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0bbabcb58b48ebd7f1acb92a74cdafce | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-53150397?intlink_from_url=&link_location=live-reporting-story | Kenya policeman charged with murder after curfew killing of teenager | Kenya policeman charged with murder after curfew killing of teenager
A Kenyan policeman has been charged with the murder of 13-year-old Yasin Moyo, who was shot as he stood on a balcony in March watching police enforce a night-time curfew.
Duncan Ndiema pleaded not guilty.
Outside court, his lawyer said the state would have to prove that the bullet that killed the teenager came from his client's gun.
The case comes amid concern in Kenya over the level of police violence used to enforce coronavirus restrictions.
A night-time curfew was introduced at the end of March, along with other measures, in order to slow the spread of Covid-19.
On 30 March, Yasin was watching from the balcony of his parent's flat in Mathare, a poor neighbourhood in the capital, Nairobi, as police were checking the street, his mother Khadija Abdullahi Hussein told BBC Africa Eye.
"After a few minutes I heard gunshots, so I told the kids to lie down. I [then] noticed that Yasin had fallen off the chair where he was standing.
"He told me: 'Mama I've been shot.'"
Mr Ndiema was charged after an investigation by the country's Independent Policing Oversight Authority.
The policeman is now in detention and a bail hearing is due to take place on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, BBC Africa Eye reported on the high levels of anger in Mathare over the way people there have been treated by police.
At least seven people were killed in different parts of Kenya
in the first five nights of the curfew, rights group Amnesty International said.
President Uhuru Kenyatta later apologised "for some excesses that were conducted".
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9ce3b80764eeaa2f7b579f312b0ef182 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-53543565 | South Africa jailbreak: Malmesbury prison inmates rearrested | South Africa jailbreak: Malmesbury prison inmates rearrested
All 68 inmates who escaped from a jail in South Africa's Western Cape on Friday have been rearrested, the government says.
Prison officials were praised for "restoring stability" following a two-day manhunt.
The break-out happened after inmates at Malmesbury Prison "overpowered" staff during an exercise session.
They then locked three officers in a cell before freeing other prisoners and escaping over a roof, authorities said.
Previous reports said they had escaped while being transferred to court for trial.
South Africa's prison body had originally said 69 inmates escaped, but the department of justice on Sunday said they were 68 in total.
According to local news site EWN
, the reason for this confusion was that one inmate presumed to have escaped had in fact "moved to a different cell during the chaos and never left the facility".
Part of the escape was caught on camera by a member of the public who was sitting in his car.
Only 20 prison officers were on duty to supervise the facility's 451 inmates, said a statement from the South African Correctional Service on Friday.
"The escapees overpowered officials, took the keys and locked three officials in a cell and opened other cells before escaping through the main entrance and over the roof," it added.
Nine prison officers "sustained minor injuries and bruises" during the incident.
South Africa's Justice Minister Ronald Lamola has since thanked people in the local community
for giving "critical information" that led to the arrests.
He was quoted by local news site News24 as saying the escapees would be punished for their actions
.
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3d358b659a01541c3c9f0510ac24ce2b | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-54531457 | Glen Snyman: South African accused of fraud for saying he's 'African' | Glen Snyman: South African accused of fraud for saying he's 'African'
A South African teacher has been summoned to a disciplinary hearing, accused of fraud, for identifying as "African" in a job application.
Glen Snyman is "coloured" - as people of mixed race have been known since the country was under white-minority rule.
He is the founder of campaign group People Against Race Classification.
He opposes the use of race categories: "black", "coloured", "Indian" and "white" on official documentation, including job-application forms.
These are used to monitor attempts to give extra opportunities to those who faced discrimination under apartheid.
Since 2010 Mr Snyman has been campaigning against the use of the race categories, saying that he regards himself "first and foremost" as a South African.
According to local news site TimesLive the
primary school teacher identified as "African" while applying for a headteacher job in 2017.
It says he didn't get the job.
The news site reports that it has seen the charge sheet from education authorities in the Western Cape accusing Mr Snyman of fraud.
"You committed a common law offence, to wit fraud, by stating on your CV when applying for the principal post at Fezekile Secondary School that you are an African male, whereas in truth your records indicate that you are a coloured male and by doing so gain an advantage for purposes of being shortlisted," the charge said.
Mr Snyman has not commented.
Any employee can change their personnel record, Western Cape provincial education department spokesperson Bronagh Hammond told TimesLive.
But it's unclear how race issues would be handled.
In its simplest form, Mr Snyman is accused of trying to benefit from the system unfairly. Why? Well, racial classifications still matter in South Africa 26 years after the end of white-minority rule.
The new policies ushered in with the birth of democracy were aimed at reversing some of the many injustices of the apartheid regime - injustices whose severity were largely based on people's race.
Simply, the further you were from looking white the worse it got.
If you consider a ladder, black people or so called Africans were right at the bottom of the ladder. Coloured (or mixed-race) people and Indian people were placed higher on the race hierarchy under apartheid. This does not mean they were not discriminated against - but rather were preferred to Africans.
In present-day South Africa, some have said transformation has been slow and the sharing of opportunities even slower.
And so many institutions wanting to address inequality are paying more attention to who they hire - meaning the colour of their skin. They say this is not aimed at overlooking qualifications but simply at making sure that those people are not left out as has been the practice in the past.
When applying for a job this can mean stating your race and even gender for certain posts, especially government jobs.
But racial policies are not without controversy - some minorities in South Africa have described them as "reverse racism". But in a country where economic mobility is still skewed along racial lines, these classifications, many say, help to even the playing field.
Mr Snyman's case has however raised questions about how far people are allowed to choose their identity, how they self-identify, and what room there is - or isn't - in a country where race has been used as a weapon of oppression for centuries. It is a big question.
More on race relations in South Africa:
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c61f4e881c22754755b15ea5b52fa005 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-54660039?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D | Libya rivals sign ceasefire deal in Geneva | Libya rivals sign ceasefire deal in Geneva
Libya's warring factions have signed an agreement on a permanent ceasefire, after five days of talks in Geneva.
The deal between military leaders from Libya's government, and those from opposition forces lead by General Khalifa Haftar, was brokered by the UN.
Its Libya envoy Stephanie Williams called the agreement "a crucial sign of hope for the Libyan people".
Libya has been riven by violence since Col Muammar Gaddafi was deposed by Nato-backed forces in 2011.
The oil-rich nation is a key transit point for migrants heading to Europe from Africa, and many Libyans within the country have been forced from their homes.
AFP quotes the UN's envoy as saying the ceasefire will allow displaced people and refugees inside and outside the country to return to their homes.
Explaining the terms of the deal she said all parties agreed that "all military units and armed groups on the front lines shall return to their camps".
This will be "accompanied by the departure of all mercenaries and foreign fighters from all Libyan territory, land, air and sea within a maximum period of three months from today."
Reporting from Geneva, the BBC's Imogen Faulkes said Ms Williams also warned that a lot of work lay ahead to implement the commitments of the agreement.
The internationally recognised government controls the capital Tripoli and surrounding areas, while forces loyal to Gen Haftar run the eastern part of the country from Benghazi.
When it comes to international backers, Turkey, Qatar and Italy support the Tripoli-based government while the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Egypt back renegade Gen Khalifa Haftar.
Russia, Turkey, the UAE and other states were accused by the UN last month of blatantly defying the international arms embargo on Libya.
Libya has the biggest oil and gas reserves in Africa.
Since January an armed group loyal to Gen Haftar had blocked key oil fields, causing power cuts and costing Libya billions of dollars in lost exports.
It was partially lifted in August to allow the sale of oil already stored in terminals, but not the production of fresh supplies.
By BBC North Africa correspondent Rana Jawad
This agreement contains a tall order of requests from both sides - key among these are the withdrawal of troops from frontlines to their respective camps, the removal of the various groups of foreign troops and freezing foreign security agreements.
Implementing this in good faith requires a high degree of trust between the rival sides and a significant shift of foreign policy by the countries involved by proxy, which includes Russia, the UAE, Turkey, and Egypt.
For that trust to materialise, everyone involved would need to work swiftly - and seriously - towards unifying Libya's divided military structures and various militia groups attached to them.
Divisions over the years have resulted in several drawn-out conflicts, even after agreements were reached on paper.
The deal has been met with scepticism by some Libyan observers who see it as an entry point towards potentially tangible, long-lasting peace in the country, rather than a done deal in and of itself.
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54efe347f6de1e8cfce12fc55aa45ce2 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-54777226 | Tanzania elections: Chadema's Freeman Mbowe arrested | Tanzania elections: Chadema's Freeman Mbowe arrested
Police in Tanzania have arrested the chairman of the main opposition party in the wake of a disputed election.
Freeman Mbowe was detained, along with two other Chadema leaders, for planning violent protests, police said.
Chadema presidential candidate Tundu Lissu was released after being briefly detained in the main city Dar es Salaam.
He had rejected President John Magufuli's victory in last week's election, saying the vote was rigged.
Chadema called for peaceful demonstrations to demand fresh elections.
The National Election Commission said Mr Magufuli had won a second term with 84% of the vote, compared with Mr Lissu's 13%. It denied the result was fraudulent.
Police briefly detained Mr Lissu after arresting him outside Umoja House, where foreign embassies are located.
Mr Lissu survived an assassination attempt in 2017 and returned from abroad in July to vie for the presidency.
Earlier, police confirmed the arrest of Chadema chairman Freeman Mbowe and two other party leaders, accusing them of planning violent protests.
Over the weekend, the leaders of Chadema, including Mr Mbowe, and another opposition party, ACT-Wazalendo, urged their supporters to come out in large numbers to peacefully protest and demand fresh elections.
Mr Lissu alleged last week that his party agents had been prevented from entering some polling stations where ballot boxes were tampered with.
Police have said that intelligence reports suggested that the opposition was planning to burn down markets and petrol stations.
ACT-Wazalendo leader Zitto Kabwe said on Saturday that the decision to protest was for "the future of our country".
"We cannot accept going back to a one-party system," he added.
The ruling CCM party governed Tanzania from 1977 to 1992 as the only legally allowed party, and has won every multiparty election since. It was formed in a merger of the Tanganyika African National Union, which governed from independence in 1961.
Mr Magufuli was first elected in 2015.
In last week's election for parliament, CCM won 256 constituency seats out of 264.
Athuman Mtulya, BBC News, Dar es Salaam
In some ways, things have gone back to normal and this city, the country's commercial hub, is busy once again after last week's general election.
But a significant presence of anti-riot police in two parts of Dar es Salaam indicate that not everything is normal.
These were supposed to be the two starting points for the opposition demonstrations called for today, but by lunchtime there was no sign of the protesters.
Police have threatened to use force to detain anyone who takes part in street demonstrations.
Some are saying that now the election is over, things should go on as before, others though have expressed an interest in protesting but feared the reaction from the authorities.
The NEC has dismissed the opposition's claims of fraud and its head, Semistocles Kaijage, said allegations of fake ballot papers were unsubstantiated.
And on Friday an observer mission from the East African Community said that the election was "conducted in a regular manner".
But an African Union observer mission, led by former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, has not made a statement. Mr Jonathan left the country without giving a press conference.
Last week, the US embassy in Dar es Salaam said that "irregularities and the overwhelming margins of victory raise serious doubts about the credibility of the results... as well as concerns about the government of Tanzania's commitment to democratic values".
As well as taking part in the Tanzanian elections, voters on the semi-autonomous archipelago of Zanzibar also elected their own president, and the CCM candidate Hussein Mwinyi was declared the winner with 76% of the votes.
His main rival, ACT-Wazalendo's Maalim Seif Sharif got 19% - his biggest defeat in any presidential election he has taken part in. He also called for protests.
Mr Mwinyi was sworn in on Monday.
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cc15c4b57a9ce017d58ce760b72d3c5f | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55300252?xtor=AL-72-%5Bpartner%5D-%5Byahoo.north.america%5D-%5Blink%5D-%5Bnews%5D-%5Bbizdev%5D-%5Bisapi%5D | Sudan's listing as sponsor of terrorism ended by US | Sudan's listing as sponsor of terrorism ended by US
The US has officially removed Sudan from its state sponsors of terror list.
President Donald Trump gave Congress the statutory 45-day notice of this move in October as part of a deal that involved Sudan paying $335m (£250m) to US victims of terror attacks.
At the same time Sudan agreed to normalise relations with Israel.
The US put Sudan on the list in 1993 after it was used as a base for al-Qaeda. Its removal should help with vital economic support measures.
The compensation relates to al-Qaeda's 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in which more than 220 people died.
But the country was put on the US list after the first attack on the World Trade Center in New York in 1993, when Sudan hosted a number of Islamist militant groups as well as al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
The designation meant the US stopped Sudan from getting debt relief, and prevented the International Monetary Fund and other global institutions from lending the country money.
In the wake of the attacks in the US on 11 September 2001, Sudan's security services helped the US Central Intelligence Agency.
But Sudan remained on the state sponsors of terrorism list, as some US politicians were concerned about human rights abuses and the war in Darfur.
There was subsequently a thaw in US-Sudan relations and most economic sanctions were lifted in 2017, but this did not improve the economy as anticipated.
Relations between the US and Sudan rapidly improved after long-serving
President Omar al-Bashir was ousted following mass street protests last year.
In October, Sudan agreed to recognise Israel weeks after similar moves by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain.
Last week, Morocco became the latest Arab League country to agree to normalise relations with Israel.
The US still designates North Korea, Iran and Syria as state sponsors of terror.
Analysis by James Copnall, former BBC Sudan correspondent
The Sudanese authorities had been trying to get off the list for many years.
In private, and occasionally in public, US officials admitted the designation was a political tool, a point of leverage, rather than a fair assessment of whether Sudan was still supporting terror groups abroad.
The US would never have removed Sudan from the list as long as Bashir was in power; this has been made possible as a civilian cabinet is now in place.
The designation has been hugely damaging for Sudan.
The country was cut off from the global financial system. Now it can hope to re-engage with international financial institutions, obtain loans and get debt relief.
That sort of help is desperately needed, as the economy is in freefall, but it will probably be months or years before any impact is felt.
But the significance of getting off the list should not be downplayed. Sudan is no longer a pariah for the US and many others, and it should make a major difference to the economy in the years to come.
This is a major win for civilian Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and his government.
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84d3557bd6b40271641a72c0ab58e728 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55332142 | East Africa fears second wave - of locust swarms | East Africa fears second wave - of locust swarms
New swarms of desert locusts are threatening the livelihoods of millions of people in the Horn of Africa and Yemen despite a year of control efforts, the United Nations has warned.
The UN says there have been good breeding conditions in eastern Ethiopia and Somalia, with Kenya also at risk.
And breeding underway on both sides of the Red Sea poses a new threat to Eritrea, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
This year had already seen the worst East Africa invasion in 70 years.
"For Kenya, the threat is imminent, it could happen any time now," Keith Cressman, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation's senior locust forecasting officer told the BBC.
"It could be as bad as what we've seen in the past year because the area of breeding ground in these countries is as big as 350,000 sq km (135,000 sq miles)."
Between January and August this year East Africa saw billions of the insects destroying crops across the region.
"We lost so much of our pastures and vegetation because of the locusts and as a result we are still losing a good number of our livestock," said Gonjoba Guyo, a pastoralist in North Horr sub-country in northern Kenya.
"I have lost 14 goats, four cows and two camels because of the locust outbreak and now there is lots of fear that we may face similar or worse consequences."
FAO officials said countries in the region were now much better prepared than for the last invasion.
They say surveillance is high, and preparedness - such as spraying pesticides on the ground or from aeroplanes - is much better, with over one million acres of land treated for infestations in 10 countries.
But there are fears that communities might be overwhelmed if the swarms are really big.
So, how could the locusts breed again on such a threatening scale?
Experts say central Somalia and eastern Ethiopia received higher than average rainfall in the rainy season from September and November.
That meant the ground saw significant generation and expansion of vegetation.
"That became a really good breeding ground for the locusts," said Mr Cressman. "And these areas are really huge breeding areas."
With these conditions, within a couple of months locusts move from single insects to acting as a part of a group.
This then leads to small bands of wingless hoppers and small swarms of winged adults.
According to a report by the FAO and the World Meteorological Organisation, desert locusts can multiply massively and within a year there can be 160,000 times as many as at the outset.
Given its arid topography, northern Somalia was expected to make things difficult for the locusts.
But in November, Cyclone Gati did just the opposite when it made landfall there.
It brought two years of rainfall within two days and what could have been a hostile terrain for the locusts turned into a favourable breeding ground.
After the floods, the moist soils became ideal for the locusts to lay eggs and they also had an unexpected growth of vegetation to feast on.
Somalia was also one of the countries in the region worst affected by the desert locust upsurge this year.
Experts say increased surveillance in several affected regional areas have helped keep locusts away.
But they say it has not been possible where the security situation is not under control.
"For instance, there has been no surveillance in southern Somalia," said Mr Cressman.
Yemen is another country that has several breeding grounds of desert locusts.
But the conflict there has meant surveillance has not been possible in several areas.
Experts say locusts have also been migrating to Saudi Arabia from Yemen.
They can also regularly cross the Red Sea, a distance of 300km, as they can stay in the air for long periods.
Countries in the region have also prepared themselves to use pesticides on the ground and from the air.
"Control operations have prevented the loss of an estimated 2.7 million tonnes of cereal, worth nearly $800m in countries already hard hit by acute food insecurity and poverty," the FAO said in a statement.
But experts say more funding is needed to match the challenge.
"We are doing the surveillance but we have not been given any equipment or pesticides to spray," said Jeremiah Lekoli, an environmental scientist who is also working as a locust surveillance scout in the Marsabit county of northern Kenya.
"It is very important we have those things, otherwise by the time they arrive the locusts will have caused the damage and have left."
The FAO has warned that more than 35 million people are already acutely food insecure in the five most-impacted countries.
It says that number could increase by another 3.5 million if nothing is done to control the latest outbreak.
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bb8d9b1fcabe252b7b9c740ff7b18d9b | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55399488 | 'Kenyan police asked if my husband was a sorcerer' | 'Kenyan police asked if my husband was a sorcerer'
While Chirindo Chisubi was still mourning her husband, she was shocked by a question asked by the police investigating his death in Kenya's Kilifi County on the Indian Ocean coast.
"This man, your husband, was he a sorcerer?" they asked the 63-year-old newly widowed woman.
Her husband, Dzuya Chisubi, had been hacked to death over accusations that he practised witchcraft.
Ms Chisubi knew that her husband had never been a sorcerer and believed the killing was over something else - a dispute over land.
"I told them [the police] that since I got married to him, I had never seen anything in him to show that he was a sorcerer," she said.
The death of her husband pained her, although she believed that there was nothing she could do.
She had been told that the husband's own brother planned the killing, she told the BBC, saying the hired killer had confessed to the police.
The two men were arrested and charged. Both denied the allegations.
Ms Chisubi's pain is a familiar experience for the residents in Buni Kisimani in Kilifi, whose relationships are at times soured and torn apart because of the widespread belief in witchcraft.
A number of graves dot the village, some of which are the result of gruesome killings.
In this region, it is not uncommon for misfortunes including common illnesses or deaths in the community to be associated with witchcraft.
Often, elderly men are accused of sorcery and blamed for these misfortunes. The punishment is at times brutal death.
The victims are often hacked or burnt to death. Some are killed by their own relatives.
Traditional beliefs coexist with Christianity and Islam, which are Kenya's dominant religions. A survey by Pew Research Center, conducted in 2010, showed 11% of Kenyans believed in witchcraft.
The government does not collect data on the prevalence of the belief in witchcraft, which is illegal and attracts up to 10 years in prison, but local media often report on incidents depicting the practice across the country.
These often include the lynching of those suspected of sorcery.
The police told the BBC that in Kilifi County alone, more than 150 elderly men have been killed on allegations of witchcraft in the last two years.
Naturally, the old men and women in the village of Buni Kisimani are living in fear for their lives.
When the BBC arrived here late last year, there were many young men around, some on boda bodas (motorcycle taxis), the ubiquitous mode of transport in the area. It was hard to spot an elderly man.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the mention of any old man's name appears to raise eyebrows. The association of the elderly with sorcery creates fear among some sections of the population.
But the elderly and some of their relatives also live in fear that they might be attacked because of such beliefs.
A few metres from Mr Chisubi's grave in the village lies another one - that of Mwakoyo Dzayo's father, who was killed last year.
Mr Dzayo says his father was killed on suspicion that he was a witchdoctor, an allegation that he denies.
"I have not seen him, not even for a day, as a witchdoctor," he says.
The authorities say they have arrested and charged 28 people over the deaths of old men in the area.
However, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has delayed some of the cases, including that of Mr Chisubi's killing, which is due back in court later in February.
Khamisi Mwaguzo, the programme coordinator of the Kenya Muslim Youth Alliance, has also been trying to get to the bottom of the issue - and says that everyone needs to get involved.
He notes that different groups within the society have been blaming one another for the problems based on religious or cultural differences.
He has been bringing the groups together to teach and reconcile them.
"Some of the Christians say the Kaya [traditional cultural] leaders are devilish, that they are backward people.
"The Kaya people say the religious people are the reason why most of the elders are getting killed," he says.
Mr Mwaguzo says all the groups including Christians, Muslims and the Kaya elders "must come together, preach peace and teach the residents that there is no witchcraft here".
"The young people must learn to earn their own living instead of solely relying on land belonging to their elderly parents," he says.
It is just over a year after Ms Chisubi's husband was killed, and she holds on to the hope that justice will be served.
She does not believe that the death of her husband had anything to do with witchcraft, which he was accused of, but rather a dispute over land inheritance with his brother.
"They had a farm that belonged to their father, all that remained was to get a surveyor so that they share the land," she said.
Rabai police commander Fred Abuga says land disputes and greed for quick wealth are the primary cause of the killings in the area, according to their investigations.
"The root of all these issues has to do with land. You find that many elderly men own titles to the land.
"It is the younger people who are not involved in land matters, own no land, and have no decent means of earning their daily livelihoods who are involved in the crimes," he says.
Despite the attempts to deal with the issue, the killings have not abated.
"As we are talking now, one of our elders in Kaya Chonyi [one of the Kaya sub-groups] is lying in the morgue in Kilifi," says Daniel Mwawara Garero, chairman of the local council of elders.
"Even in one of the homesteads here, there is an elderly man who was slaughtered just the other day, so the killings continue and we are living in fear," he says.
Even Ms Chisubi's family is still uneasy over what has transpired since her husband was killed.
"Now he is angry at my children," she says, about her brother-in-law who was freed after denying allegations against him in court. The man who confessed is still in prison awaiting trial.
"We are being asked to leave our land because we talk too much and we don't know what this talking too much is all about.
"We did not report him [to the police], the killer is the one who did.
"We are not free, we are not happy at all," she says.
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ae73935e5670d3902d2611d4cada28bf | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55428531? | Benishangul-Gumuz: Attackers kill dozens in western Ethiopia | Benishangul-Gumuz: Attackers kill dozens in western Ethiopia
More than 100 people have been killed by unknown attackers in a village in western Ethiopia, the country's human rights commission has said.
A nurse at a local clinic told the BBC that more than 30 people had been admitted to the facility, including some in a critical condition.
Some of the victims were shot, while others were stabbed, the nurse added.
Wednesday's attack in the Benishangul-Gumuz region came a day after a visit by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
In a statement, the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said the attack took place in the village of Bekuji, near Bulen town, which lies in an area home to multiple ethnic groups.
"More than 100 people have been killed in fires and shooting perpetrated by armed men" during the pre-dawn attack, the commission said.
Beyene Melese, a spokesperson for the state government, blamed what he called "anti-peace elements" for the attack.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Abiy travelled to the region to discuss the recurrence of ethnic-based violence in recent months.
"The desire by enemies to divide Ethiopia along ethnic & religious lines still exists,"
the prime minister wrote on Twitter after his visit
. "This desire will remain unfulfilled."
Benishangul-Gumuz has witnessed at least four deadly attacks since September, including a gun attack on a passenger bus in November that killed 34 people.
The violence in the area is not thought to be related to a ground and air offensive launched by the government in the northern Tigray region last month.
Hundreds, or even thousands, of people are thought to have been killed in that conflict, while about 50,000 have fled to neighbouring Sudan.
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4116b35671068b562030fc2a9562ef2a | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55717665 | Coronavirus in Algeria: 'No-one could travel to say goodbye to grandpa' | Coronavirus in Algeria: 'No-one could travel to say goodbye to grandpa'
In our series of letters from African journalists, Algerian-Canadian journalist Maher Mezahi reflects on how coronavirus has increased the separation between families around the world.
Funerals are incongruous events - an act of both separation from one we loved and solidarity with those left behind.
Unloading the burden of loss is only seemingly possible by sharing it with others.
There are more than six million Algerians dispersed across the Mediterranean region and in pockets across North America. For those of us from the diaspora, it is not uncommon to miss the funeral services of our loved ones.
In Algeria, the custom is to promptly bury the deceased.
Burial rites are usually completed by the next day's Asr (or mid-afternoon) prayer, so they are virtually impossible to attend from other continents.
When my maternal grandmother passed away, for example, my mother flew in from Canada, but arrived two days after her mother was laid to rest in the family cemetery.
Although she could not properly mourn, my mother stressed the importance of being able to help host the overwhelming waves of guests that rolled in for couscous and coffee.
After leaving Canada five years ago and moving to Algeria to pursue a career in football journalism, I slowly grew into the role of logistics officer, especially during family tragedies. It is a duty I take pride in, despite the petty procedural difficulties.
On 17 March last year, when Covid-19 cases began sky-rocketing in Algeria, the government decided to close land, sea and air borders.
Many countries temporarily employed similar methods, but Algeria remains one of a handful of African nations that is yet to re-open commercial travel to its own citizens.
I remember hoping, at the time, that neither of my two elderly grandparents would contract the virus.
My paternal grandmother was 85 years of age and my paternal grandfather was 92. They both suffered from hypertension and my grandfather was diabetic.
Growing up in Canada, I had always shared an awkward relationship with my grandfather. He was well-dressed, sophisticated and enjoyed listening to the traditional Andalusian malouf music of Mohamed Tahar Fergani.
Our one area of common interest was football.
He was a pioneer in the game — one of Algeria's first international referees.
He officiated some of Africa's first World Cup qualifying matches, the third-fourth-place match of the 1965 Africa Cup of Nations, as well as some of the biggest domestic fixtures in early Algerian footballing history.
So in the summer months when he would fly to Canada, or we would visit Algeria, both of us could sit in front of the television for hours and muse over dribbles, goals and assists.
In mid-August, I received a WhatsApp message from my mother, informing me that both of my grandparents were sick and that both were exhibiting Covid-19 symptoms.
"It could be bad," she wrote.
After checking in on them, I began to mentally prepare myself to act as a liaison between Canada and eastern Algeria, where my family is from. But it slowly dawned on me that, this time, my services would not be needed.
My grandfather, Mohamed Mezahi, passed away on Friday, 20 August. The following day, his PCR test came back Covid-positive.
I called my father to tell him I was sorry. He seemed lucid when responding: "I am going to take time off work and book a flight, can you drive me to Constantine?"
I agreed, but insisted he made sure travel was possible. He booked a flight with a European airline online, only for it to be cancelled the very same evening. He was offered a voucher instead.
My father immediately tried booking for three days later. Again, on the eve of the flight, the airline informed him that his flight was cancelled.
His final attempt was for three weeks later, but I could tell that this time it was an empty gesture.
My grandfather was already buried in a downtown Constantine cemetery adjacent to my great-grandmother and great-uncle.
Sure enough, the final flight reservation was cancelled and a voucher offered instead.
"It's tough," I told him, "but all Algerians abroad are going through exactly the same thing."
"I hope the decision-makers have a clear conscience," he replied.
My grandmother, thankfully, recovered.
As of now, approximately 3,000 Algerians in Algeria have died from coronavirus, according to official statistics.
That is at least 3,000 funeral services where Algerians in the diaspora have not been able to unload the burden of loss by sharing it with loved ones.
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f10c0a5bd4e9419f6ce8b26a86f4f006 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55889766 | Rhino poaching in South Africa falls during Covid-19 lockdown | Rhino poaching in South Africa falls during Covid-19 lockdown
South Africa has reported a decline in the number of rhinos killed by poachers, which officials say is partly the result of Covid-19 lockdowns.
Last year, 394 rhinos were killed for their horns in the country, a fall of 33% from the 594 recorded in 2019, the environment ministry said.
Lockdowns had restricted the movements of would-be poachers and rhino horn smugglers, it added.
It is the sixth year that recorded incidents in the country have fallen.
But conservationists warn that the rhino population in South Africa has plummeted in recent years and that poaching remains a big problem.
Environment Minister Barbara Creecy said
strict measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus infections last year had led to "a significant reduction in poacher incursions"
to the world-famous Kruger National Park, near the Mozambique border.
"However, that changed later in the year as the lockdown levels eased," she said in a statement published on Monday.
Ms Creecy added that while the "extraordinary circumstances surrounding the battle to beat the Covid-19 pandemic" had contributed to the decrease in poaching in 2020, rangers, security personnel and government efforts to tackle the issue also played "a significant role".
However, conservationists say there has been a near 70% decline in the rhino population recorded at the Kruger National Park - where most of the poaching takes place - over the last decade.
Dr Jo Shaw of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in South Africa said that while she welcomed a reduction in the number of rhinos lost to poaching, "we are very aware that the apparent reprise provided by lockdown restrictions in 2020 was only a temporary pause".
"To stop rhino poaching, we need to address the factors that enable wildlife trafficking syndicates to operate," Dr Shaw told the BBC.
She said that these included ensuring that resources were made available, a commitment was made to "root out corruption" and factors that cause criminal behaviour - "such as lack of opportunities, high levels of inequality and breakdowns in social norms" - were addressed.
Prof Keith Somerville of the University of Kent's Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (DICE) in the UK, said Ms Creecy's comments were "a desperate and transparent attempt to put a positive spin on the problem of rhino poaching and the attempts to reduce it".
He said that any reduction in poaching caused by the pandemic is "unlikely to be maintained when current restrictions end in South Africa".
Prof Somerville said
a report by South African National Parks
, which states that anti-poaching efforts have improved in recent years, "failed to note the continued decline" or to calculate the difference in percentage of the killings at the Kruger park in relation to the overall rhino population.
"So there is a marginal improvement, but related to a far smaller population," he said, adding: "There are fewer rhino and so are hard to find and kill."
A total of 769 rhinos were killed for their horns in South Africa 2018, compared with 1,028 in 2017, official statistics show.
Rhino horns are in huge demand in Asian states such as China and Vietnam, where they are used in traditional medicines.
|
eb92965413059fa7bc29797120db4b38 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55905102 | Covid-19: Tanzania has no vaccination plan, minister says | Covid-19: Tanzania has no vaccination plan, minister says
Tanzania, which has been criticised for its handling of the pandemic, has no plans to roll out Covid vaccines, the health minister says.
The comments come days after President John Magufuli warned officials against acquiring vaccines saying they could harm people, without giving evidence.
Critics have accused him of playing down the threat posed by the virus.
Millions of people have already been inoculated in many countries after the vaccines were given emergency approval.
Vaccines are rigorously tested in trials involving thousands of people before being assessed by health regulators. They look at all the data on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines before approving them for use on a wider population.
Last month, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged Tanzania to consider inoculating its population.
Tanzania is one of the few countries in the world to not publish any data on Covid-19 cases. It last did so in May, when about 500 cases and 20 deaths were recorded. The following month, Mr Magufuli declared Tanzania "coronavirus-free".
Last month, the president said some Tanzanians had travelled abroad to take the vaccine but "ended up bringing us a strange coronavirus". The comments were seen as an apparent admission that the virus may be circulating in the country.
At a news conference on Monday, Health Minister Dorothy Gwajima said: "For now the government has no plans to receive the Covid vaccine being distributed in other countries."
The minister urged Tanzanians to take precautions and to use traditional medicine as a way of dealing with coronavirus, although their efficacy to combat the virus has not been scientifically confirmed.
A blogger shared photos of Dr Gwajima and other officials inhaling steam and taking a herbal concoction.
Dr Gwajima also warned media outlets not to report unofficial information on coronavirus or any disease. The warning comes after the Catholic Church said it had observed an increase in requiem masses, blaming funerals on a spike in coronavirus infections.
The US Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) has advised against all travel to Tanzania and updated its alert to level four, meaning transmission of coronavirus in the country is "high or rising rapidly".
Many African states are buying vaccines through an international scheme called Covax, but some are also planning to negotiate directly from pharmaceutical companies.
The Covax scheme aims to make it easier for poorer countries to buy vaccines amid growing concerns that wealthier nations are snapping them up and practising "vaccine nationalism".
South Africa, which has the highest number of Covid-19 cases and deaths on the continent, received its first shipment of vaccines on Monday - the AstraZeneca vaccine from a manufacturer in India.
About 1.2 million front-line health workers would be the first to be inoculated, President Cyril Ramaphosa said.
More than 1.4 million people in South Africa have contracted the virus and 44,164 are known to have died,
according to Johns Hopkins University research
.
African states that have started rolling out vaccines include Egypt, Guinea, Morocco and Seychelles.
|
c78cd150ccd0d4402d5a02b74b04d27a | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55921421 | Dominic Ongwen convicted of war crimes for Uganda's LRA rebels | Dominic Ongwen convicted of war crimes for Uganda's LRA rebels
Ex-Ugandan rebel commander Dominic Ongwen has been convicted of war crimes at the International Criminal Court.
Thursday's historic ruling also saw him convicted of forced pregnancy - a legal first in an international court.
Ongwen, a feared commander of the notorious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), is the first member of the LRA to appear before the court.
He was convicted on 61 of the 70 counts of crimes against humanity and war crimes he faced.
The charges relate to attacks on four camps for internally displaced people in Uganda in 2004. More than 4,000 victims provided testimony in the ICC case.
Ongwen's sentence is to be handed down at a later date. He could face life imprisonment.
This case presented a dilemma to the court as Ongwen appeared to be both the victim and the alleged perpetrator.
He said he was abducted by the LRA and forced to be a child soldier, before going on to rise up the ranks to become the deputy to LRA commander Joseph Kony.
"Straight away we can say without mincing words that we are definitely going to appeal. On all the charges," Ongwen's lawyer Krispus Ayena Odongo told the BBC. He said the verdict "landed like a bombshell".
But it was welcomed by Elise Keppler, associate director of the International Justice Program at campaign group Human Rights Watch.
"This case is a milestone as the first and only LRA case to reach a verdict anywhere in the world," she told the AFP news agency.
Who is Dominic Ongwen?
Has Joseph Kony been defeated?
Ongwen was convicted of war crimes, crimes against humanity, murder, rape torture, sexual enslavement and pillaging, among others.
The ICC issued a warrant for his arrest in 2005 and US and African forces had been searching for him since 2011.
In 2015 he gave himself up in the Central African Republic (CAR) and his three-and-a-half year trial in the Hague ended in March.
At the start of the trial, according to AFP news agency, prosecutors showed gruesome footage of the scene after an LRA attack on Lukodi refugee camp in northern Uganda, where children were disembowelled and the charred bodies of babies left in shallow graves.
Presiding Judge Schmitt read out the names of civilians who were murdered on the orders of Ongwen at that same refugee camp and three others in the areas of Pajule, Odek, and Abok.
"Civilians were shot, burned and beaten to death. Children were thrown into burning houses, some were put in a polythene bag and beaten to death," the judge is quoted as saying.
In a legal first for an international criminal court, Ongwen was convicted of the crime of forced pregnancy committed against seven women.
Reading out his verdict at the end of Ongwen's trial, presiding judge Bertram Schmitt said "the chamber is aware that he suffered much.
"However this case is about crimes committed by Dominic Ongwen as a responsible adult and a commander of the Lord's Resistance Army.
Judge Schmitt added: "His guilt has been established beyond any reasonable doubt.
He said there was no evidence to support the defence argument that Dominic Ongwen "suffered from any mental disease or disorder during the period relevant to the charges, or that he committed these crimes under duress".
By Patience Atuhaire, BBC News, Gulu, northern Uganda
I spoke to three women gathered here to watch the verdict being delivered, all former abductees.
"I was not satisfied because some of the LRA commanders came home and were given amnesty and they're living normal lives. So why is Ongwen the only one being tried?" said one.
"I'm opposed to the court's decision of finding him guilty of those crimes. The court should have acknowledged that he handed himself over, he wasn't captured," said another.
The third one said: "I was abducted like Ongwen too, but he was a commander in the LRA, so he should be given the maximum sentence, considering what they did to me and lots of children from this region. The ruling today has touched me very much."
She shed tears, and her voice broke, as she described what happened to her.
"When I was taken in 1996, I was two months' pregnant. We walked for hours between the border with Uganda and Sudan. Along the way, the rebels asked if any of us had an issue that meant we couldn't continue on the journey. I put my hand up.
"The commander asked the young soldiers to beat us with sticks. They said they would have to kill one of us that day, to discourage the young ones from trying to escape. They beat me all over the stomach and chest."
She managed to escape after just a week in the bush.
The LRA was formed in Uganda where it said its goal was to install a government based on the biblical 10 commandments.
Led by Joseph Kony, it became notorious for abducting thousands of children to use as soldiers or sex slaves, while rebel fighters would hack off their civilians' limbs or parts of their faces.
In 2005, the LRA was forced out of Uganda by the army and the rebels went into what was is now South Sudan and eventually set up camp in the border area with the Democratic Republic of Congo.
They later moved to CAR where they acted more like a criminal outfit engaging in poaching and illegal mining.
|
66c84abe4d4adc34d9c13ae47f0e157e | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55935513 | Letter from Africa: How a text book exposed a rift in Sudan's new government | Letter from Africa: How a text book exposed a rift in Sudan's new government
In our series of letters from African journalists, Sudanese writer Zeinab Mohammed Salih looks at the clash over what children should be taught in school in the post-revolution era.
