Day: October 1, 2021

Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who led last month’s coup in Guinea, promised to respect the country’s international commitments while transitioning to civilian rule as he was sworn in as interim president on Friday.

Doumbouya, who led the overthrow of President Alpha Conde on September 5, was sworn in by Supreme Court head Mamadou Sylla for a transition period of unspecified length.

The new interim president spoke of his commitment that neither he nor any member of the junta would stand in any future elections that the military has promised to organize after the transition period.

His administration’s mission, he said, is to “re-found the state” by drafting a new constitution, fighting corruption, reforming the electoral system and then organizing “free, credible and transparent” elections.

The swearing-in ceremony took place at the Supreme Court with local personalities and foreign envoys in attendance, including the Chinese and Russian ambassadors, as well as Doumbouya’s wife and mother.

Later Friday, in a message to the nation read on television, Doumbouya said that “in the coming days a prime minister will be appointed and then a government as well as various organs of the transition.”

He also announced the creation of a body to fight corruption.

Many Western nations limited their presence at the swearing-in to lower-rank diplomats.

Doumbouya again said nothing about how long he will remain the interim leader of the impoverished West African nation. But he promised to “respect all the national and international commitments to which the country has subscribed.”

Before the swearing-in, Supreme Court president Sylla compared Doumbouya’s task to piloting a ship “loaded with many painful events, numerous demands and immense and urgent expectations”.

He urged the new leader not to let himself be diverted “by the force of the waves of demagogy and the storm of the personality cult.”

The ceremony was held on the eve of a public holiday celebrating the 1958 declaration of independence from France.

Doumbouya, 41, will serve as transitional president until the country returns to civilian rule, according to a blueprint unveiled by the junta on Monday that does not mention a timeline.

Until then he retains the right to hire, and fire, an interim prime minister.

The September 5 coup, the latest bout of turbulence in one of Africa’s most volatile countries, saw the overthrow of 83-year-old president Conde.

The deposed leader is being held at an undisclosed location.

Conde became Guinea’s first democratically elected president in 2010 and was re-elected in 2015.

But last year he pushed through a controversial new constitution that allowed him to run for a third term in October 2020.

The move sparked mass demonstrations in which dozens of protesters were killed. Conde won re-election but the political opposition maintained the poll was a sham.

The turbulence has sparked deep concern among Guinea’s neighbors.

The coup is the second to take place in the region, after Mali, in less than 13 months.

The region’s bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), is demanding that elections be held within six months and that Conde be released.

Guinea is one of the poorest countries in the world, despite abundant reserves of minerals including iron ore, gold and diamonds.

Source: Voice of America

Burkina Faso on Friday suspended the Norwegian Refugee Council from conducting humanitarian aid work in the country, citing critical interviews given to the media, including VOA.

In a letter from Helene Marie Laurence Ilboudo-Marchal, minister for humanitarian affairs, the government cited interviews that NRC representatives had carried out with Voice of America and the French newspaper Le Monde as its reason for suspending the group’s activities.

The NRC said in a statement Friday that it was “working in dialogue with the government to address any concerns they may have in order to resume respectful and collaborative relations, and our humanitarian work.”

The NRC’s earlier interviews included claims that the government has been slow to register internally displaced people, citing a group of about 500 IDPs in the city of Ouahigouya who they said had been waiting weeks for registration and had not received aid.

The NRC also made a plea to the government to allow it to step in and assist with registration.

Government’s defense

In an exclusive interview with VOA this week, Bakouan Yipene Florent, a spokesperson for the ministry of humanitarian affairs, rejected the claims that the IDPs in Ouahigouya had not received aid.

He said that going back to the point of IDP registration, as soon as they arrived at the site in Ouahigouya on June 12, a team was deployed immediately and handled the enumeration process.

Florent noted that IDPs are registered only after they have been officially counted and some initial aid is provided, including food and $100 for each family.

He said the government had put in place a two-month plan for assistance for the group of IDPs.

When there’s an influx of IDPs, Florent said, they can’t be registered because traumatized people can’t immediately answer necessary questions. When the first assistance ends and there has been psychological support, registration can proceed, he said.

Conflict with extremists, bandits

There are 1.3 million IDPs in Burkina Faso, which has been embroiled in a six-year conflict with armed groups linked to Islamic State, al-Qaida and local bandits. The U.N. has called it the world’s fastest-growing humanitarian crisis.

Refugee advocacy groups have criticized the government recently because of a ban it placed on journalists visiting official IDP sites. The government said the ban was aimed at protecting the dignity of IDPs and the safety of journalists.

Daouda Diallo, of the Collective Against Impunity and the Stigmatization of Communities, a Burkinabe human rights group, criticized the suspension of the NRC in an interview with VOA. He said the decision showed a disregard for the fate of civilian populations that benefit from the NGO’s work.

The letter from the humanitarian minister said the country was doing its best to assist IDPs under difficult circumstances.

Source: Voice of America

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed that Ethiopia has no legal right to expel seven U.N. humanitarian officials.

