September 8, 2021 – Page 2 – Djibouti News Gazette

September 8, 2021

Analysts: Rift Between Somali President, Prime Minister Could Affect Security, Elections

MOGADISHU – Somalia’s president and prime minister appear locked in a power struggle over the country’s spy chief and the death of a cybersecurity agent. Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble this week suspended the head of the National Intelligence and Security Agency, Fahad Fassin, for failing to investigate the agent’s death. But the president rebuked the move and on Wednesday appointed Yasin as a national security adviser.

President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo convened a national security meeting on Tuesday and reshuffled some top security positions, appointing suspended spy director Fahad Yassin as his national security adviser, while installing former Banadir regional intelligence chief Colonel Yassin Abdullahi as new acting director of the National Intelligence and Security Agency, NISA.

Roble described the president’s move as an obstruction of justice toward the investigation of the alleged death of young female spy Ikran Tahlil Farah.

Farah disappeared in June and was declared dead by NISA this month, though the spy agency has yet to disclose any details about her passing.

Political analyst Hassan Mudane says the bitter exchange between offices of the president and his prime minister could weaken cooperation between federal government institutions.

He says various institutions such as the judiciary, the presidency, the security departments mainly in the capital of Mogadishu as well as the fight against the armed group al-Shabab, will be affected by the wrangles. He added that the election process coordinated by the office of the prime minister will also be tested.

Elections for 19 remaining seats in the upper house of Parliament and 275 members of the lower house are expected to kick off shortly in Somalia’s slow-moving election process.

But according to security analyst Samira Ahmed of the Hiraal Institute, the tiff between two top leaders will make the work of Somali security agencies and their international partners very hard.

She said the prime minister was tasked to spearhead the electoral process, which was in good shape so far, but this latest difference between his office and that of the president may impact on security and damage the credibility and confidence in the electoral process. She added that in terms of perception, it also damages the legitimacy of the state building process in the eyes of the Somali people and international partners, as well.

In a joint press statement, the leaders of the opposition who are also presidential candidates threw their weight behind the prime minister while terming the actions of the president as derailing the ongoing election process.

Source: Voice of America

September 8, 2021

Sudan Summoned Ethiopia’s Ambassador Over 29 Bodies Found in River

KHARTOUM – Sudan summoned Ethiopia’s ambassador to Khartoum to inform him that 29 corpses found on the banks of a river abutting Ethiopia were those of Ethiopian citizens from the Tigray ethnic group, Sudan’s Foreign Ministry said.

It said in a statement late on Tuesday that the ambassador had been summoned on August 30 and was told that the bodies had been found between July 26 and August 8 on the Sudanese side of the Setit River, known in Ethiopia as the Tekeze.

The corpses were identified by Ethiopians residing in the Wad al Hulaywah area of eastern Sudan, it said.

The statement did not say how the people died.

Dina Mufti, spokesperson for the Ethiopian Foreign Affairs Ministry, did not immediately respond to request for comment.

The river is the current de facto borderline between territory controlled by Tigrayan forces and those controlled by Amhara forces allied with Ethiopia’s federal government. At a different point the river also separates Sudan from Ethiopia.

Tensions between Sudan and Ethiopia have been running high because of a spillover of the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and Ethiopia’s construction of a giant hydropower dam on the Blue Nile.

Tens of thousands of refugees have fled into eastern Sudan and there have been military skirmishes in an area of contested farmland along the border between Sudan and Ethiopia.

Sudanese authorities said on Sunday they had confiscated a weapons shipment that arrived by air from Ethiopia on suspicion the arms were destined for use in “crimes against the state.”

Sudan’s Interior Ministry said later on Monday that the shipment had turned out to be part of a legal cargo imported by a licensed arms trader.

Source: Voice of America

September 8, 2021

Guinea Opposition Leader Voices Support for Coup

The leader of Guinea’s main opposition party, the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), says the country’s September 5 coup was justified because President Alpha Conde was illegitimate after he changed the constitution to run for a third term.

Speaking to VOA’s James Butty in an exclusive interview through an interpreter, Cellou Dalein Diallo said all the ills of Guinean society cited by the military junta had been identified and denounced by his party.

Asked if he would personally participate in a unity government if the military were to ask him to do so, Diallo said he would personally not join a transitional government but would designate members of his party to take part.

Diallo claimed to have won the October 2020 presidential election, but the electoral commission declared Conde the winner, and the Guinean Supreme Court validated the results in favor of President Conde.

Diallo said he would run again for president in a new election.

The election followed a March 2020 constitutional referendum that paved the way for Conde, 83, to extend his stay in office. The opposition said at least 21 people were killed during protests against the referendum in Nzerekore, Guinea’s second largest city. The Guinean government refuted the allegations.