The euphoria following the ousting of Sudan's long-serving President Omar al-Bashir has been replaced by the hard work of cementing the democratic revolution.
But a clash over the new school curriculum with some religious figures has exposed the tricky path that the transitional government is treading.
Last month, at Friday prayers in a mosque in the capital, Khartoum, an imam known for his support of Bashir passionately shouted "Allah, Allah, Allah" before encouraging the male worshippers to scream and cry over the inclusion of the famous Michelangelo painting The Creation of Adam in a post-revolution history text book.
Imam Mohamed al-Amin Ismail believed the painting, which forms part of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, was a heretical image.
He also lashed out at Suna, the official news agency, for giving a platform to Omer al-Qarray, one of the people behind the new school programme, accusing him of promoting infidelity and atheism.
Following the imam's intervention, many other pro-Bashir imams joined him to launch a campaign against the new curriculum and Mr Qarray himself. His family later said that they had received death threats over his work.
Then, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok froze the introduction of the new curriculum.
Mr Qarray, who belongs to the Republican Brotherhood - a Muslim group that has a progressive interpretation of Islam - resigned from the curriculum project in protest.
He felt that the prime minister had ignored him and other political parties, and only listened to extremists and pro-Bashir Islamist groups.
There was also a dispute over how to present aspects of Sudan's 19th Century history.
'The revolution is on the curriculum'
The row over what the next generation should be learning has exposed tensions between people from different political and social perspectives at the heart of the new political settlement.
Some former rebel groups which once had ties with Bashir's regime welcomed the prime minister's decision to halt the new curriculum.
For example, Sulieman Sandal, from the Justice and Equality Movement (Jem), whose children are living in Norway, backed Mr Hamdok and its leader Gibril Ibrahim, the recently appointed finance minister whose children are living in the UK and all studying secular curriculums, were then accused of hypocrisy.
Sharia was first introduced into Sudanese law in September 1983 during the rule of President Jaafar Numair. It was one of the reasons behind the long civil war with what was then the southern part of the country and is now South Sudan.
Islamic law was then suspended for three years during the democratically elected government of Sadiq el-Mahdi but was revived when Bashir took power in 1989 in a military coup backed by an Islamist party.
The transitional government that replaced Bashir has already shown its reluctance to tackle the thorny issue of Sharia, which is at the heart of the conflict with rebels in South Kordofan.
The most prominent rebel group there, the SPLM-N, has demanded that the government take a secular approach. Last year it rejected a peace deal agreed by other parties and accused the transitional government of colluding with Islamists.
The SPLM-N, which operates from an area inhabited by many Christians and other non-Muslims, has been fighting for those who are politically and economically marginalised.
The new transitional government has made some moves that make life easier for them.
Only six months ago, it dropped laws that prohibited non-Muslims from drinking alcohol, though it is still banned for Muslims.
But according to some reports, the flogging of drunken people and the arrest of alcohol brewers has not stopped in places on the outskirts Khartoum.
The SPLM-N leaders believe that the only way to guarantee the rights of all and especially non-Muslims in Sudan is by having a secular government which will then create an economic programme that would ensure the fair distribution of the wealth and power in the country.
It is the only way that "non-Muslims will not be hurt", says Abbakr Ismail, a novelist and rebel leader.
The transitional government is made up of a coalition of groups - including generals who were once close to Bashir and some parties with an Islamist ideology.
With the current move on the curriculum, the government appears to be more concerned with being in harmony with more conservative views rather than becoming a representative government that reflects the diversity of the country racially, religiously and culturally, which would help stop the conflict.
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ccb09f0313b1a89592e0df8aa24b1c7d | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55947570 | Gregory Dow: US missionary jailed for sex crimes in Kenya orphanage | Gregory Dow: US missionary jailed for sex crimes in Kenya orphanage
A US man has been sentenced to more than 15 years in prison for abusing underage girls in an orphanage in Kenya.
Christian missionary Gregory Dow set up the orphanage with his wife in 2008.
"Gregory Dow was the proverbial wolf in sheep's clothing," said the FBI's Michael Driscoll.
Last year, Dow pleaded guilty in the US to four counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct with a minor in a foreign place.
The orphanage was partly funded by churches in Lancaster county in the US state of Pennsylvania and was in operation for almost a decade before Dow fled in 2017.
By Emmanuel Igunza, BBC News, Nairobi
Kenyans were outraged when it emerged that Dow had left Kenya soon after the abuse allegations came to light.
How he had managed to flee?
This is one of many questions this abuse scandal has brought up.
People asked why someone who had been previously convicted of similar crimes was allowed to open an orphanage.
Given that he was jailed in the US, some are now questioning Kenya's ability - or willingness - to bring foreign sex offenders to justice.
The FBI acted on a tip-off and Mr Dow was charged in July 2019.
That tip-off was from a Kenyan woman living in the US who had returned to the area near the orphanage to care for her mother,
reports the Washington Post
.
The newspaper says Margaret Ruto found her family's village "in uproar" after two girls, aged 12 and 14, had escaped the orphanage and shared stories of sexual abuse.
She "turned detective" and took down the testimonies of the abused girls herself.
Acting on the information provided by Ms Ruto, the FBI confirmed that Dow had sexually abused at least four teenage girls between 2013 and 2017.
"Two of the girls were as young as 11 years old when the abuse began.
"The defendant's wife even transported the victims to a medical clinic to have birth control devices implanted into their arms, which allowed Dow to perpetrate his crimes without fear of impregnating his victims," the
US attorney's office said in a statement
after Dow was sentenced.
Dow was already a known sex offender before he started the orphanage.
In 1996 he pleaded guilty to assault with intent to commit sexual abuse, for which he received two years' probation and was ordered to register as a sex offender for a decade.
|
80c77fd275da11313fe026795b31c29b | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-55955228 | Libya crisis: Vote to unite splintered nation | Libya crisis: Vote to unite splintered nation
A Libyan interim unity government has been chosen to replace the war-torn country's rival administrations and oversee elections in December.
Delegates at a UN-led forum voted for a three-member presidential council and a prime minister at the end of five days of talks in Geneva.
It is a key step in a peace process that builds on
last year's ceasefire
.
Libya has been in chaos since long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011 by Nato-backed forces.
The turmoil in the North African nation, which has one of the continent's biggest reserves of oil and gas, has had repercussions for the whole region with Gaddafi's looted arsenal fuelling a variety of militants and groups.
It has also allowed the country to become a key trafficking point for migrants seeking to reach Europe across the Mediterranean.
Mohamed Younes Menfi, a former ambassador to Greece, will become the head of the presidency council.
Abdul Hamid Mohammed Dbeibah, a businessman from Misrata, will be the transitional prime minister.
None of the politicians chosen will be allowed to take part in elections on 24 December 2021.
All the candidates standing agreed before the vote to appoint women to 30% of all senior government roles.
Since a disputed election in 2014 there have been two centres of political power with parallel institutions in Libya - one in the east, backed by
Gen Khalifa Haftar
, and the other in the west, known as the Government of National Accord in the capital, Tripoli.
Both sides have had international backers - and there are many other factions in the country and even more armed militias.
UN Libya envoy Stephanie Williams said the new prime minister had 21 days to form a cabinet to be endorsed by the various groups of politicians.
Once agreed, "all parallel authorities should be considered null and void", she told the Libyan Political Dialogue Forum after the vote.
By Rana Jawad, BBC North Africa correspondent
Despite a sense of déjà-vu that many Libyans will be experiencing following the vote in Geneva, this new administration does give the country a new opportunity to lay the foundations for a more democratic and peaceful transition of power in the near future.
How that plays out will depend on how military and armed groups on the ground, as well as outside proxies, play their hand.
Tensions and powerplay remain a prominent feature of Libya's political and military landscape.
Both Libyans and the international community will be holding their breath to see what comes next, rather than sighing with relief.
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81622612a9bf65d67beb737ff9a74e34 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56009170 | South Africa may swap or sell AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine | South Africa may swap or sell AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine
South Africa is considering swapping or selling the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine against coronavirus, the health minister says.
The country has one and half million doses of the AstraZeneca jab.
But plans to use it to vaccinate health workers have been put on hold after a small study suggested a "minimal" effect against the country's new variant in young people.
It now intends to use a vaccine from Johnson & Johnson instead.
"There are already some countries that are asking that we must sell it to them," South Africa's Health Minister Zweli Mkhize
told a news conference on Wednesday
.
"Our scientists will continue with further deliberations on the AstraZeneca vaccine used in South Africa and depending on their advice, the vaccine will be swapped before the expiry date."
He added that he was due to speak with the World Health Organization (WHO) shortly after the news conference.
The WHO's vaccine experts
came out later on Wednesday
to say that even countries with the South African variant of coronavirus should use the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Mr Mkhize is yet to comment since WHO's announcement.
South Africa has recorded almost 1.5 million cases of coronavirus, and 47,000 deaths - far more than anywhere else on the continent.
Researchers from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa and the UK's Oxford University carried out the trial on around 2,000 healthy, young people with an average age of 31.
It has not yet been published or peer reviewed but a
press release
and a
PowerPoint presentation
were put together.
They found that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine offered "minimal protection" against mild and moderate cases of the South Africa variant of coronavirus in that low-risk group.
This means that even in people who've been vaccinated, the virus could still spread from person to person.
But it did not look at the impact of the vaccine on severe disease from Covid because there was no-one in the study who was in a high-risk category (over 50) or had an underlying health condition.
Oxford University researchers say promising results from other trials using similar vaccines in South Africa suggest their shot should be effective at preventing severe cases - the main aim of all Covid vaccines.
South Africa now plans to give the AstraZeneca jab to a group of 100,000 older nurses and healthcare workers.
That's to see if the vaccine is effective against the new variant and in preventing severe illness in an older age group.
The South Africa variant carries a mutation that appears to make it more contagious or easy to spread.
However, there is no evidence that it causes more serious illness for the vast majority of people who become infected.
As with the original strain, the risk is highest for people who are elderly or have significant underlying health conditions.
Scientists say the variant accounts for 90% of new Covid cases in South Africa.
At least 20 other countries, including Austria, Japan, Kenya, Norway and the UK, have found cases of the variant.
The health minister for neighbouring Eswatini, previously known as Swaziland, said on Tuesday that it would no longer use the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The health authorities in Malawi have said they still plan to use the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Negotiations are still going on over the amount and the price South Africa will pay for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is made by Belgian pharmaceutical firm Janssen.
It has not yet been approved for use in South Africa.
The first of the nine million doses it has ordered are due to arrive next week.
Mr Mkhize said these would be provided to some 500,000 healthworkers as "an implementation study", possibly starting as early as next week, but this was still to be confirmed.
He also promised to explain next week just how much of the vaccine will be coming to South Africa.
Mr Mkhize said that South Africa had already secured vaccine doses from Pfizer which it has agreed to bring in earlier than originally agreed.
The country is also in discussions with other manufactures, including the makers of Sputnik V, Sinovac and Moderna vaccines, he added.
|
d4c1b375b507fdf9ac2eacd5803cf8ef | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56041189 | Shell in Nigeria: Polluted communities 'can sue in English courts' | Shell in Nigeria: Polluted communities 'can sue in English courts'
The UK Supreme Court has ruled that oil-polluted Nigerian communities can sue Shell in English courts.
The decision is a victory for the communities after a five-year battle, and overturns a Court of Appeal ruling.
The Niger Delta communities of more than 40,000 people say decades of pollution have severely affected their lives, health and local environment.
The oil giant had argued it was only a holding company for a firm that should be judged under Nigerian law.
Shell described the legal ruling as disappointing.
The Supreme Court, the UK's final appeal court for civil cases, ruled that the cases brought by the Bille community and the Ogale people of Ogoniland against Royal Dutch Shell were arguable and could proceed in the English courts.
Royal Dutch Shell did not dispute that pollution had been caused, but argued it could not be held legally responsible for its Nigerian subsidiary. Shell is responsible for about 50% of the delta's oil production.
Last year the Court of Appeal agreed with the company, but the Supreme Court said on Friday that that decision was flawed.
The communities, represented by law firm Leigh Day, argued Shell owed a common law duty of care to individuals who had suffered serious harm as a result of the systemic health, safety and environmental failings of one of its overseas subsidiaries.
By Ishaq Khalid, BBC News, Lagos
The Niger Delta pollution has continued despite years of promises by successive governments in Nigeria to clean it up. In 2016 President Muhammadu Buhari launched an ambitious clean-up operation in Ogoniland. The work is ongoing but residents say little progress has been made.
Continued oil spills from the activities of multinationals have also cast doubt on the impact of the clean-up exercise. "Things are getting worse by the day," Celestine Akpobari, an environmental activist from Ogoni, told the BBC.
The region provides most of Nigeria's government revenues but the communities say successive governments have neglected them. Mr Akpobari says people can no longer fish or farm because of the devastation. "People are dying, there are strange diseases and women are having miscarriages" from the pollution, he says. But the communities and campaigners say the recent court victory gives them hope they will see justice.
In 2011 the UN concluded it would take 30 years to clear up the vast amounts of pollution in the Niger Delta.
The Ogale community of about 40,000 people are mostly fishermen or farmers who rely on Ogoniland's waterways. But pollution has all but destroyed fishing, turning their lush home into a toxic wasteland.
There have been at least 40 oil spills from Shell's pipelines since 1989,
lawyers say Shell's records reveal.
UN scientists have found an 8cm (3 inch) layer of refined oil floating on top of water
that supplies the community's drinking wells - vastly higher than is legally permitted.
The water is now too dirty for people to drink. Despite promises to provide clean water, people must often either shell out for bottled water or drink from contaminated sources.
Thick crusts of ash and tar cover the land where oil spills have caused fires. Planting new vegetation to replace burnt crops or plants is almost impossible.
Farmer Damiete Sanipe describes a wasteland where the trees and the mangrove have been destroyed.
"The habitat is gone, the river we used to swim in is gone. For a coastal community whose life revolved around the water, it's all gone.
"I don't think money can bring back what we have lost. Even if they want to revive the mangrove, it will take more than 30 years which is a long time."
On Friday Leigh Day lawyer Daniel Leader said the ruling was a "watershed" for "impoverished communities seeking to hold powerful corporate actors to account". The firm said the amount of compensation sought had yet to be determined.
In a statement Shell said: "The spills at issue happened in communities that are heavily impacted by oil theft, illegal oil refining, and the sabotage of pipelines."
It said that, despite the causes of the pollution, its subsidiary had worked hard to both clean up and prevent spills.
It's the latest in a run of international and domestic law suits over Shell's oil extraction in Nigeria.
In 2015 it accepted responsibility for two spills and
agreed to pay £55m ($76M) to the Bodo community
and assist in the clean-up.
In 2006 a Nigerian court ordered the company and partners to pay $1.5bn to the Ijaw people of Bayelsa state for environmental degradation in the area.
In an ongoing civil case, the widows of four environmental activists executed by Nigeria's military regime in 1995 are suing Shell for allegedly providing support to the military. Shell denies the claims.
The decision on Friday is the latest case to test whether multinational companies can be held accountable for the acts of overseas subsidiaries.
Amnesty International welcomed the ruling. Mark Dummett, director of Amnesty International's Global Issues Programme, said the fight had not yet been won, but added: "This landmark ruling could spell the end of a long chapter of impunity for Shell and for other multinationals who commit human rights abuses overseas."
Leigh Day also represented 2,500 Zambian villagers in their pollution case against UK-based mining giant Vedanta Resources. Last month the Supreme Court
ruled in their favour and they won an undisclosed settlement
.
|
970e4b9e02f2edfff389c66db27f1bd4 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56065071 | Cape Town: Pictures of how Muslim worship helps quell South African ganglands | Cape Town: Pictures of how Muslim worship helps quell South African ganglands
A team of Islamic scholars in South Africa has been on a mission for the past three years to bring peace to Manenberg and other areas of Cape Town with gang and drug problems.
Photographer Shiraaz Mohamed accompanied them on one of their weekly visits:
Most Thursday evenings the scholars go to Cape Town's ganglands for an open-air form of devotion known as "dhikr".
These sessions involve a rhythmic repetition of the name of God and his attributes.
Over the last three years there has never been a gang fight during the hour-and-a-half of worship, the organisers say.
Usually between 100 and 400 people attend. There was one worship dedicated to fighting gender-based violence - a huge problem in South Africa - which had nearly 2,000 people in attendance.
"It is not about the numbers. The overwhelming part is that despite all conditions we are able to have the dhikr running consistently for the past three years," organiser Sheikh Mogamad Saalieg Isaacs says.
Manenberg is a township that was created by the apartheid government in the 1960s for low-income coloured people, which is the official term for people of mixed racial origin in the country.
The white-minority regime at the time forcefully segregated communities by race, allowing white people to live in affluent areas of cities.
The township has an estimated population in excess of 52,000 people, who are mainly Christian, and unemployment, poverty, crime and gang violence is rife.
There is currently a ceasefire in Manenberg between the gangs, which followed an intense period of gang fights - though a few hours before this dhikr took place there was a shooting at these flats, and over the weekend four men died in an apparent gangland shooting in nearby Mitchells Plain.
The dhikr organisers feel that there will never be a real end to the violence as the government has made no proper attempt to deal with it.
For Sheikh Isaacs, dialogue involving the community's different religious leaders would be a good start: "Crime has no boundaries and does not distinguish between religion."
He also feels the authorities should deal with overcrowding - and help people move to other areas instead of building more flats in the township, and increase the visibility of the security forces.
Dhikr is recited by Muslims across the world and has a specific tune to the recitations. It takes place after sunset and before an obligatory evening prayer for Muslims.
The Cape Malays, a community of mixed-Asian ethnicities who have been in South Africa for generations, have their own unique tune.
Some Christians who live in the township also attend - and watch the proceedings from their nearby apartments.
Sheikh Sameeg Norodien, another of the founders of Manenberg's dhikr sessions, prepares a pot of food for the devotees. There is a custom in Cape Town where people are given cake or something sweet to eat - known as "niyaz" - after the gathering
But as Manenberg is an impoverished community the devotees are given a hot meal after dhikr.
Manenberg was declared a "red danger zone" by the authorities in mid-2015 and for several months ambulances were unable to enter the area unless escorted by the police.
However, the gangsters in certain areas will now sometimes help the Islamic scholars lay out the prayer mats at the beginning of the programmes, says Sheikh Isaacs.
"There was a specific period between 2018 and 2019 where crime in Manenberg decreased during the time we were having the dhikr programmes," he says.
The organisers have received an award from the police in Manenberg for the role the dhikr sessions play in the community.
The short-term goal of the organisers is to bring peace, calmness and tranquillity to the township, their long-term goal is to promote engagement with the relevant authorities to rid it of drugs and gangsterism.
Children are warned about the impact of drugs and are encouraged to join the dhikr sessions in the hope that they do not fall prey to gangsters and drug dealers.
The Christian community is said to be very respectful of the dhikr sessions and the organisers hope to portray Muslims as calm and non-violent.
A special person or scholar is invited to talk every Thursday. Here Sheikh Hasan Pandy is seen speaking about the importance of mothers.
Guest speakers use a public address system, so the sound of their messages - covering topics from gender equality to drug abuse - can be heard by others.
The organisers try and get a Christian priest as a guest speaker at some of the sessions.
"The dhikr has caused a calmness in Manenberg," says Sheikh Isaacs.
"We only do it once a week. If we could host the dhikr programmes every day it would have a tremendous effect, but because of logistical reasons we cannot."
All photographs subject to copyright
|
86917956734b51e473388a54c4a8952b | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56073201 | Ebola: DR Congo launches Butembo vaccination campaign | Ebola: DR Congo launches Butembo vaccination campaign
An Ebola vaccination campaign has been launched in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo after an outbreak earlier this month, the WHO has said.
DR Congo has confirmed four cases of Ebola since a resurgence of the virus was announced on 7 February in Butembo.
Health workers at a medical centre, where the first Ebola patient was treated, were the first to be vaccinated, the WHO said.
The news comes a day after Guinea, in West Africa, declared an outbreak.
A previous Ebola outbreak in DR Congo was declared over in June 2020.
It had claimed the lives of 2,287 people since August 2018.
About 8,000 doses of the Ervebo vaccine, which were kept after the outbreak, are being used in the latest inoculation campaign, the BBC's Emery Makumeno reports from the capital Kinshasa.
Ervebo was the first Ebola vaccine to be approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2019.
Separately,
Guinea on Sunday declared a new Ebola outbreak
, following seven confirmed cases and three deaths.
They fell ill with diarrhoea, vomiting and bleeding after attending the burial of a nurse near the south-eastern city of Nzérékoré.
"The WHO is on full alert and is in contact with the manufacturer [of a vaccine] to ensure the necessary doses are made available as quickly as possible to help fight back," the AFP news agency quoted Alfred George Ki-Zerbo, the WHO representative in Guinea, as saying.
Between 2013 and 2016 more than 11,000 people died in the West Africa Ebola epidemic, which began in Guinea.
Liberia's President George Weah has put the health authorities on heightened alert to prevent the spread of the virus.
The BBC's Umaru Fofana in Sierra Leone says there is far more fear of Ebola in the country than Covid-19.
He says the existence of new vaccines does provide some sense of relief - there is a global emergency stockpile of 500,000, made available through Gavi, the international vaccine alliance.
The three countries have a joint population of 22.5 million, prompting concerns that manufacturers would have little time to produce more if needed at a time when Covid vaccines are their preoccupation, our reporter says.
|
39b2d04b5037e8a63b76714c5248502e | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56116383 | John F Kennedy: When the US president met Africa's independence heroes | John F Kennedy: When the US president met Africa's independence heroes
In our series of letters from African journalists, Sierra Leonean-Gambian writer Ade Daramy mines an archive of photos featuring US President John F Kennedy, who set the template for US relations with Africa.
Before Kennedy became president in 1961, his country had made little attempt to understand the rapid changes that Africa was undergoing.
By the time he was assassinated in 1963 the picture had radically changed.
In his short time in office, Kennedy had received at the White House either the leader of every independent African state - numbering more than two dozen at the time - or its ambassador.
A year before he became president, 17 African countries had gained independence from their colonial masters, and aware that the world was changing, Kennedy knew that a new relationship needed to be forged.
That relationship was based on supporting the new African nations.
It was a foreign policy outlook that essentially survived, given the occasional tweak, until President Donald Trump's efforts to replace it with his more transactional approach.
It was reported that Mr Trump infamously used derogatory language when talking about the continent, and Kennedy's predecessor, Dwight D Eisenhower, had his own negative views.
He told Togo's President, Sylvanus Olympio, that the reason the US shared one ambassador between Togo and Cameroon was because he did not want his diplomats to "have to live in tents".
During the 1960 election campaign, Kennedy repeatedly criticised Eisenhower's administration for "neglecting the needs and aspirations of the African people" and stressed that the US should be on the side of anti-colonialism and self-determination, not on the side of the colonialists.
Once in power, Kennedy invited African leaders for state visits and laid out the red carpet.
Accompanied by first lady Jackie Kennedy, he would greet each of them - including Ethiopia's Emperor Haile Selassie and King Hassan IV of Morocco - when they arrived in the country.
There were also guards of honour, lavish dinners and visits to the ballet, the theatre and places of historical interest.
The visits were all highlighted in the media and the public was encouraged to come out and cheer.
Kennedy and his guests would be driven through streets festooned with welcome banners and cheering crowds and, weather permitting, in an open-top car.
Of course, there was an element of realpolitik in all this. The Soviet Union was making similar overtures to African states seeking to distance themselves from former colonial masters.
On assuming office, Kennedy knew he had to act quickly to make friends with the emerging African nations.
In the Oval Office, he told the National Association of Colored Women's Clubs: "I believe that... if we live up to the ideals of our own revolution, then the course of African revolution in the next decade will be towards democracy and freedom and not towards communism and what could be a far more serious kind of colonialism."
A month after his inauguration, he asked Vice-President Lyndon B Johnson to go to Senegal to meet President Léopold Sédar Senghor, who he saw as a key ally in trying to get Francophone countries on-side.
Then another month later, Kennedy launched the Peace Corps - which sent young Americans across the globe - and in August 1961, invited to the White House the first set of volunteers getting ready to head to Ghana and Tanganyika.
The assassination of Congolese independence hero, Patrice Lumumba, with suspected CIA involvement, three days before Kennedy took office is a reminder that Cold War battles with the Soviet Union were also being played out on the continent.
But I would argue that Kennedy was genuinely interested in the development and advancement of the continent. African leaders who fought hard for independence were not naïve and took Kennedy at his word: that the relationship could be mutually beneficial.
His untimely death was keenly felt in Africa - especially as his successor, Johnson, did not share his drive for cementing relations.
Now, 60 years on, President Joe Biden is starting to shape his policy towards Africa.
In a statement earlier this month, he said the US was ready to be Africa's "partner, in solidarity, support, and mutual respect".
Biden's words echoed Kennedy's commitment - now we are waiting to see if the actions match the rhetoric.
Follow us on Twitter
@BBCAfrica
, on Facebook at
BBC Africa
or on Instagram at
bbcafrica
Photos by Robert Knudsen, Cecil Stoughton, Abbie Rowe, White House photographs, John F Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston
|
8049308692d016c83b0341d548822b73 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56181298 | Dozens of dolphins found dead on Mozambique beach | Dozens of dolphins found dead on Mozambique beach
The bodies of about 100 dead dolphins have been found on an island off the coast of Mozambique.
Eighty-six more carcasses were found on Bazaruto Island, north of the capital Maputo, on Tuesday, after a first group was washed ashore on Sunday.
The cause of the deaths is still unknown, the country's environment ministry said, and more experts are heading to the site.
One possible experts are investigating is if a cyclone may have contributed.
Last week's Cyclone Guambe caused unrest in the waters off the island of Bazaruto, the head of inspection at the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park, Tomás Manasse, said.
He added that dolphins are known to follow their leader to shore when they are in danger.
The autopsy did not conclusively find problems with the skin, tongue or intestines, he said, however, more samples have been sent to a laboratory in Maputo.
Last year, 52 dead dolphins were found on the coast of the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius.
Campaigners blamed
a ship which had run aground
and spilled vast amounts of oil.
However, the BBC's Yasine Mohabuth in Port Louis says that in November an investigation by the fisheries ministry put the main cause of death down to a phenomenon known as barotrauma.
This is caused by an abrupt change in pressure.
"This could have been caused by a multitude of factors, such as the use of military sonar, an underwater earthquake, explosives or a volcanic eruption," the report said.
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|
5754fc429e3d885c5318acc2fc1dbf75 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56182349 | South African city of Port Elizabeth becomes Gqeberha | South African city of Port Elizabeth becomes Gqeberha
Many South Africans are learning how to pronounce Gqeberha, the new name for the city of Port Elizabeth.
It is the Xhosa name for the Baakens River, which flows through the city.
Xhosa is one of South Africa's 11 official languages and one of the few in the world that has a "click" sound, which can be difficult for non-Xhosa speakers to master.
One tweeter
reflected the views of many: "My Xhosa people. Teach us. How do you pronounce Gqeberha?"
Some have been giving each other a little help. One tweeter broke it down phonetically, saying the "Gqe" was a tongue click, "bear" for "be" and adding a guttural "g" before the ha: "Click bear gha."
Gqeberha is one of a number of name changes to cities, towns and airports in the Eastern Cape province announced by Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa.
The city's airport is now named after David Stuurman, a leader of the Khoi people who fought colonialists in the 19th Century.
He was among the first political prisoners to be jailed on Robben Island off Cape Town - from which he once escaped. He died in Australia where he had been transported to serve a life sentence.
By BBC's Pumza Fihlani, Johannesburg
The name changes have got people talking - and while some have taken to social media to either ask for help on how to pronounce them, others are simply confused if not even a little irritated about why the names were changed in the first place.
Xhosa's tongue-twister sounds do not come naturally to non-Xhosa speakers - even many black South Africans. So it's likely that many will still use the names they know.
So why the change? Officials believe changing some of the country's many colonial- or apartheid-legacy names will help bring dignity to the black communities living there.
It is part of a call made by the arts and culture minister last year for an audit of offensive names. It is seen as a way of writing black people into history.
Not everyone is happy about the new names and the matter has been dragging on for several years, with residents submitting objections.
A petition to keep the name Port Elizabeth, often shortened to PE, started more than a year ago has more than 32,000 signatures - garnering several thousand on Wednesday following the official change.
Port Elizabeth was founded in 1820 by British settlers and named in memory of the late wife of the Cape Colony's then governor.
Some see the name changes as a waste of money at a time when the economy is struggling.
Michael Cardo, an opposition Democratic Alliance MP, said that the Eastern Cape had the highest unemployment rate in country, according to official statistics.
"But, hey, its towns and airports have a new bunch of names. #Progress,"
he tweeted
.
Others have been posting memes about their pronunciation problems:
Another tweeter pointed out that South Africans had learnt to get their tongues around Afrikaans names like famous rugby player Joost Heystek van der Westhuizen.
"You will learn to say 'Gqeberha',"
Rashid Kay said
.
White-minority rule ended in South Africa in 1994 with the election of Nelson Mandela, but it has been slower than most African countries in changing place names that reflect earlier colonial rulers.
Some cities have, like the capital, Pretoria, kept their name but the local government areas under which they come have been renamed.
For example, Pretoria is in Tswane Metropolitan Municipality and the city of Durban it in eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality.
Cities:
Towns:
Airports:
|
6f0d51ca219f3ce2952e840361812443 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56194032 | Africa's week in pictures: 19-25 February 2021 | Africa's week in pictures: 19-25 February 2021
A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent and beyond:
All pictures subject to copyright.
|
6abad3a1af88839b53eac67103cf4e0d | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56198469 | Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: How a massacre in the sacred city of Aksum unfolded | Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: How a massacre in the sacred city of Aksum unfolded
Eritrean troops fighting in Ethiopia's northern region of Tigray killed hundreds of people in Aksum mainly over two days in November, witnesses say.
The mass killings on 28 and 29 November may amount to a crime against humanity, Amnesty International says in a report.
An eyewitness told the BBC how bodies remained unburied on the streets for days, with many being eaten by hyenas.
Eritrea's Information Minister Yemane G Meskel has dismissed the accusations as "preposterous" and "fabricated".
In a tweet
, he suggested that the eyewitnesses quoted were militiamen allied to Tigray's former ruling party, the TPLF, whose dispute with Ethiopia's federal government led to the conflict in the region.
Ethiopia's government has promised a joint investigation with international actors. While it cast questions on Amnesty's methodology, it admitted "serious issues that should be of great concern" were raised.
Both Ethiopia and Eritrea deny that Eritrean forces have been involved in the Tigray conflict.
The conflict erupted on 4 November 2020 when Ethiopia's government launched an offensive to oust the TPLF after its fighters captured federal military bases in Tigray.
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, told parliament on 30 November that "not a single civilian was killed" during the operation.
But witnesses have recounted how on that day they began burying some of the bodies of unarmed civilians killed by Eritrean soldiers - many of them boys and men shot on the streets or during house-to-house raids.
Amnesty's report has high-resolution satellite imagery from 13 December showing disturbed earth consistent with recent graves at two churches in Aksum, an ancient city considered sacred by Ethiopia's Orthodox Christians.
A communications blackout and restricted access to Tigray has meant reports of what has gone on in the conflict have been slow to emerge.
In Aksum, electricity and phone networks reportedly stopped working on the first day of the conflict.
Shelling by Ethiopian and Eritrea forces to the west of Aksum began on Thursday 19 November, according to people in the city.
"This attack continued for five hours, and was non-stop. People who were at churches, cafes, hotels and their residence died. There was no retaliation from any armed force in the city - it literally targeted civilians," a civil servant in Aksum told the BBC.
Amnesty has gathered similar and multiple testimonies describing the continuous shelling that evening of civilians.
Once in control of the city, soldiers, generally identified as Eritrean, searched for TPLF soldiers and militias or "anyone with a gun", Amnesty said.
"There were a lot of... house-to-house killings," one woman told the rights group.
There is compelling evidence that Ethiopian and Eritrean troops carried out "multiple war crimes in their offensive to take control of Aksum", Amnesty's Deprose Muchena says.
For the next week, the testimonies say Ethiopia troops were mainly in Aksum - the Eritreans had pushed on east to the town of Adwa.
A witness told the BBC how the Ethiopian military looted banks in the city in that time.
The Eritrean forces reportedly returned a week later. The fighting on Sunday 28 November was triggered by an assault of poorly armed pro-TPLF fighters, according to Amnesty's report.
Between 50 and 80 men from Aksum targeted an Eritrean position on a hill overlooking the city in the morning.
A 26-year-old man who participated in the attack told Amnesty: "We wanted to protect our city so we attempted to defend it especially from Eritrean soldiers... They knew how to shoot and they had radios, communications... I didn't have a gun, just a stick."
It is unclear how long the fighting lasted, but that afternoon Eritrean trucks and tanks drove into Aksum, Amnesty reports.
Witnesses say Eritrean soldiers went on a rampage, shooting at unarmed civilian men and boys who were out on the streets - continuing until the evening.
A man in his 20s told Amnesty about the killings on the city's main street: "I was on the second floor of a building and I watched, through the window, the Eritreans killing the youth on the street."
The soldiers, identified as Eritrean not just because of their uniform and vehicle number plates but because of the languages they spoke (Arabic and an Eritrean dialect of Tigrinya), started house-to-house searches.
"I would say it was in retaliation," a young man told the BBC. "They killed every man they found. If you opened your door and they found a man they killed him, if you didn't open, they shoot your gate by force."
He was hiding in a nightclub and witnessed a man who was found and killed by Eritrean soldiers begging for his life: "He was telling them: 'I am a civilian, I am a banker.'"
Another man told Amnesty that he saw six men killed, execution-style, outside his house near the Abnet Hotel the following day on 29 November.
"They lined them up and shot them in the back from behind. Two of them I knew. They're from my neighbourhood… They asked: 'Where is your gun' and they answered: 'We have no guns, we are civilians.'"
Witnesses say at first the Eritrean soldiers would not let anyone approach the bodies on the streets - and would shoot anyone who did so.
One woman, whose nephews aged 29 and 14 had been killed, said the roads "were full of dead bodies".
Amnesty says after the intervention of elders and Ethiopian soldiers, burials began over several days, with most funerals taking place on 30 November after people brought the bodies to the churches - often 10 at a time loaded on horse- or donkey-drawn carts.
At Abnet Hotel, the civil servant who spoke to the BBC said some bodies were not removed for four days.
"The bodies that were lying around Abnet Hotel and Seattle Cinema were eaten by hyenas. We found only bones. We buried bones.
"I can say around 800 civilians were killed in Aksum."
This account is echoed by a church deacon who told the Associated Press that many bodies had been fed on by hyenas.
He gathered victims' identity cards and assisted with burials in mass graves and also believes about 800 people were killed that weekend.
The 41 survivors and witnesses Amnesty interviewed provided the names of more than 200 people they knew who were killed.
Witnesses say the Eritrean soldiers participated in looting, which after the massacre and as many people fled the city, became widespread and systematic.
The university, private houses, hotels, hospitals, grain stores, garages, banks, DIY stores, supermarkets, bakeries and other shops were reportedly targeted.
One man told Amnesty how Ethiopian soldiers failed to stop Eritreans looting his brother's house.
"They took the TV, a jeep, the fridge, six mattresses, all the groceries and cooking oil, butter, teff flour [Ethiopia's staple food], the kitchen cabinets, clothes, the beers in the fridge, the water pump, and the laptop."
The young man who spoke to the BBC said he knew of 15 vehicles that had been stolen belonging to businessmen in the city.
This has had a devastating impact on those left in Aksum, leaving them with little food and medicine to survive, Amnesty says.
Witnesses say the theft of water pumps left residents having to drink from the river.
It is said to be the birthplace of the biblical Queen of Sheba, who travelled to Jerusalem to visit King Solomon.
They had a son - Menelik I - who is said to have brought to Aksum the Ark of the Covenant, believed to contain the 10 commandments handed down to Moses by God.
It is constantly under guard at the city's Our Lady Mary of Zion Church and no-one is allowed to see it.
A major religious celebration is usually held at the church on 30 November, drawing pilgrims from across Ethiopia and around the world, but it was cancelled last year amid the conflict.
The civil servant interviewed by the BBC said that Eritrean troops came to the church on 3 December "terrorising the priests and forcing them to give them the gold and silver cross".
But he said the deacons and other young people went to protect the ark.
"It was a huge riot. Every man and woman fought them. They fired guns and killed some, but we are happy as we did not fail to protect our treasures."
|
345533afb1667140c7a8b39e1e036905 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56212645 | Nigeria's school abductions: Why children are being targeted | Nigeria's school abductions: Why children are being targeted
Since December, more than 600 students have been abducted from schools in north-west Nigeria, highlighting a worrying development in the country's kidnap-for-ransom crisis.
Friday's kidnapping of nearly 300 students from the Government Girls Science Secondary School in Jangebe, Zamfara state,
which ended with their release
, was the second mass kidnap from schools in less than 10 days. Twenty-seven boys and their teachers who were taken from a school in Kagara, Niger state on 17 February were released on Saturday.
The authorities say recent attacks on schools in the north-west have been carried out by "bandits", a loose term for kidnappers, armed robbers, cattle rustlers, Fulani herdsmen and other armed militia operating in the region who are largely motivated by money.
Many here believe that a weak security infrastructure and governors who have little control over security in their states - the police and army are controlled by the federal government - and have resorted to paying ransoms, have made mass abductions a lucrative source of income.
