Day: September 6, 2021

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Militants Armed With Machetes Kill 30 Villagers In East Congo

Militants armed with machetes, sticks and clubs killed at least 30 villagers in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, officials and a witness said.

The fighters – suspected members of the Islamist-inspired Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – raided Makutano, north of the city of Oicha in North Kivu province, early on Saturday, the officials told Reuters.

Villager Malielo Omeonga said his son woke him when the militants struck.

“I took some time to leave my bed, and in his haste my son ran and fell into the ambush of the ADF. So my son is dead and I am here by the grace of God,” Omeonga said by telephone.

“It’s total devastation. People are fleeing everywhere,” Christophe Munyanderu from the Congolese campaign group Convention for the Respect of Human Rights, said.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the raid. The ADF, which was formed in neighboring Uganda and says it is allied to Islamic State, seldom makes public statements.

An army spokesman said forces were clearing the area “while we wait for other measures to be taken.”

Congolese authorities and rights groups have accused the ADF of killing hundreds of civilians in apparent retaliation for army offensives against them since late 2019.

The United Nations has said the militant attacks may constitute war crimes.

In May, the government imposed martial law in two eastern provinces in an attempt to end the insecurity that has plagued the mineral-rich area since the end of the second civil war in 2003. But the bloodshed has continued.

Last month the United States sent a dozen special forces troops to the area to assess the “anti-terrorism” capabilities of the army.

Source: Voice of America

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South Sudanese Reel from Fuel and Food Shortages

South Sudanese are reeling from fuel shortages and soaring food prices after Kenyan and Ugandan truck drivers went on strike nearly two weeks ago, stifling commerce along the Uganda/South Sudan border.

Hundreds of motorists camped at the Trinity gas station in Juba for hours on Monday, waiting in long queues to fill up their tanks with diesel or gasoline.

“You hear people are busy, they want to get the fuel, they are struggling to get it at any cost,” Juba motorist Steven Leju told VOA’s South Sudan in Focus program.

The strike began when truckers halted their routes in response to the killings of two Kenyan truck drivers by assailants along the Juba-Nimule highway in August.

The drivers say they want South Sudan’s government to improve security along the highway before they resume transporting goods into that country.

South Sudan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it is committed to providing security along the highway. The government said escorts will be provided by the South Sudan People’s Defense Force and South Sudan Police Service and that “obstacles that cause [a] delay on the highway to Juba will be removed.”

A frustrated motorist, who asked to be identified only as Leju, said the government had better act quickly. “I believe that if government gives security, then fuel will come,” Leju said.

Rising fuel prices

Fuel prices rose to between 700 and 800 South Sudanese pounds (roughly $5.50) per liter Monday from 300 pounds (about $2.30) late last week.

Juba resident Justine Wota, one of hundreds of commuters who endured a long wait to get fuel, said prices are climbing by the hour.

After waiting since before dawn, “then you have to go to the fuel station and the price has changed,” Wota told South Sudan in Focus.

Lack of food

Meanwhile, goods sold at markets are becoming scarce and prices are rising.

Rita William, a trader at Juba’s Freedom Market, told South Sudan in Focus that the fresh vegetables she was expecting from Uganda are stuck at the Elegu border post.

She enlisted automobile transportation to bring carrots to Juba, which caused delays and additional costs.

“Most of our things are getting spoiled because things we loaded since Thursday, we have not received them,” she said.

William Muhereza, chairperson of Freedom Market, called on South Sudanese nationals to engage in small scale farming to cushion their livelihoods against emergencies like the strike.

The government should be better prepared to deal more quickly with disruptions, he said.

“We expect the road to be maximum secured as far as security is concerned,” he said. “That is the only road which feeds South Sudan. Without that road, South Sudan cannot exist. If that road is cut off, automatically there will be no food, or fuel, or anything.”

Source: Voice of America

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Cameroon Separatists Allow Schools to Reopen After 3 to 5 Years

The school year in Cameroon starts Monday with hundreds of schools in the troubled western regions reopening their doors for the first time in three to five years. Anglophone separatists previously used threats to keep the schools closed, but some rebels, for the first time, are saying they should be spared from the conflict.

Cameroon’s government said Monday that several hundred schools reopened in its restive English speaking North West and South West regions.

Most schools in the regions have been shut down for three to five years, since the start of a separatist conflict to carve out an English-speaking state from Cameroon and its French-speaking majority.

Ngida Lawrence Che is the most senior government official in Nkambe, a western district. He says at least half a dozen schools that were sealed by separatists in the 17 villages that make up Nkambe have reopened.

“The turnout in these schools is so encouraging. Every single village of the sub division can boast of functioning schools,” said Che. “This time around, our populations are more than ever before determined that these schools must go operational. Proof is that the populations of these areas under the leadership of their traditional and religious authorities came out to clear the school campuses.”

The government reports that separatists attacked or set fire to more than 200 schools between 2017 and 2019, and nearly all schools in the Northwest and Southwest regions were shut down. Teachers and school children escaped to safer localities.

Capo Daniel is defense chief of staff for the Ambazonia Defense Forces, or the ADF, said to be the largest separatist group in Cameroon. He says ADF has also, for the first time in 5 years, given instructions for schools to reopen.

“The future independent state of Ambazonia will not be governed by uneducated people,” Capo said. “That is why it is very important for us to institute this alternative educational system even in the middle of our struggle for separation from Cameroon.”

Capo however warned government troops not to set foot on any school campus in the restive regions. He said fighters have been instructed to make sure the national anthem of Cameroon is not sung in English-speaking schools.

Capo said any school that fails to respect ADF orders will be closed, and their teachers and students will be punished.

Asheri Kilo is the secretary of state to Cameroon’s minister of education. She says children in areas where fighters still prohibit education should be admitted in schools in safer areas. She says the government will continue to deploy troops to make sure that all Cameroonian children in conflict zones have access to education.

“You know that we are suffering the problem of insecurity, but while certain places get worse, other places are getting better and the minister has devised a way of using those teachers who were posted in places that are not exactly safe to go to places that are safe and make up the manpower so as to teach these children,” Kilo said.

There was no immediate word Monday on how many students in the North West and South West regions had returned to school. For some, it will be the first time in class sine 2016.

Source: Voice of America