Guterres told the Ethiopian leader in a phone conversation Friday that the world body does not accept Ethiopia’s decision to expel the senior U.N. officials, according to U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.

Haq said the U.N. Office of Legal Affairs sent a note to Ethiopia’s U.N. mission in New York on Friday stating the U.N.’s “longstanding legal position” that the action of declaring someone “persona non grata” does not apply to U.N. personnel.

Ethiopia announced the expulsion on Thursday, giving the U.N. officials 72 hours to leave.

In a tweet, Ethiopia’s ministry of foreign affairs said the seven were “meddling in the internal affairs of the country.”

The tweet came amid growing pressure on the government over its deadly blockade of the Tigray region where children are reportedly starving to death. Ethiopia’s government has accused humanitarian workers of supporting the Tigray forces who have been fighting its soldiers and allied forces since November, a charge that aid workers deny.

Spokesperson Haq said the U.N. officials remained in the country. When asked by a reporter if the U.N. officials would leave Ethiopia by the end of 72 hours, Haq did not directly answer.

The U.N. officials include the deputy chief of the U.N. Office for Humanitarian Affairs and a representative of the U.N. Children’s Fund, UNICEF.

UNICEF said Friday the Ethiopian government’s decision to expel the U.N. officials from the country is “regrettable and alarming.”

Declaring its work “is more urgent than ever,” UNICEF said in a statement that children are bearing the brunt of the country’s worsening humanitarian crisis.

“We have full confidence in the teams working on the ground to save children’s lives, guided — as always — by the principles of impartiality, humanity, neutrality and independence. Our programs will continue,” UNICEF added, noting it has been present in the African nation for more than 60 years.

Conflict-induced hunger

The Ethiopian federal government has been engaged in an armed conflict with forces in the northern Tigray region for nearly one year. The government declared a unilateral cease-fire and withdrew its forces in June, but the conflict has continued to spill into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.

Of the 6 million people who live in Tigray, the U.N. says 5.2 million need some level of food assistance. More than 400,000 people are living in famine-like conditions, and another 1.8 million people are on the brink of famine.

“It is critically important that the humanitarian operation continues, and it does,” OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke said Friday at a Geneva briefing, according to Reuters. “Until now there is no indication that [Ethiopia’s decision] stops the operation.”

U.N. human rights spokesperson Rupert Colville said at the briefing that the expulsion of the head of its reporting team was a “really grave step.”

On Wednesday, U.N. Humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths said that after 11 months of conflict and three months of a de-facto government blockade, the humanitarian crisis in Tigray is spiraling out of control.

One hundred aid trucks are needed daily in the region, but in the past week, only 79 in total were allowed in, a U.N. spokesman said.

“Trucks carrying fuel and medical supplies still cannot enter into Tigray,” U.N. Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Wednesday. “Trucks are waiting in Semera, in Afar, to travel to Mekelle.”

The federal government headed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, blames the rebels for blocking aid deliveries.

U.S. condemnation

“The U.S. government condemns in the strongest possible terms the government of Ethiopia’s unprecedented action to expel the leadership of all of the United Nations organizations involved in ongoing humanitarian operations,” White House spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters Thursday.

Earlier this month, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an executive order allowing the government to impose financial sanctions on those who prolong the Tigray conflict.

“We will not hesitate to use this or any other tool at our disposal to respond quickly and decisively to those who obstruct humanitarian assistance to people of Ethiopia,” Psaki said.

The U.N. Security Council held private talks Friday about Ethiopia’s decision as well as North Korea’s recent missile launches.

Kenya’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Martin Kimani, who took over as the Security Council president for October, told reporters Friday, “A number of members expressed very strong concerns” about both situations during Friday’s talks, but said no resolutions were passed on either matter.

Diplomatic sources told Reuters news agency that any aggressive action by the council on Ethiopia’s actions was unlikely because China and Russia long have maintained the Tigrayan conflict is an internal matter.

Source: Voice of America

A major aid agency operating in Libya said Friday that it had reports that at least 500 migrants had been arbitrarily detained during a security operation in Tripoli announced by Libyan authorities.

“We are hearing that more than 500 migrants, including women and children, have been rounded up, arbitrarily detained and are at risk of abuse and ill-treatment,” Dax Roque, the country director of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said in a statement.

Libya’s Interior Ministry said security services had carried out a “major security operation” against what it called criminals, liquor and drug dealers, and illegal immigrants. Pictures posted by the Interior Ministry showed dozens of migrants sitting with hands cuffed behind them or being taken away in vehicles.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants live in Libya, many hoping to pass through and cross the Mediterranean to reach a better life in Europe.

Libya has had little peace or stability, however, since the 2011 NATO-backed uprising that toppled Moammar Gadhafi, and rights groups say migrants face threats of detention, extortion and abuse.

Thousands of refugees and migrants are held in official detention facilities, some controlled by armed groups. An unknown number are held in squalid centers run by traffickers.

Source: Voice of America