It is an accusation the governors deny. Zamfara governor Bello Matawalle, who in the past has promised "repentant" bandits with houses, money and cars, said people "not comfortable [with his] peace initiative" were sabotaging his efforts to end the crisis.
Until now, kidnap victims have generally been road travellers in Nigeria's north-west, who pay between $20 and $200,000 for their freedom, but since the well-publicised abduction in 2014 of 276 schoolgirls from Chibok secondary school by Boko Haram Islamist militants in Borno state, more armed groups have resorted to mass abduction of students.
Kidnapping hundreds of students rather than road travellers, guarantees publicity and government involvement in negotiations, which could mean millions of dollars in ransom payments.
Security expert Kemi Okenyodo believes that this has made the abductions lucrative for criminal gangs.
"The decision on payment of ransom should be reviewed. What are the best steps to take in preventing the abductions so we avoid the payment of ransom?" she asked.
President Muhammadu Buhari has also insinuated that state governors were fuelling the crisis.
"State governments must review their policy of rewarding bandits with money and vehicles. Such a policy has the potential to backfire with disastrous consequences," he said.
The mastermind of the abduction of more than 300 students in Katsina state in December was recently pardoned in nearby Zamfara state after he "repented" and handed over his weapons to the government.
Auwalu Daudawa and his gang were promised accommodation in the town by Governor Matawalle, along with assistance to improve their livelihoods.
In July last year, Mr Matawalle promised bandits two cows for every AK-47 gun they surrendered.
Unlike his predecessor who was severely criticised for his handling of the Chibok girls kidnapping, Mr Buhari has not come in for huge amounts of public condemnation over the kidnap crisis, largely due to goodwill earned from negotiating the release of some of the Chibok girls in his early days.
His supporters also say that his government has been more responsive in securing the release of abducted students, though dozens, including Leah Sharibu, a Christian who was kidnapped when Boko Haram attacked their school in Dapchi in 2018, remain in captivity.
But security in Nigeria has deteriorated under Mr Buhari - there have been four reported mass abductions of students under his watch. That three of those have happened in the north-west highlights the worsening insecurity in that part of the country, while much international attention is focussed on the Boko Haram insurgency hundreds of miles away in the north-east.
Though the military is currently carrying out an operation against bandits in the region, communities have been sacked and most forest reserves in the region are under the control of criminals.
A "Safe School Initiative" was launched after the Chibok girls were abducted to bolster security in schools in north-eastern Nigeria by building fences around them.
At least $20m ($14m) was pledged for the three-year project, which was supported by the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, the former UK prime minister.
Many container schools were built as temporary learning spaces as part of the scheme, but it is not known if any fences were built in communities affected.
Though most of the recent kidnappings have happened in the north-west, which were not covered by the Safe Schools Initiative, the 2018 abduction of 110 schoolgirls from Dapchi in north-eastern Yobe state raised questions about the success of the initiative.
Nigeria's military has built posts close to some schools, but the number of schools in the north means many are left unprotected.
Some schools have employed local vigilantes armed with local weapons but this has often proved ineffective against the heavily armed bandits.
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Unlike the kidnap of the Chibok girls which attracted worldwide attention, there has not been much reaction to subsequent abductions.
There have been no hashtags like #BringBackOurGirls which drew global support then and helped apply pressure to President Jonathan to act, nor have there been street demonstrations in Nigeria.
Bukky Shonibare, co-founder of the Bring Back Our Girls Group, who was involved in protests in Abuja when the Chibok incident happened, said Nigerians were exhausted from the frequency of mass abductions.
"There's only a limit to what the heart can take, Nigerians went through a lot following the kidnap of the Chibok girls... people are just really tired," she told the BBC.
She said that despite the lack of street demonstrations in subsequent abductions, her group worked behind the scenes to apply pressure.
Nigerians on social media have mocked the president's handling of the kidnap crisis by using the hashtag #ThingsMustChange employed by Mr Buhari while campaigning for office in 2015.
This tweet from 2015, when he said: "How can 219 girls be missing in our country, and our leader appears incapable of action? #ThingsMustChange," has been seized upon by tweeters.
Authorities in Kano and Yobe states ordered more than 20 schools shut at the weekend because of the insecurity.
Some schools were also recently closed in Zamfara and Niger states.
In Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, dozens of schools have been shut for years because of the Boko Haram insurgency.
For a region with a high rate of out-of-school children, this is a massive disruption to gains that have been recorded in recent years, made worse by last year's restrictions imposed because of Covid
.
According to
Unicef
, there is a net attendance rate of just 53% in primary schools in northern Nigeria though education at that level is free and compulsory. The levels for girls is even lower because of socio-cultural norms and practices that discourage attendance in formal education, it said.
"The implication of these [abductions] is parents or guardians get scared of allowing their wards to go to school," said Ms Shonibare.
"This literally takes us back on the gains that we have made [especially] when it comes to girl-child education," she said.
The spate of attacks on schools in the north-west signals a double assault on education in the region.
The bandits, motivated by money, might be ideologically different from groups like Boko Haram in the north-east, which are against secular education, but together, they are having a devastating effect on education across northern Nigeria.
|
7d9c4638e71be5346d793a05d698a552 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56222326 | Nigeria kidnappings: Hunt for 300 girls as second abducted school group freed | Nigeria kidnappings: Hunt for 300 girls as second abducted school group freed
Police in Nigeria have launched a search and rescue operation for 317 girls kidnapped from a school in the state of Zamfara.
The operation comes as 42 people kidnapped from a boarding school in a similar incident last week in Niger state were released.
The kidnappings are carried out for ransom and are common in the north.
President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the latest kidnapping as "inhumane and totally unacceptable".
The United Nations Children Fund also condemned the abduction of the girls and called for their safe release.
The
2014 kidnap of 276 schoolgirls in the north-eastern town of Chibok
by Islamist militants Boko Haram brought global attention to the scourge of raids on schools in Nigeria but the most recent attacks are suspected to be the work of criminal gangs.
Nigerian police said in a statement that "a co-ordinated search and rescue operation, involving the deployment of both ground and aerial assets" was under way.
Two helicopters have been deployed.
Police also appealed for calm. Residents of the town of Jangebe, where the abduction took place, have reacted angrily, attacking vehicles that entered.
The Vanguard newspaper said that a convoy of journalists was attacked by a mob.
Friday's attack happened at 01:00 local time (midnight GMT) when a group of
gunmen arrived at the Government Girls Secondary School in Jangebe
.
Some reports say the girls, aged 12 to 16, have been taken to the Dangulbi forest.
Zamfara state has closed all boarding schools.
No group has so far admitted carrying out the attack.
A total of 42 people including 27 students, kidnapped from a boarding school in Kagara in the north-central state of Niger 10 days ago, have been freed.
An armed gang had stormed the school when the pupils were asleep. One boy was killed.
The group was also taken to a nearby forest.
Niger state Governor Abubakar Sani Bello said in a tweet on Saturday: "The abducted students, staff and relatives of Government Science Collage Kagara have regained their freedom and have been received by the Niger state government."
The released group is reported to have arrived in Minna, the state capital. No further details have been released as yet.
Every time children are taken from their schools by armed gunmen in northern Nigeria, the kidnapping of the Chibok girls is mentioned.
Similar raids took place before that well-publicised abduction but they received little publicity and they never involved girls.
But global attention generated by the #BringBackOurGirls campaign showed armed groups that the mass abduction of children was a sure way of applying pressure on authorities, including asking for ransom, although the authorities always deny paying.
The government does not appear to have a strategy for stopping these incidents from happening.
But two weeks ago, lawmakers from Zamfara state suggested offering amnesty to repentant kidnappers in exchange for sustainable economic opportunities.
It's a controversial strategy but one that yielded some positive results in the Niger Delta, which saw a reduction in crime after a similar amnesty programme in 2009.
The government so far says it will not negotiate with criminals.
In the meantime, schools in rural northern Nigeria are more vulnerable than they've ever been.
|
4c3760e2506a8eea7ebb6f0d8e8be785 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56229256 | Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: Blinken says US concerned about atrocities | Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: Blinken says US concerned about atrocities
The US has condemned reported atrocities in Ethiopia's conflict-hit northern region of Tigray, urging the African Union to help resolve the "deteriorating situation."
"We are deeply concerned by the worsening humanitarian crisis," Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said.
An Amnesty report said crimes against humanity may have been committed.
Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in four months.
The conflict erupted on 4 November 2020 when Ethiopia's government launched an offensive to oust the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) after its fighters captured federal military bases in Tigray.
In a report released last week rights group Amnesty International accused troops from neighbouring Eritrea of killing hundreds of people in the ancient city of Aksum on 28 and 29 November, saying the mass killings may amount to a crime against humanity.
Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, told parliament on 30 November that "not a single civilian was killed" during the operation.
But witnesses have recounted how on that day they began burying some of the bodies of unarmed civilians killed by Eritrean soldiers - many of them boys and men shot on the streets or during house-to-house raids.
Amnesty's report has high-resolution satellite imagery from 13 December showing disturbed earth consistent with recent graves at two churches in Aksum, an ancient city considered sacred by Ethiopia's Orthodox Christians.
An eyewitness told the BBC how bodies remained unburied on the streets for days, with many being eaten by hyenas.
A communications blackout and restricted access to Tigray has meant reports of what has gone on in the conflict have been slow to emerge.
However Eritrea's Information Minister Yemane G Meskel has dismissed the accusations from Amnesty, calling them "preposterous" and "fabricated".
In a tweet
, he suggested that the eyewitnesses quoted were militiamen allied to Tigray's former ruling party, the TPLF.
But the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission has said Amnesty's report should be "taken seriously" and that it was investigating the allegations.
He welcomed the Ethiopian government promise for unhindered humanitarian access to Tigray and its invitation for international support for investigations into human rights violations.
He also called for the "immediate withdrawal" of Eritrean forces and other militia fighters from the region, urging the African Union and neighbouring countries to help resolve the crisis.
But Ethiopia and Eritrea have both denied the presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray.
Despite Mr Abiy declaring victory after pro-government troops took the regional capital Mekelle in late November, clashes have persisted in the region.
The security and humanitarian situation has deteriorated, with reported sexual assaults against women on the rise.
Last week the UN World Food Programme (WFP) made an urgent appeal for more than a $100m (£72m) to ease severe shortages in Tigray.
It said three million people - about half of Tigray's population - need food aid.
|
f468214974ebeb0b342635d860fcabf6 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56230525 | Nigeria kidnapped girls: Shots fired at Zamfara reunion ceremony | Nigeria kidnapped girls: Shots fired at Zamfara reunion ceremony
A reunion of kidnapped daughters and their parents in Jangebe, Nigeria, turned violent on Wednesday when armed forces reportedly opened fire.
At least three people were reportedly shot at the official handover ceremony. It is unclear if there were any deaths.
Parents were said to have become frustrated at how long the ceremony was taking and started throwing stones at government officials.
The 279 girls were kidnapped by armed men while at school last Friday.
They were then freed on Tuesday.
They were kept in the custody of the Zamfara state government, and given medical treatment in the state capital Gusau, before Wednesday's official handover ceremony.
UN experts have called for the traumatised pupils to receive urgent rehabilitation.
One mother at the reunion told AFP news agency that parents became angry at the length of the reunion because they wanted to get back home before dark, as the roads were unsafe.
The Zamfara state government has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in Jangebe in response to the shootings.
Authorities also demanded that all market activities in the town stop until further notice, claiming that they had found evidence that such activities were helping criminals operate in the area.
The government's spokesperson did not explain how this was connected with Wednesday's incident.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari declared a no-fly zone across the state on Tuesday, and banned all mining activities.
No group has yet said it carried out the kidnapping.
But it is believed to be the work of criminal gangs who often stage kidnaps for ransom in Zamfara, rather than the Boko Haram Islamist group behind the 2014 kidnapping of schoolgirls in Chibok, hundreds of miles away.
The authorities have denied paying a ransom to secure the girls' release.
|
cd2ab21ef0ccd00c76c1b741984eb069 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56239136 | Covax: Ivory Coast and Ghana begin mass Covid vaccination rollouts | Covax: Ivory Coast and Ghana begin mass Covid vaccination rollouts
African countries are starting mass Covid inoculation drives using vaccines supplied through a scheme set up to share doses fairly with poorer nations.
Ivory Coast is one of the first to benefit from the UN-backed Covax distribution initiative, with injections beginning on Monday.
Ghana is also launching its vaccination drive this week.
Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo on Monday became the first to receive a coronavirus vaccine through the scheme.
Mr Akufo-Addo urged people to get inoculated and not to believe conspiracy theories casting doubt on the programme, which will see some 600,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine rolled out nationwide on Tuesday.
"It's important that I set the example that this vaccine is safe by being the first to have it, so that everybody in Ghana can feel comfortable about taking this vaccine," he said.
The rollout will initially focus on the most vulnerable - those aged over 60 or with serious underlying health issues - and essential workers, such as medical professionals, teachers, police and even some journalists.
But pregnant women and those under the age of 18 are not part of the vaccination campaign. Authorities have said they do not have enough data on the possible side effects of the vaccines on such groups.
By Thomas Naadi, BBC News, in Ghana
Nana Akufo Addo and his wife were vaccinated in a ceremony broadcast live on television to encourage other Ghanaians to get their jabs.
Some Ghanaians have expressed misgivings about the safety of the vaccines. While some believe it is a ploy by the government to reduce the country's population by making them infertile, others think the vaccines might be fake.
In a televised address to the nation on Sunday, the president stressed that the vaccines had been declared safe by the country's Food and Drugs Authority (FDA), and there was no reason to doubt their safety. "Taking the vaccines will not alter your DNA, it will not embed a tracking device in your body, neither will it cause infertility in women or men," he assured.
Ghana's FDA has also approved Russia's Sputnik V vaccines for emergency use, and the certification process is ongoing for other vaccines.
The country is also exploring the possibility of getting some local manufacturers the needed licence to produce some of the existing vaccines, while Ghanaian scientists are working with their counterparts on the continent to develop a vaccine.
In Ivory Coast, which has a similar rollout programme, people began to queue at vaccination centres early on Monday for their first dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.
A teacher in the city of Abidjan, David Elo, said it was "comforting" and "a relief" to receive the jab. "If today everyone gets vaccinated, we won't be scared anymore."
Nurse Prisca Nguessan told Reuters news agency she hoped vaccinations would "speed up". "We invite the population to come and get vaccinated because to get vaccinated is a way of breaking the transmission chain."
The first vaccinations in Ivory Coast and Ghana this week are taking place ahead of a further distribution of 11 million doses to some of the countries signed up to the initiative, Covax said in a statement.
Nigeria is due to take delivery of nearly four million doses of vaccine later this week.
The Covax scheme hopes to deliver more than two billion doses to people in 190 countries in less than a year. Prof Gavin Yamey, who was involved in setting up the programme, said there was a "huge need" to distribute vaccines worldwide.
"It has been rather depressing watching rich nations essentially just clear the shelves," he said. "It's been absolutely a kind of me first, me only vaccine grab, and that's not just incredibly unfair, it's also terrible public health."
Vaccination programmes have been slow to get off the ground in Africa, but the continent has reported relatively few cases and deaths in comparison with many western countries.
Ghana has reported more than 84,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 600 deaths, while Ivory Coast has confirmed nearly 33,000 cases and 192 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The Covax programme is designed so that richer countries buying vaccines donate - either financially or with doses - so that poorer nations have access, too.
The initiative is led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and also involves the Global Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi).
The head of the WHO, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said this week was "only the beginning".
"This is a day many of us have been dreaming of and working for more than 12 months," he said. "We have a lot left to do to realise our vision to start vaccination in all countries within the first 100 days of the year. There are just 40 days left."
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abd8475a655ef1d092b705db76d3bf0e | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56244227 | Love Island: South Africa's reality show is 'too white' | Love Island: South Africa's reality show is 'too white'
As the Love Island reality TV franchise launches in South Africa, the show has come under fire from viewers who say it fails to reflect the racial make-up of the majority-black nation.
South African media say just two contestants are black, and two are coloured - the official term for mixed-race people in the country.
The other six housemates are white.
In all, 10 contestants are vying to win the series and take home 1 million rand ($66,200; £47,500).
A spokesman said more contestants would be arriving in the next few days who would reflect South Africa's diversity.
The reality TV series, which began in the UK before spin-offs launched elsewhere in the world, sees a group of men and women living in a villa isolated from the outside world. They couple up and take part in challenges to win the support of the voting public and ultimately compete for the cash prize.
Participants are catapulted into the limelight, and there has been criticism in recent years that Love Island has failed to adequately support
contestants' mental health
, while
black contestants have spoken out about experiencing racism
.
Love Island says it has taken steps to address these issues.
And in a first, a black couple won the US edition last year
.
Yet many viewers in South Africa are disappointed with the programme's debut in their country.
"Wow so much diversity. This is a true representation of what I thought SA looks like," was one sarcastic reaction.
According to a 2011 census at least 79% of South Africa's population is black, 9% is white, 9% is coloured and 3% is Indian.
"There aren't any Indian people on [Love Island SA], the one time we're thankful for not being represented,"
said Twitter user @joekhan360.
Yet another person complained that the ethnic breakdown of the group could mean there will be no mixed couples, in a country known for its fraught racial politics that persist 27 years after the end of white-minority rule:
Respected news site IOL however says some of the criticism may be "over the top", and points out that the Love Island format brings in new cast members as the series goes on.
"Indeed, as the show progresses, it's likely that the show will become more diverse,"
IOL reports.
Love Island SA's distributor DStv told the BBC this was indeed the case, adding: "We pride ourselves in reflecting diversity and inclusion for all our shows, including Love Island.
"Viewers can be assured that this will become more apparent in future episodes of Love Island SA. We hope viewers will keep watching to enjoy the new stars of the show who will be arriving over the next few days."
DStv's spokesman also apologised for "technical issues" that saw poor image and sound quality and which they are "working really hard to resolve".
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bbfbc1b245c10154e80d5a0b2ff89084 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56249626 | Nigeria school abduction: Hundreds of girls released by gunmen | Nigeria school abduction: Hundreds of girls released by gunmen
Girls among the nearly 300 who were kidnapped from a school in north-western Nigeria have been describing their ordeal following their release.
"Most of us got injured," one of the schoolgirls told the BBC, adding that gunmen threatened to shoot them.
The girls were abducted by unidentified assailants from their boarding school in Jangebe, Zamfara state, on Friday and taken to a forest, police said.
The state's governor said on Tuesday that the 279 girls had been freed.
Such kidnappings are carried out for ransom and are common in the north of the country.
On Tuesday, dozens of the girls were seen gathered at a government building in Zamfara after they were taken there in a fleet of mini-buses.
Speaking to the BBC, one of the schoolgirls said that some of those kidnapped had found it difficult to continue walking when instructed to do so by the gunmen because of their injuries.
"They said they [would] shoot anybody who did not continue to walk," she said. "We walked across a river and they hid us and let us sleep under shrubs in a forest."
Another of the girls, aged 15, said that some of her classmates found it difficult "walking in the stones and thorns" and had to be carried.
"They started hitting us with guns so that we [would] move," she told Reuters news agency, adding: "While they were beating them with guns, some of them were crying and moving at the same time."
Some of the fathers who had arrived to see their daughters for the first time since their abduction told reporters they were "very happy" at the news of their release.
The group's release was secured through negotiations between government officials and the abductors, authorities in Zamfara state told the BBC.
Local authorities said that an earlier figure provided by police of 317 for the number of girls kidnapped was not accurate.
One official told Reuters that the discrepancy was because of the fact that some girls had fled shortly after being abducted.
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said he felt "overwhelming joy" at the news of the girls' release. "[I am] pleased that their ordeal has come to a happy end without any incident," he said.
The governor of Zamfara state, Bello Matawalle, tweeted that it "
gladdens my heart to announce the release of the abducted students
".
"This follows the scaling of several hurdles laid against our efforts," he added. "I enjoin all well-meaning Nigerians to rejoice with us as our daughters are now safe."
Mr Matawalle has denied paying for the girls to be released, but last week President Buhari admitted state governments had paid kidnappers "with money and vehicles" in the past and urged them to review the policy.
By Ishaq Khalid, BBC News, Abuja
It is believed that schools have started to be targeted as such abductions attract a lot of attention - putting more pressure on the authorities to negotiate with the armed criminal group responsible.
The authorities rarely admit to paying ransoms - but some observers say it is unlikely that the gunmen would release their victims without some sort of exchange, either of money or the release of their members who are in jail.
Besides, kidnapping for ransom is a widespread criminal enterprise across the country - people are seized by gunmen on almost a daily basis - with both the rich and the poor falling victims. Security personnel have been held too. People often speak of how they have managed to secure someone's release by raising funds from friends and relatives - or even selling their assets.
But ransom payments are controversial. It may save someone's life, yet some observers say paying ransom only fuels the problem. President Buhari agrees, saying today ''ransom payments will continue to prosper kidnapping''.
He has repeatedly said his government will not negotiate with the armed criminal gangs. But many believe the failure of his administration and those at the state level to provide security is to blame. There are growing calls for the authorities to provide security for thousands of schools across the country - many of which are unfenced and do not have adequate security guards.
The 2014 kidnap of 276 schoolgirls in the north-eastern town of Chibok by Islamist militants Boko Haram brought global attention to the scourge of raids on schools in Nigeria, but a surge in recent attacks is suspected to be the work of criminal gangs.
The raid in Zamfara state was the region's second kidnapping in recent weeks. Some 27 students were kidnapped from a boarding school in Kagara in the north-central state of Niger last month before they were released on 17 February.
No group has said they were behind the Zamfara kidnappings.
Armed groups operating in the state often kidnap for ransom but when
gunmen took more than 300 boys from Kankara in neighbouring Katsina
state in December last year, some reports said Boko Haram, which operates hundreds of miles away in the north-east, was behind the attack.
The reports were later disputed and the boys released after negotiations.
|
1fe1eca6c1fb6d1a8a8819b66c38e135 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56255111 | HIV findings in DR Congo 'give hope for cure' | HIV findings in DR Congo 'give hope for cure'
The discovery of a large group of people whose bodies naturally control HIV without taking medication is leading to hopes of an eventual cure, scientists say.
The study found as many as 4% of HIV carriers in the Democratic Republic of Congo were able to suppress the virus.
Typically less than 1% of people with HIV are able to do so.
This could serve as springboard for further research to develop a vaccine or new treatments to tackle the virus that causes Aids, researchers say.
"When we first started to see the data coming in from the study we were surprised, but we were also elated," Mary Rodgers, the study's lead scientist, told the BBC.
"This could mean that this is something that we can actually cure," she said.
The findings,
published in eBioMedicine
which is part of The Lancet family of medical journals, looked at samples taken FROM people living with HIV between 1987 and 2019.
The team included scientists from pharmaceutical company Abbott, Université Protestante au Congo, Johns Hopkins, the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and University of Missouri - Kansas City.
Dr Rodgers, head of Abbott's global viral surveillance programme, said the group in DR Congo was the biggest detected in one country - between 2.7% and 4.3% . Another 1% of people living with HIV in Cameroon were also identified as controlling the virus well without medication.
"This has never really been seen before, typically we would find less than 1% of all people with HIV who are able to suppress the virus naturally."
Currently, most people living with HIV have to take anti-retroviral medicines daily to suppress the virus and reduce their viral load.
It is not yet known how the so-called "elite controllers" discovered in DR Congo are able to suppress their HIV infection.
But Dr Rodgers said understanding how the group was able to maintain low or undetectable viral loads would be crucial to controlling the virus.
However she stressed the need for more research, while pointing to previous studies that showed this group of people potentially lose their protection as the disease progresses.
HIV came to global attention in the 1980s. It has infected 76 million people since then and 38 million people are living with the virus, Abbott says.
It is
believed to have originated in what is now DR Congo a century ago
, and today HIV disproportionately affects women in sub-Saharan Africa.
|
5603ec37f482ff5645e4dd8e727d46db | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56263704 | Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: BBC reporter Girmay Gebru freed by military | Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: BBC reporter Girmay Gebru freed by military
The BBC reporter in Ethiopia's conflict-hit region of Tigray has been released without charge.
Girmay Gebru was taken from a café in the regional capital, Mekelle, on Monday, and detained by the military.
A local journalist, Tamirat Yemane, and two translators - Alula Akalu and Fitsum Berhane, who were working for the Financial Times and the AFP news agency - have also been freed.
No official reason has been given for their detention.
Girmay, who works for BBC Tigrinya, says he is happy to be home after two days in detention.
It is not clear whether four of Girmay's neighbours detained alongside him on Monday have also been released.
The BBC says it is "pleased and relieved" Girmay has been released.
"We are seeking a full explanation from the authorities as to why he and others were arrested when they had clearly committed no offence," the BBC said.
Ethiopia's government has been fighting regional forces in Tigray since November.
After months of an effective media blackout since the start of the conflict in Tigray, the government granted access to some international media organisations last week.
Both AFP and the Financial Times had received permission to visit the region.
Despite this, their workers were detained, which led to condemnation from the international community.
The US government joined media rights organisations in calling for the media workers' release.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said their detention was inconsistent with the Ethiopian government's commitment to allow international media access to Tigray.
This is not the first time media workers have been arrested in Ethiopia since the conflict began.
In January police detained a cameraman
working for Reuters news agency who was covering the Tigray conflict. Kumerra Gemechu was held for 12 days before being released without charge.
Just over two weeks later, Dawit Kebede Araya, a reporter with the state-owned broadcaster Tigray TV was shot dead in Mekelle.
Then in February, the
Committee to Protect journalists said
that freelance reporter Lucy Kassa's home in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa was raided by armed men who threatened to kill her if she kept on investigating stories about the conflict in Tigray.
Fighting continues in Tigray despite the government declaring victory over the Tigray People's Liberation Front, which used to be the region's ruling party.
Hundreds have been killed and tens of thousands displaced.
There is international concern over growing reports of atrocities committed by all sides and the worsening humanitarian crisis.
An official of Ethiopia's ruling party recently warned that measures would be taken against people they said were "misleading international media".
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2c71620f1c69291e455a0e592a7e3791 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56270243 | Covid: Police break up 'fake vaccine network' in China and South Africa | Covid: Police break up 'fake vaccine network' in China and South Africa
Police in China and South Africa have seized thousands of doses of counterfeit Covid-19 vaccine and made dozens of arrests, Interpol says.
In China, police made 80 arrests at a factory allegedly making fake vaccine, where at least 3,000 doses were found.
Three Chinese nationals and a Zambian were detained at a warehouse in Gauteng, South Africa, where ampoules containing 2,400 doses were discovered.
It is not clear when exactly the arrests took place.
The discovery in South Africa was reported by the country's Sunday Times newspaper
at the end of December.
In Wednesday's statement, Interpol said it was also getting reports of other fake vaccine rings.
Interpol, short for the International Criminal Police Organization, is based in Lyon, France and facilitates international co-operation between police forces and crime control.
The Covid-19 pandemic has claimed more than 2.5 million lives worldwide and infected nearly 115 million people, according to
a Johns Hopkins University estimate
.
Announcing the dismantling of the suspected fake vaccine network
, Interpol stressed that no approved vaccines were "currently available for sale online".
"Any vaccine being advertised on websites or the dark web, will not be legitimate, will not have been tested and may be dangerous," it said
Vaccines are a vital tool for overcoming the pandemic and competition is fierce worldwide to buy up available doses following the approval of a growing number of products by medical authorities in recent months.
In Germiston, Gauteng, police found about 400 vials - the equivalent of around 2,400 doses - of fake vaccine as well as a "large quantity" of fake 3M masks, Interpol said.
It released images of boxes and packages in the warehouse.
Brigadier Vish Naidoo, South African Police national spokesperson, said that co-operation with other Interpol member states was proving "very effective", as witnessed by the "arrest of foreign nationals attempting to peddle fake vaccines to unsuspecting people within South Africa".
South Africa only started vaccinating its population on 17 February after concerns over the efficacy of vaccines against a new variant of Covid-19.
No location or further details were given for the counterfeit factory in China which was, Interpol said, investigated with the help of its Illicit Goods and Global Health Programme.
A spokesperson for the Chinese ministry of public security said police there were conducting a "targeted campaign to prevent and crack down on crimes related to vaccines" and would step up constructive co-operation with Interpol and police in other countries to effectively prevent such crimes.
Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock said that while the police operations in China and South Africa were welcome, this was "only the tip of the iceberg" when it came to Covid-19 vaccine-related crime.
In December, the organisation issued a global alert warning police in its 194 member countries to prepare for organised crime networks targeting Covid-19 vaccines, and gave
advice about how to spot fake medical products
.
Last month,
China arrested the leader of a multi-million dollar scam that passed off saline solution and mineral water as Covid-19 vaccines
.
The suspect, identified only as Kong, had researched the packaging designs of real vaccines before making more than 58,000 of his own doses. He was among 70 people arrested for similar crimes.
According to a court ruling, Kong and his team had made a profit of 18m yuan ($2.78m; £2m) by putting saline solution or mineral water in syringes and hawking them as Covid vaccines.
A batch of the fake vaccines was smuggled overseas but it was not known at the time where they had been sent to.
In a case in Mexico last month, police arrested six people for allegedly trafficking fake Covid-19 vaccines in the northern border state of Nuevo León.
The suspects are said to have offered vaccines for sale for the equivalent of around $2,000 per dose at a clinic in a suburb of Monterrey.
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1a88bf86ed1ca8f869462dfc3346f850 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56278224 | Africa's week in pictures: 26 February - 4 March 2021 | Africa's week in pictures: 26 February - 4 March 2021
A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent:
All pictures subject to copyright.
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1c36390920c23161e56ad4d8f722e223 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56284104 | Nigeria kidnapping: Freed Zamfara schoolgirl keen to return to school | Nigeria kidnapping: Freed Zamfara schoolgirl keen to return to school
A girl abducted from a secondary school in Nigeria's Zamfara state says that despite her horrific ordeal, she is keen to return to school - but not until the security situation improves.
Speaking to BBC Hausa, the girl, who we have not identified for her own security, described her terror the night gunmen seized 279 of them and marched them into the forest but said the experience won't stop her education.
"I really want to go back to school because I want a bright future - but we need government to deploy permanent security forces to our school before I can have the courage of going back," she said.
She described how the loud bangs and gunshots that woke them up at around 01:00 last Friday, as armed men broke into her hostel, left most of the students in shock.
"We thought it was our teachers that had come to wake us up for morning prayers.
"Then there were gunshots as the men came into our hostel - at which point we were all screaming," she said.
The men then threatened to shoot whoever continued screaming, terrifying the girls further.
The girls were then taken to the assembly ground and asked to point out the other hostels by their captors.
"Some of them stayed with us while the others went to the remaining hostels and got the other students. Then they ordered us out of the school, shooting into the air, and marched us into the forest behind the school," she said.
Most of the girls had no shoes as they walked for miles among thorns through the forest, some had only a night dress on, while one had managed to snatch her bedding from the hostel. It would later save a colleague from the cold.
All 279 girls that were abducted by the gunmen who attacked the Government Girls Secondary School in Jangebe have now been released.
The girls who have now returned home were exposed to further trauma on Wednesday when
armed forces reportedly opened fire at the reunion with their parents.
At least three people were reportedly shot at the official handover ceremony but it is unclear if there were any deaths.
After walking for miles mostly in the dark in the forest, the girls were forced to sleep in caves by their captors.
"We travelled for at least 12 hours... by the time we arrived at their camp we were extremely tired.
"They divided us into two groups. There were two big trees with wide caves near a waterway, and they asked each group to enter the caves.
"The cave was too small for each group but that was how we managed," she said.
She says that not all of the girls had been able to keep up with the trek.
"They did not come with vehicles, but when we reached a big mountain and they realised most of us were tired and could not continue with the trip, they called for motorcycles.
"Those who were overweight or weak were allowed on to the motorcycles, but not before they were whipped by the men," she said.
At the camp the girls were made to cook their own food, with their captors escorting them to a river to fill jerry cans with water.
Food was rice, beans and guinea corn flour which they ate together, the same thing, twice a day.
The girl said their kidnappers spoke only Fulfulde, a language spoken by the Fulani people of northern Nigeria.
She did not understand the language but some of her peers who were Fulani interpreted for the rest of them.
On one occasion, they overheard the men saying the students would not be spared if the government did not pay a ransom.
The Zamfara state governor said no ransom was paid to release the girls, but that he had negotiated through other repentant bandits.
The manner of the negotiations means little to the girls, who were surprised on the day they were released.
"They did not tell us we were going home that day - it was after sunset after our dinner that they asked us to move out.
"We thought they were changing our location and after walking for a long time some of us started complaining," she said.
They were then shouted at by the men who revealed to them that they were going home.
"We started to scream in happiness but they stopped us short. After a long journey, they stopped at a point and told us to continue till we met security officials," she said.
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d2f3224c18fd557f7af7e251655488ec | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56284991 | Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: 'We're the government and we know what you're doing' | Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: 'We're the government and we know what you're doing'
The BBC's Girmay Gebru, who was one of several media workers detained recently in Mekelle, capital of Ethiopia's conflict-hit Tigray region, describes what happened to him:
I was arrested on the evening of my birthday.
I thought the soldiers, armed with rifles, were looking for someone else when they surrounded the coffee house where I was having my usual catch-up with my friends on Monday.
One officer came in and told everyone to relax and we carried on chatting. But just a few minutes later we were approached by two plain-clothed intelligence agents.
"Who are you?" one of them shouted impatiently.
"Tell us your names!"
"I am Girmay Gebru," I said.
"Yes, you are the one we want." And I was taken outside along with my five friends.
Then, in front of lots of curious onlookers, after I had handed over both my national and BBC ID cards, one of the intelligence agents slapped me round the face.
A soldier intervened and told him to stop and I was bundled into a patrol vehicle.
Everything was happening so quickly that we did not have time to ask why we were being held.
Even once we had arrived at a military base in the city there was no explanation.
But one of the people from intelligence told me: "Girmay, we are the government and we know what you are doing every day - what you are talking about, what messages you are sending. We know what you eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner."
"Tell me what I've been doing," I responded. "Tell me what I've been sending."
Since the conflict began last November, I have not been filing stories for the BBC as I was told to look after my own safety first.
"It is you to tell me what you've been saying and thinking. You are going to tell me later," he said.
This was not an interrogation but just a warning.
Our phones had been taken but a military official gave them back to us to make one call.
My wife was concerned when I told her what had happened but I said that I was fine and that she should not worry.
We were treated relatively well at the base, but the six of us had to sleep on the floor of a room and were given a plastic bottle each to use as a toilet.
Most of us were in shock and nervous about what was going to happen next. I couldn't sleep.
In the morning, the intelligence agents said they wanted to search my house to get my laptop and would take that and my phone and get all the data from them. It turned out they never did search my home.
They also wanted to interrogate me as all the information they wanted was in my mind, they told me.
But still they did not say why we were being held.
I was confident that I had done nothing wrong.
"I am a journalist. I am a free person and you can ask me anything," I said.
But I was not questioned. Instead, on Tuesday morning we were driven to a federal police station in the middle of Mekelle to be held there.
The conditions there were a lot worse.
I was put into a small cell that had no beds and measured about 2.5m by 3m with 13 others. It was very hot and the bad smell from a nearby septic tank made things worse.
We were again given a bottle in case we needed to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. But I was so worried about needing to use it that the only food I ate was one orange.
Someone on my right-hand side was coughing and I was nervous about catching coronavirus. Luckily some friends of mine had heard where I was being held and managed to provide some face masks and sanitiser which I distributed to the other inmates.
Early on Wednesday morning a police officer came and told me to collect my things, saying that I could go home.
But there was no explanation as to why I was detained, though I know the BBC has asked the Ethiopian government what was behind the arrests.
My wife, my mother and my children were all at home when I got back and there were tears of happiness.
The thing that had worried me the most was getting sick in the cell in the police station. Now I feel relieved and hope to get some rest.
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4319c9e5905a02094e2ce3dbbd8d46b5 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56285651 | South Africa crocodiles: Hunt on after mass escape in Western Cape | South Africa crocodiles: Hunt on after mass escape in Western Cape
An unknown number of young crocodiles are being hunted after they escaped from a breeding farm in South Africa's Western Cape province.
Some 27 reptiles have been recaptured but officials have admitted they do not know how many more they need to find.
The crocodiles are believed to have escaped through a broken fence at a breeding farm outside Bonnievale and made their way to the Breede River.
Local residents have been urged not to approach them.
"Obviously, they are very dangerous. These are wild animals even though they've been in captivity," said Petro van Rhyn, a spokeswoman for the region's environmental service, CapeNature.
"People must not approach them and stay clear of the river until all are captured."
The crocodiles, believed to measure up to 1.5m (4ft 11in) in length, escaped on Wednesday.
Police have set up a special unit to track the crocodiles and are using bait in cages along the riverbank, CapeNature said.
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7fd9a979324eb0f5d58abda99a0c496d | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56292809 | The art dealer, the £10m Benin Bronze and the Holocaust | The art dealer, the £10m Benin Bronze and the Holocaust
Countless historic artefacts were looted from around the world during the colonial era and taken to Europe but there is now a growing campaign to return them. Among the most famous are the Benin Bronzes seized from modern-day Nigeria. Barnaby Phillips finds out about one family's dilemma.
One morning in April 2016, a woman walked into Barclays Bank on London's exclusive Park Lane, to retrieve a mysterious object that had been locked in the vaults for 63 years.
Attendants ushered her downstairs. Three men waited upstairs, perched anxiously on an uncomfortable sofa, watching customers go about their business.
Twenty minutes later the woman appeared, carrying something covered in an old dishcloth. She unwrapped it, and everyone gasped.
A youthful face cast in bronze or brass stared out at them. He had a beaded collar around his neck and a gourd on his head.
