander among the pro-Bashagha forces, Osama Juweili, said the fighting Saturday had been triggered by friction between armed forces in the capital. However, he added, in comments to Al-Ahrar television, that “it is not a crime” to try to bring in a government mandated by parliament.

Libya’s overarching political standoff over control of government appears largely unchanged by Bashagha’s attempt on Saturday to take over in Tripoli.

There is no sign of any move towards compromise between the main camps or of new diplomatic efforts to bring them together around a new push for national elections to resolve the dispute over control of government.

Meanwhile, while pro-Bashagha forces failed to install him on Saturday, they still hold strong positions around the capital, while the main eastern-based Libyan National Army of Khalifa Haftar waits in the wings.

Source: Voice of America

Two high-rise apartment towers in India were leveled to the ground in a controlled demolition on Sunday after the country’s top court declared them illegal for violating building norms, officials said. They became India’s tallest structures to be razed to the ground.

More than 1,500 families vacated their apartments in the area more than seven hours before the nearly 100-meter- tall towers crumbled inward by the impact of the implosion. The 32-story and 29-story towers, which were being constructed by a private builder in Noida city on the outskirts of New Delhi, were yet to be occupied.

“Largely, everything is OK,” said Ritu Maheshwari, a government administrator, after the demolition. “It happened as expected.”

The demolition was completed within seconds but followed a 12-year court battle between residents in the area and the builder, Supertech Limited.

The razing of the towers occurred after the Supreme Court found that the builder, in collusion with government officials, violated laws prohibiting construction within a certain distance from nearby buildings.

The Supreme Court said the construction of the two towers also was illegal because the builder did not receive mandatory consent from other apartment owners in the area.

Ahead of the demolition, the towers were surrounded by scaffolding, fences, barricades and special covers to block dust from the approximately 88,000 tons of debris that would be generated, officials said. Disposing all of the debris will take three months.

Residents are expected to return to the area Sunday evening after experts examine the impact of the demolition. Some apartments are located just nine meters away from the blast site, and the required safe distance is 20 meters.

“It would come in the top five demolitions in the world in terms of height, volume, steel and tightness of the structure,” said Utkarsh Mehta, a partner with Edifice Engineering, which brought down the building in collaboration with Jet Demolition from South Africa at a cost of 180 million rupees ($2.25 million).

Mehta said 3,500 kilograms (7,716 pounds) of explosives were drilled into thousands of holes in the columns and shears of the towers. Experts used the waterfall method of demolition in which one story collapses on the next.

Joe Brikmann, director of Jet Demolition, said earlier he was confident no harm would come to the buildings adjacent to the demolished towers.

“The buildings in this area are in a high seismic zone (zone IV) and built to experience earthquakes which are much stronger than vibrations from an implosion. We are confident that the implosion of the towers will not cause any damage to properties,” The Times of India newspaper quoted him as saying.

The tallest building demolished in the world with explosives to date was 165 meters tall, and occurred in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates on Nov. 27, 2020, according to Guinness World Records.

Source: Voice of America

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies this week warned a lengthy war in Ukraine will have severe humanitarian consequences for other global crises.

Devastating secondary effects from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are already being felt six months after Russia’s invasion.

International Red Cross federation officials warned this week that the economic impact on millions of destitute people worldwide will worsen the longer the war drags on.

Ukraine was one of the world’s biggest grain exporters before the war. The Russian blockade of Black Sea ports, however, has prevented grain shipments, triggering a global food crisis. Skyrocketing food and fuel prices have made these and other essential commodities unaffordable, plunging millions of people into acute hunger.

Earlier this month, a U.N.-mediated deal allowed Ukraine to resume grain exports. Nevertheless, the Red Cross says the consequences of the war continue to be felt and will take a long time to undo.

Brigitte Ebbesen is International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies regional director for Europe. She says humanitarian needs remain acute, especially in the Middle East and Africa.

“The food crisis in Africa is something that we already are reacting to as IFRC and we are looking at in the Middle East. Buying food is increasingly difficult for a large part of the population. So, the ripple effects are enormous,” she said.

More than 100,000 local Red Cross volunteers and staff have been mobilized to provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine, seven bordering countries and 17 other countries in the region.

Speaking from Kyiv, Ukrainian Red Cross Director-General Maksym Dotsenko says 8 million people are internally displaced and more than 5 million have sought refuge in neighboring countries.

He says the conflict is likely to go on for a long time and Red Cross staff and volunteers will continue to work to provide critical aid. He says continued support from the international community also will be crucial.

“The renovation of infrastructure, the renovation of houses, the renovation of the industry will require a lot of efforts of global community of Ukrainian people. So, the needs of the civilians are crucial for now and we do not see the tendency that these needs will be decreasing, especially in this winter period,” he said.

The International Red Cross says half of Ukraine’s 44 million population will require humanitarian assistance for a long time. Even if the conflict ends soon, it says it will take years to repair the damage to cities and homes. The Red Cross also says it will take years to alleviate the mental anguish, trauma, and the physical and economic suffering the war has caused.

Source: Voice of America

Somali-based, al-Qaida-affiliated Islamist militant group al-Shabab has issued a new threat against neighboring Kenya. The group said it will continue its attacks in that country as long as Kenyan troops are in Somalia.

Al-Shabab said in an English-language statement Saturday it will continue to target Kenyan towns and cities until Kenyan troops are out of Somalia.

It said that if the Kenyan government continues to maintain its “invasion” of Muslim lands it will continue to strike inside Kenya.

“Know that we will continue to defend our lands and our people from the aggressive Kenyan invasion. We will continue to concentrate our attacks on Kenyan towns and cities as long as Kenyan forces continue to occupy our Muslim lands,” the group said.

Omar Mahmood, an International Crisis Group senior analyst for Eastern Africa discussed the situation with VOA via WhatsApp.

“Generally, al-Shabab remains a threat to Kenya, both from infiltration across the border and terrorist attacks in other parts of the country. So, they will continue trying to target Kenya if they don’t get what they want, which at its core is the end of a Kenyan military operation in Somalia,” he said.

Mohamed Husein Gaas, director of the Raad Peace Research Institute based in Mogadishu, told VOA by phone that al-Shabab threats are real, as they have seen the organization become stronger financially in the last few years, despite the presence of African Union forces in Somalia.

“The region’s increased insecurity due to the ongoing civil war in Ethiopia and the underlying political and social polarization will likely exasperate the insecurity of the region as a whole,” he said.

He said the group also may have also become more oriented toward outward expansion, as signaled by the recent attack on Ethiopia’s Somali state.

Al-Shabab has been fighting Somali government and AU peacekeeping operations in the country more than 15 years.

Source: Voice of America