Conde won the 2010 and 2015 elections, but critics said he became increasingly authoritarian.

Diallo told VOA he would highly recommend that the fight against corruption and human rights abuses should be a top priority for the military government. He said the military junta should make it possible for victims of human rights abuses during the Conde administration to get justice.

Regional bloc ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) has condemned the September 5 coup. As the group meets this Thursday in an emergency summit to discuss the military takeover in Guinea, Diallo said he hopes ECOWAS will help Guinea put together a transition process that leads to a free and fair election.

Source: Voice of America

September 8, 2021

W. African Court Upholds Colombian Man’s Extradition to US for Trial

Lawyers for a Colombian businessman say they’re exploring their options after a court in the West African country of Cape Verde rejected their appeal to halt his extradition to the United States.

The Cape Verde high court’s written judgment, dated August 30 but published Tuesday on the court’s website, said Alex Saab must stand trial in the United States.

Saab is wanted on charges of laundering money through U.S. banks in connection with a Venezuelan bribery scheme. He has been held in Cape Verde since June 12, 2020, when he was arrested while his private plane stopped for fuel en route to Iran.

Venezuela’s socialist government had protested his arrest, saying Saab was acting as a special envoy to seek food, medical supplies and fuel for the South American country.

The U.S. government has imposed strict sanctions on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and others in his administration.

‘Political battle’

Geraldo Almeida, one of Saab’s attorneys, told VOA’s Portuguese Service that the case had turned into a “political battle taking into account” the U.S. government’s power.

Almeida said he and others on Saab’s defense team were not “throwing in the towel.”

But João Resende-Santos, a law professor at the Higher Institute of Legal and Social Sciences in Cape Verde, told VOA that no further appeals are available.

“The next step is the foreign affairs ministry to communicate to the U.S. Embassy in Cape Verde about the court’s decision. This administrative process is brief and the U.S. Embassy has 45 days to bring Alex Saab to the U.S.,” he said.

In early January, Cape Verde’s Court of Appeal in Barlavento ruled that Saab should be extradited to the United States. The defense appealed to the country’s Supreme Court, which in March upheld the lower court’s verdict.

Saab and another Colombian businessman, Alvaro Pulido Vargas, were indicted in July 2019 in U.S. federal court in Miami for allegedly joining in a bribery scheme from late 2011 through at least September 2015, according to a U.S. Justice Department news release.

The men allegedly laundered approximately $350 million from bank accounts in Venezuela “to and through bank accounts located in the United States,” the Justice Department said.

Source: Voice of America

September 8, 2021

Malawi Fears Its COVID Vaccines Will Expire Due to Hesitancy

BLANTYRE, MALAWI – Malawi health authorities fear vaccine hesitancy could lead to tens of thousands of COVID-19 jabs expiring early next month. With just 2% of Malawi’s population vaccinated, authorities hope to increase uptake by deploying mobile vaccination clinics to bring the vaccine closer to people.

Malawi has so far received just over 1.2 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines under the COVAX facility.

But vaccine hesitancy in Malawi is widespread largely because of misperceptions of the jabs’ efficacy and safety.

Dr. Gift Kawalazira, who heads Health and Social Services at the Blantyre Health Office, says there’s yet another reason for the low vaccination rate.

“We have noticed that with the coming of summer, the number of cases has drastically reduced, and also the number of people coming for vaccination have reduced from having over 2,000 people per day to having just about 400 people per day now,” he said.

Kawalazira said deploying mobile vaccination centers will help increase vaccine uptake, noting that when the initiative was launched Saturday over 600 people were vaccinated – and six companies booked the mobile clinic to come and vaccinate their workers.

He predicted the initiative will help Malawi meet its vaccination target of 60% by 2022 and allay fears that more vaccines will expire.

“Johnson & Johnson is actually expiring after December and AstraZeneca has got two different batches, one of which is expiring next month, and the other one is going up until December,” he said.

In May, Malawi incinerated about 20,000 AstraZeneca doses that had expired after many people refused the jab due to concerns about its safety and efficacy.

Malawi health ministry statistics show that currently only about 700,000 people have had one jab, while about 400,000 are fully vaccinated, representing 2.1% of the country’s 18 million population.

Simeon Phiri got his jab Wednesday at a mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinic at Limbe market in Blantyre. He said the convenience with which he could get the jab played an important role for him.

“This has helped me a lot because it has provided me easy access to the vaccine instead of walking a long distance. For example, I came here to Limbe to do some errands, but I also have found an opportunity to get vaccinated,” Phiri said.

To increase uptake in rural areas, the government is currently working with traditional leaders to mobilize and tell their communities about the need to be vaccinated when the mobile clinics visit their villages.

Source: Voice of America