The men, an art dealer called Lance Entwistle and two experts from the auctioneers Woolley and Wallis, recognised it as an early Benin Bronze head, perhaps depicting an oba, or king, from the 16th Century.
It was in near-immaculate condition, with the dark grey patina of old bronze, much like a contemporary piece from the Italian Renaissance. They suspected it was worth millions of pounds. The bank staff quickly led them into a panelled room, where they placed the head on a table.
The woman who went down into the vaults is a daughter of an art dealer called Ernest Ohly, who died in 2008.
I have chosen to call her Frieda and not reveal her married name to protect her privacy.
Ernest's father, William Ohly, who was Jewish, fled Nazi Germany and was prominent in London's mid-century art scene.
William Ohly lived "at the nexus of culture, society and artists", says Entwistle.
His "Primitive Art" exhibitions attracted collectors, socialites, and artists such as Jacob Epstein, Lucian Freud, Henry Moore, Francis Bacon, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell.
He died in 1955. Ernest Ohly inherited his love of art, but was a more reserved character.
"A very, very difficult man to know. He didn't let anything out. You did not know what he was thinking," said Entwistle.
Ernest Ohly's death provoked a ripple of excitement at the lucrative top end of the ethnographic art world. He was rumoured to have an extensive collection. His statues from Polynesia and masks from West Africa were auctioned in 2011 and 2013. And that, dealers assumed, was that.
But his children knew otherwise. In old age, he had told them he had one more sculpture. It was in a Barclays safe box and not to be sold, he specified, unless there was another Holocaust.
In 2016 matters were taken out of the children's hands. Barclays on Park Lane was closing its safe boxes; it told customers to collect their belongings.
I met Lance Entwistle in 2019, in his library lined with books on African sculpture. His website said his company has been "leading tribal art dealers for over 40 years".
"Tribal art" is a term that Western museums now avoid, but is still common in the world of auctions and private sales.
Entwistle has rarely been to Africa, and never to Nigeria, but he's well connected. The British Museum, the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris and the Metropolitan in New York have all bought pieces from him.
I asked him how he had felt when Frieda pulled the cloth away from the Benin Bronze head in the bank.
"I was bowled over," he said. "It was beautiful, moving, and its emergence from obscurity was so exciting. I'm very used to being told about a Benin head, a Benin plaque, a Benin horse and rider. Generally I'm not excited because 99 times out of 100 they're fake, and often the remaining 1% has been stolen."
Provenance is everything in Entwistle's world. This time, thanks to the Ernest Ohly connection, he was confident he was dealing with a bona fide piece.
He told Frieda the Benin Bronze head was significant and unusual, and convinced her to take it home in a taxi, to her terraced house in Tooting, south London.
The Benin Bronzes were brought to Europe in the spring of 1897, the loot of British soldiers and sailors who conquered the West African kingdom of Benin, in modern day Nigeria's Edo state.
Although they are called Benin Bronzes, they are actually thousands of brass and bronze castings and ivory carvings. When some were displayed in the British Museum that autumn, they caused a sensation.
Africans, the British believed at the time, did not possess skills to produce pieces of such sophistication or beauty. Nor were they supposed to have much history.
But the bronzes - some portrayed Portuguese visitors in medieval armour - were evidently hundreds of years old.
Benin had been denigrated in British newspapers as a place of savagery, a "City of Blood". Now those newspapers described the Bronzes as "surprising", "remarkable" and admitted they were "baffled".
Some of these bronzes are still owned by descendants of those who pillaged Benin, while others have passed from owner to owner.
Victor Ehikhamenor, an artist from Edo state, told me the bronzes were not made only for aesthetic enjoyment.
"They were our documents, our archives, the 'photographs' of our kings. When they were taken our history was exhumed."
But as their value in the West has increased, they've also become prestige investments, held by the wealthy and reclusive.
London auction sales tell the story. In 1953, Sotheby's sold a Benin Bronze head for £5,500. The price raised eyebrows; the previous record for a Benin head was £780.
In 1968 Christie's sold a Benin head for £21,000. (It had been discovered months earlier by a policeman who was pottering around his neighbour's greenhouse and noticed something interesting amidst the plants).
In the 1970s, "Tribal Art" prices soared, and Benin Bronzes led the way. And so it went on, all the way to 2007 when Sotheby's in New York sold a Benin head for $4.7m (£2.35m).
Entwistle kept an eye on that 2007 sale. The buyer, whose identity was not publicly revealed, was one of his trusted clients.
Nine years later, presented by Frieda with the challenge of selling Ernest Ohly's head, Lance knew where to turn.
"It was the first client I offered it to, which is what you want, there was no need to shop around," he said.
There was only a minor haggle over price. The client, Entwistle insisted, was motivated by his love of African art.
"He will never sell, in my view." Whoever he is, wherever he is, he paid another world record fee.
The "Ohly head", as Entwistle calls it, was sold for £10m - a figure not previously disclosed.
If you envisaged the woman who sold the world's most expensive Benin Bronze, you might not come up with Frieda.
We met in the Tate Modern gallery, overlooking the Thames. She had travelled from Tooting by underground. She is a grandmother, with grey close-cropped hair and glasses. She used to work in children's nurseries, but is retired.
"My family is riddled with secrets," she said. "My father refused to speak about his Jewish ancestry."
She did her own research on relatives who were killed in Nazi concentration camps. Ernest Ohly was haunted, "paranoid", says Frieda, by the prospect of another catastrophe engulfing the Jews.
Six million Jews were murdered during the Holocaust - and, according to the Jewish Claims Conference, the Nazis seized an estimated 650,000 artworks and religious items from Jews and other victims.
Ernest Ohly distrusted strangers and lived in a world of cash and secret objects. He kept a suitcase of £50 notes under the bed.
"Ernie the Dealer" was the family nickname. The children grew up surrounded by art. But by the end he was tired of life.
His house was chaotic, his Persian rugs infested with moths. The family found the suitcase of banknotes but discovered they were no longer legal tender.
Ernest Ohly may have let things slide, but he had been a formidable collector.
"He and my grandfather never went to Africa or the South Pacific, but got their knowledge from being around objects," said Freida.
"There was a whole group of European dealers in London, in the 1940s through to the 1970s."
The British Empire was ending, and the deaths of its last administrators and soldiers brought rich pickings.
"I never understood why my father was so interested in reading obituary pages. The Telegraph, the Times, really studying them. If they were Foreign Office, armed forces, anything to do with Empire, he wrote to the widows."
Ernest Ohly listed his buys in ledger books. That's how Entwistle found what he was looking for: "Benin Bronze head... Dec 51, £230" from Glendining's - a London auctioneers where he also bought coins and stamps.
In today's money, that is just over £7,000. In other words, a substantial purchase. But Ernest Ohly knew what he was doing. He had a steal. He put the head in the safe box in 1953, and it stayed there until 2016.
"It was like a lump of gold," said Frieda. The windfall was not quite as large as it might have been.
Ernest Ohly's affairs were a mess, and the taxman took a substantial amount. Still, Frieda says, she can sleep easy now. The Benin head bought care for her family, and property for her children.
Frieda is married to a man of Caribbean descent - and her son is a journalist.
A few years ago he wrote an article about how the Edo - the people of the Benin Kingdom - tried to stop the sale at Sotheby's of a Benin ivory mask.
In fact, although he did not know this, it was a mask that his great-grandfather, William Ohly, displayed at his gallery in 1947.
The article described Edo outrage that the family who owned the mask - relatives of a British official who looted it in 1897 - should profit from what they regarded as theft and a war crime.
Frieda is too intelligent and sensitive not to appreciate the layers of irony behind her story. She had followed the arguments about whether the Benin Bronzes should be returned to Nigeria.
Britain has laws to enable the return of art looted by the Nazis, but there is no similar legislation to cover its own colonial period.
"Part of me will always feel guilty for not giving it to the Nigerians… It's a murky past, tied up with colonialism and exploitation."
Her voice trailed off.
"But that's in the past, lots of governments aren't stable and things have been destroyed. I'm afraid I took the decision to sell. I stand by it. I wanted my family to be secure."
Frieda is not the only owner of Benin Bronzes who has wrestled with their conscience in recent years.
Mark Walker, a doctor from Wales, returned two Bronzes which had been taken by his grandfather, an officer on the 1897 expedition.
He received
a hero's welcome
in Benin City.
Others are hesitant. In an imposing west London mansion block I met an elderly woman whose grandfather also looted Bronzes in 1897.
Ten, or even five years ago, it would not have been difficult to get somebody in her position to talk. But today the owners of Benin Bronzes are cautious, and I agreed to hide this woman's identity.
She showed me two brass oro "prophecy birds". I asked if they made her feel uncomfortable.
"I've felt misgivings, considerations that crossed my mind… Maybe misgivings is too strong a word. I don't feel like giving them anything." There was a long silence.
"You know," she said, "one bumbles along for 77 years, and suddenly this has become a sensitive subject. It never was before."
Frieda and I left the Tate and were walking along the Thames.
I was about to say goodbye. Unprompted, she returned to the Benin Bronzes.
Sometimes, she said, she wished her father had sold that head when he was still alive.
A dilemma would have been taken out of her hands.
"It was difficult for me," she said again. "Part of me felt we should have given it back." Then she was gone.
Nigeria's opportunity for return of Benin Bronzes
Barnaby Phillips is a former BBC Nigeria correspondent. His book Loot; Britain and the Benin Bronzes will be published on 1 April.
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77934161b9fe90bed2a19061eb21a943 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56298756 | Senegal protests after opposition leader Ousmane Sonko arrested | Senegal protests after opposition leader Ousmane Sonko arrested
Violent protests have hit Senegal for a third day as demonstrators burnt cars and clashed with police after the arrest of an opposition leader on Wednesday.
Four people have died in the rare unrest, the interior minister said.
Ousmane Sonko appeared in court on Friday accused of disrupting public order. He also faces a rape allegation.
He denies the allegations and his supporters say the accusations are politically motivated.
On Friday Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome vowed to use "all the means necessary for a return to order".
Speaking on national TV, Mr Diome accused Mr Sonko of "issuing calls to violence".
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged protesters and police to refrain from violence in the nation which is one of West Africa's most stable countries.
On Friday police fired tear gas at Mr Sonko's supporters, who set up makeshift barricades in the capital Dakar where the ground was covered in burnt debris and people chanted "Free Sonko".
Police blocked motorbikes and mopeds, which are popular among Mr Sonko's young supporters, from the city's streets. A supermarket in Dakar's suburbs was raided on Friday, according to AFP news agency.
"What we are living through in this country is incredible, it is shameful," one protester told Reuters news agency.
Demonstrators have gathered in the city's surrounding areas and in the southern city of Bignona, a stronghold of Mr Sonko.
Two private TV channels that covered the protests have been suspended for 72 hours by the government.
On Thursday
Internet monitor NetBlocks said access to social media and messaging apps was restricted
.
The United Nations' special envoy for West Africa Mohamed Ibn Chambas has appealed for calm.
Some of the protesters have targeted French-owned businesses such as supermarkets and petrol stations because they say that under President Macky Sall, France has extended its economic interests in its former colony.
Mr Sonko, 46, was accused of rape in February by a woman who worked in a beauty salon.
Following an investigation he was arrested on Wednesday and taken to court accompanied by a group of supporters.
Police said they then arrested him for disrupting public order when he refused to change his route to the court.
Mr Sonko says the allegations of rape are fabricated. He accuses President Sall of trying to remove potential opponents ahead of the 2024 election. Two other opposition leaders were excluded from the 2019 election after being convicted on charges which they say were politically motivated.
There are reports that Mr Sall may seek to change the constitution to allow him to run for a third term.
Mr Sonko is the president's only remaining serious challenger, BBC Afrique's Ndèye Khady Lo in Dakar says.
She explains that the opposition politician is particularly popular with young Senegalese for his promise of radical opposition to what he calls "the system".
In 2014 he founded his own political party, Pastef-Les Patriotes, and came third in the 2019 presidential election with 15% of the vote.
In a video recorded and shared on social media in 2018, Mr Sonko told activists: "There is enormous potential in this country. It is unacceptable to see suffering of our people.
"Our politicians are criminals. Those who have ruled Senegal from the beginning deserve to be shot."
|
7293fde65bd5747af7a208bc34f4fe9c | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56300088 | Bata explosion: Equatorial Guinea death toll rises to 98 | Bata explosion: Equatorial Guinea death toll rises to 98
The death toll from a series of explosions in Equatorial Guinea on Sunday has risen to 98, officials say.
Another 615 people were injured, with 299 still in hospital.
The blasts hit a military base in the country's main city, Bata. Officials blame badly stored dynamite along with stubble burning by nearby farmers.
The death toll, updated after volunteers spent Monday searching the wreckage for bodies, is more than triple the initial estimate of 31.
Three young children were found alive and taken to hospital.
Almost all buildings and homes in the city suffered "huge damage", President Teodoro Obiang Nguema said.
In a statement,
President Obiang Nguema said the blasts had been caused "by the negligence of a unit charged with the care and protection of stores of dynamite and explosives
" at the Nkoantoma military base.
He said the base had "caught fire due to neighbouring farmers clearing farming land by setting it alight, leading to the explosion". The president has appealed for international aid.
In a series of tweets, the health ministry called for volunteer health workers to go to Bata Regional Hospital and for urgent blood donations. The ministry said mental health teams were also being deployed to help victims.
Some hospitals have been overwhelmed by the number of patients admitted, state TV reported. It broadcast images of wounded people lying on the floor of a crowded hospital.
Video of the aftermath of the explosions showed a chaotic scene with distressed people fleeing as smoke drifted over the area.
One resident told AFP news agency: "We haven't slept all night. The houses were burning all night long and we kept hearing small explosions."
Another described how his uncle had found the burned bodies of five members of his family.
The only opposition party, the CPDS, described the blasts as "the greatest humanitarian catastrophe in the history of Equatorial Guinea" and called on Spain, France and the United States to send aid, including rescue teams, medical staff and medicines.
Spanish Foreign Minister Arancha Gonzalez tweeted on Monday that Spain would "proceed with the immediate dispatch of a shipment of humanitarian aid".
|
35ce54a1b40ec39a9136600501e030b8 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56311673 | Senegal protests: The country is ‘on the verge of an apocalypse’ | Senegal protests: The country is ‘on the verge of an apocalypse’
A top Senegalese official whose job is to settle conflicts has said the country is on a dangerous precipice after four days of protests left at least five young people dead.
Alioune Badara Cissé, known as the mediator of the republic, urged the authorities to stop threats and intimidation against protesters.
He also called for those on the streets to act peacefully and stop looting.
The unrest was triggered by the arrest of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko.
Mr Sonko appeared in court on Friday accused of disrupting public order. He also faces a rape allegation.
He denies the allegations and his supporters say the accusations are politically motivated.
The protests have also been fuelled by economic inequalities and concerns over young people's standard of living.
In a press conference on Sunday, Mr Cissé said the authorities "need to pause and speak with our youth" and warned that "we are on the verge of an apocalypse".
His statement came a day after a teenager in the southern city of Diaobe became the fifth person known to have died in clashes with security forces in various parts of the country.
But the respected mediator is warning of much more turmoil ahead unless the government acts fast to address the deepening poverty and lack of job prospects for the youth, says BBC World Service Africa Editor Will Ross.
On Friday, following violence in the capital, Dakar, and elsewhere, Interior Minister Antoine Felix Abdoulaye Diome vowed to use "all the means necessary for a return to order".
Speaking on national TV, Mr Diome accused Mr Sonko of "issuing calls to violence".
The opposition alliance known as the Movement to Defend Democracy (M2D), which is behind the demonstrations, has announced three further days of protests starting on Monday.
The West African regional group Ecowas has condemned the violence and called on "all parties to exercise restraint and remain calm" - adding that the authorities should "take the necessary measures to ease tensions and guarantee the freedom to demonstrate peacefully".
Mr Sonko, 46, was accused of rape in February.
Following an investigation he was arrested on Wednesday and taken to court accompanied by a group of supporters.
Police said they then arrested him for disrupting public order when he refused to change his route to the court.
Mr Sonko says the allegations of rape are fabricated. He accuses President Macky Sall of trying to remove potential opponents ahead of the 2024 election.
Two other opposition leaders were excluded from the 2019 election after being convicted on charges which they say were politically motivated.
There are reports that Mr Sall may seek to change the constitution to allow him to run for a third term.
Mr Sonko - who is particularly popular with young Senegalese - is the president's only remaining serious challenger, says BBC Afrique's Ndèye Khady Lo in Dakar.
In 2014 he founded his own political party, Pastef-Les Patriotes, and came third in the 2019 presidential election with 15% of the vote.
|
aee3bdd5ca41e7c4400e6562792bdfe7 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56311677 | Bata explosion: Equatorial Guinea blasts kill 31 | Bata explosion: Equatorial Guinea blasts kill 31
A series of explosions on Sunday in Equatorial Guinea is now known to have killed 31 people, officials say. The number of those injured rose to 600.
The blasts hit a military base in the country's main city, Bata. Officials blame badly stored dynamite along with stubble burning by nearby farmers.
Teams including volunteers continue to search the wreckage of buildings and homes for victims.
Three young children were found alive and taken to hospital.
Local media showed a row of covered bodies along a street.
There are fears the death toll could rise further as some victims may still be trapped.
Almost all buildings and homes in the city suffered "huge damage", President Teodoro Obiang Nguema said.
In a statement,
President Obiang Nguema said the blasts had been caused "by the negligence of a unit charged with the care and protection of stores of dynamite and explosives
" at the Nkoantoma military base.
He said the base had "caught fire due to neighbouring farmers clearing farming land by setting it alight, leading to the explosion". The president has appealed for international aid.
In a series of tweets, the health ministry called for volunteer health workers to go to Bata Regional Hospital and for urgent blood donations. The ministry said mental health teams were also being deployed to help victims.
Some hospitals have been overwhelmed by the number of patients admitted, state TV reported. It broadcast images of wounded people lying on the floor of a crowded hospital.
Video of the aftermath of the explosions showed a chaotic scene with distressed people fleeing as smoke drifted over the area.
One resident told AFP news agency: "We haven't slept all night. The houses were burning all night long and we kept hearing small explosions."
Another described how his uncle had found the burned bodies of five members of his family.
The only opposition party, the CPDS, described the blasts as "the greatest humanitarian catastrophe in the history of Equatorial Guinea" and called on Spain, France and the United States to send aid, including rescue teams, medical staff and medicines.
The Spanish embassy said its nationals should remain at home and issued a series of emergency numbers.
|
d5ee36581b5e417e46b28ca33404d733 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56360817 | Viewpoint: France's President Macron doesn't get the impact of colonialism on Algeria | Viewpoint: France's President Macron doesn't get the impact of colonialism on Algeria
In our series of letters from African journalists, Algerian-Canadian journalist Maher Mezahi reflects on the recent moves by France to repair relations with its former colony Algeria, especially concerning the bitter war of independence.
Does French President Emmanuel Macron, really understand the legacy of colonialism?
I ask this in the wake of his recent admission - after 60 years of official denial - that the French army tortured and murdered the Algerian nationalist hero Ali Boumendjel.
This recognition came as part of a series of measures aimed at reconciling France and Algeria after more than a century of colonisation that ended in 1962, following an eight-year war.
The reaction to Mr Macron's statement here in Algeria was tepid.
That may be because of the mixed messages he's sent about the impact of the past.
The first time most Algerians had heard of Mr Macron was when he visited the country in February 2017 when he was running for president.
In an interview he went further than any French president ever had and described colonisation as a "crime against humanity".
The courage of his remarks took most Algerians by surprise. And they had ramifications for the political fight with the right-wing candidate, Marine Le Pen
For the first time in my life, I felt there was the possibility of a French president sincerely examining French-Algerian history, thus setting a new stage for relations between the two countries.
Yet since becoming president, Mr Macron has blown hot and cold on the Algeria issue.
1830:
France occupies Algiers
1848:
After an uprising led by rebel leader Abd-el-Kader, Paris declares Algeria to be an integral part of France
1940:
France falls to Germany in World War Two
1942:
Allied landings in Algeria
1945:
Allied forces defeat Germany. Thousands are killed in pro-independence demonstrations in Sétif
1954-62:
Algerian War
1962:
Algeria becomes an independent state
The admission over the death of Boumendjel elicited little reaction here because, as historians and intellectuals wrote, it seemed futile to mention certain victims and leave out countless others.
One went as far as to say that this was a "Franco-French" issue, indicating that Mr Macron's statement was not a revelation for Algerians.
Furthermore, his office has said an official apology is not in the works.
Less than a year after visiting Algeria as a candidate, Mr Macron returned as president.
Buttressed by a delegation of politicians, historians and a heavy security detail, the charismatic leader strolled through downtown Algiers.
He shook hands and took selfies with onlookers before being accosted by a young man who said: "France must come to terms with its colonial past in Algeria".
After a quick exchange, Mr Macron replied: "But you have never known colonisation!
"Why are you bothering me with that? Your generation has to look towards the future."
After hearing those brief sentences, I quickly realised that despite his apparent progressive policies towards Algeria, Mr Macron had not entirely understood the issue he was trying to tackle.
In several West African countries, he repeated the same sentiment.
"Three-quarters of your country has never known colonisation," he said in Ivory Coast.
In Burkina Faso he told students that neither they nor he were from a generation that had known colonisation.
Such observations could only be made by someone who has not lived in a post-colonial state.
Every single Algerian is directly linked to the trauma caused by French colonisation.
Our schools, streets and stadiums are named after famous revolutionary figures and dates.
Our architecture, food and language are all heavily influenced by the 132-year presence of a million European citizens.
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I do not come from a revolutionary family, yet my grandfather's brother was one of thousands of Algerian victims of the Ligne Morice - a minefield laid by the French along Algeria's eastern border.
As a boy growing up in Tebessa, he fiddled with a booby trap which exploded in his face.
I think of him every time I call my father, who was named after him.
The French government did not officially share the maps of the minefields it laid out across Algeria's eastern border until 2007.
Throughout the 1960s the French army tested 17 atomic bombs in the Algerian Sahara.
Tens of thousands of local inhabitants have suffered as a consequence, either birth defects or various cancers.
The French government is yet to hand over the maps revealing the location of nuclear waste.
Historian Alastair Horne's description of the Algerian war of independence always seemed the most pertinent to me.
In the preface to A Savage War of Peace, Horne wrote: "Above all, the war was marked by an unholy marriage of revolutionary terror and state torture."
If the war itself was an unholy union then what can be said about its divorce?
Most of us young Algerians are not holding our breath for an official apology or reparations.
We are simply asking Mr Macron's government to drop its condescension and tell the truth about the crimes committed in Algeria and across the continent.
A few weeks ago, it was reported that strong winds carrying radioactive dust left over from French nuclear testing in the Sahara desert blew across the Mediterranean, contaminating the French atmosphere.
For me it was nature's way of reminding Mr Macron that the impact of colonial crimes is not contained in the history books.
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f5808a6c946ab999887de2aac3d8afd5 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56371742 | Goodwill Zwelithini: South Africa's straight-talking Zulu king | Goodwill Zwelithini: South Africa's straight-talking Zulu king
King Goodwill Zwelithini, the leader of the Zulu nation in South Africa has died at the age of 72. Pumza Fihlani looks back at his life.
"Bayede" rings out the salute to the king as South Africans, young and old, use the phrase on social media to mourn his passing.
He was a proud man who was a passionate defender of traditional culture, seeing it as a force for good both within South Africa and beyond its borders in the continent as a whole.
But the king had his critics, who have accused him of hanging on to outdated ideas. He was also criticised for being willing to work with the white-minority government in power before 1994, and not wanting to cooperate with the current government's land redistribution polices.
Born in 1948 and coming to the throne in 1971, Isilo Samabandla Onke (loosely translated as "King of all Zulu kings"), as he was respectfully called, was a direct descendent of the King Cetshwayo, the leader of the Zulu nation during the 1879 war against the British army.
Throughout his half-century reign he was a staunch advocate of preserving cultural identity and promoting unity, especially among AmaZulu (the Zulu people).
His position as a traditional ruler was recognised in South Africa's post-apartheid constitution, which meant that he got state support.
Though he did not have formal political power and his role within the broader South African society may have been largely ceremonial, he was a revered as a traditional leader, even by those outside his culture.
To many, the father of 28 children from six wives embodied what it was to honour time-held cultural practices and represented an idea that though South Africa was a modern country, it had not abandoned its past.
A feature of his reign was the revival of Umhlanga or Reed Dance in 1991, which the apartheid government had prevented from taking place.
The ceremony, attended by many hundreds of young unmarried Zulu women is meant to celebrate virginity, but King Zwelithini said it was also there to promote HIV and Aids awareness in KwaZulu-Natal - a province with one of the highest HIV-infection rates in the country.
He believed that a "return to morality" would help slow down the spread of the disease in his kingdom.
Some critics said that while the practice of Umhlanga had a place in Zulu tradition, it was fundamentally patriarchal as it placed the role of managing sexual relations and containing the spread of HIV on women. The emphasis was on women remaining pure and not about male behaviour.
Looking beyond South Africa, the king believed that traditional leaders should have a more prominent role to play in addressing the continent's many problems.
In 2019, he argued that "not all solutions will come from politicians or experts. Traditional leadership is the pillar of the African continent and mustn't be sidelined".
It was through emphasizing culture and traditions that the king used his influence in bringing the country's nearly 11 million Zulus together, Prof Sihawukele Ngubane, chair of the Zulu Royal Household Trust, said.
"He was instrumental in upholding unity among the Zulu people, preserving culture at a time when the identities of African people were marginalised," he told the BBC.
"He understood his role as having influence both among the Zulu nation but also other cultures in the country and on the continent," the African languages professor added.
During the apartheid era, when by law white people were privileged above all others, he was not an overtly political figure.
Nevertheless he was often seen at the side of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, his uncle, who was the leader of the hugely powerful Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which was a fierce rival in KwaZulu-Natal to the African National Congress (ANC) of Nelson Mandela.
But the king did appear to reach an accommodation with the apartheid government who recognised him as a figurehead in the Zulu bantustan. The then governing National Party's policy of creating these client states - or bantustans - within South Africa that were reserved for black people was highly controversial.
Referring to the National Party, the king once said that the "Afrikaners respected me. I don't know how it happened that the Afrikaners respect me so much." But that relationship left some wary, if not suspicious, of the monarch.
King Zwelithini, however, was a man who knew how to use his influence, especially for the preservation of his people.
Prof Ngubane says his presence in KwaZulu-Natal helped quell tensions between the IFP and the ANC that erupted during the struggle to end apartheid.
From 1985 to 1995 thousands died and many more were injured or forced from their homes as rival supporters clashed.
Looking back at his life, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa described him in a tribute as a "much-loved visionary".
"He made an important contribution to cultural identity, national unity and economic development in KwaZulu-Natal and through this, to the development of our country as a whole," he said.
But King Zwelithini was not afraid to criticise the government and will also be remembered as a straight-talker, whose words sometimes irritated those in power.
He was at times critical of the governing ANC, saying the nation should not be led by "thieves".
He also once controversially praised the former apartheid government for building a strong economy, saying the ANC were reversing those gains.
In recent years, King Zwelithini became increasingly critical of the ANC's land redistribution policy.
As chairman of the Ingonyama Trust, he was the custodian of swathes of traditional land in KwaZulu-Natal, making up about 30% of the area of the province.
He was worried about the government's policy of taking over land without compensation.
As a result, in 2018, he partnered with the Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum, which was fighting to protect white-owned farms from land reform.
AfriForum at the time said the partnership was one of "mutual recognition and respect".
When the king spoke, people listened and he was also known by the Zulu phrase "Umlomo ongakhulumi amanga", which loosely translates as "the one who does not lie".
But it was precisely this influence that troubled some people when he said that foreign nationals should return to their countries so that black South Africans were not forced to share already limited resources.
At the time, his utterance was said to have fuelled xenophobic attacks in his province.
The king later said the comments had been taken out of context and described the attacks as "vile".
His successor will now be chosen, but whoever follows him will have the tough job of upholding Zulu culture, responding to the problems of the day while inspiring reverence, even among critics.
This is no small task.
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e859e9e9db828af7794b35fc7f34eaf0 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56422301 | Niger attacks: More than 50 killed in attacks near Malian border | Niger attacks: More than 50 killed in attacks near Malian border
At least 58 people have been killed in Niger after attacks near the border with Mali, the government has said.
Gunmen opened fire on four vehicles that were bringing people back from a market in the Tillabéri region.
No group has claimed the attacks, which happened on Monday.
However, there are currently two jihadist campaigns in Niger - one in the west near Mali and Burkina Faso, and another in the south-east on the border with Nigeria.
In a statement read out on public television, the Niger government said that "groups of armed, still unidentified individuals intercepted four vehicles carrying passengers back from the weekly market of Banibangou to the villages of Chinedogar and Darey-Daye".
"The toll from these barbarous acts [is] 58 dead, one injured, a number of grain silos and two vehicles burned, and two more vehicles seized," it added.
The government also announced a three-day period of national mourning, starting from Wednesday.
It urged people to have "greater vigilance", and spoke of its "determination to relentlessly pursue the fight against criminality in all its forms".
A resident previously told AFP news agency that the series of attacks started with a shooting on a bus travelling to Chinedogar, in which about 20 people were killed.
Another said that the victims had been shopping at Banibangou, a popular market town close to the Malian border.
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0273b9b217b3d49ef911a09df6df6eb4 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56437852 | John Magufuli: Tanzania's president dies aged 61 after Covid rumours | John Magufuli: Tanzania's president dies aged 61 after Covid rumours
Tanzania's President John Magufuli has died aged 61, the country's vice-president has announced.
He died on Wednesday from heart complications at a hospital in Dar es Salaam, Samia Suluhu Hassan said in an address on state television.
Mr Magufuli had not been seen in public for more than two weeks, and rumours had been circulating about his health.
Opposition politicians said last week that he had contracted Covid-19, but this has not been confirmed.
Mr Magufuli was one of Africa's most prominent coronavirus sceptics, and called for prayers and herbal-infused steam therapy to counter the virus.
"It is with deep regret that I inform you that today... we lost our brave leader, the president of the Republic of Tanzania, John Pombe Magufuli," Vice-President Hassan said in the announcement.
She said there would be 14 days of national mourning and flags would fly at half mast.
According to Tanzania's constitution, Ms Hassan will be sworn in as the new president within 24 hours and should serve the remainder of Mr Magufuli's five-year term which he began last year.
Mr Magufuli was last seen in public on 27 February, but Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa insisted last week that the president was "healthy and working hard".
He blamed the rumours of the president's ill-health on "hateful" Tanzanians living abroad.
But opposition leader Tundu Lissu told the BBC that his sources had told him Mr Magufuli was being treated in hospital for coronavirus in Kenya.
When Covid-19 arrived in Tanzania, Mr Magufuli called on people to go to churches and mosques to pray. "Coronavirus, which is a devil, cannot survive in the body of Christ... It will burn instantly," he said.
He declared Tanzania "Covid-19 free" last June, saying the virus had been eradicated by three days of national prayer.
He also mocked the efficacy of masks, expressed doubts about testing, and teased neighbouring countries which imposed health measures to curb the virus.
"Countries in Africa will be coming here to buy food in the years to come… they will be suffering because of shutting down their economy," he said, according to the Associated Press.
Tanzania has not published details of its coronavirus cases since May, and the government has refused to purchase vaccines.
On Monday, police said they had arrested four people
on suspicion of spreading rumours on social media that the president was ill.
"To spread rumours that he's sick smacks of hate," Mr Majaliwa said at the time.
Analysis by Athuman Mtulya, BBC News, Dar es Salaam
The country is in a sombre mood - for the first time in its six decades of existence, Tanzania has lost a sitting president, John Pombe Magufuli.
The news of his death was received with shock and disbelief - although there were rumours of his illness, the authorities reassured the country that all was well with him.
From his home district of Chato to the capital of Dodoma to the business hub of Dar es Salaam, most Tanzanians have been mourning Magufuli.
There are those with a different view, especially on social media led by exiled opposition politician Tundu Lissu, who has been speculating that President Magufuli had contracted Covid which led to his death, however the authorities have insisted the death was caused by heart complications.
Tanzanians are now turning their minds to the succession, which should see current Vice-President Samia Suluhu Hassan become the country's first female president.
Mr Magufuli was declared president on his 56th birthday in October 2015. He was elected for a second term following a disputed poll last year.
He was hailed for his anti-corruption stance during his time in office, but he was also accused of cracking down on dissent and curtailing certain freedoms.
His critics agree that Mr Magufuli contributed to Tanzania's development. He invested in large infrastructure projects such as a standard-gauge railway to connect the country with its neighbours, major highways, and a bus system in the commercial hub of Dar es Salaam.
He also increased electricity production, reducing the need for power rationing.
But it is his approach to Covid-19 that many analysts say will define his legacy.
In Tanzania, people have reacted with grief and disbelief to the news of Mr Magufuli's death.
One, Joseph Petro, told the BBC he thought Mr Magufuli was a "caring" leader, adding "he was helping people in one way or another".
"I am really pained. I am personally pained," he said.
Another, Illuminata Abel, offered similar sentiments: "He was not my relative, but he was someone who listened to people's problems, and he was down to earth."
African leaders have also come out to pay tribute.
Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta said: "I have lost a friend, colleague and visionary ally," and declared a seven-day period of national mourning in Kenya.
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan called Mr Magufuli a "partner in democracy" and a "patriot who loved his country".
But Tanzanian opposition leader Tundu Lissu told the BBC that Mr Magufuli's "politics, policies and Covid denialism" had "driven the country towards disaster".
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32b5d659be864cbb035b3ff5bb5e9706 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56441499 | Mozambique conflict: What's behind the unrest? | Mozambique conflict: What's behind the unrest?
A sharp increase in militant attacks in Mozambique's northern province of Cabo Delgado has forced the government to reassess its strategy against the Islamist insurgency.
The region has long experienced instability, but the insurgency involving Islamist militants began in 2017.
Local al-Shabab militia operating in the area are believed to have links to the wider Islamic state group (IS).
High levels of poverty and disputes over access to land and jobs have contributed to local grievances.
But Cabo Delgado's importance for the government, and a further reason for local frustrations, lies in
the rich off-shore natural gas reserves
being explored in collaboration with multinational energy companies.
The militants have had considerable success gaining recruits both from within the province and further afield.
"I would say based on how quickly they spread, it speaks to a huge increase in recruitment," said Emilia Columbo, a senior associate at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"We get reports of boats full of youths getting intercepted on the way to Cabo Delgado."
Attacks by militant groups have increased significantly over the past year.
There have been more than 570 violent incidents from January to December 2020 in the province according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (Acled), which monitors political violence globally.
Human rights groups have reported the extensive destruction throughout northern Mozambique by the militants.
These have included killings, beheadings and kidnappings, with deaths from attacks carried out by all groups involved in the conflict rising sharply last year.
The most horrifying incident was of
50 people beheaded in a sports field
over the course of a weekend.
The instability has led to huge numbers of people leaving their homes in areas where conflict has erupted.
Nearly 670,000 people were internally displaced in Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula provinces by the end of 2020, according to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
To support its efforts in tackling the growing insurgency, the Mozambican government has invited in US military advisers.
The agreement between the Mozambican and US governments is for American soldiers to train local forces fighting the militants.
"US special operations forces... will support Mozambique's efforts to prevent the spread of terrorism and violent extremism," the US embassy in Mozambique said on 15 March.
"Clearly, the US is trying to extend its influence," says Jasmine Opperman, an analyst with the monitoring group Acled.
But she adds that it is a complex local conflict, and that "the US is framing the insurgency in a very over-simplified manner by referring to [the militants] as an extension of the Islamic State".
On March 10, the
US government designated al-Shabab in Mozambique as a "foreign terrorist organisation"
, describing it as an IS-affiliate.
Portugal, the former colonial power in Mozambique, has also committed to training the military.
"We will send a staff of approximately 60 trainers to Mozambique to train marines and commandos," said a Portuguese official.
Although the Mozambican government is reticent about acknowledging their presence, private military contractors have been operating in the region alongside its security forces.
Initially in 2019,
Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group
were involved in the region.
More recently, the South Africa-based Dyck Advisory Group (DAG) was believed to have been invited by the Mozambican government to help it fight insurgents.
A recent Amnesty International report on human rights abuses committed in Cabo Delgado
implicated this group as well as government forces, and the militants in the unlawful killings of civilians.
The DAG says it's investigating the allegations made against it.
"When you hear these accusations of civilian casualties involving private military contractors, it reflects badly on the government," said Ms Columbo.
There are also concerns over the effectiveness of these private contractors.
Acting US counterterrorism co-ordinator John Godfrey has said the involvement of mercenaries "has not demonstrably helped" the government of Mozambique in countering the threat it faces from militants.
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1fd902e1c9bf0975eac403c46d523c96 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56456793 | Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: A rare view inside the conflict zone | Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: A rare view inside the conflict zone
Since a conflict broke out in Ethiopia's northern Tigray region last year, access has been severely limited to journalists and aid agencies alike. The BBC's Kalkidan Yibeltal has finally been allowed in to the region, where he witnessed a dire humanitarian situation.
Every day the city of Shire takes in even more uprooted lives.
Six-year-old Betlehem Tesfaye, who fled from near Aksum, about 50km (31 miles) to the east, lost both her legs in the conflict. Her mother was killed in the same explosion.
Her father spent his savings on her treatment. And now he does not know how he can get prosthetic legs for her.
Like other cities and towns across Tigray, Shire has become a haven for hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people forced from their homes by a conflict marked by accusations of human rights violations that include massacres and systematic rape.
But this city of 170,000 people, in the central part of the region, is particularly struggling.
Shire has seen a huge influx of people over the past four months, and it was ill prepared.
Its schools and a university campus have become theatres of suffering.
Aid agencies estimate some 200,000 people are currently living in the city's makeshift camps. Many of them are women and children.
The first arrivals came back in November when fighting broke out. They mostly came from the southern and south-western lowlands of Tigray that were hotbeds of the fighting in the early days.
The conflict was a result of long-simmering tensions between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's federal government and the region's former rulers, the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) - the dominant force in Ethiopian politics until Mr Abiy came to power in 2018.
After Mr Abiy declared a military offensive following an attack on an army base in the region's capital, Mekelle, the fighting broke out on multiple fronts and involved several different forces.
In south and south-western Tigray armed forces from the neighbouring Amhara region joined the federal army against the TPLF.
Sixty-five-year-old Atsede Mebrahtom recalls those days with horror.
She lived in a town called Dansha, supported by her two daughters and their families.
Ms Atsede, her daughters, their husbands and her grandchildren are all now living in one of Shire's camps.
When they fled their homes with little to no money to hand, they did not know where they would end up.
They walked when it was necessary; they used some of the many lorries and buses packed with people who had suffered a similar fate when they could.
"We couldn't rest," she says. They were thirsty and hungry. "You beg [for] a piece of bread and give that to a child. We borrowed cups to give water to children."
She says she saw dead bodies lying unburied along the way - an image she would find difficult to forget.
We are not happy, she tells me, but we are still alive. "Days come and go. We are lucky we are not dead."
Some say they were forced from their homes in places currently controlled by forces from Amhara.The Amhara regional government says those areas were forcefully taken from the region when the TPLF came to power in the 1990s.
Some aid is being provided in the camps. But the people say it is not enough.
Tigray's interim administration, appointed by the federal government after the TPLF was ousted from power, says some four million people are in need of aid in the region - more than half of Tigray's population.
More than a million are displaced.
Etenesh Nigussie, the administration's spokesperson, says donors and humanitarian agencies need to step up their efforts.
There have been global calls for unrestricted humanitarian access.
"Now [aid agencies] are allowed to come in and help. Now is the right time," she told me in Mekelle, standing in front of a marble-walled building once occupied by TPLF leaders.
"We expect them to give us all the necessary help and rescue our people - in addition to the aid being provided by the government."
Back in Shire, I meet Leteberhan Assefa, who came from Humera, a small town 450km away, near Ethiopia's border with Sudan and Eritrea.
Shortly before the conflict began, her daughter had a caesarean and when they fled she had to nurse her recovering daughter and carry the new-born baby. In the camps, she says she has felt relatively safe but not cared for.
Despite this precarious existence, thousands are still arriving in Shire in overcrowded buses, lorries and even horse carts.
This is because though the federal government managed to take control of a large portion of Tigray within weeks, security is still volatile with reports of sporadic fighting in some areas.
A state of emergency remains in place with a night-time curfew and multiple checkpoints for travellers within the region.
But however the fighting is resolved, the wounds could take years to heal.
For some, the scars will last forever.
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cf11aacf662971db473561c18def59ba | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56484264 | Letter from Africa: Kente - the Ghanaian cloth that's on the catwalk | Letter from Africa: Kente - the Ghanaian cloth that's on the catwalk
In our series of letters from African journalists, Ghanaian writer Elizabeth Ohene considers the global popularity of her country's fabric in the wake of it appearing in a Louis Vuitton fashion show.
We in Ghana have absolute confidence in our fashion sense.
We also happen to believe that the most beautiful and most dramatic fabric on this Earth is the kente, which is, of course, Ghanaian.
The finely woven material has become the defining symbol of Ghana and Ghanaians and, indeed, of Africa, and for Black people in general.
Time was when the kente was a strictly royal cloth reserved only for the most special of occasions and the elite of Ghanaian societies.
Today the kente is widely available to all of us, but has retained its elegance and, when woven, is still expensive.
There are two main strands of kente in Ghana representing two ethnic groups - the Ashanti and the Ewe (among whom the cloth is in fact known as kete).
I am convinced the Ewe version is the more beautiful one, but I would say that seeing that I am an Ewe myself.
Originally, you could tell the difference between an Ashanti kente and the Ewe kete a mile off.
The Ashanti designs tended to be exact and the colours unambiguous, whilst the Ewe kete designs were more subtle and the colours were less vibrant.
But today after feeding off each other for years, there is not that much difference between the two.
The kente is now far more than a fabric of adornment. It is political, it makes a statement and it remains a thing of beauty.
Nevertheless, we cannot quite decide what our attitude should be about the kente becoming international.
We love it and we are proud when a high-profile non-Ghanaian personality wears kente.
But we are ambivalent about the cloth printed with kente designs being manufactured in China, which has enabled the growth in its popularity.
Is it really kente if it is printed and not handwoven? Dare I say, is it kente when it is a cheap cloth? Should it be worn as everyday clothing rather than for a special occasion?
We struggle with these questions but still watch with joy as the kente makes waves across the world.
Back in 2018, a group of lawmakers wanted to make a statement ahead of then-US President Donald Trump's State of the Union address and draped kente strips over their suits.
That was it; they did not need to carry placards.
The kente strips spelt out the unambiguous message of support for African countries which had reportedly been described in derogatory terms the week before by Mr Trump.
During the recent Louis Vuitton show in Paris, kente was the headline item in the haute couture show.
With Virgil Abloh as the artistic director of the top fashion house, it was not surprising that the kente found such a high-profile presence.
Abloh is described as an American designer, but since he has Ghanaian parents, we in Ghana claim him.
I am not sure what the kente aficionados will make of kente worn over a suit, but it certainly turned heads at the fashion show.
In Ghana, the designs are mostly traditional but there are young, daring artists that are experimenting with new and unconventional looks and colours.
Until recently, the most interesting kentes were worn by our traditional leaders. At a durbar, nothing quite prepares you for the riot of colours that adorn the gathering of chiefs all wearing kente.
The Asantehene, or king of Asante, seems to have an endless supply and the unstated rule is that once a particular design has been woven for him, his weavers would never repeat that design for anyone else.
The kente retains its special status, no matter how old and is normally handed down the generations.
It is not clear to me what one does with an old kente apart from hanging it in a museum; you could not really wear it to the shops nor to the office nor to a football match, no matter how old it is. It would be seen as a form of desecration of the fabric.
Indeed, it appears the older the kente, the more valuable it is, or at least the more valued it is.
This quintessential Ghanaian work of art holds the quality described in the English poet John Keats' work Endymion.
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness
You have not been richly dressed until you have worn kente.
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79344be18d40c09ebb3cfa4b0b9bb1df | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56485037 | Somalia photography: 'I want it to be normal for women to take photos' | Somalia photography: 'I want it to be normal for women to take photos'
Somalia often conjures up images of violence and destruction but a photography exhibition in the capital, Mogadishu, sets out not only to challenge that perception but also to recast who is defining those images in the first place, as the BBC's Mary Harper reports.
On a big white wall in a hotel compound hangs a series of calm, intimate portraits by two female Somali photographers.
"It's important that women reclaim the public space," one of the artists, Fardowsa Hussein, says.
She says that when she is filming on the streets, men often shout at her, telling her she should be indoors rather than embarrassing herself in public.
"I want it to become entirely normal for a woman like me to go out and about, filming and taking photos, without fear of harassment or worse."
The exhibition, called Still Life, is the brainchild of Sagal Ali, the director of the Somali Arts Foundation (Saf), which she launched in September 2020.
She says that photography in Somalia is considered a man's trade "especially when it comes to street photography. Women are not expected to be outside documenting day-to-day life, in a place where most people are still busy simply surviving".
"Creativity and culture have been decimated by more than 30 years of conflict in Somalia," she says. "The aim of Saf is to revive it, to give people space to breathe."
She also wants to alter the way people are seen, and in this exhibition she hopes to challenge the view that women cannot accomplish highly technical works of art.
"I was attracted to the female gaze and the emotions the photos invoked in me. I don't think these pictures could have been taken by men," says Ali.
"I took this photo near the south-western town of Hudur," says Hussein.
"Herding camels is the most beautiful thing you can see. Young boys are responsible to taking them into the bush for grazing. Two boys have to look after as many as 50 camels and are sometimes gone for six to seven days with no water.
"Somalis say this is the hardest job one can do, but also the most rewarding as camels are so precious in our culture."
"I was in an auto-rickshaw in Mogadishu when I caught sight of these two girls," says one of the photographers, Hana Mire.
"It was totally spur of the moment. I leapt out of the vehicle and they had no idea I was taking their photo. Afterwards, I showed them the image, which they loved."
This photo of a woman in the sea is Hussein's favourite image.
"There was a beautiful stillness about her, despite the commotion all around her," she explains.
Hussein says the fact that she too was wearing a hijab put the woman at ease, giving her the opportunity to capture this intimate moment.
She also captured two women sharing a moment at the water's edge playfully splashing their feet and hands.
"Awais loved this picture," says Mire.
"He has such a kind soul. He told me it's the first photograph he has ever had of himself. He faces all sorts of discrimination."
Mire feels it is important to show how diverse Somalia is.
"Too often people think Somalis are just one tribe, that they all speak the same language. But this is not true."
This image was taken inside one of the oldest mosques in Hamar Weyne, one of the capital's oldest districts, during the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
"A woman stood up while others knelt and prayed, a fan was blowing her orange robes so they looked like a ship's sail," Mire says.
Mire also took this photo in Hamar Weyne, among its narrow winding streets and Arab-style architecture.
"This is one of my favourite places to take pictures in Mogadishu," she says.
"I saw this man walking along and I loved what he was wearing. I asked him if I could take his photo and he said he would be delighted for me to do so."
This is Mire's favourite photo.
"I was in the ancient district of Shangani. Even though I could see the trauma of war in the buildings, it reminded me of my parents and their happy memories of the once beautiful, elegant city."
She explains how she was being silent, reflecting on her parents' experiences, when she saw a boy staring out to sea.
"I thought it was me. He represented the child in me."
The photographers feel that for too long, Westerners have dominated the narrative on Somalia, presenting it as the world's most dangerous country, torn apart by war, disease and famine.
They say they want to take control of Somalia's story, to present a fuller, fairer portrayal of life in the country.
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fa9ea88dcef2f65f01f2725006862fdf | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56510435 | Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini's death: Queen chosen as regent | Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini's death: Queen chosen as regent
The Zulu royal family in South Africa has appointed the third wife of the late King Goodwill Zwelithini as regent until a new monarch takes the throne.
Queen Mantfombi MaDlamini Zulu held the status of "Great Wife" since her marriage to the king in 1977.
Her appointment has fuelled speculation that one of her sons will become king of the 11 million-strong Zulu nation.
Zwelithini, 72, died in hospital from diabetes-related complications on 12 March.
He was the longest-reigning Zulu monarch, having served on the throne for almost 50 years.
He had six wives and at least 26 children.
Queen MaDlamini Zulu's appointment was announced following a meeting between Zwelithini's lawyers and some 200 members of the royal family to discuss his will.
The late king's traditional prime minister, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, said her appointment was in line with Zwelithini's wishes.
The royal family would observe a three-month mourning period and further decisions about the king's successor would be taken thereafter, chief Buthelezi said.
"The loss of His Majesty, the king, has been a tremendous blow and the family must be allowed to grieve," he added.
Zwelithini was buried - or planted, as Zulus say - on Thursday at a private ceremony attended by a select few men from the royal family.
Queen MaDlamini Zulu held the highest status among the king's wives, as she came from royalty.
She is the sister of Eswatini's King Mswati III - Africa's only absolute monarch.
Queen MaDlamini Zulu had eight children - including five sons - with the late king, according to South African media.
Their eldest son, 47-year-old Prince Misuzulu, is the favourite to take the throne, reports say.
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eb77c9edc3021e6f93f3e97cdb6a5ce7 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56524991 | Ethiopia's Tigray conflict: MSF 'witnessed soldiers killing civilians' | Ethiopia's Tigray conflict: MSF 'witnessed soldiers killing civilians'
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff say they witnessed the extrajudicial killing of four civilians by Ethiopian soldiers in Tigray earlier this week.
An MSF team and two public minibuses were stopped by soldiers in the aftermath of an apparent ambush on an army convoy on a main road on Tuesday.
The passengers had to leave the buses; the four men were separated from women and shot, MSF says.
Officials say the medical aid charity's allegations will be investigated.
"No person, including serving soldiers, is above the law," Ethiopia's embassy in London told the BBC.
The conflict in northern Ethiopia erupted in November when the government launched an offensive to oust the region's ruling party from power after its fighters captured federal military bases in Tigray.
The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) had had a massive fall-out with Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed over the future of Ethiopia's ethnically based federal system and its role in government.
Mr Abiy declared that the conflict was over at the end of November, but fighting is continuing in parts of the region, with reports that thousands of people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes.
"We are horrified by the continued violence in Tigray," MSF said in a statement about the killings its team had witnessed.
"This horrific event further underscores the need for the protection of civilians during this ongoing conflict, and for armed groups to respect the delivery of humanitarian assistance, including medical aid."
The killings took place on the road between the regional capital, Mekelle, and the city of Adigrat, MSF says.
Its three staff members were travelling in a clearly marked MSF vehicle when they encountered military vehicles that were on fire.
It appeared to be the aftermath of an ambush of a military convoy by an armed group.
The MSF vehicle was stopped, along with the two buses whose passengers were ordered to disembark.
The women were allowed to walk away and shortly after at least four men were shot. Their bodies could be seen on the side of the road, the charity says.
The MSF team was allowed to leave, but was then stopped again by soldiers who pulled out their driver, beat him with the back of a gun and threatened to kill him.
"Our teams are still reeling from witnessing the senseless loss of lives from this latest attack," MSF said, saying their staff were eventually able to return to Mekelle.
With difficulty. Access to Tigray has been severely limited - and there were repeated calls for access to be granted to the UN and other aid agencies.
This was allowed earlier this month, when the government said they could operate there at their own risk.
The prime minster has since accused foreign countries and aid organisations of doing nothing to help, despite being given "unfettered access".
"The people of Tigray eat wheat but not concerns through Twitter messages," Mr Abiy told parliament on Tuesday.
"They asked for unfettered access, but when we said ok and allowed access, it is what you see now. The people need practical assistance."
The government itself had opened more than 92 aid distribution centres to feed more than 4.2 million people, he said.
Mr Abiy has promised to bring to account soldiers found to have committed crimes.
The conflict not only involves the military and regional fighters, but has also drawn in troops from neighbouring Eritrea as well as other militias.
All have been accused of human rights abuses.
More about the conflict in Tigray:
Last week, the UN said it would work with the state-linked Ethiopian Human Rights Commission to investigate reports of the indiscriminate killing of civilians and widespread sexual abuse.
The US has described the violence in Tigray as ethnic cleansing.
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741308637c0ed05e9f4190a4d3dfeeaf | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56526627 | Covid in Kenya: The woman who refuses to be defeated by the virus | Covid in Kenya: The woman who refuses to be defeated by the virus
At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Josephine Muchilwa was working as a cook, but like many others in Kenya and around the world, she lost her job. Over the past year, BBC World Service Business Daily presenter Ed Butler has been hearing how she has coped.
"I don't have any job, I don't have a life, I don't have any food for my kids."
The stark reality contained in Josephine's description of the impact of coronavirus containment measures imposed a year ago struck home.
Just days after the government had announced tough curfew measures to restrict the spread of Covid-19, this single mother, living in the overcrowded Nairobi neighbourhood of Kibera, set out the plight that so many were suddenly facing.
Her low-paid job in the kitchen of a local school went when pupils were told to study at home. She was left wondering how she was going to feed her family of four children.
"I'm just bargaining with God," the 31 year old told Business Daily. "I don't know what to do."
But after hearing about her plight, a couple of generous listeners stepped in with a donation.
It was not a huge amount - about $150 (£110) - but it was enough to allow Josephine to launch herself into a fruit and vegetable business.
Travelling by bus to a big wholesale market in the centre of Kenya's capital, she bought 25kg sacks of onions, tomatoes and more, bringing them back to Kibera where she began renting a small, wooden kiosk.
Josephine then started sending regular audio diaries from her one-room, mud-walled shack about her efforts to make the business work.
This was happening just as Kibera, which is a giant informal settlement in the heart of Nairobi, was being plunged into crisis.
Since most Kiberans work as housemaids, cleaners or drivers, they were disproportionately hit by the economic slowdown, as their wealthier employees asked them to stay away for fear they would bring infection.
Nevertheless, at first, seemingly against the odds, Josephine appeared to be making it work. She would get eight, maybe 10 customers a day.
"At least today I received a profit of 170 shillings ($1.50)," she told me in one conversation last May. "The children are fine, they're happy, at least they eat."
But she was always battling the odds.
Josephine had no experience as a businesswoman, the district was under curfew, there were regular and violent police raids on anyone caught out after the restrictions came in and travel outside the city limits was outlawed altogether.
Plus she had her four children to mind and there was growing criminality and fear of sexual violence in the slum.
"The rape cases are increasing," she said. "If I leave the children alone anyone can come in and do anything to them."
And also, few people now had any income to pay for what she was selling. Her neighbours like her were out of work, living off what savings they had.
Then disaster really struck. Josephine contracted malaria and she had to borrow money for the treatment from a local money lender.
Rising private debt like this seems to be widespread in the informal settlements. One local pawnbroker, called Rodgers, told the BBC that he had run out of money to lend, such was the demand for his services.
Many were unable to repay the loans, he said, so he was selling on the household goods that they provided as security.
For her part, Josephine had nothing to trade.
To this day she fears that her unpaid loans, amounting to some $30, could land her in serious trouble.
The prospect of repaying her loans became ever more distant when in June last year, government bulldozers ploughed through the part of Kibera where her food kiosk had stood.
They were making way for a new railway development, they said.
The government claimed owners had been given plenty of warning. But as a tenant, Josephine said she had no idea.
Adding to the tragedy was that she had just put in a large amount of stock, which was crushed along with the timber structure. Once again, she was broke and her dream of making it as a businesswoman was at an end.
"That day I really cried - almost three days. I feel so painful. I was not able even to eat. And when I look at my life situation now, it became so hard."
The pandemic itself has hit millions in Kenya and beyond in this way, it seems.
Officially there have been about 2,100 Covid deaths in Kenya although some experts believe the real figure could be much higher than that.
But for people in Kibera, there is a sense that their communities have been disproportionately hit by the government's anti-Covid restrictions, and that police action to enforce the rules has often been violent and high-handed.
"These people who live [on] under $2 a day, they know if you get sick, you're gonna get dead," says Kennedy Odede, a Kibera-born activist, and founder of the local Shining Hope charity.
"We want the government to make sure that the slums are their priority, to ensure we have roads, good health care, clean water."
But the government is not about to lift restrictions. Last month, the nationwide night-time curfew was extended amidst alarming evidence of a third wave of Covid infections.
A year after the first outbreak of the disease, Josephine continues to struggle.
She still doesn't have a regular source of income, and her children are having to live off a single bowl of porridge a day.
"One day I dream of being a doctor," her eldest daughter, 11-year-old Shamim told me. "Today I dream of food."
Josephine has managed to get occasional jobs as a cleaner, but one woman, she told me, has not yet paid her for three days work.
More on coronavirus in Kenya:
But thanks to the Shining Hope charity, a new chapter in her life could start soon.
She is retraining as a seamstress, in order to get piecework which experienced co-workers claim can earn them several dollars a day.
Even though the lessons of the last 12 months have been extremely hard, Josephine remains stubbornly hopeful that she and the children will emerge stronger as a result of what they have suffered.
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b8b8a4505b544e7d2e8f4386f6fad632 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56526631 | Uganda climate change: The people under threat from a melting glacier | Uganda climate change: The people under threat from a melting glacier
Ronah Masika remembers when she could still see the snowy caps of the Rwenzori mountains, a Unesco World Heritage site on the border between Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The view was stunning every time she travelled from her home in Kasese town to the Ugandan capital, Kampala - and it was not even that long ago.
But now she cannot even catch a glimpse of the ice because the glacier is receding.
And it is not only the view that has changed.
Ms Masika recalls her grandmother used to grow beans to feed her family, and they would last until a new crop was ready to be harvested.
"Now I and other people find it difficult to sustain ourselves with what we plant at home, because everything gets destroyed by floods or drought. It's either too much drought or too much rain.
"It's making me uncomfortable, thinking of how the next generation is going to survive this horrible situation," says Ms Masika, who now works on a project to mitigate the impact of the shifting environment.
Climate change is affecting the Rwenzori Mountains in different ways.
The most visible is the rapid loss of the ice field, which shrunk from 6.5 sq km in 1906 to less than one sq km in 2003, and could completely disappear before the end of this decade, research shows.
In 2012, forest fires reached altitudes above 4,000m, which would have been inconceivable in the past, devastating vegetation that controlled the flow of the rivers downstream.
Since then, the communities living at the foot of the Rwenzori have suffered some of the most destructive floods the area has ever seen, coupled with a pattern of less frequent but heavier rainfall.
In May last year, five local rivers burst their banks after heavy rains. The waters came down the mountain carrying large boulders, sweeping away houses and schools and razing the entire town of Kalembe to the ground.
Around 25,000 houses were destroyed and 173,000 people were affected.
While science may provide an explanation for these events, the local Bakonzo culture has another way of framing them - according to their beliefs, they happen because the gods are angry.
"The Bakonzo have a very strong attachment to the snow and the water," says Simon Musasizi, a programme manager at the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU).
"They believe that their god, Kithasamba, lives in the snow, and that the snow is actually the frozen sperm of their god."
The name Rwenzori comes from rwe nzururu, which means "place of snow" in the Bakonzo language. There are 30 gods associated with different natural resources living on the mountain, according to Bakonzo cosmology.
But deforestation and rapid population growth around the sacred mountain, as well as the melting glacier, are changing things.
During last year's floods, the water submerged hot springs and washed away the vegetation around a waterfall that was used as a place for rituals. Since then, spiritual leaders have been unable to perform those ceremonies.
Other spiritual sites are getting eroded or filled up with silt and the destruction of the vegetation has weakened the banks in many areas.
All this is threatening centuries-old rituals.
"Most likely, many of these customs will gradually became rare or they won't happen any more, because everything is shifting," Mr Musasizi says.
The Bakonzo community is made up of around one million people living on both sides of the border between Uganda and DR Congo, and their heritage could be lost as a result of climate change.
"The consequences of climate change are particularly acute at the tropics," says Richard Taylor, a geographer at University College London, who has led research on the Rwenzori Mountains.
"One or two degrees of warming at the Equator has a much bigger impact on climate and water budgets than one or two degrees of warming in London, Paris or New York."
The intensification of weather patterns observed in the mountains is happening throughout the tropics.
Prof Taylor, who co-led expeditions from 2003 to 2007 to measure the changes in the Rwenzori glaciers, says the loss of ice fields in the tropics is a tell-tale signal of global warming.
Restoring and protecting areas affected by climate change is key to preserving cultural heritage too.
As part of a project to do this, Mr Musasizi says there is an agreement with the community about which trees are going to be planted to best reinforce the riverbanks, including bamboos and native trees.
Ms Masika, whose job it is to liaise with the local people, says the community already had answers for some of the problems.
"For example, they know what type of vegetation should be planted at what level on the mountain. They know which ones are strong enough to be planted along the river to stop the floods.
"They know they are supposed to plant along the riverbank because it is food to the water god. And when the water god is fine, he doesn't cause floods.
"Climate change is understood in the culture, and they have some suggestions that can help us mitigate this situation."
The lessons are being shared with other institutions working to protect cultural heritage from climate change, mainly in East and North Africa and the Middle East.
Finding solutions that highlight the close link between the Bakonzo culture and the natural environment has been a surprise for Ms Masika, who grew up in a Christian household where little was said about it.
Now one of her favourite spots is the Embugha or Rwagimba hot springs, that the Bakonzo believe have physical and spiritual healing powers, particularly for skin diseases.
"When we started this project, my skin was itching all over. But every time I visited the springs, I made sure I bathed in the water," she said.
"It's so hot when you sit there, you feel like you're burning. Then you go to the river, which is just next to the hot pool, and the water is so cold you feel like you're freezing.
"By the time you leave, your body is feeling light, and since then I no longer feel itchy."
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cc2a3f024b57fd00b1ba4bb06f7eaec5 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56563071 | Nigeria's Efik queen wants to take royal meetings online | Nigeria's Efik queen wants to take royal meetings online
In our series of letters from African writers, Nigerian journalist and novelist Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani reflects on the role of traditional rulers in the 21st Century.
With low expectations of elected politicians in Nigeria, Barbara Etim James is convinced that the solution to many of the country's problems lies with its many chiefs, kings and queens.
Two years ago, the 54 year old was crowned a queen in the Efik kingdom in southern Nigeria.
Despite 20 years of living in the UK and founding a private equity firm, she says she is not a moderniser who wants to transform long-established African leadership structures to fit a Western model.
"Modernising suggests that you're making something traditional more Western," she says.
Ms James wants to turn that on its head.
"I'm bringing my global experience into a culture, not taking the culture into modernity."
Ms James combines her role as the head of a private equity firm with that of queen, often travelling from her hometown of Calabar to cities like Lagos and Abuja for work.
"Calabar is my base but I spend a lot of time outside. But I have sort of field workers on the ground," she says.
Members of the traditional council in her community are required to be physically present in Calabar for monthly meetings and she has to fly back home for these from wherever she is - a situation that she hopes technology can change.
"I am now having conversations with them about online meetings," she says.
The suggestion may at first appear outrageous to people who consider it an insult to invite a respected person to an event by text message or phone - you have to send them a card, Ms James says.
"But they are very happy when people send them money online or by phone to their account," she says, an argument she uses to support her point during discussions about enhancing culture with technology.
The role of traditional rulers in Nigeria is not defined by the constitution and some see them as archaic institutions that have outlived their usefulness.
Cases where traditional rulers were ejected from their positions over accusations of not showing politicians support or respect have also highlighted that their roles are largely symbolic and raised questions about how much real power they hold.
They also lack an independent source of finance.
But Ms James believes that people like her can be more effective than politicians in bringing about change.
She argues that traditional rulers are closer to the people than their elected representatives as through their network of informants they have more of a sense of what is really going on.
This means they can have more impact than the political class when addressing issues like security and poverty, especially as their involvement is more long term, she says.
More on traditional rulers in Nigeria:
"State governors usually spend the first year settling down, the second year getting to work, the third year preparing for re-election, and the fourth year on elections," she says.
"They come and go so they have shorter interest but traditional rulers tend to be there for life."
Nevertheless, apart from having some money allocated by local government, few traditional rulers have a thought-through economic plan for improving the lives of their people.
This is where the queen believes her experience outside the traditional role can come in handy.
"We have strong social groups but they don't think economically," she says.
"It's all social and consuming but not economic. Celebrations, ceremonies, events... But what can you do together? Can you own a farm? Can you own an enterprise?"
She has set up an enterprise fund, giving out small loans for people who want to start or expand their businesses, and organises entrepreneurship and finance training for different cultural groups.
She says she wants people to "think economically" - how to make money as well as spend it.
The Efik kingdom is headed by a king, known as an Obong.
Based in the coastal town of Calabar, capital of Cross River state, he presides over a layered network of 12 Efik family groups, and subgroups, including one called Henshaw Town
In 2019, in recognition of the active role she had played in the Efik kingdom over the previous decade, Ms James was crowned the Obong-Anwan (queen) of Henshaw Town.
Her mother, who had been Obong-Anwan, died in 2016, but the position is not hereditary.
"Every House can have a queen but mostly they don't.
"First of all it's a responsibility so you really need someone with the capacity to help people. It's expensive.
"There's a lot of patronage involved," says Ms James, pointing out that she funds most of her community projects with personal, or privately raised, funds.
The queen's love of her people and culture began when she was a child, watching her late father, Emmanuel Etim James - an assistant police commissioner who later worked for an international oil company - actively participate in his local community.
"He was very involved. He sort of brought all the things that he was involved in globally back home.
"He built a big house and got the whole community to build houses, bought cement for them, and I witnessed all that," she says.
After she completed her studies in computer science at the University of Lagos, she moved to London for a master's degree in business systems analysis and then settled in the UK.
But she never lost the connection with home.
"Having travelled around the world, and being exposed to all sorts of things, it helps you value what you have.
"It is unique, it is special, and it needs nurturing," she says.
"Many people grow up, get exposed, move to Lagos or Abuja, and they have little interest in or value in their life for their hometown or their village. I am very different."
In 2009, she got divorced from an Irish man after 12 years of marriage and moved back to settle in Calabar. Marriage is not a requirement for an Obong-Anwan.
"In Efik culture, the woman's status is not derived from her husband," the queen explains.
"The women, we are strong in our own way."
Her - and her people's - attachment to the past also means that they have not turned their backs on the connections with the British colonialists.
The Efik acted as middlemen in the Transatlantic slave trade and the longstanding interactions between the people of Calabar and British merchants led to a high level of assimilation.
Many in the region bear English surnames, such as Duke, Henshaw and James. The traditional clothing of the men and women appears to be related to the fashions of the Victorian era.
People in some parts of Nigeria have tried to erase similar signs of the colonial presence and association by changing their surnames and street and town names, but Ms James does not see that as necessary.
"The Efik don't feel the need for that replacement therapy.
"It is not because we are not enlightened or do not read about our colonial past. It is just that we think it is a reality and we are not ashamed," she says.
"It happened. That is not to say we don't recognise the negative aspects of colonialism and slavery… It's just that we don't hold it against the British."
Instead, she believes that the focus for Nigerian ethnic groups should be on innovation that can sustain the culture rather than obliterate it.
"How can we revive our traditional dance groups? How can we save our languages from extinction? How can we make sure our cultures do not die but flourish into the next generation?" she asks.
These are the discussions she has been having with her people and the issues for which she wants her tenure as the Obong-Anwan of Henshaw Town to be remembered.
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d855a8ff55b37d7185fc51d56dc2eaca | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56563539 | South African Adrian Nel killed in Mozambique jihadist attack | South African Adrian Nel killed in Mozambique jihadist attack
South African Adrian Nel is one of the victims of a brutal insurgency being waged by militant Islamists in northern Mozambique. Dozens of bodies have been seen but few details have emerged about the other casualties.
Mr Nel would have celebrated his 41st birthday on 1 April.
But his body now lies in a mortuary in Pemba - a coastal city in Mozambique's resource-rich Cabo Delgado province.
The region has become the latest front line in the global war being waged by militant Islamists.
On Wednesday, hundreds of those militants stormed the town of Palma.
Mr Nel was among dozens of people who were trying to flee the attack. His body was recovered by fleeing survivors - including his father and younger brother.
Speaking to the BBC from her home in South Africa, Nel's mother, Meryl Knox, said her son leaves behind his French-Canadian wife and three children - a 10-year-old boy, and two girls, aged six and two.
"He was an absolutely beautiful father, and a beautiful person all round," she said.
"There's been so many messages of comfort from people that have known him throughout the years. And he will be terribly, terribly missed."
Mr Nel was a commercial diver who had lost his job in South Africa because of the devastating impact of Covid-19.
He moved to Mozambique in January to join his father and younger brother in the construction industry, building workers' accommodation camps in Palma, which has become the hub of a burgeoning gas industry following the offshore discovery of one of the largest natural gas fields in Africa.
A mere three months later, he faced a cruel death, having been shot by militants who had carried out a four-day assault on the town, targeting shops, banks, a military barracks and the Amarula Hotel, where Nel, his father and younger brother had taken refuge along with other expatriates.
In a BBC interview, South African private security firm Dyck Advisory Group, which has been hired by the Mozambican government to fight the insurgents, said the militants were still in control of Palma on Monday.
"My guys are engaging these terrorists in skirmishes. The terrorists have taken cover in houses, which is what they always do. They come out and shoot at the aircraft, and they have hit and shot at our aircraft often," the firm's CEO Lionel Dyck said.
He added that the militants currently held the initiative.
"Until we put sufficient troops in there to clear them out of the houses of Palma they will remain in control," Mr Dyck said.
An IS propaganda outlet published a photo on Monday, supposedly of a group of fighters from its Mozambican branch in Palma as it claimed responsibility for the attack.
IS alleged that 55 people - including Mozambican soldiers and foreign nationals - had been killed in the assault on the town but this has not been independently verified.
However, unnamed Mozambican government sources quoted by the state news agency said the insurgents had been driven out of Palma, and they were fleeing towards the Rovuma river, bordering Tanzania.
Mrs Knox said details around her son's death were still sketchy, but he appeared to have been killed while trying to escape on Friday.
"No army to protect them, none of them having weapons, so it was a matter of run for your life or face these insurgents, who are so cruel and barbaric," she added.
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Hundreds of heavily armed militants raided Palma, leaving dozens of people dead. They included Mr Nel and six others who were in a convoy of vehicles that was apparently ambushed.
In an interview with Reuters news agency, Mrs Knox said her husband, Gregory, and younger son, Wesley, hid with his body in a bush until the next morning, when they went to Pemba, about 250km (155 miles) south of Palma.
Adriano Nuvunga, director of the Centre for Democracy and Development in the capital, Maputo, told the BBC's Newsday programme that it was a clear failure of intelligence - and a disaster for the government as it tries to encourage foreign firms to invest in the area.
"The indications we have is that the violent extremists were coming in one-by-one with bags and weapons in their backpacks... They've been attacking from within, which I think was difficult to control, as they were mingled with civilians and local communities."
One contractor told the BBC that the rescue operation to Pemba was carried out by local companies and suppliers.
"In the wee hours they managed to co-ordinate and reach out to the evacuees on the beach and got them on to boats and got them into safety."
"Where the hell was the support from big companies, from countries?" he asked.
Mrs Knox was scathing about the South African government's response to the attack.
"There wasn't any support from our government until we phoned them and asked them what's happening and why isn't anybody helping people stranded there," she told the BBC.
Mrs Knox said she had spoken to her husband, who was still in Mozambique with their youngest son.
"The doctor did go and see them last night and at least they got some sleep. But I hear Wesley's not doing very well," Mrs Knox said, without going into details.
AFP news agency reports that Wesley will be evacuated to South Africa on the first available flight, while Mrs Knox's husband will remain in Mozambique until their late son's body is repatriated.
"Adrian was just such a shining light - somebody who kept the family together with his constant joy and love. Now [we've got] to try and pick up the pieces and just hope we do well with his wife and his children," Mrs Knox told the BBC.
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e9b2039f179bf876c73fc6c3ba9bc9eb | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56597861 | Mozambique: Why IS is so hard to defeat in Mozambique | Mozambique: Why IS is so hard to defeat in Mozambique
The recent bloodthirsty raid by jihadist militants from the Islamic State group (IS) in northern Mozambique has shocked the world.
Hundreds of well-armed fighters were able to overrun a town close to Africa's largest gas project.
They massacred dozens of people
, locals and expatriates, leaving decapitated bodies strewn around the streets.
So how was this able to happen, why can the Mozambican government not control this insurgency and what will it take to defeat it?
They call themselves al-Shabab, an Arabic word for "the young men" or "the lads". This is misleading as they are not the same group as Somalia's al Qaeda-linked insurgents who also go by that name. Instead, this group pledged allegiance in 2019 to the rival IS group, based in Iraq and Syria. They have adopted the title of Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP), which again is misleading since Mozambique is not part of Central Africa.
In a pattern that has repeated itself elsewhere in the world, such as in Mali, Iraq and Nigeria, this insurgency grew out of local people's grievances at feeling marginalised and discriminated against by their own government.
Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province, where they operate, is more than 1,600 km (990 miles) away from the capital Maputo but it contains the largest and richest Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) project in Africa. Operated by the French company Total, it is estimated to be worth US$60bn (£44bn) with investment from countries including the UK.
Local residents complain they have seen little of this wealth or investment passing down into their community which prompted the beginnings of the insurgency in 2017, later becoming "internationalised" as they gained support from IS.
Scruffily dressed and with no definable uniform, the jihadists who overran the town of Palma last weekend were nevertheless well-armed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. From the videos later posted online by IS, their one unifying feature appears to be the red bandanas that many wore around their foreheads to denote a significant raid.
They were also sufficiently well-motivated and led to have launched a successful multi-pronged attack that quickly overcame the ineffective security provided by the Mozambican government.
"Even though it is a local jihadist insurgency," says Olivier Guitta, a geopolitical risk analyst with GlobalStrat and expert on jihad in Africa, "al-Shabab has established links to Islamist militias in East Africa. Radical spiritual leaders there have assisted with the religious and even military training of youths in northern Mozambique."
So this insurgency is essentially a local one that has opportunistically cloaked itself in the banner of IS and then attracted world attention through its graphic violence and by its proximity to such an important commercial project.
A great deal more effort than has been made so far is the answer.
Recognising it had a serious problem, Mozambique's government hired more than 200 military "advisers" from the formidable Russian private military contractors, the Wagner Group, in September 2020.
These mostly ex-Russian Special Forces soldiers have operated with a nod of approval from the Kremlin in Syria, Libya and elsewhere. They brought with them drones and data analytics but, as Olivier Guitta points out, things did not turn out as they had expected.
"After suffering a series of ambushes and nearly a dozen reported deaths in several battles in densely forested districts of Cabo Delgado, the Russian private military contractors have gone into a strategic retreat."
The most immediate problem is the weakness of Mozambique's own security forces and perhaps a misplaced complacency on the part of its political leaders.
Brigadier Ben Barry from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) says IS militants have a proven ability in fighting in built-up areas that is proving a challenge for Mozambique and its partners.
"Success in urban warfare requires government forces to have high standards of leadership and training in urban tactics. These factors may explain the apparent weakness of Mozambique forces. They seem to lack the support of Western military advisers and the ability to use air power, precision weapons and armoured vehicles, all essential for the eviction of IS forces from Iraqi and Syrian towns and cities."
In recent days the Pentagon has sent a small detachment of Green Beret Special Forces trainers to bolster the efforts of Mozambique's military and Portugal, the former colonial power, has also pledged a small number of army trainers. France is reportedly monitoring the situation from its nearby island of Mayotte and South Africa is taking a close interest in its neighbour. However, any major military involvement by Western powers carries its own risks.
"As we have seen elsewhere in northwest Africa," says Benjamin Petrini, a research fellow at IISS, "a large foreign military presence may further exacerbate the conflict politically and the instability."
But he adds that "the role of South Africa [whose private military contractors rescued many of the trapped workers from the recent raid] as a regional peace enforcer may also be considered".
IS tactics are typically brutal and horrific. Unlike al-Qaeda which, while still murderous in its actions, often makes some effort to build local support, these insurgents have carried out bloodthirsty raids on local communities, indiscriminately slaughtering and beheading civilians. In one raid this year not even an 11-year-old boy was spared being killed in front of his mother.
In the short term this establishes a fearsome reputation, with perhaps an exaggerated cloak of invincibility. But in the longer term few insurgencies can progress without local support. Al-Qaeda in Iraq made the mistake of so terrorising the local Sunni Muslim population in Anbar province in 2007 - such as cutting off men's fingers for the simple offence of smoking a cigarette - that the US-led Coalition there was able to persuade local tribes to rise up against al-Qaeda in what became known as "the Awakening".
In Mozambique it may well take something similar. Counter-insurgency is never just about military victories, it involves that old cliché of "winning hearts and minds". So to defeat this insurgency, yes, it will initially take a properly equipped and co-ordinated campaign by Mozambique's own forces, with foreign logistic assistance. But for it to succeed in the long term it will take far more than that.
It needs good governance and investment in the local community: schools, roads, jobs - enough to assuage people's sense that they have been abandoned by their government while big foreign multinationals sweep in and reap the benefits of their country's precious natural resources.
In Afghanistan I saw how tactical military victories over the Taliban by Nato and Afghan government forces were later undone by a failure of government. Areas "liberated" from Taliban rule later slipped back under their sway once the troops departed and corrupt police and government officials resumed their nefarious activities at the expense of the local population.
The same will happen in Mozambique if the coming military effort is not backed up by a marked improvement in civil affairs.
Mozambique's jihadists appear to be aiming to create their own self-declared "caliphate" in Cabo Delgado province, just as IS did in Mosul back in 2014.
The possibility that they could ever succeed in gaining control over a $60bn gas project is almost unthinkable.
While it is hard to see how they would ever be able to manage and export from it by conventional means it could still give them enormous economic power, funding future operations and perhaps funnelling money back to IS central in Iraq and Syria.
It took five years and a horrendous toll in lives for a coalition of 83 nations to finally defeat the last of the IS "caliphate" in Syria. When it was over, world leaders said IS must never again be allowed to build such a caliphate.
If Mozambique's insurgency is not defeated then that promise will be put to the test.
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d0c278b70b9240cdd7dc466955ce4922 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56605360 | Africa's week in pictures: 26 March-1 April 2021 | Africa's week in pictures: 26 March-1 April 2021
A selection of the week's best photos from across the continent and beyond:
All photos subject to copyright.
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0390e3dc52a35fb3252230694a8e880d | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56611397 | Oxfam suspends two aid workers amid sex exploitation claims in DR Congo | Oxfam suspends two aid workers amid sex exploitation claims in DR Congo
UK charity Oxfam says it has suspended two members of staff in the Democratic Republic of Congo over allegations of sexual exploitation and bullying.
The charity said the suspensions were part of an "external investigation" set up last November into the allegations.
Its statement follows a report in the Times newspaper that whistleblowers were "frustrated at the length of time taken to complete the investigation".
Oxfam was hit by a scandal in 2018 involving its aid workers in Haiti.
The charity was accused of covering up the use of prostitutes by some members of staff who were in the country following the devastating 2010 earthquake.
Oxfam denied a cover up but apologised for mistakes in its handling of the scandal, set up an independent commission into working practices and stopped bidding for UK government funding.
How the Oxfam scandal in Haiti unfolded
The charity had only recently been allowed to start applying for government funding again, the Times reports.
The newspaper says a 10-page letter signed by more than 20 current and former Oxfam staff was sent to the organisation's leadership in February.
It made allegations against 11 people that included sexual exploitation, bullying, fraud and nepotism, and said whistleblowers had faced "threats to their lives".
Some of the complaints dated back to 2015, and the letter said staff had "lost faith in Oxfam's promises of accountability and in the principles Oxfam says it stands for".
In its statement, Oxfam says the Charity Commission was notified at the start of the investigation of the latest allegations and is being kept informed about its progress.
"We are acutely aware of our duty to survivors, including in supporting them to speak out safely," the charity said. "We are working hard to conclude the investigation fairly, safely and effectively".
Oxfam, on its website, says it has been working in the DRC since 1961
and is "currently providing clean water, sanitation and emergency food to approximately 700,000 internally displaced people, refugees and host communities".
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2e284476bb6f167006b8972010572ed8 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56638328 | Tigray crisis: The Weeknd donates $1m to Ethiopians in conflict | Tigray crisis: The Weeknd donates $1m to Ethiopians in conflict
R&B singer The Weeknd has promised to donate $1m (£700,000) to Ethiopians caught up in the conflict in Tigray.
The star, born Abel Tesfaye in Canada, is the son of Ethiopian immigrants.
"My heart breaks for my people of Ethiopia as innocent civilians ranging from small children to the elderly are being senselessly murdered," he said.
Fighting between the Ethiopian army and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) began in November and has left millions of people homeless.
The fighting started when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent forces to the Tigray region, after accusing the TPLF of attacking a government military base.
The TPLF had been the ruling party in the area, but fell out with Mr Abiy over his efforts to increase the central government's power.
Last week, a BBC Africa Eye investigation uncovered evidence suggesting the Ethiopian military had carried out a massacre in Tigray, killing at least 15 men.
So far more than two million people have left their homes to get away from the fighting, according to Tigray's interim administration.
The government estimates that 4.5 million people need emergency food assistance, according to the UN's World Food Programme (WFP).
The WFP adds in a statement
that the government has asked WFP to provide food for 1.4 million people.
The Weeknd's donation to WFP "will provide lifesaving food to those affected by conflict in Ethiopia's northern Tigray Region", WFP adds.
The Weeknd said on Twitter and Instagram that his $1m donation would go to the UN's World Food Programme to pay for two million meals.
The singer has become one of the biggest chart stars of the last decade with hits including Blinding Lights.
He has spoken before about his Ethiopian heritage,
telling Rolling Stone magazine in 2015
that his grandmother would take him to services at their Ethiopian Orthodox church in Canada, that his first language was Amharic, and that his vocal style was influenced by
Ethiopian singer Aster Aweke
.
More about the conflict in Tigray:
The conflict in Tigray spread over international borders as forces from neighbouring Eritrea joined Ethiopian government troops in fighting the TPLF.
Eritrean troops are reported to have started to withdraw after the G7 group of industrialised nations called for them to do so on 2 April.
The G7 group also said it is "strongly concerned" by reports of human rights abuses in Tigray. These include mass killings of civilians, sexual violence, looting and the abuse of refugees.
Ethiopia's prime minister has previously denied that any civilians have been killed.
Tigrayan forces, meanwhile, have also faced accusations of human rights abuses.
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f4318b8258febc85ded3efa5b70e865c | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56651735 | Letter from Africa: Kenyans protest over growing debt | Letter from Africa: Kenyans protest over growing debt
In our series of letters from African journalists, Kenyan broadcaster Waihiga Mwaura looks at the anxiety in his country over its growing debt levels.
In many countries the willingness of global institutions, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to beef up the state coffers with a loan is seen as a sign of approval.
It shows that the economists in far-away Washington have confidence that the country can afford and properly manage the interest payments.
But this is not how some Kenyans see things - they do not want the IMF to give the country any more money.
The Kenyans on Twitter community - also known as KOT - are a force to be reckoned with.
They have been compared to a swarm of bees who attack in a group and sting repeatedly until the issue is resolved or a bigger issue emerges that distracts them.
Consequently, on Monday, at the tail-end of the Easter weekend, KOT turned their attention to the IMF. Two days previously it had announced a loan of more than $2.3bn (£1.7bn) to support Kenya's pandemic response and economic reform programme.
The IMF announcement came on the heels of a survey that showed that four out of five Kenyans felt anxious, fearful or angry because of the debt burden.
Hence the Twitter storm and by the end of Monday #StopGivingKenyaLoans was one of the trending hashtags here.
People were also being encouraged to #SignThePetition. This was a reference to an online campaign aimed at urging the IMF to withdraw the offer, with people arguing that previous loans had not been used in a prudent manner.
Finance Minister Ukur Yatani came out to defend the loan, saying that the money was needed to support small businesses and "forestall a greater humanitarian crisis".
But the masses online are yet to be convinced.
To understand why an IMF loan has failed to impress Kenyans, you have to go back a decade to the introduction of a new constitution.
It was designed to correct past government abuses. It says that there must be openness, accountability and public participation in how the public purse is managed.
When the current government took over in 2013 public debt stood at $16bn, it is now around $70bn - more than four times as much.
Some of that can be put down to the launching of big infrastructure projects that were sold as game changers, creating jobs and boosting the economy in the long run.
For example the new railway linking the coast to the capital, Nairobi, built with loans from China, was launched to great fanfare in 2017. But there are suspicions that it is operating at a huge loss and the government is not coming clean about the project.
Some of these schemes have also been seen as avenues for corruption.
The debt discussion hit a tipping point in 2018, when an MP on parliament's budget committee said that the legislature had failed to contain the country's ballooning debt.
Moses Kuria said that "since 2014, we have sold to Kenyans this romantic story that all is well" - but all was not well.
One case of alleged corruption involving former Finance Minister Henry Rotich is currently before the courts.
He is accused of inflating a contract for a public works project by more than $150m. Mr Rotich denies the charges.
Earlier this year, President Uhuru Kenyatta suggested that some $18m was being lost to corruption every day.
Amid all this, parliament has failed in its job to control borrowing and has approved nearly every request to incur more debt. Hence public debt now amounts to around 65% of the country's annual income - small by richer country's standards, but Kenya struggles to afford it.
Nevertheless the government wants to take on more debt, but Kenyans know who is going to pay for what they see as state profligacy.
Taxes have already gone up since the tax holiday, introduced because of the pandemic, ended in December. And now there are higher fuel prices.
On top of this, new coronavirus restrictions have affected the ability to make money.
Many here therefore are eyeing the IMF loan with suspicion, thinking it will result in more corruption and more taxation.
It is not clear if the online campaign can change anything but as presidential candidates start campaigning for next year's election they may have to listen to what ordinary Kenyans are saying about how the state coffers are handled.
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|
f24f53ae2a932c6c62636e351fd93178 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-56663630 | Kenya Lamu mosque: Anger over T-shirt worn by Jay-Z | Kenya Lamu mosque: Anger over T-shirt worn by Jay-Z
A US-based designer has apologised for using a portrait of a historic mosque in Kenya's island of Lamu on a T-shirt worn by celebrity Jay-Z, an official in charge of the site has told the BBC.
Riyadha Mosque's leaders had objected to the T-shirt as it could be worn to "sacrilegious joints" like bars.
"We have accepted the apology letter because it was done in good faith," the mosque official said.
Designer Zeddie Loky reportedly produced the T-shirt to promote Lamu.
The BBC has contacted him for comment.
Lamu is a Unesco-listed World Heritage site and the 19th-Century mosque is a top tourist attraction.
It has manuscripts dating back to 1837, and is
one of the oldest continuously functioning Islamic teaching institutions in East Africa.
Worshippers became angry when they saw WhatsApp group photos of US-based music mogul Jay-Z wearing a T-shirt with a print of the mosque, said Abubakar Badawy, the secretary general of Riyadha Mosque and Islamic Centre.
Jay-Z was spotted in the T-shirt as he left a restaurant in Santa Monica, California, on 30 March, CNN reported.
"Many people were angry about this and thought that the officials running the mosque were involved," Mr Badawy said.
It prompted him to write a public letter to Mr Loky, the chief executive officer of clothing design company Blkburd Genes.
The letter said that worshippers "actually feel insulted by the photos of Jay-Z wearing Blkburd Genes T-shirt portraying our Riyadha mosque".
"Rest assured we neither consider it an honour or privilege for the historical mosque and its founder Habib Swaleh," the letter said.
It added that "when wearers of these T-shirts end up in bars, clubs and at all sorts of sacrilegious joints" then it was an "affront" to those who revered the mosque.
Mr Badawy said he had since received a letter from Mr Loky, promising to remove "all inappropriate portrayals".
The letter said the T-shirt had been part of a collection to celebrate Lamu.
"Our intention was in good faith and in line with our mission of educating the world in world history using HD art, bold fine print and a QR code that carries our finding history on Lamu," it added.
Five things about Riyadha Mosque
The letter said that only 20 T-shirts,
retailing for $195 (£141) and marked sold out on his website
, had been produced for "celebrity friends and their family".
They would be advised not to wear them in bars and clubs, it added.
Mr Badawy told the BBC that mosque officials were satisfied with the apology because there was "no malice" on the designer's part.
"We need to forgive and be tolerant," he added.
More about Lamu:
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fdb687309389e3fabf44cab07b221254 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15581450 | Philippines profile - Timeline | Philippines profile - Timeline
A chronology of key events:
1542
- Spanish expedition claims the islands and names them the Philippines after the heir to the Spanish throne.
1896
- Civil and armed campaign for independence from Spanish rule begins.
1898
- Revolutionary forces under Emilio Aguinaldo proclaim independence.
1898
December - During brief Spanish-American War, US Navy destroys Spanish fleet in Manila Bay. Spain cedes Philippines to US, which proclaims military rule.
1899
- Revolutionaries refuse to recognise US takeover, proclaim First Philippine Republic with General Aguinaldo as president, launch armed struggle against US forces known as Philippine-American War.
1901
- Emilio Aguinaldo captured.
1902
- Philippine-American War formally ends as US civil government replaces military rule. Some independence forces fight on until defeat of Moro resistance in south in 1913.
1907
- Elected Philippine assembly inaugurated under US rule.
1916
- US government promises Philippines greater autonomy, leading to independence.
1935
- A plebiscite approves establishment of Commonwealth of Philippines. Manuel Quezon is its first president. Philippines promised full independence within 10 years.
Invasion and occupation
1941
- Japan seizes Philippines.
1944
- US forces retake islands.
1946
- Islands granted full independence and renamed Republic of the Philippines.
1947
- The US is awarded military bases on the islands.
1951
- Peace treaty signed with Japan. The Philippines eventually receive $800m in reparations payments.
1965
- Ferdinand Marcos becomes president.
1969
- Marcos re-elected amidst allegations of electoral fraud. Supports US policy in Vietnam. Muslim separatists in south begin guerrilla war.
Martial law
1972
- Marcos declares martial law. Parliament suspended, opposition politicians arrested, censorship imposed.
1973
- New constitution gives Marcos absolute powers.
1977
- Opposition leader Benigno Aquino sentenced to death, but Marcos delays execution.
1980
- Aquino allowed to travel to US for medical treatment.
1981
- Martial law lifted. Marcos wins presidential elections.
1983
- Aquino returns to Philippines, but is shot dead as he leaves plane amid suspicions of official military involvement.
"People power"
1986
- Presidential elections see Marcos opposed by Aquino's widow Corazon. Marcos declares himself the winner, but Aquino disputes result. Mass protests, dubbed "people power", in Manila see military abandon Marcos, who flees to Hawaii. New government says Marcos looted billions of dollars during his rule.
1989
December - US jets assist Philippine government forces suppress attempted coup.
1990
- Military officials convicted of murder of Benigno Aquino.
1991
- US abandons Clark Air Base after volcanic eruption smothers it with ash.
1992
- Aquino's defence minister Fidel Ramos wins presidency. US closes Subic Bay Naval Station.
1996
- Peace agreement reached with Muslim separatist group, Moro National Liberation Front. Another group, Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), fights on.
1998
- Former film star Joseph Estrada elected president.
2000
November - Impeachment proceedings start against President Estrada on allegations of corruption, betrayal of public trust, and violation of the constitution.
Estrada tried
2001
January - Suspension of impeachment causes mass street protests. Military withdraws support and President Estrada stands down. Vice-President Gloria Arroyo sworn in as president.
2001
March - MILF declares ceasefire, says ready to hold talks with government.
2001
April - Joseph Estrada is charged with plundering more than $80m from state funds while in office. Eventually found guilty and jailed for life. although he wins pardon.
2002
January - US and Filipino armies hold joint counter-terror exercises take place near stronghold of Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group.
2002
October
-
Series of deadly bomb blasts on Manila bus and three locations in Zamboanga city blamed on Islamist militants.
2003
February - Ceasefire between MILF and government breaks down. Planned talks called off in May after rebel attack on Mindanao kills 30 people.
2003
July - Government signs another ceasefire with MILF ahead of planned talks in Malaysia.
Army mutiny in Manila as some 300 soldiers seize shopping centre, but surrender peacefully following negotiations.
2004
February - Peace talks between government and Maoist rebel New People's Army start in Norway, but are called off by the rebels in August.
2004
June - Gloria Arroyo wins May's presidential elections.
Arroyo under pressure
2005
January - Heavy fighting between troops and MILF rebels breaks July 2003 ceasefire.
2005
April- Breakthrough achieved on contentious issue of ancestral land achieved at peace talks in Malaysia between government and MILF rebels.
2005
June - Influential Cardinal Jaime Sin, who led the two peaceful revolts that toppled Presidents Marcos and Estrada, dies aged 76.
2006
February - More than 1,000 people are killed by a mudslide which engulfs a village on the central island of Leyte.
President Arroyo declares a week-long state of emergency after the army says it has foiled a planned coup.
2007
January - Death of Abu Sayyaf leader Khaddafy Janjalani in 2006 confirmed.
2007
February - Government report accuses military of being behind the killings of hundreds of mainly left-wing activists since 2001.
2007
November - Renegade soldiers make failed coup bid at luxury hotel in Manila after breaking out of court where they were standing trial for failed 2003 mutiny.
Rebel peace accords
2008
July-August - Government negotiators say they have reached an agreement with MILF rebels on the expansion of a Muslim autonomous region in the south. Deal collapses after Christian communities raise objections and renewed fighting on the southern island of Mindanao leaves at least 30 people dead.
2008
December - Norwegian-brokered peace talks with Maoist guerrillas of the New People's Army (NPA) break down; NPA attacks army patrol on Mindanao.
2009
September - Army announces capture of leading MILF figure Camarudin Hadji Ali.
2009
November - An attack on group of people travelling to file election nomination papers on Mindanao leaves 57 dead. Victims' relatives blame the rival Ampatuan clan.
2009
December - Peace talks between Manila and MILF resume in Malaysia, after breaking down 16 months ago.
2010
February - The army captures Abu Sayyaf leader Mujibar Alih Amon, suspected of a kidnapping raid on a Malaysian resort in 2000 and the killing of Christian missionaries in 2001.
Prosecutors charge 196 more people with murder over the Maguindanao massacre in November, including Andal Ampatuan Snr, a former provincial governor and ally of President Arroyo.
Benigno Aquino elected
2010
June - Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino becomes president.
2010
September - Andal Ampatuan junior, a member of the powerful Ampatuan clan, goes on trial on charges of organising the Maguindanao mass killings.
2011
February - Manila and Maoist NPA agree to work towards a peace deal by 2012 at talks in Oslo, their first negotiations since the previous round broke down in 2004. Troops arrested prominent NPA member Tirso Alcantara the previous month.
2012
May - Philippines and Chinese naval vessels confront one another off the Scarborough Shoal reef in the South China Sea. Both countries claim the reef, which may have significant reserves of oil and gas.
2012
October - The government signs a framework peace plan with the Muslim rebel Moro Islamic Liberation Front, ending a 40-year conflict that has cost an estimated 120,000 lives.
2012
December - Parliament defies the Catholic Church to vote for state-funded contraception, approving a bill that has been debated for 13 years.
2013
February - Armed followers of a self-proclaimed sultan invade Sabah state on Malaysian Borneo, sparking several days of fighting with Malaysian forces. More than 60 people are killed.
2013
May - Major diplomatic row erupts between Taiwan and the Philippines after Filipino coastguards kill a Taiwanese fisherman in disputed waters.
2013
September - Stand-off between the army and rebel remnants of Moro National Liberation Front in southern city of Zamboanga prompts 75,000 residents to flee.
2013
November - Typhoon Haiyan sweeps across central areas of the country leaving devastation and thousands of dead in its wake. A major international aid effort is organised to help more than four million people affected.
2014
March - The MILF rebel group signs a peace deal with the government that brings an end to one of Asia's longest and deadliest conflicts.
2014
April - Supreme Court approves a birth control law, which requires government health centres to distribute free contraceptives. The bill marks a defeat for the Catholic Church, which campaigned strongly against it.
2015
January - Forty-four police commandos are killed in clashes with Muslim rebels on the southern island of Mindanao, the largest loss of life for the security forces in recent memory.
2015
March - Hundreds of Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines register to vote in 2016 elections under peace deal designed to end four decades of conflict.
2016
June - Populist former mayor Rodrigo Duterte elected president, announces hard-line crackdown on drugs and suggests he might pivot from the US to China.
2016
June - The so-called Islamic State (IS) group acknowledges its operations in the Philippines in an official video, having recognised Isnilon Hapilon, an Abu Sayyaf leader, as "emir" there.
2016
July - Government welcomes the ruling in a case it brought before an international tribunal which concluded that China's claim to much of the resources in the South China Sea had no legal basis.
2017
May - Martial law imposed on the island of Mindanao after fighting erupts between security forces and Islamic State-linked militants of the Maute group and Isnilon Hapilon.
2017
October - Southern city of Marawai declared liberated from jihadist fighters who held it for almost five months.
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d0c5d0e56d99c1d464d3489e95dd988b | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15674351 | Australia country profile | Australia country profile
Australia ranks as one of the best countries to live in the world by international comparisons of wealth, education, health and quality of life. The sixth-largest country by land mass, its population is comparatively small with most people living around the eastern and south-eastern coastlines.
The country's first inhabitants, the Aboriginal people, are believed to have migrated from Asia tens of thousands of years before the arrival of British settlers in 1788. They now make up less than 3% of Australia's 23 million people.
Years of mass immigration after the Second World War heralded sweeping demographic changes, making modern Australia one of the world's most multicultural countries. But migration continues to be a sensitive issue politically.
In shaping its foreign and economic policy, Australia first looked to Europe and the US but in the last 20 years has developed stronger ties with Asia. It has acted as peacekeeper in the region sending missions to Solomon Islands, East Timor and Papua New Guinea.
Although Australia remains part of the Commonwealth, the future role of the monarchy has been a recurring issue in politics. An aging population, pressure on infrastructure and environmental concerns such as climate change are some of the long-term challenges facing the country.
Monarch: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by a governor-general
Prime Minister: Scott Morrison
Scott Morrison emerged victorious from a week of governing Liberal Party infighting in August 2018 to succeed Malcolm Turnbull as leader of Australia's main conservative party and prime minister.
The socially-liberal Mr Turnbull steered same-sex marriage among other measures through parliament after ousting his more conservative predecessor Tony Abbott in 2015, but his poor poll ratings spurred an unsuccessful right-wing challenge.
The weakened prime minister bowed out, allowing the socially conservative but pragmatic finance minister Scott Morrison time to unite the party ahead of May 2019 elections that saw the governing coalition returned to power with a majority.
As immigration minister under Tony Abbott in 2013-2014, Mr Morrison came to prominence for enforcing the policy of stopping boats run by people-smugglers from docking in Australia.
MEDIA
Australia's media scene is creatively, technologically and economically advanced. There is a tradition of public broadcasting but privately-owned TV and radio enjoy the lion's share of viewing and listening.
Media ownership is highly concentrated. Leading groups include News Corp Australia, Seven West Media and Fairfax Media-Nine Entertainment.
Around 88% of Australians are online.
Some key dates in Australia's history:
40,000 BC
- The first Aborigines arrive from southeast Asia. By 20,000 BC they have spread throughout the mainland and Tasmania.
1770
- Captain James Cook charts the east coast in his ship HM Endeavour and claims it as a British possession, naming it "New South Wales".
1901
- The Commonwealth of Australia comes into being.
1914
- Australia commits hundreds of thousands of troops to the British war effort during World War 1. Their participation in the Gallipoli campaign leads to heavy casualties.
1948
- Australia launches a scheme for mass immigration from Europe.
2002
- In Bali, 88 Australians are among 202 people killed when bombs go off in two nightclubs.
2008
- Government makes a formal apology for past wrongs committed against the indigenous Aboriginal population.
Read a full timeline
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bca83192f8fe677c77abe208f62862f3 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15705308 | Kazakhstan: Taraz city attack kills seven | Kazakhstan: Taraz city attack kills seven
A suspected Islamist militant has killed seven people in the city of Taraz in southern Kazakhstan - one of the worst attacks the country has seen.
The man shot dead four members of the security forces and two civilians before blowing himself up, killing another police officer, say officials.
The attack is the latest of several this year.
It is likely to raise concerns that the militant threat is growing in Kazakhstan.
The killings began when the attacker shot dead two members of the security forces who were following him, say prosecutors.
He then raided a gun shop, killing an employee and a passer-by, before hijacking a car and shooting dead two police officers who were chasing him, said a spokesman for the prosecutor- general's office.
As the police tried to disarm the man, he detonated explosives killing himself and one officer.
At least three other police were injured during the rampage.
The prosecutor's office described the 34-year old attacker as "a follower of jihadism," saying he was named Kariyev.
A criminal investigation has been ordered into the killings.
"We never thought that this kind of thing could happen here," a resident of Taraz told the Reuters news agency.
The assault is highly unusual for Kazakhstan, but follows a handful of bomb attacks in recent months.
Two bombs were detonated in the western city of Atyrau in October, but only the bomber was killed.
A previously unknown Islamist militant group, Jund al-Khilafah (Soldiers of the Caliphate), said it was responsible for that attack.
Two people were injured in May when a suicide bomber attacked a regional security building in the northern city of Aktobe.
At the time that attack was blamed on an organised crime group.
Until this year, oil-rich Kazakhstan had not experienced any of the militant activity seen in some of its Central Asia neighbours.
However, following recent activity blamed on militants, the government introduced a new law to try to tighten its control over radical religious groups.
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d604235073988eba8247099fe9dbac7c | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15776705 | Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime | Cambodia's brutal Khmer Rouge regime
The Khmer Rouge was the ruling party in Cambodia from 1975 to 1979, but during this short time it was responsible for one of the worst mass killings of the 20th Century.
The brutal regime claimed the lives of more than a million people - and some estimates say up to 2.5 million perished.
Under the Marxist leader Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge tried to take Cambodia back to the Middle Ages, forcing millions of people from the cities to work on communal farms in the countryside.
But this dramatic attempt at social engineering had a terrible cost, and whole families died from execution, starvation, disease and overwork.
The Khmer Rouge had its origins in the 1960s, as the armed wing of the Communist Party of Kampuchea - the name the Communists used for Cambodia.
Based in remote jungle and mountain areas in the north-east of the country, the group initially made little headway.
But after a right-wing military coup toppled head of state Prince Norodom Sihanouk in 1970, the Khmer Rouge entered into a political coalition with him and began to attract increasing support.
In a civil war that continued for nearly five years, it gradually increased its control in the countryside.
Khmer Rouge forces finally took over the capital, Phnom Penh, and therefore the nation as a whole in 1975.
During his time in the remote north-east, Pol Pot had been influenced by the surrounding hill tribes, who were self-sufficient in their communal living, had no use for money and were "untainted" by Buddhism.
When he came to power, he and his henchmen quickly set about transforming Cambodia - now re-named Kampuchea - into what they hoped would be an agrarian utopia.
Declaring that the nation would start again at "Year Zero", Pol Pot isolated his people from the rest of the world and set about emptying the cities, abolishing money, private property and religion, and setting up rural collectives.
Anyone thought to be an intellectual of any sort was killed. Often people were condemned for wearing glasses or knowing a foreign language.
Tens of thousands of the educated middle-classes were tortured and executed in special centres.
The most notorious of these centres was the S21 jail in Phnom Penh, where more than 17,000 men, women and children were imprisoned during the regime's four years in power.
Hundreds of thousands of others died from disease, starvation or exhaustion as members of the Khmer Rouge - often just teenagers themselves - forced people to do back-breaking work.
The Khmer Rouge government was finally overthrown in 1979 by invading Vietnamese troops, after a series of violent border confrontations.
The higher echelons of the party retreated to remote areas of the country, where they remained active for a while but gradually became less and less powerful.
In the years that followed, as Cambodia began the process of reopening to the international community, the full horrors of the regime became apparent.
Survivors told their stories to shocked audiences, and in the 1980s the Hollywood movie The Killing Fields brought the plight of the Khmer Rouge victims to worldwide attention.
Pol Pot was denounced by his former comrades in a show trial in July 1997, and sentenced to house arrest in his jungle home.
But less than a year later he was dead - denying the millions of people who were affected by this brutal regime the chance to bring him to justice.
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d8d662a6447ac650ffc3034c66e286a9 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15815056 | Tokyo 1995 sarin attack: Aum Shinrikyo cult trials end | Tokyo 1995 sarin attack: Aum Shinrikyo cult trials end
Japanese judges have upheld the death sentence against the final member of a doomsday cult to be charged over the 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo's metro.
The ruling brings to an end 16 years of prosecutions, and leaves 13 members of Aum Shinrikyo facing execution.
Thirteen people were killed when the group released sarin gas in the metro.
Aum Shinrikyo began as a spiritual group mixing Hindu and Buddhist beliefs, but developed into a paranoid doomsday cult obsessed with Armageddon.
On Monday, judges in Tokyo rejected the final appeal of Seiichi Endo against his death sentence.
He had studied viruses and genetic engineering at university and helped make the sarin gas.
His lawyers had argued that he did not know what the gas was to be used for, and that he was under the mind control of group leader Shoko Asahara and could not refuse him.
He was convicted of murder in the Tokyo attack, and also for his involvement in another sarin attack in the central city of Matsumoto in 1994.
"We heard no words of remorse, no words of apology. This shows what Aum really is," said Shizue Takahashi, whose subway worker husband died in the Tokyo attack.
Former yoga teacher Shoko Asahara started the group in the mid-1980s, and later claimed to have reached enlightenment after a trip to India.
By the time of the Tokyo attack, the group was reputed to have thousands of members, including rich and powerful members of Japanese society.
But Asahara became obsessed with the idea that World War III was about to break out, and began ordering attacks on people he regarded as enemies.
Some 189 Aum cultists have been put on trial over the various attacks carried out by the cult, and 13 sentenced to death, including Asahara. None of the sentences have been carried out.
Three members are still thought to be on the run.
Aum Shinrikyo reinvented itself as the Aleph group, which continues to operate as a spiritual group.
Aleph said in a statement that it was disappointed Endo had not spoken during his trial to give the victims' families a chance to understand what had happened.
The group has asked for a stay of execution for all the Aum cultists.
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7aa02f655ed3588d615741685e5b5a54 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15901363 | Pakistan outrage after 'Nato attack kills soldiers' | Pakistan outrage after 'Nato attack kills soldiers'
Pakistani officials have responded with fury to an apparent attack by Nato helicopters on a border checkpoint they say killed at least 24 soldiers.
The "unprovoked and indiscriminate" attack took place in Mohmand tribal region, the Pakistani military said.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani called it "outrageous" and convened an emergency meeting of the cabinet.
Nato's force in Afghanistan is investigating and has offered condolences to the affected families.
The night-time attack took place at the Salala checkpoint, about 1.5 miles (2.5 km) from the Afghan border, at around 02:00 local time (21:00 GMT).
A statement from the Pakistani army said 24 people were killed and 13 were injured.
Prime Minister Gilani cut short a visit to his hometown to return to Islamabad, where he called an emergency meeting of the cabinet.
A foreign ministry statement said he was taking up the matter with Nato and the US "in the strongest terms".
Within hours of the alleged attack it was reported Pakistan had closed the border crossing for supplies bound for Nato forces in Afghanistan - a move which has been used in the past as a protest.
The BBC's Syed Shoaib Hasan in Karachi says furious Pakistani officials insist there was no militant activity in the area at the time.
The incident looks set to deal a fresh blow to US-Pakistan relations, which had only just begun to recover following a unilateral US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan in May.
A senior Pakistani military officer told Reuters news agency that efforts were under way to transport the bodies of the dead soldiers to Mohmand's main town of Ghalanai.
"The latest attack by Nato forces on our post will have serious repercussions as they without any reasons attacked on our post and killed soldiers asleep," he said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
The Pakistani army said in a statement that two border posts had been attacked by helicopters and fighter aircraft. It said Pakistani troops fired back as best they could.
It said the Chief of Army Staff General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had strongly condemned the "blatant and unacceptable act", and demanded "strong and urgent action be taken against those responsible for this aggression".
In a statement, Isaf commander Gen John R Allen said the incident "has my highest personal attention and my commitment to thoroughly investigate it to determine the facts".
"My most sincere and personal heartfelt condolences go out to the families and loved ones of any members of Pakistan Security Forces who may have been killed or injured."
In apparent response to the attack, lorries and fuel tankers were being stopped at Jamrud town in the Khyber tribal region near the city of Peshawar, officials and local media said - part of a key route supplying Nato equipment to Afghanistan.
"We have halted the supplies and some 40 tankers and trucks have been returned from the check post in Jamrud," Mutahir Zeb, a senior government official, told Reuters.
Pakistani troops are involved in fighting the Taliban in the crucial border region area. Hundreds of militants have been resisting attempts by the security forces to clear them from southern and south-eastern parts of the district.
The checkpoint at the centre of this latest incident was set up to prevent insurgents crossing over the border into Afghanistan, our correspondent says.
He says the movement of insurgents from the area into Afghanistan has been a concern for the Nato-led Isaf and the US.
The US has been targeting militants in Pakistan's tribal areas near the Afghan border for several months, often using unmanned drone aircraft.
Last year, US helicopters accidentally killed two Pakistani soldiers near the border, also prompting Pakistan to temporarily close the border to Nato supplies.
In October, Pakistan's army chief Ashfaq Kayani warned the US against taking unilateral action in nearby North Waziristan.
He said that the US should focus on stabilising Afghanistan instead of pushing Pakistan to attack militant groups in the crucial border region.
Washington has for many years urged Islamabad to deal with militants in the area.
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2b279aad9e4e0a91816a93ccb90d12a5 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16027006 | Luxury sports cars in costly Japan pile-up | Luxury sports cars in costly Japan pile-up
A luxury sports car outing in Japan has ended in what may be one of the most expensive car crashes in history.
Eight Ferraris, three Mercedes-Benzes, a Lamborghini and two other vehicles were involved in the pile-up in the southern prefecture of Yamaguchi.
No-one was seriously hurt, but the road was closed for six hours after the accident.
Media reports estimate the damaged cars are worth at least 300m yen ($3.85m; £2.46m) in total.
The sports cars - driven in convoy by a group of automobile enthusiasts - were on their way to Hiroshima, reports Japanese newspaper The Asahi Shimbun.
Police say they believe the accident, which took place on Sunday, happened when the driver of one of the Ferraris tried to change lanes and hit the crash barrier.
"A group of cars was doing 140-160km/h (85-100mph)," an unidentified eyewitness told Japanese broadcaster TBS.
"One of them spun and they all ended up in this great mess."
Ten people received minor injuries in the crash, police said.
They said some of the vehicles were beyond repair.
"I've never seen such a thing," highway patrol lieutenant Eiichiro Kamitani told AFP news agency. "Ferraris rarely travel in such large numbers."
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e38b2388d38612e26bd4d5140aa9ce52 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16051177 | Sri Lanka under fire over PR firm Bell Pottinger speech | Sri Lanka under fire over PR firm Bell Pottinger speech
Sri Lanka has strongly denounced a report in a UK newspaper which said a leading lobbying company wrote a speech on behalf of the president.
In a report on Tuesday,
the Independent quoted a Bell Pottinger company spokesman as saying it wrote a speech the president gave to the UN in 2010.
The spokesman is quoted as saying the speech was "very well received".
Bell Pottinger has so far not commented on the contents of the Independent's report.
The speech in question was made at the UN's General Assembly last year when President Mahinda Rajapaksa said there were "serious problems" governing the conduct of war, implying it was advisable to re-examine international humanitarian law, which is embodied in the Geneva Conventions.
He argued such laws had evolved for conflicts between states, and not between states and what he called terrorist groups within them. But he stopped short of explicitly calling for the conventions to be changed.
Mr Rajapaksa was speaking 18 months after Sri Lanka defeated Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate homeland.
Sri Lanka's armed forces have been accused of being responsible for tens of thousands of civilian deaths during the closing phase of that war - a charge denied by the government.
Bell Pottinger chairman David Wilson was secretly recorded as saying that Mr Rajapaksa had chosen the company's version of the speech in preference to one drafted by his own foreign ministry.
"He chose to use our version of the speech despite several attempts by the [Sri Lankan] foreign office to change the tune," Mr Wilson is quoted as saying.
"And it went a long way to taking the country where it needed to go."
The report in the Independent comes as part of a wider investigation in the UK by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism into the work of the public affairs company, to highlight some of the issues around regulation of PR companies and lobbyists.
Bell Pottinger describe themselves as "reputation management" specialists.
Correspondents say that their client list includes several countries with dubious human rights records including Uzbekistan, Belarus and Bahrain.
Last year the Sri Lankan government conceded that it paid Bell Pottinger about £3m ($4.7m) a year to try to enhance the country's post-war image. It said that the company was hired to lobby UK, UN and EU officials.
Mr Rajapaksa's media chief, Bandula Jayasekera, would not comment on the Independent report, dismissing it as a "scurrilous article" by the British media intended to "create trouble".
The government has been angered by coverage of the end of the war in 2009 by the UK's Channel Four and the Times over the conduct of the army, which has been accused of committing human rights abuses.
The BBC's Sinhala service's Chandana Keerthi Bandara says that Bell Pottinger has made no secret of the fact that it has represented the Sri Lankan government.
In December 2010 two representatives of the company attended a north London meeting held by mainly expatriate Sri Lankan Tamils on alleged war crimes by the Sri Lankan military.
Our correspondent says that one of the Bell Pottinger representatives told the gathering that it was important to record what the Tamils had to say and report it back to Sri Lanka's leadership so that a response could be formulated.
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6b9e3726939de4b33c6f80839e1f6443 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16157177 | Pakistan: Karachi police free chained students | Pakistan: Karachi police free chained students
About 50 students have been freed from a religious school in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, where some were being kept in chains, officials say.
The male students, some as young as 12, were reportedly beaten, deprived of food and kept in what police say amounted to a torture chamber.
Some parents paid for their children to attend the school known as the "jail madrassa" because their sons were addicted to drugs or involved in crime.
An inquiry has already been ordered.
At least two people helping run the madrassa have been arrested, but the head escaped, police said.
The BBC Urdu Service's Hasan Kazmi saw the rescued people in a police station several hours after the raid. They were still in chains because police could not find the keys.
Students have described the brutal regime inside the seminary - some spoke to the media while still wearing their chains.
One said he was beaten 200 times, while another said they were told they would be sent to join the jihad and if they tried to escape they would get 200 lashes.
"I was kept in the basement for the past month and was kept in chains. They also tortured me severely during this period. I was beaten with sticks," student Mohi-ud-Din told Reuters news agency.
Our correspondent met one teenager who said they were forced to study all hours. "We were not provided proper food or clothing," he said.
One boy said Taliban members had visited the seminary and told them to "prepare for battle".
"Every possibility including its involvement in militancy will be investigated," Sharfuddin Memon, home affairs spokesman for Sindh province told AFP news agency.
A number of the students appear to have been involved in drugs or petty crime.
Some parents paid substantial amounts to enrol their children at the seminary and correspondents say that in some cases parents actually applied the chains which imprisoned their children.
Many parents had left their children at the madrassa for treatment, believing that the harsh regime would aid rehabilitation - some of these parents told the BBC they were happy with the result. They say they were chained to prevent them for escaping.
"If a child has issues such as bad company, smoking and drugs then we have no choice but to get him admitted in such places," Mohammed Qasim, the father of one student, told the BBC.
The captives were found during a police raid on the seminary in the central Sohrab Goth district of Karachi late on Monday, police said.
One media report says the police received a tip-off that the head of the seminary kept students chained in the basement and subjected them to torture and abuse.
"Those recovered are aged between 12 and 50 and are mainly of Pashtun ethnicity," Gadap Town
police superintendent Rao Anwar told Pakistan's Express Tribune newspaper
.
At least 18 of those rescued were aged 20 or younger, another police official told AFP.
There are thousands of madrassas in Pakistan providing education for more than two million students, some estimates say.
But officials suspect that there are many unregistered and unregulated seminaries and in some areas these represent the only affordable educational option for children of poor families.
There have been a few instances where students have been mistreated in such seminaries, but an incident on this scale and in such a major city is rare, correspondents say.
Some Islamic schools in Pakistan are accused of being training camps for militants, but while police say they are investigating such links in the Karachi school, they suggest that the primary reason students were left there was for rehabilitation.
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decdc3cd3658d5f42e72e4ff5e0d2a9d | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16201087 | Tajikistan profile - Timeline | Tajikistan profile - Timeline
8th century
- Tajiks emerge as distinct ethnic group; Arab invaders conquer Central Asia, including what is now Tajikistan, and introduce Islam.
9th/10th century
- Persian Samanid dynasty gains control of Central Asia and, in alliance with the caliph of Baghdad, develops Bukhara as centre of Muslim culture.
13th century
- Genghis Khan conquers Tajikistan and the rest of Central Asia, which becomes part of the Mongol Empire.
14th century
- Tajikistan becomes part of Turkic ruler Tamerlane's empire.
1860-1900
- Tajikistan divided, with the north coming under Tsarist Russian rule while the south is annexed by the Emirate of Bukhara.
1917-18
- Armed Central Asian groups exploit the upheaval in Russia following the Bolshevik revolution to mount an insurrection, but eventually fail.
1921
- Northern Tajikistan becomes part of the Bolshevik-designated Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR), which also included Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, part of northern Turkmenistan and southern Kazakhstan.
1924
- Tajik ASSR set up by Soviets and becomes part of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (SSR).
1929
- Tajik ASSR upgraded to the status of an SSR and becomes distinct from the Uzbek SSR; acquires territory of Khujand from Uzbek SSR.
1930s
- The collectivisation of agriculture completed despite widespread resistance.
1960s
- Tajikistan becomes the third largest cotton-producing republic in the Soviet Union; heavy industries, notably aluminium, introduced.
1970s
- Increased Islamic influence, violence towards non-indigenous nationalities.
1978
- Some 13,000 people take part in anti-Russian riots.
Late 1980s
- Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost, or openness, leads to the formation of unofficial political groups and a renewed interest in Tajik culture.
1989
- Tajik Supreme Soviet (legislature) declares Tajik to be official state language; Rastokhez People's Front established.
1990
- State of emergency declared and some 5,000 Soviet troops sent to the capital, Dushanbe, to suppress pro-democracy protests, which are also fuelled by rumours that Armenian refugees are to be settled in Dushanbe; Supreme Soviet declares state sovereignty.
1991
- Tajik Communist leader Qahhor Makhkamov forced to resign after supporting the failed anti-Gorbachev coup in Moscow.
Supreme Soviet declares Tajikistan independent from the Soviet Union; Rahmon Nabiyev, Communist leader during 1982-85, wins Tajikistan's first direct presidential election with 57% of the vote.
Tajikistan joins the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) following the collapse of the Soviet Union in December.
1992
- Anti-government demonstrations in Dushanbe escalate into civil war between pro-government forces and Islamist and pro-democracy groups which eventually claims 20,000 lives, displaces 600,000 and devastates the economy.
Violent demonstrations force Nabiyev to resign in September; Emomali Rahmonov, a pro-Nabiyev communist, takes over as head of state in November.
1993
- Government re-establishes control, suppresses political opposition and imposes strict media controls; Supreme Court bans all opposition parties, leaving the Communist Party of Tajikistan as the only legal party.
1994
- Ceasefire between government and rebels agreed; Rahmonov announces willingness to negotiate with opposition; referendum approves draft constitution reinstituting presidential system; Rahmonov elected president in ballot deemed by international observers as neither free nor fair.
1995
- Rahmonov supporters win parliamentary elections; fighting on Afghan border erupts.
1996
- Islamist rebels capture towns in southwestern Tajikistan; UN-sponsored cease-fire between government and rebels comes into effect.
1997
- Government and rebel United Tajik Opposition (UTO) sign peace accord; National Reconciliation Commission, comprising government and opposition members, created to supervise implementation of accord; Rahmonov injured in grenade attack.
1998
- Rahmonov pardons all opposition leaders in exile and agrees to appoint one of the Islamist opposition's leaders as first deputy prime minister. Rebel uprising in north is crushed with the help of former opposition groups.
1999
- Rahmonov re-elected for second term with 96 % of the vote; UTO armed forces integrated into state army; Rahmonov awarded order of Hero of Tajikistan.
2000
- Last meeting of the National Reconciliation Commission held and a new bicameral parliament set up in March; a new national currency, the somoni, introduced; visas introduced for travel between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
2001
August - Renegade warlord and former opposition commander Rahmon Sanginov, regarded by the government as one of its most wanted criminals, is killed in a gun battle with security forces.
2001
September - Tajikistan is quick to offer support to the US-led anti-terror coalition, set up after the 11 September attacks on the US.
2002
July - Tajikistan doubles the number of border guards along its 1,300-km (800-mi) frontier with Afghanistan to prevent al-Qaeda members from entering the country to escape US forces.
2003
April - Russian President Vladimir Putin visits and announces plans to boost Russian military presence.
2003
June - Referendum vote goes in favour of allowing President Rahmonov to run for a further two consecutive seven-year terms when his current one ends in 2006. The opposition describes the referendum as a travesty of democracy.
2003
July - Parliament approves a draft law abolishing the death penalty for women and reducing the number of crimes for which men can face punishment.
Supreme Court sentences Shamsiddin Shamsiddinov, deputy leader of opposition Islamic Rebirth Party, to 16 years in jail on charges with murder. His party says the case is politically motivated.
2004
July - Parliament approves moratorium on death penalty.
2004
October - Russia formally opens military base and takes back control over former Soviet space monitoring centre.
2004
December - Opposition Democratic Party leader Mahmadruzi Iskandarov arrested in Moscow at the request of Tajik prosecutors, who seek his extradition on terrorism and corruption charges. His supporters say the move is politically motivated.
2005
February - Ruling party wins overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections. International observers say poll fails to meet acceptable standards.
2005
April - Opposition leader Mahmadruzi Iskandarov is released in Moscow after the Tajik authorities' extradition request is turned down, but he is later kidnapped and rearrested in Tajikistan.
2005
June - Russian border guards complete withdrawal, handing the task over to Tajik forces.
2005
October - Opposition leader Mahmadruzi Iskandarov sentenced in Dushanbe to 23 years in jail on terrorism and corruption charges
2006
August - Gaffor Mirzoyev, former top military commander, imprisoned for life on charges of terrorism and plotting to overthrow the government. His supporters say the trial was politically motivated.
2006
November - President Rahmonov wins a third term, in an election which international observers say is neither free nor fair.
2007
March - President Rahmonov orders that babies no longer be registered under Russian-style surnames, and himself drops the Russian ending -ov from his own name.
2008
April - International Monetary Fund (IMF) orders the return of loan of $47m after it finds Tajikistan submitted false data.
2008
July - Russia agrees to write off Tajikistan's $240m debt in return for cession of a Soviet-designed space tracking station.
2009
January - Agreement signed with US military allowing it to transport non-military supplies to Afghanistan over Tajik territory.
2010
February - President Rakhmon's People's Democratic Party wins an overwhelming majority in parliamentary elections. International monitors say widespread fraud took place.
2011
January - Tajikistan settles a century-old border dispute with China by agreeing to cede some land.
2012
April - Tajikistan accuses Uzbekistan of an economic blockade, citing gas supply cuts and rail freight curbs. Tensions are high over a Tajik dam that Uzbekistan fears will restrict irrigation water supplies.
2012
October - Tajikistan grants Russia 30-year extension on Soviet-era military base seen as bulwark against Islamist militancy and drug-trafficking. The lease on the base had been due to expire in 2014.
2013
November - President Rakhmon wins another seven years in office.
2015
May - The head of Tajikistan's Special Forces, Gulmurod Khalimov, claims in a newly released video that he has joined the jihadist group Islamic State in protest at what he calls the government's anti-Islamic policies.
Main opposition party banned
2015
September - Eight policemen are killed after gunmen attack a government building and police state in and around the capital Dushanbe. The government says the gunmen were led by a deputy minister.
Government bans the country's leading opposition party, the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan, accusing it of fomenting armed protests which leave dozens of people dead.
2016
May - Referendum supports constitutional changes which scrap presidential term limits.
2016
October - Work begins on the controversial Rogun hydroelectric dam on the Vakhsh river. Downstream neighbour Uzbekistan has strongly opposed the dam, fearing the impact on its agriculture.
2017
April - Official media required to refer to President Rahmon by his elaborate full title of "Founder of Peace and National Unity, Leader of the Nation, President of the Republic of Tajikistan, His Excellency Emomali Rahmon".
2018
July - Four tourists on bicycles are killed in what the authorities describe as a terror attack.
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134556b57ae044b4a6f2343ce68ed5d4 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16214377 | Peter O'Neill asserts control in Papua New Guinea | Peter O'Neill asserts control in Papua New Guinea
Peter O'Neill, one of two rival prime ministers in Papua New Guinea, says he is now in charge of the strife-torn country.
Dozens of police loyal to Mr O'Neill have been flown to the capital from elsewhere in the country to secure government buildings.
Mr O'Neill's rival, Sir Michael Somare, has not been seen in public for days.
Trouble flared when Sir Michael came back from a long stay in Singapore and claimed he was still prime minister.
He was sworn in by the governor general on Wednesday, but Mr O'Neill responded by installing another governor general and having himself reinstated.
The country now has two prime ministers, two cabinets, two governor generals and two police chiefs.
But analysts say Mr O'Neill now seems to have the upper hand.
The police ejected Sir Michael from the prime minister's residence earlier.
Officers also secured a state-run printing press that then published a newspaper proclaiming Mr O'Neill as the only legitimate prime minister.
And reports say a group of police officers that was guarding Sir Michael has defected to the other side.
Mr O'Neill told reporters outside the prime minister's residence: "There is only one government in this country. There is only one government mandated by the people through its parliament."
Sir Michael, who has been a major figure in PNG's politics for 50 years, was flown to Singapore for treatment for a serious illness earlier this year.
During Sir Michael's absence, Mr O'Neill was installed as prime minister. It was widely believed Sir Michael had stepped down voluntarily.
However, this week the country's supreme court ruled the takeover illegal - a decision later backed by the governor general.
But Mr O'Neill appears to have the support of most MPs and the police.
So far, witnesses say the political crisis has not caused any social unrest, with people in the capital Port Moresby going about their business as normal.
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4b3f77e8e0fd3b83dec75e06de15b2ed | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16218112 | Uzbekistan country profile | Uzbekistan country profile
The land that is now Uzbekistan was once at the heart of the ancient Silk Road trade route connecting China with the Middle East and Rome.
The country spent most of the past 200 years as part of the Russian Empire, and then of the Soviet Union, before emerging as an independent state when Soviet rule ended in 1991.
Under authoritarian President Islam Karimov, who ruled from 1989 until his death in 2016, Uzbekistan was reliant on exports of cotton, gas and gold to maintain its rigid, state-controlled economy. President Karimov's successor, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has made efforts to break Uzbekistan out of its international isolation and economic stagnation, but has yet to initiate any serious political liberalisation.
President: Shavkat Mirziyoyev
Shavkat Mirziyoyev served President Islam Karimov loyally as prime minister from 2003 to 2016, when he moved smoothly into the presidency via a deal between senior government power-brokers.
He moved swiftly to restore relations with neighbouring countries in Central Asia, as well as Russia, China and the United States, and sought to boost foreign investment in the moribund, state-run economy.
President Mirziyoyev has been more cautious on the political reform front, but had managed to out-manoeuvre and replace all senior Karimov-era officials by early 2018, in particular the powerful security chief Rustam Inoyatov.
Uzbekistan is one of Central Asia's biggest media markets. TV is the most popular medium. The government broadcaster operates the main national networks.
Most media outlets are linked directly or indirectly to the state.
Around 50% of the population is online. The authorities have steadily tightened their grip on the internet, says Reporters Without Borders.
See media profile
Some key dates in Uzbekistan's history:
1st century BC
- Central Asia, including present-day Uzbekistan, forms an important part of the overland trade routes known as the Great Silk Road linking China with the Middle East and imperial Rome.
13th-14th centuries
- Central Asia conquered by Genghis Khan and becomes part of Mongol empire.
18th-20th centuries
- Russians take over vast areas of Central Asia, and Bolsheviks retain control of the region.
1989
- Islam Karimov becomes leader of Uzbek Communist Party, and remains in power beyond independence in 1991.
2001
- Uzbekistan allows US to use its air bases for action in Afghanistan.
2005
- Troops open fire on demonstrators in city of Andijan, killing hundreds of people. Western condemnation and sanctions prompt government to move towards Russian and Chinese orbits.
2016
- Islam Karimov dies in office. Successor Shavkat Mirziyoyev eases relations with neighbours, and promotes economic liberalisation.
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5c4b4c1697088b9f8b95b4a95ee71ac4 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16526936 | Pakistan politics: Key players | Pakistan politics: Key players
Pakistan's civilian governments have often been at loggerheads with the judiciary and military, who are frequently accused of meddling in a country with a history of coups. Here are the main players in the country's politics.
Nawaz Sharif
is back in office for a record-breaking third term as prime minster after a remarkable political comeback. Toppled by the military in 1999, jailed and then exiled, he returned to the country for elections in 2008 before patiently biding his time in opposition.
His Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) remains the main political force in Punjab, the most populous province of Pakistan, having fought off a challenge from the revitalised party of Imran Khan. Mr Sharif was tipped to win, but the margin of his victory has surprised many. No stranger to corruption allegations himself, Mr Sharif has ridden a wave of anger against the perceived corruption and inefficiency of the outgoing PPP government.
A wealthy industrialist, he is seen as pro-business - one of the most pressing tasks he now faces will be sorting out an economy in crisis. Neighbouring countries have welcomed his win - it means a more stable government in Pakistan - although many Afghans in particular still view him with suspicion.
Mr Sharif will have to deal with Pakistan's security crisis and efforts to end war over the border in Afghanistan. He denies being soft on militants - but critics say he tolerates religious extremism. Pakistanis may remember how unpopular he was before the coup, when many saw him as power-hungry. Voters hope he is now older and wiser.
Correspondents say now he is in power Mr Sharif may have to accept the army view that there is no option but to fight militants who attack domestic targets.
One of Pakistan's most controversial political figures,
Asif Ali Zardari
was often considered something of an accidental president. He came to power in September 2008 on a wave of public sympathy following the assassination of his wife, former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. But his term in office - which ended in September 2013 - was one of unrelenting political and social turmoil, growing instability and persistent allegations of corruption and economic mismanagement.
His Pakistan People's Party (PPP) was trounced in the 11 May vote. Under Mr Zardari's leadership Pakistan's relationship with Washington deteriorated, with the US questioning whether Islamabad was doing enough to tackle militancy.
The career of Mr Zardari - nicknamed Mr Ten Percent - has been dogged by corruption allegations. The Supreme Court has been pushing to reopen a corruption case for which he has already spent eight years in prison. He is increasingly unpopular with the Pakistani public. Health problems have seen him travel abroad for treatment at crucial moments.
Another test for his leadership came in late 2011 with the leaking of the memo asking for US help to avert a possible coup, following the killing of Osama Bin Laden earlier that year. Mr Zardari denied involvement in the "memogate" scandal, and appears to have escaped possible impeachment at least until the end of his time in office.
The former international cricketer
has been on the political scene for years, but struggled to make any significant gains until now. He won his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Movement for Justice) party's only seat in 2002, and he boycotted the 2008 elections.
In the last couple of years, Mr Khan has tried to bolster his popularity by riding a wave of disillusionment, particularly among the urban middle class and young voters. He sought to capitalise on anger against US drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas. He also succeeded in winning the support of some politicians who had grown disgruntled with their own parties, which helped counter accusations of political inexperience.
One of the main promises of Mr Khan's change agenda was to sweep away the rampant corruption plaguing Pakistani politics, in part by calling for an end to foreign aid. But correspondents cautioned he had some way to go to turn popular support into electoral gains. He is, however, believed to be popular with the military.
In the end all the rallies and Mr Khan's high profile failed to produce the "political tsunami" he predicted on 11 May. However, his party narrowly missed out coming second largest nationally and leads the government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which is plagued by conflict between security forces and militants.
Gen Sharif
is seen by many as a straight-talking, professional soldier with no political ambitions, a factor which is of some importance in Pakistan, given its history of military coups.
The general is not related to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif who appointed him in November 2013.
He played a key role from 2007 in formulating a re-think of military strategy. He argued that the focus of the military's attention ought to be directed principally against Taliban militants rather towards India.
Correspondents say that he brings a sound mix of academic and field experience to the job, which many consider to be the most powerful in Pakistan.
While some say that his political and military connections got him the top job, few have doubted his military credentials - he comes from a family of soldiers.
Lt Gen Zaheerul Islam
replaced Ahmad Shuja Pasha as head of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency in 2012.
He took up the post after a tumultuous year in which the agency was accused by the US of backing militants across the border in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has consistently denied such claims but relations with the US have been tense.
Upon assuming office, he had to deal with the fallout of the Bin Laden killing - in which some in the US accused Pakistan's establishment, and especially the ISI, of at best incompetence and at worst complicity after the al-Qaeda chief was found to have lived in the country for a number of years.
Lt Gen Islam was born into a military family and has also served as deputy head of the ISI.
Many believe the ISI head could be an important figure in any future Pakistani peace negotiations with the Afghan Taliban.
Pakistan's last military leader
dramatically returned in March 2013 to compete in elections, ending four years of self-imposed exile and defying death threats.
But it seems it was a strategic mistake to do so, because he now faces trials in a series of court cases, including one for treason.
In one case, he is accused of failing to provide adequate security for former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, which contributed to her assassination in 2007.
As president from 2001 to 2008, Pervez Musharraf was one of Pakistan's longest-serving rulers. But he was barred from standing in 2013 and his All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) performed as badly as many predicted it would.
The military is thought to be viewing his predicament with a degree of concern, aware that his case could set a precedent.
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59557520bbce6dd85efb073a9b395ad9 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16557209 | Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou wins second term | Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou wins second term
Taiwan's incumbent President Ma Ying-jeou has won a second term in office, promising to further improve ties with neighbouring China.
His main opponent, Tsai Ing-wen, said she took responsibility for the defeat and resigned as leader of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Mr Ma had campaigned on his record of improving ties with China.
China does not recognise Taiwan, regarding the island as a breakaway province. It wants unification.
"In the next four years, cross-strait relations will be more peaceful, with greater mutual trust and the chance of conflict will be less," Mr Ma told jubilant supporters.
"I must let Taiwan have a long-lasting environment of peace and stability."
He added: "This is not my personal victory, the victory belongs to all Taiwanese. They told us that we are on the right track."
Earlier, Ms Tsai told party workers she accepted the Taiwan people's decision and congratulated President Ma.
"We want to give our deepest apology to our supporters for our defeat," she said.
Ms Tsai's DPP favours formal independence from China, although Beijing has repeatedly threatened retaliation if Taiwan makes such a move.
With about 90% of votes counted, Taiwan's Central Election Commission said Mr Ma had won 51% against 46.3% for Ms Tsai.
A third contender, James Soong, once a senior figure in Mr Ma's party, the Kuomintang (KMT), had 2.7%.
The White House congratulated Mr Ma on his victory.
"Taiwan has again demonstrated the strength and vitality of its democratic system," a statement said.
"We are confident Taiwan will build on its many accomplishments, and we will continue to work together to advance our many common interests, including expanding trade and investment ties."
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said she hoped ties with China would continue to improve.
"I welcome the elections held in Taiwan... and reiterate the EU's support for democratic values," she said.
"The EU welcomes the improvements in cross-strait (Taiwan-China) relations over the past four years and I hope that this trend will continue, to the benefit of the people on both sides of the strait," she said.
Taiwan has been suffering its worst economic downturn in decades and unemployment has been rising.
However, most voters still view relations with China as the most important issue.
During Mr Ma's presidency regular direct flights and shipping links have been established with China and a landmark trade deal has been signed that cuts tariffs on hundreds of Taiwanese exports to the mainland.
Beijing has 1,500 missiles aimed at the island to deter any attempt to declare independence.
The United States, which is a key ally of Taiwan, will also be watching the outcome of the vote closely.
Under the Taiwan relations act passed by the US Congress in 1979, the US is obliged to come to the defence of the island if it is attacked by any other party.
While Washington has not openly endorsed Mr Ma, observers say it is an open secret that the US prefers his approach to China.
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3e33b2dd701741fbf823fc77b298b112 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16599781 | Arfa Randhawa death: Pakistan mourns IT girl genius | Arfa Randhawa death: Pakistan mourns IT girl genius
The tragic death of a 16-year-old Pakistani girl who was also a computer genius has cast a spotlight on an industry with huge potential for the country's youth.
Arfa Karim Randhawa, who became the world's youngest Microsoft Certified Professional at the age of nine, died at the weekend after a heart attack following an epileptic fit.
After Arfa passed the Microsoft exam in 2004, Bill Gates was so impressed by her that he invited her to the company's US headquarters.
When he found out she was ill, he also offered medical help and was in touch with her family.
Pakistan has been in the throes of a political crisis but the press and the nation appeared to take a breath and paused for a moment to mourn a young life which gave the country a name in an industry dominated by Silicon Valley and Indian innovation.
Arfa's short life mirrors Pakistan's burgeoning engagement with information technology, an industry which holds out hope for youth embittered by unemployment and a lack of opportunities.
Her father, Col Amjad Karim, says she was particularly concerned to use her skills to help the young, those under-served by IT and those from villages.
"It is generally understood that computers are for very hi-fi people or rich schools but nowadays one can be purchased for a few thousand rupees by the poorest of poorest," he told the BBC.
"Arfa's centre of gravity was wanting to improve human resource development by focusing on education."
Col Karim retired from the army to be his daughter's manager. He says her mother and two younger brothers are in shock after her death.
Arfa had been in intensive care in a Lahore hospital since late December.
Senior politicians joined relatives at her funeral in the city on Sunday - she has already had a technology park named after her in Lahore.
Her loss is also being felt by Pakistan's IT world.
Shoaib Malik, country manager for games company Mindstorm, said: "It's really sad. What was amazing about her was that she had a clear vision, she literally wanted to set up the industry.
"One thinks only kids who have studied from abroad would have a vision but it was remarkable. I think whatever God does, does for the better but had she been alive she could have played an important role in the IT industry."
Mindstorm is one of a number of small Pakistani start-ups tapping into the global IT boom - a side to the country often overlooked amid bombings, natural disasters and never-ending political crisis.
The company, set up by self-taught techies, developed a game which ended being selected as the ICC World Cup 2011 official game, Cricket Power.
According to Pakistan Software Houses Association president Jehan Ara, Arfa was "intelligent beyond her years".
"In addition to achieving a professional certification at the tender age of nine, it is also notable that she set up and ran a computer training institute for a poor community.
"Her passion for technology, coupled with her vision to use her talent to do something significant for Pakistan and its people, was truly amazing for someone so young."
Ms Ara feels the IT industry offers a way out of unemployment for young Pakistanis, many of whom she says are starting their own companies. One Karachi firm is even developing software for the stock exchange in the UK.
But compared to India, Ms Ara thinks firms in Pakistan which she says has an "image problem" may have missed the bus.
Around 1996 - the year when Arfa was born - the IT industry really took off in Pakistan, according to Shakir Hussain, CEO of software company Creative Chaos.
As the millennium approached, the fear of a mass technical apocalypse also motivated people to pay more attention to IT ventures.
"Suddenly there were hiring and migration opportunities for software engineers," he recalls.
But techies in Pakistan had been putting their creative minds to work even earlier than that, with far-reaching and destructive results.
In 1986, two brothers from Lahore created the world's first computer virus, "Brain".
They insist the virus was friendly and not intended to damage information, but it still ricocheted through the tech world and was developed by others, spawning viruses used to exploit operating systems.
That, however, is not what Pakistan's IT industry wants to be known for.
Shakir Hussain thinks it offers bright young people a good chance to earn a few thousand dollars working from home through various websites.
"The internet has been a great leveller," he says.
Arfa's father also champions the potential of IT to improve things for young Pakistanis, but says his daughter's influence went further than that.
"Arfa used to say, 'Don't take our generation lightly'," Col Karim says.
She was role model to "so many other young people - young girls", he says, who referred to her as "Arfa aapi (sister)".
Malalai Yusufzai, a student who spoke out in Swat while it was under Taliban rule, was one of those girls.
"We really have lost a diamond," Ms Yusufzai told the BBC. "When I heard about her, I was really moved. I was amazed that we had someone like her in Pakistan - a genius! I was proud of her and that she's a Pakistani."
Arfa's list of achievements shames people several times her age. As well as learning to fly when she was just 10, Arfa had been working with Nasa after winning a competition last year.
"She was good at singing, poetry, so many things," her father says.
As I leave, I ask for his email address and it dawns on him that he doesn't have it.
"Actually, Arfa used to handle my emails and her own... so I don't have my password."
Arfa is really going to be missed.
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a2384f77ed9035b343f943b66aa3259a | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16695544 | Gunmen in southern Philippines kill 15 fishermen | Gunmen in southern Philippines kill 15 fishermen
At least 15 men were killed in the southern Philippines when gunmen opened fire on three boats, in what military officials say was fishing turf rivalry.
The incident happened on Monday off Basilan province, a stronghold of Muslim rebels.
Three other men were wounded in the incident.
Police have identified several suspects involved but no-one has been arrested yet.
"They (the victims) were fishing on another group's turf," regional military spokesman Lt Col Randolph Cabangbang told the Agence France Presse news agency.
He added that the possibility of Islamist militants being involved in the incident had so far been ruled out.
Police say that about 10 attackers are suspected of involvement in the incident.
The fishermen were aboard three wooden vessels off Sibago island in Basilan when gunmen in speedboats opened fire.
The shooting was discovered by other fishermen in the area. The victims were residents of Pagadian city, 160km (100 miles) north-east of Basilan.
A survivor reportedly told police that they had been warned to stay away from the area where the attack took place.
According to the BBC's Kate McGeown, there are more than a million unlicensed firearms in the Philippines - one for every 40 civilians - and the tally is likely to be much higher in a place like Basilan.
The Basilan region is used as a base by Islamist militants and rebel groups in the predominantly Christian nation.
It is also a hotspot for kidnap-for-ransom groups, with foreigners often the target.
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b4cbd39a85043b3e30981c16a77e4603 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16713137 | Deadly landslide hits Papua New Guinea villages | Deadly landslide hits Papua New Guinea villages
At least 40 people are feared dead after a landslide struck two villages in mountainous central Papua New Guinea on Tuesday, reports say.
The landslide occurred near the town of Mendi, National Disaster Centre director Martin Mosi said.
Officials were heading to the area from where they will fly by helicopter to the disaster site, he added.
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill was also heading to the scene on Wednesday, a spokesman told AFP news agency.
At least 20 more people are believed missing at the site of the disaster, which is near an ExxonMobil liquefied natural gas project.
"The numbers are fluctuating and they need to be verified,'' said Mr Mosi.
An ExxonMobil spokeswoman told AFP that all staff had been accounted for and the company had stopped work in the area.
"It was a big landslide and it covered a big area where there used to be small hamlets, so we are expecting a number of deaths," Mr Mosi added.
Local news media is reporting that this was one of the worst landslides in Papua New Guinea, with a main road in the area blocked. Disaster management teams are moving into the area to assess the extent of damage.
Witnesses said the landslide area was about a kilometre long and a few hundred metres wide, Australian media said.
The Australian High Commission said it had offered assistance to the Papua New Guinea government.
Speaking to Radio Australia, a local Member of Parliament, Francis Potape, said there could be more landslides in the area.
The disaster happened in the early morning hours and covered two villages as people slept, he added.
"There are people buried under the ground and a number of them are children," he said.
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9a9fe480f8a2a40c76d6ac515c0697d5 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16739277 | Papua New Guinea soldiers' mutiny stopped - Peter O'Neill | Papua New Guinea soldiers' mutiny stopped - Peter O'Neill
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O'Neill says an attempted mutiny in Port Moresby by up to 20 soldiers has been put down.
The soldiers said they had taken control of the country's military HQ, and demanded the reinstatement of ousted PM Sir Michael Somare.
But Mr O'Neill said that defence chief Brig Gen Francis Agwi, who was arrested during the mutiny, was now free.
He
told ABC News
lead mutineer Colonel Yaura Sasa was being "dealt with".
However, he declined to explain what that would entail.
He told the Australian broadcaster: "The government has now taken control... The commander is now released, he's not under house arrest. And, as a result, the government has taken full control of the defence headquarters.
"We will now start an investigation into the issues that the soldiers have, and we'll resolve them as we move forward."
The incident appeared to be linked to the conflict between Mr O'Neill and Sir Michael - the two men claiming the role of prime minister.
The two men have been wrangling over the leadership role for six months.
Col Sasa, a former defence attache to Indonesia, backs Sir Michael and had earlier called for him to be reinstated as prime minister within seven days.
He declared himself commander after placing Gen Agwi, who backs Mr O'Neill, under house arrest. Col Sasa denied staging a mutiny, and said that he had been appointed by Sir Michael's government.
The incident is the latest conflict in a power tussle between the two men claiming the South Pacific nation's top job.
Sir Michael left Papua New Guinea in March to receive treatment for a heart condition. In June, his family announced he was standing down from politics, a move he later said had been taken without consulting him.
He remained out of the country for five months and in August, MPs declared the position vacant and that Sir Michael was no longer an MP. Mr O'Neill was elected by 70 votes to 24, replacing acting Prime Minister Sam Abal.
A Supreme Court ruling in December 2011 then stated that parliament had acted illegally by electing Mr O'Neill prime minister. The court also ruled in a 3-2 decision that Sir Michael should be ''restored to the office of prime minister''.
Mr O'Neill, who is backed by the civil service and effectively running the country, refused to step down.
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05f2ee419ed2ad6b8bf703aec24e09ae | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16795442 | Ex Tamil Tiger rebels 'free to join Sri Lanka police' | Ex Tamil Tiger rebels 'free to join Sri Lanka police'
Police in Sri Lanka say that former Tamil Tiger fighters are free to apply to join the police force.
They say more general efforts are also under way to recruit Tamil-speaking police from the areas affected by decades of war.
However there has not been any formal announcement that former combatants can apply for police jobs.
The conflict in Sri Lanka ended in 2009 when the military defeated Tamil Tiger rebels after decades of fighting.
Police spokesman Ajith Rohana told the BBC that a recruitment drive is now on in the former war area and that ex-rebel members can apply.
He said that almost all former combatants were forced to join rebel ranks and go to battle.
As long as they have not been convicted, do not have trials pending and have the right physique, they can be considered for police jobs.
But it will not be easy for all ex-fighters to consider such jobs: O-levels, A-levels or a university degree are needed, depending on the level of the post.
Some who have undergone government "rehabilitation" in special camps have gone on to pass school-level exams.
The government says about 10,000 such men and women, who it says surrendered as the war ended, have now been freed.
About 1,000 remain in the camps while others will face trial. There are also hundreds of Tiger suspects already in prison.
Mr Rohana said that recruiting Tamils and Tamil-speaking Muslims to what remains an overwhelmingly Sinhalese force is important because the main root of the war was the language barrier.
However many commentators also cite political exclusion and discrimination as root causes of the war.
He said 450 new Tamil-speaking sub-inspectors and constables, including some women, have just started their training.
Last year some Tamil recruits to the force expressed dismay when they were suddenly excluded from a war anniversary parade. One said they appeared to be viewed as a security problem.
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951e6c2ce5aa92621146a37116531dcb | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-16926554 | Philippines seeks US muscle on South China Sea | Philippines seeks US muscle on South China Sea
Sarah Osorio is bubbly and beautiful, and she is enjoying her reign as both Miss Palawan and Miss Kalayaan - the name of a contested chain of tiny islands in the South China Sea.
"That's me!" said the 18-year-old, showing a video of the beauty contest, where she struts down the runway beaming and wearing a red bikini.
Ms Osorio said she joined the pageant to make a serious point - about the Kalayaan Islands, where her father is an elected member of the municipal council. Her chance came when she was asked on stage what she would do if she won.
"I will focus on the biggest problem of our municipality, which is that other countries are claiming my municipality," she replied. "Because my municipality is for the Philippines only." The crowd went wild and the crown was hers.
The Kalayaan Islands are some of the thousands of islands, atolls and reefs in the South China Sea, where China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have overlapping territorial claims. Beneath and around them are believed to be rich reserves of oil and natural gas.
China's claim includes almost the entire South China Sea, well into what the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea recognises as the 200-mile-from-shore Exclusive Economic Zones of other claimants. That has led to occasional flare-ups and to competition to occupy islands, reefs and sandbars.
The Philippine army has a few men living on a rusting boat docked on one atoll. There is not room for anything else.
Kalayaan's main island, Pag-asa - about 650 metres in diameter - is spacious by comparison. Many of its 60 residents are in local government.
"We're a small island - no activities, no entertainment," Ms Osorio said. "You can fish during the day and at 6pm, no electricity, sleep." Still, she says, people choose to live there "to show it's ours, that we have that island for the Philippines".
China's energy needs are expected to double over the next 25 years. Already it imports more than half its oil. It is looking to the South China Sea to provide more and is becoming increasingly aggressive in asserting its claims.
When ExxonMobil announced in October that it had found what looked like a sizable natural gas field near the Vietnamese city of Danang, China warned that foreign companies should not proceed in waters it claims.
A Vietnamese survey ship in May filmed as a Chinese Marine Surveillance boat severed the Vietnamese ship's seismic sensor cable.
The Philippines has had its own challenges. Lt-Gen Juancho Sabban, who heads the Western Command of the Philippine Armed Forces on the island, shows off what he calls a "Chinese donation" to his marine patrol boats - a confiscated Chinese fishing speedboat.
"They had GPS, they had radios. They had air compressors for deep sea diving - making use of an air hose - about 50 metres," he said.
Gen Sabban thinks the boat was involved in surveillance. When it went into internal waters, smaller Philippine patrol boats blocked it. The Chinese speedboat tried to ram one of them so the patrols fired to disable the engine.
The arrested crew said they were fishermen from the southern Chinese island of Hainan. But Gen Sabban doubts a fishing boat would have travelled 600 miles on its own. He notes that the group were promptly bailed out by the Chinese embassy and disappeared.
He says similar boats have left markers and construction materials near islands or reefs the Philippines claims.
The Chinese erected a structure on Mischief Reef in 1995 almost overnight and now have a permanent presence there, some 130 nautical miles from the Philippines and 600 from China.
Still, China says it has ancient claims to these distant islands, because Chinese explorers, centuries ago, found them and named them.
"In layman's terms, it's absurd," said Gen Sabban. "Unbelievable." By the same logic, he says, Filipinos travelled to China centuries ago, so the Philippines should be able to claim some of China.
Gen Sabban sees China's new assertiveness as linked to the fact that the Philippines and Vietnam are both opening up waters they claim to foreign companies. Shell and Chevron are already active in the Philippines, and the country is soliciting bids for 15 more offshore exploration blocks.
"Now our oil industry is picking up and investors have increased five-fold or so," Gen Sabban said. "This year, there will be more drilling in the West Philippine Sea (the Philippines' name for areas of the South China Sea it claims) and we expect that by the end of this year, more rigs will be in place."
Protecting an oil rig will be one of the exercises the Philippines performs with the US military this spring. A Philippines delegation visited Washington in January to talk about enhanced US military support in the South China Sea.
"This area is vital to the United States," Chief of US Naval Operations Admiral Jonathan Greenert said recently. "It's been an area vital to our navy and our focus for decades, because of… the trade routes, the large economies."
Adm Greenert said the challenge was to keep trade routes open - and peaceful - while keeping belligerence to a minimum.
China's view is that the US should mind its own business.
"Any interference from outside forces or a multilateral discussion will only complicate matters, rather than resolving them," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Weimin said in November.
China points out that the $30bn in trade the Philippines has with China could double in a couple of years. Or China could punish the country, as the Communist Party-owned newspaper The Global Times suggested, for turning to the US for more military muscle.
Another Global Times editorial warned that "small countries" like the Philippines and Vietnam should stop challenging China's interests or "they will need to prepare for the sound of cannons".
Not surprisingly, this kind of talk irritates Gen Sabban. He says he has doubled patrols of nearby waters over the past 18 months, but has not increased armed presence. He would prefer a peaceful solution. Still, he says, China should think before getting any more aggressive in these waters.
"Remember the Vietnam war, where a smaller country defeated a superpower," he says. "It's about the determination of a people to defend themselves."
And it does not hurt that another superpower stands ready to come to their aid.
Listen to more on this story at
PRI's The World
, a co-production of the BBC World Service, Public Radio International, and WGBH in Boston.
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5f613e399ede606f115472af8da5a85d | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17022756 | China Premier Wen Jiabao vows to help on eurozone debt | China Premier Wen Jiabao vows to help on eurozone debt
China has promised to help resolve the eurozone's debt crisis, after talks with EU leaders in Beijing.
Premier Wen Jiabao offered co-operation to help stabilise debt-ridden EU nations, but made no specific promise to invest in a European bailout fund.
EU leaders have been seeking Chinese money to help bolster a planned fund of about 500bn euros ($665bn; £420bn).
In another sign of the EU's troubles, credit-rating agency Moody's earlier downgraded Spain, Italy and Portugal.
Moody's also downgraded the credit outlook for France, the UK and Austria.
The crisis in eurozone counties has intensified in recent days.
Greece passed a package of severe cuts late on Sunday, demanded by the EU and IMF in return for a 130bn euro bailout.
But the austerity measures have proved deeply unpopular and caused riots in Athens.
Europe is China's biggest trading partner, with trade worth 560bn euros flowing between the two last year.
European leaders have long courted Chinese investment in their bailout fund.
In a joint news conference with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Mr Wen said China was willing to "increase its involvement" in attempts to stabilise the eurozone.
"China is firm in supporting the EU side in dealing with the debt problems. We match our words with our actions," he said.
"We are willing to conduct close communication and co-operation with the EU side."
He reiterated that China supported the EU and hoped the bloc would continue to "send clear, strong and positive messages" about stability.
But he offered no specific investment.
A
press statement
released after the talks listed 31 points of agreement covering a range of issues from cyber security to urban development.
But the statement made no mention of the eurozone crisis.
The BBC's Damian Grammaticas in Beijing says China has made similar promises to increase involvement in the past, but has been reluctant to follow through.
Mr Van Rompuy told reporters that he welcomed Mr Wen's comments.
"It is up to China to make its own decision in order to contribute to the stability of the eurozone," he said.
"We agreed that we will co-operate with each other in these matters."
But analysts say it appears the EU delegation failed to get the solid commitment they wanted from China.
Mr Wen and other Chinese officials at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned last week that a recession in Europe could halve China's growth rates.
EU officials had hoped that such reports would encourage China to be more forthcoming.
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dbe36a5a2a30d11a69b6e01641e1e8d0 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17036895 | Papua New Guinea names 183 missing from sunk ferry | Papua New Guinea names 183 missing from sunk ferry
Papua New Guinea authorities have released a name list of 183 people still missing from the ferry disaster two weeks ago.
Officials say the list, published in a national newspaper on Tuesday, is a "draft" and asked relatives to step forward to help verify the names.
It was thought more than 100 people were missing after the ferry sank off the island nation's north coast.
The youngest on the list is a three-month-old boy, said Australian media.
Small boats were still searching for bodies on Tuesday, but it is likely that the search will be called off on Wednesday, reports said.
Patilias Gamato, director of the local disaster response, blamed the ''defective'' passenger list provided by the company that operated the ferry.
The MV Rabaul Queen sank in rough water east of Lae, the South Pacific country's second-largest city, some 10 miles (16km) from shore. Authorities said 246 people were rescued.
The ferry, operated by PNG company Star Ships, was travelling on a routine route between the towns of Kimbe and Lae when it sent out a distress signal.
On Monday, PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill said his government had asked the Australian Maritime Authority to lead investigations into the disaster.
"Those that are found to be negligent in this disaster will face the law,'' he told the national Post Courier newspaper. ''This is the biggest and worst sea disaster we have had in the country."
He added that the government was considering asking for Japanese help in bringing the sunk ferry to the surface.
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87963863597ecbf9010d351b461d58b5 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17037386 | Three Iranian suspects arrested over Thai blasts | Three Iranian suspects arrested over Thai blasts
Four people, all believed to be Iranian, are suspected of being connected to explosions in Bangkok on Tuesday, Thai police say.
Two are held in the Thai capital while a third man was arrested in Malaysia.
The fourth suspect, a woman, is still at large. Police say she left the country earlier this month.
Thailand's National Security Council (NSC) chief said possible links to blasts targeting Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia were being examined.
Officials believe that the suspects arrested in Bangkok were planning to attack individuals.
Israel's envoy to Thailand said the explosives found in Bangkok were similar to those used in the attacks.
One suspect was injured when one of the devices went off and another was arrested at Bangkok's international airport.
The third suspect managed to board a flight for Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday night, immigration official Lt Gen Wiboon Bangthamai said.
The Thai deputy prime minister has said that the blasts were not an act of terrorism but rather a "minor symbolic act".
Police say the evidence collected so far suggests "similarities" with attacks against Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia earlier this week, but their investigations are continuing.
"From the investigation, we found the type of explosives indicated that the prepared targets were individuals,'' NSC chief Wichean Potephosree told a news conference.
"Based on the equipment and materials we found, they were aimed at individuals and the destruction capacity was not intended for large crowds or big buildings.''
Police also said magnets were found at the rented house. The devices used in Delhi and Georgia were attached to vehicles using magnets.
The two attacks took place on Monday. An Israeli diplomat was injured in the Delhi attack, after a motorcycle rider attached an explosive device to the back door of the car.
Around the same time a bomb beneath an Israeli diplomat's car in Tbilisi, Georgia, was found and defused.
Israel has blamed Iran for the attacks - Tehran has denied any role. A foreign ministry spokesman also denied any role in the Bangkok blasts, AFP reported.
The three small blasts took place in the Ekamai area in central Bangkok on Tuesday afternoon.
Police told the BBC the first explosion happened at a house which the three suspects were believed to have rented for a month.
Two men managed to escape the explosion that severely damaged the house, but a third man who suffered minor injuries tried to hail a taxi. When the taxi refused to stop for him, he threw at least one bomb at it.
There was a third explosion when the same man then attempted to throw another bomb at police, but missed. The man lost his legs when the device blew up.
Four other people were injured in the incident. The US and UK have issued new travel advisories for Thailand in the wake of the blasts.
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ecfd173ef26050995952c06ed16bc1fd | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17093553 | Suu Kyi party says Burma campaign restrictions lifted | Suu Kyi party says Burma campaign restrictions lifted
Officials in Burma have lifted restrictions on election campaigning, pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party said late on Monday.
This came just hours after the National League for Democracy (NLD) complained at a press conference that it was being denied the use of venues for rallies.
"It's a very significant change,'' spokesman Nyan Win told AFP news. ''We are still hoping for fair play."
There are 48 parliamentary seats being contested in the 1 April by-election.
Another NLD member told Reuters that the Union Election Commission (UEC) contacted the party to say that a ban on the use of sports grounds, which had prevented a rally planned for 14 February from taking place, was lifted.
Earlier, at the press conference in Rangoon, the NLD had warned that by-elections may not be fair because of the restrictions. Nyan Win told reporters that the party had been stopped from using three sports fields for the rallies.
The polls are being seen as a test of the government's commitment to reform.
The NLD boycotted Burma's last election in 2010 but agreed to rejoin the electoral process after the military-backed government brought in a series of democratic reforms.
Even if the NLD wins all 48 seats, the military-backed government would still have a commanding majority in parliament.
But, the BBC's Jonah Fisher in Bangkok says, an opposition victory would be seen as hugely symbolic.
Although insignificant in terms of numbers, the conduct of the election will go a long way towards deciding whether Western sanctions to Burma will be lifted.
The 2010 elections saw a military junta replaced with a nominally civilian government backed by the armed forces.
Since then, the new administration has embarked on a series of reforms, prompting the NLD to rejoin the political process.
Western nations have said that they will match progress on reform with movement on sanctions.
The NLD won a landslide victory in the 1990 election, but the ruling military junta at the time did not allow the party to take office.
Ms Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize, was under house arrest at the time. This is the first time that she has run for a parliamentary seat.
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6699d1758d892f38713aeb5b10816840 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17099998 | Thailand names sixth Bangkok bomb suspect | Thailand names sixth Bangkok bomb suspect
Thai police have named a sixth suspect over an alleged Iranian bomb plot to attack Israeli diplomats in Bangkok.
The man was named as Norouzi Shaya Ali Akbar, 57, wanted on suspicion of possessing and making explosives.
Three men are in custody in Thailand and Malaysia and two other people, a man and a woman, are also being sought after last week's blasts in Bangkok.
Thai police took one suspect back to the scene of the first blast on Monday.
Wearing handcuffs and a bullet-proof vest, Mohamad Khazaei was brought to a house used by the suspects in central Bangkok.
An explosion there last Tuesday sparked a dramatic attempt by the Iranians to flee the country, during which a second suspect was badly injured by his own bomb.
A third suspect managed to board a plane to Kuala Lumpur, where he was detained and is facing a Thai extradition request.
The other two suspects are Iranian woman Leila Rohani, who is believed to be back in Iran, and a man of unknown nationality, who was named by police on Friday as Nikkhahfard Javad.
Thai deputy national police chief Pansiri Prapawat said Norouzi Shaya Ali Akbar had been filmed by a CCTV camera leaving a house rented by the suspects.
He is thought to have fled to Iran, the police official was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
Security analysts have linked the Bangkok blasts, in which four other people were injured, to two attacks targeting Israeli diplomats in India and Georgia last Monday.
Israel has accused Tehran of being behind all three attacks while Tehran has denied any involvement.
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300578e2dd13f1d124a972ded1d33fdb | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17144726 | Barack Obama apology to Afghanistan over Koran burning | Barack Obama apology to Afghanistan over Koran burning
President Barack Obama has apologised to the Afghan people for the burning of Korans by American troops at a US base.
In a letter to President Hamid Karzai, Mr Obama expressed his "deep regret" and said the incident earlier this week was a genuine mistake.
Demonstrations against the desecration have continued for a third day across northern and eastern Afghanistan.
Two US soldiers and two Afghans were killed in an attack on a military base. Elsewhere there were four other deaths.
On Wednesday, another seven people were killed and dozens injured in protests.
Mr Obama's letter, delivered by the US ambassador to Afghanistan, assured the Afghan president that US authorities would question all those responsible.
"I convey my deep sympathies and ask you and the people to accept my deep apologies," the letter said.
"The error was inadvertent; I assure you that we will take the appropriate steps to avoid any recurrence, to include holding accountable those responsible," it continued.
President Karzai told members of the Afghan parliament that a US officer was responsible for the burning.
But he said it was done out of "ignorance".
In addition to those killed, many people have been injured in the protests, some of them critically, while armed men on Thursday also attacked at least two military installations.
Crowds shouting "death to Obama" have been throwing stones and setting fire to the US flag.
Meanwhile the Taliban have called on Afghans to kill and beat all invading forces in revenge for "insulting" the Koran.
In a statement a Taliban spokesman said Afghans should "not stop at protesting" but instead target military bases and personnel to "teach them a lesson that they will never again dare to insult the Holy Koran".
The BBC's Andrew North, in the Afghan capital, says many officials sympathise with the outrage the US has provoked across the country.
He says Friday prayers may spark more tensions, depending on the tone set by religious leaders.
Police, local officials and tribal elders have told the BBC there have been major protests in a number of areas across the country, involving many hundreds of people.
Muslims consider the Koran the literal word of God and treat each book with deep reverence.
Last year, at least 24 people died in protests across Afghanistan after a hardline US pastor burned a Koran in Florida.
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373dc210adc3409f615d36e678e21d92 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17420114 | Tonga King George Tupou V dies in Hong Kong, aged 63 | Tonga King George Tupou V dies in Hong Kong, aged 63
King George Tupou V of the South Pacific nation of Tonga has died at the age of 63.
He died at a hospital in Hong Kong with his brother, Crown Prince Tupouto'a Lavaka, at his side.
The BBC's Siobhann Tighe in Tonga says a period of mourning has begun and a state funeral is being organised.
Tonga is the last Polynesian monarchy, although the king was instrumental in bringing about democratic reform. He had been king since 2006.
The cause of King Tupou's death on Sunday was not immediately known.
Our correspondent says the news has shocked Tongans. National radio has been playing hymns and religious music, she adds.
People across the 170-island archipelago were able to vote for their first popularly-elected parliament in November 2010, ending 165 years of feudal rule.
King Tupou said on the eve of the vote he was granting his executive powers to the cabinet and parliament, adding that "in future the sovereign shall act only on the advice of his prime minister".
News of his death quickly spread on the internet and was later confirmed in a broadcast on Tongan radio.
Many Tongans paid tribute to their monarch.
"I am saddened by the news, our beloved King of Tonga has passed away... our country has gone through major losses in the past couple years," Tessi Leila Tolutau was quoted as saying by the New Zealand Herald newspaper.
In September 2006, King Tupou succeeded his father King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, who died after a long illness.
But deadly riots fuelled by demands for reform delayed his coronation until August 2008.
The Oxford-educated monarch was a bachelor. He named his brother heir apparent.
King Tupou was known for his fondness of military uniforms and for being driven around in a London taxi.
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56b372ae6c08a1262b98e40f490c97cd | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17507976 | Obama in push for 'world without nuclear weapons' | Obama in push for 'world without nuclear weapons'
US President Barack Obama says he is pushing for "a world without nuclear weapons", making direct appeals to North Korea and Iran.
He also pledged to work with Russia and China, speaking ahead of a summit in Seoul aimed at reducing the risk of nuclear terrorism.
He emphasised the US's unique position to seek change but said "serious sustained global effort" was needed.
The meeting is being attended by representatives from some 50 countries.
Speaking to students at Hankuk University, Mr Obama reiterated the commitment of the US as ''the only nation to have ever used nuclear weapons'' to reducing its nuclear arms stockpile.
He also spoke, he said, as a father who did not want to see his daughters growing up in a world with nuclear threats, a comment which drew applause from his student audience.
The US president said he was looking forward to meeting newly-elected Russian President Vladimir Putin in May to discuss further nuclear arms cuts.
Mr Obama would seek to follow on from the New Start (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) pact he struck in 2010 with outgoing Russian leader Dmitry Medvedev in 2010, he said.
The New Start deal agreed between Washington and Moscow was intended to replace its lapsed predecessor, Start.
It trims US and Russian nuclear arsenals to 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads - a cut of about 30% from a limit set previously.
The treaty would also allow each side visually to inspect the other's nuclear capability, with the aim of verifying how many warheads each missile carries.
In addition, there will be legally binding limits on the number of warheads and missiles that can be deployed on land, on submarines, and on bombers, at any one time.
In Asia, President Obama said, the US has invited China to work with Washington and ''that offer remains open''.
"We both have an interest in making sure that international norms surrounding non-proliferation, preventing destabilising nuclear weapons, is very important," he said ahead of a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
He also addressed North Korea's nuclear ambitions directly in his speech at Hankuk University, saying that the US has ''no hostile intent'' towards the country, but ''there will be no rewards for provocation''.
He warned Pyongyang that its planned long-range missile launch would only increase its isolation.
Pyongyang says it is preparing to launch a long-range missile which it says will put a satellite in orbit.
''You can continue with the road you are on but we know where that leads,'' he said, addressing the North Korean leaders directly.
''Today, we say: Pyongyang, have the courage to pursue peace.''
Earlier, he and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said North Korea risked further sanctions and isolation if it did not cancel its launch plans.
The launch will contravene an agreement Pyongyang reached last month which would have seen it receive food aid in exchange for a partial freeze on nuclear activities and an end to ballistics tests.
The North also agreed to allow UN inspectors in, the US said.
The invitation comes three months after Kim Jong-un came to power following the death of his father, Kim Jong-il.
The North said the launch - between 12 and 16 April - would mark the 100th birthday of former leader Kim Il-sung.
South Korea has warned it will shoot down the rocket if it strays over its territory.
"We are preparing measures to track the missile's trajectory and shoot it down if it, by any chance, deviates from the planned route and falls into our territory," a defence ministry spokesman said.
The launch site is in north-western North Korea, not far from the Chinese border.
Addressing Iran, Mr Obama said there was still time to resolve the impasse over its nuclear programme through diplomacy.
"But time is short,'' he warned. ''Iran must act with the seriousness and sense of urgency that this moment demands."
Iran insists there is no military element to its programme but Western powers fear it is constructing nuclear weapons.
"Today, I'll meet with the leaders of Russia and China as we work to achieve a resolution in which Iran fulfils its obligations," Mr Obama added.
Despite lofty announcements it may prove difficult to achieve significant progress at the summit, says the BBC's Jonathan Marcus.
The summit agenda is to be expanded to include a wide variety of radiological materials which terrorists could use to make a dirty bomb - one that spreads radiological contamination rather than initiating a nuclear explosion
But experts say there is unlikely to be agreement on converting all nuclear power stations to use low-enriched fuel.
Nor will there be agreement on common standards for nuclear security.
Some countries see this whole process as highly intrusive.
And there is still no common appreciation of the level of threat posed by nuclear terrorism, our correspondent says.
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dd85c424ca137465b0cc1abf3f7ed515 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17520251 | Crowds mourn king at traditional funeral | Crowds mourn king at traditional funeral
Over 1,000 pall bearers dressed in black with mat and straw skirts around their waists carried King George Tupou V on their shoulders.
They brought him from the royal palace, where he was lying in state all night, to the site of the Royal Tombs.
There was a 21-gun salute and the church bell at the Free Wesleyan Centenary Church rang out.
School children sat on the kerb, Tongans looked on wearing their traditional mourning dress and all the homes and buildings the cortege passed were decorated in purple and black material.
The king's coffin, draped in the Royal Standard, was covered by a rigid structure or canopy, with golden spires attached to the roof reaching up into the sky.
The gates to the burial ground were also draped in purple and black, and in gold material the words "God is With Us" were wound around the wrought iron.
The Royal Tombs, where four previous kings and queens are buried, is a vast grass area normally out of bounds, but today hundreds of school children sat there in the blazing sun.
Girls wearing blue pinafores with matching ribbons in their hair lined the route and made sure the tapa (the traditional mat which the pall-bearers walked on) did not fly away.
Boys in their white shirts and waist mats sat in the central space, with nothing on their heads. Strict protocol had to be adhered to - sun hats, umbrellas and sunglasses were forbidden, and everyone was to stay seated.
There were some tents though. One, with a crown on the top, shielded the Tongan royal family from the sun, including the new monarch, King Tupou VI, who is the late king's younger brother, and his wife who is now Queen Nanaipau'u.
A plain white tent protected international guests, including the Duke of Gloucester representing Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, Prince and Princess Hitachi from Japan, and the president of Fiji.
Statesmen and government representatives from countries a little closer like Australia and New Zealand had flown to this tiny island for just one day.
Other VIPs including Tongan politicians and church leaders were also shaded and the state broadcaster, Radio and TV Tonga, was broadcasting live from the scene.
The Tonga Defence Services played a big part because the king was their commander in chief, but so did the marines, and there was a military band.
The Christian service had hymns and biblical readings. The official royal undertakers were there to remove the coffin from the specially-made wooden platform and canopy, take off the Royal Standard and place the king into the burial plot.
There was classical music from Handel and Wagner, and the Last Post and the Tongan National Anthem ended the event which lasted about three hours, shorter than previous state funerals.
Delivering the sermon, the royal chaplain spoke about the political reform the king had overseen and his eagerness to establish closer links with the rest of the world.
The king, who died in Hong Kong, had been out of Tonga since November, and it is traditional for the royal chaplain, amongst others, to wave him off at the airport when he goes away.
In his sermon, the royal chaplain described the farewell. The king told everyone to have a Happy Christmas and New Year, and said he would not be returning for some time.
No one expected those words to ring so true. Even though Tongans knew their king was unwell, many were still surprised when he died.
They were relying on him to keep pushing for change and modernisation.
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84993756a9cbed13e2018af5ef0f4fca | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17677212 | North Korea launch casts doubt on improving relations | North Korea launch casts doubt on improving relations
North Korea's planned rocket launch over the next few days casts doubt on hopes for an agreement on its nuclear programme, but there is little chance it will back down.
In Japan surface-to-air missile batteries are on alert.
Japanese, South Korean and Philippine Airlines flights are being diverted away from the danger area and both the Philippines and South Korean authorities have warned fishing boats to avoid waters where debris from the North Korean rocket launch might fall.
This represents the first international crisis since the new North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, took office.
It risks dashing all hopes that his new leadership might offer the chance for better relations between Pyongyang and the outside world.
China, Russia, the United States and a host of other countries have urged the North Koreans to abandon their rocket launch which Pyongyang says is intended to lift a satellite into orbit.
Experts believe that there is little chance of the mission being cancelled.
"According to North Korean spokesmen the missile launch was ordered by the late Kim Jong-il last year, before he died," says Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the Non-Proliferation and Disarmament Programme at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.
"Given the public connection to the late leader and the significance of the launch on the centenary of Founding Father Kim Il-sung's birth, there is no way for North Korea to back down without huge loss of face."
He adds: "The launch is important to North Korea militarily because past test launches have all been failures. The military wants to make sure that it has a longer-range missile that works."
But the launch, argues Mr Fitzpatrick, "is even more important politically".
"For years," he says, "North Korea has proclaimed that this month's centenary would usher in an era of 'prosperity and power' for the nation.
"With the economy unable to escape the chronic impoverishment induced by central planning and misallocation of resources, the missile launch is the only thing the regime can use to demonstrate the 'power' part of the pledge."
By launching a rocket into space, North Korea will be breaking two UN Security Council resolutions demanding that it halt all missile tests.
This is indeed all about rocket science. For the technology for this space launch is mostly identical to that employed in North Korea's ballistic missile programme. This includes the engine, the missile frame, and the three-stage separation technology.
"The main difference," says Mr Fitzpatrick, "is what sits atop the missile: in this case presumably a satellite rather than a warhead."
He says: "This launch won't help North Korea ensure that it can protect a nuclear warhead from the heat and buffeting of atmospheric re-entry.
"But the launch will help North Korea significantly in its programme to develop a long-range ballistic missile for military purposes."
What is even more worrying for many observers are the indications that North Korea may be planning to follow-up the satellite launch with another nuclear test.
Mr Fitzpatrick has no doubt that North Korea is also preparing another nuclear test, although, he says, it may come later in the year.
"Its previous two nuclear tests were only partially successful, so the military leaders will want another test to ensure reliability.
"As in 2009, the missile launch will result in global condemnation, which Pyongyang will then cite as an excuse for another provocation, this time in the form of a nuclear test."
So where does this leave international efforts to contain North Korea and to try to roll-back its nuclear programme?
In disarray is probably the only reasonable answer. The US had been hoping to build on a North Korean offer to suspend some of its nuclear activities in return for food aid, to encourage Pyongyang back to the negotiating table. But if the launch goes ahead food aid will be out of the question.
Conservative voices in the US have criticised the Obama administration's whole approach towards North Korea - there is of course a US presidential campaign under way.
But the ability of outsiders to influence Pyongyang remain limited. This crisis underscores that even China's capacities in this respect are often much over-stated.
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3cbe27a05d8cb7bde0c29478ea0d317f | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17890754 | Australian billionaire Clive Palmer to build Titanic II | Australian billionaire Clive Palmer to build Titanic II
Clive Palmer, one of Australia's richest men, has commissioned a Chinese state-owned company to build a 21st Century version of the Titanic.
The mining billionaire told Australian media that construction would start at the end of next year.
It would be ready to set sail in 2016.
The plan, he added, was for the vessel to be as similar as possible to the original Titanic in design and specifications, but with modern technology.
Mr Palmer told Australian media that he had signed a memorandum of understanding with CSC Jinling Shipyard to construct the ship.
"It will be every bit as luxurious as the original Titanic but of course it will have state-of-the-art 21st Century technology and the latest navigation and safety systems," he said in a statement.
The announcement comes just weeks after the centenary of the sinking of the ill-fated Titanic.
The vessel, the largest luxury ship in its time, struck an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York. It went down on 15 April 1912, leaving more than 1,500 people dead.
"Of course it will sink if you put a hole in it,'' Mr Palmer said in response to questions from reporters on whether the Titanic replica would sink.
The new vessel is scheduled to sail from London to New York in late 2016, if all goes as planned.
"It is going to be designed so it won't sink,'' he added. ''But, of course, if you are superstitious like you are, you never know what could happen.''
The cost of the construction is not known, a spokesman for Mr Palmer told Australian media.
The mining magnate from Queensland, who has strong business relations with China, has expanded into tourism. He owns a luxury resort on the Sunshine Coast and has plans to build a fleet of luxury liners.
His plan to build the Titanic replica was announced on the same day that he revealed plans, in a separate news conference, to contest the next federal election in Queensland.
He told reporters that he has expressed interest in standing for Queensland's Liberal National Party (LNP), part of the conservative opposition at federal level, in the Brisbane seat of Lilley - currently held by Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer Wayne Swan.
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6602301fd347a7a8d2875c0643bafbc3 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18030813 | Gambling row hits South Korea monks | Gambling row hits South Korea monks
The leader of South Korea's biggest Buddhist order has apologised after monks were filmed apparently gambling illegally.
Six leaders of the Jogye order offered to resign on Thursday after the secretly-filmed footage emerged.
Film apparently showing monks playing poker at a luxury hotel, some smoking and drinking, was aired on television.
Gambling is illegal in South Korea, apart from in designated places such as casinos catering mostly to tourists.
Gambling is also a violation of the code of conduct for monks of the Jogye order.
The six members of the order's executive committee offered to resign on Thursday to take responsibility for the incident.
Leader Master Jinje also said he would "self-repent" on behalf of the monks concerned.
The order says it has more than 10 million followers - about 20% of the population of South Korea.
But it has reportedly been hit by feuds and factional infighting.
Local media reports said that the footage was thought to have been shot by a monk from the same order described as an opponent of the current administration.
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0777945df5d70a0972373c856e086588 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18175964 | Pakistan jails doctor who helped CIA find Bin Laden | Pakistan jails doctor who helped CIA find Bin Laden
A Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA find Osama Bin Laden has been jailed for at least 30 years, officials say.
Shakil Afridi was charged with treason and tried under the tribal justice system for running a fake vaccination programme to gather information.
The US state department said there was "no basis" for the charges, but declined to make a specific comment on the doctor's sentence.
Bin Laden was killed by US forces in Abbottabad in May 2011.
The killing triggered a rift between the US and Pakistan, whose government was seriously embarrassed as it emerged Bin Laden had been living in Pakistan.
Islamabad felt the covert US operation was a violation of its sovereignty.
Shortly after the raid on Bin Laden's house, Dr Afridi was arrested for conspiring against the state of Pakistan.
Pakistan has insisted that any country would have done the same if it found one of its citizens working for a foreign spy agency.
Dr Afridi has been found guilty in Khyber district, and has also been fined $3,500. If he does not pay the fine his prison sentence will be extended by a further three years.
Under the tribal justice system, the administrative head of a tribal district performs the function of a judge.
Typically, this means a court will often deliver swift justice and does not necessarily follow the regular judicial procedures.
Dr Afridi, who is now being held in jail in Peshawar, was not present in court so was unable to give his side of the story.
State department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters on Wednesday: "We continue to see no basis for these charges, for him being held, for any of it."
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for his release on the grounds that his work served Pakistani and American interests.
The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Islamabad says that many outside observers are concerned that most of the people detained since Bin Laden's killing have been those who were trying to help capture him, rather than those who helped shield him.
In June, Pakistani army officials told the BBC that some suspects were arrested for helping the Americans refuel their helicopters during the raid. Others were detained because they were suspected of firing flares to guide the helicopters towards the compound.
It is not clear if Dr Afridi knew who the target of the investigation was when the CIA recruited him, or what DNA he managed to collect in the fake hepatitis B vaccination programme.
The idea was to obtain a blood sample from one of the children living in the Abbottabad compound, so that DNA tests could determine whether or not they were relatives of Bin Laden, our correspondent says.
Both US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have said Dr Afridi's arrest was a mistake and called for his release.
Speaking in January, Mr Panetta said: "Dr Afridi was not in any way treasonous towards Pakistan. For them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think is a real mistake on their part."
The conviction of Shakil Afridi is likely to further strain US-Pakistan tensions, which have been rocky since the killing of Bin Laden, the BBC's Orla Guerin in Islamabad says.
More recently, the issue of drone strikes and Pakistan's refusal to re-open Nato supply routes to Afghanistan have made for a particularly uneasy relationship between the two allies, she says.
Pakistan's parliament has called for an end to the use of drones, and says they are an attack on its sovereignty. A drone strike on Wednesday killed four people in the North Waziristan tribal area, security officials said.
The two countries also failed to reach agreement at the Nato summit in Chicago over the supply routes that were closed after a US air strike in 2011 killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.
Islamabad is demanding more than $5,000 (£3,200) per lorry, up from its previous rate of $250, to let supplies flow again.
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8f5fcf6615764b0dea1406956e5b5b01 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18186093 | US drone 'kills 8' in Pakistan | US drone 'kills 8' in Pakistan
A US drone strike has killed at least eight people in a volatile tribal area of north-west Pakistan, officials say.
The strike targeted suspected militants of Turkmen origin in the North Waziristan tribal area, they said.
This is the second strike in the area in 24 hours. At least four suspected militants were killed on Wednesday.
Drone attacks frequently target Pakistan's restive tribal areas, where many insurgents seek refuge.
The drone fired two missiles at a house in the Isokhel area near Mir Ali. A nearby mosque was also damaged, reports say.
Five people died at the scene and three others who were injured died afterwards, according to a local official.
This district, near the Afghan border, is known to be a Taliban stronghold and a place where there are a large number of foreign militants, says the BBC's Aleem Maqbool.
The attack comes weeks after Pakistan's parliament resolved that the relationship with the US could only move forward positively if there was an end to drone attacks, our correspondent adds.
The US says the region is home to several militant groups involved in attacks on Nato forces in Afghanistan. But Pakistan has said drone raids serve to drive local people closer to the militants.
Washington has cut the number of drone operations but has ruled out stopping them altogether.
The issue of drone strikes, along with Pakistan's refusal to re-open Nato supply routes to Afghanistan, has led to increased tension in US-Pakistan relations in recent months.
The Pakistani government repeatedly argues that drone attacks are a violation of its sovereignty.
But correspondents say many analysts believe they could not continue without tacit support from the country's leadership.
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5d709a40a8a05ab567afd7f750034fd3 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18275735 | Detentions reported in Tibet capital after immolations | Detentions reported in Tibet capital after immolations
Reports from Tibet say Chinese security forces have launched a wave of detentions in Lhasa following two self-immolations there on Sunday.
Witnesses to the immolations had been arrested and Tibetans from outside Lhasa sent home, the reports said.
The two Tibetan men set themselves on fire outside the Jokhang temple in an apparent anti-China protest.
There have been several such incidents in Tibetan areas outside Tibet but these were the first in Lhasa.
One of the men died while the other "survived with injuries", Xinhua news agency said. Both were reportedly Tibetans from outside Tibet.
Meanwhile a Tibetan mother of three has died after setting herself on fire in Sichuan province, reports say.
The woman, in her 30s, set herself on fire outside a monastery in Aba county, an ethnically Tibetan area where many of the self-immolations have taken place.
US broadcaster Radio Free Asia reported that an estimated 600 Tibetans had been rounded up in Lhasa since the incident on Sunday, citing unidentified sources.
Foreign media are banned from the area, making reports difficult to verify. Tibetan groups with contacts in Lhasa say that number cannot yet be confirmed.
But Thubten Samphel, a spokesman for the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, told the BBC that he had also spoken to people with contacts in Lhasa who said arrests were taking place.
"We have been told that Tibetans who do not belong to Lhasa have been expelled to their native places," he said.
Tsering Tsomo, of the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Dharamsala, said her organisation had heard about arrests of people who had witnessed the self-immolations on Sunday.
She said the temple had now been closed to foreigners and pilgrims, and the site of the self-immolations condoned off.
The BBC contacted three government departments in Lhasa, but they either did not pick up the phone or said they knew nothing about the arrests.
More than 30 Tibetans - mostly young monks and nuns - have set themselves on fire since March 2011. Many of them are reported to have died while the condition of some remains unknown.
Most of the incidents have take place in ethnically Tibetan areas outside Tibet.
China's leaders blame the Dalai Lama, the Tibetans' exiled spiritual leader, for inciting the self-immolations and encouraging separatism.
He rejects this, and both activist groups and the Tibetan government-in-exile say the self-immolations are protests against tight Chinese control of the region and religious repression.
The woman who set herself on fire in Aba county on Wednesday was identified as a mother of two daughters and a son. She died at the scene, the reports said.
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1dca7cf2c12033352dc913a3c3abc677 | https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-18312345 | Mongolia ex-leader Nambar Enkhbayar condemns trial | Mongolia ex-leader Nambar Enkhbayar condemns trial
Former president of Mongolia Nambar Enkhbayar has accused the authorities in his country of waging a politically motivated legal campaign against him.
Mr Enkhbayar was arrested in April and is due to stand trial on Monday on charges of corruption and of misusing property and government power.
He says the authorities want to stop him contesting a parliamentary election on 28 June.
The legal proceedings are threatening to overshadow the election.
Mongolia has previously been praised in the West for its transition to democracy.
Sandwiched between Russia and China, Mongolia sits on extensive deposits of coal, copper, gold and other minerals.
Their exploitation could depend on how the authorities tackle endemic corruption as Mongolia slides down the ratings of Transparency International - a group that monitors corporate and political corruption in international development.
In 2011 it was ranked 120th out of 183 countries.
Mr Enkhbayar spoke to the BBC from his hospital bed where he says he is still recovering from a hunger-strike that lasted almost 12 days.
"These are just falsified documents they have collected against me," he said.
The authorities, he said, had spread "invented stories before the parliamentary election".
Mr Enkhbayar was arrested on 13 April in a televised raid by scores of police after investigators from the Independent Authority Against Corruption of Mongolia (IAAC) said he had failed repeatedly to turn up for questioning.
He says he refused food and liquids for almost 12 days, complaining he had been denied basic rights in jail. He was bailed following international pressure.
Powerful lobbyists are promoting his case and former British Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith is helping to advise his legal team.
Mongolia analyst Julian Dierkes, of the University of British Columbia, says some Mongolian people dispute Mr Enkhbayar's complaint that the trial is politically motivated.
"The exact opposite view is also put forward - that Enkhbayar got himself arrested and imprisoned so that he could go on hunger strike, play the victim and get more support in the election," he said.
"The videos and photos of him after he was bailed seem to show him as not particularly frail."
Mr Enkhbayar's successor as president, Tsakhia Elbegdorj, has said the case should be handled openly and transparently.
The Mongolian People's Party of Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold told the BBC that it stood for a fair trial. The party admitted that Mr Enkhbayar's case had "unfortunately turned into a legal process with heavy politics".
Mr Enkhbayar said the charges were a pretext to stop him running for political office.
"In all countries where the political opponents are removed from contesting, the leaders of that country use corruption as an excuse," he said.
"Why are they not investigating government officials, but me who [is] out of office for four years, my political party, which has just been set up one and a half years ago? This just shows that corruption is a very much politically used word to fight against political opponents."
He said Mongolia's current rulers wanted to prevent his Mongolian People's Revolutionary Party winning parliamentary seats and thus gaining the right to nominate a candidate for the 2013 presidential election. Either he "or someone else" from the party might run for president, he said.
Mr Enkhbayar's critics accuse him of frequently using the law for his own benefit in nearly a decade as first prime minister then president. He lost an election in 2009.
Mr Dierkes describes Mongolia as a "giant rumour mill" but adds: "There is some hope that this trial will raise the issue of corruption in the election campaign."
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