Author: djadmin

Zimbabwean prison authorities released New York Times freelancer Jeffrey Moyo on Wednesday, one day after the High Court in Bulawayo granted him bail.

Police arrested the 37-year-old in May, alleging he helped two of the U.S. newspaper’s journalists illegally enter Zimbabwe.

Moyo’s attorney, Doug Coltart, a Zimbabwean human rights lawyer, said Moyo should have been released a day earlier, but prison officials noted a problem with the warrant of liberation.

Speaking from Bulawayo via a messaging app, Coltart voiced anger about his client being detained an extra day.

“It’s a typical tactic which is used to extend the detention of prisoners after they have been granted bail, which is why the legal team specially requested to see the warrant of liberation before leaving the Magistrates Court,” Coltart said. “That request was denied, which is why when prison officials started claiming that there was an error on it late in the evening last night (Tuesday) again, the legal team requested to see the warrant of liberation. That request was again denied.”

Government officials were not immediately available to comment on Moyo’s case.

Moyo was arrested on May 26, along with a Zimbabwe Media Commission official, Thabang Manhika, for allegedly processing fake accreditations for two South Africa-based Times journalists who entered Zimbabwe last month and have since been deported.

Western diplomats and international press freedom groups voiced concerns about the arrests.

A lower court had denied Moyo and Manhika bail, saying they were a danger to national security because they helped U.S. journalists interview Zimbabweans without the government’s permission.

“The state papers on appeal essentially admit that the grounds they advanced for opposing (Moyo’s) bail in the magistrates court were baseless and frivolous and essentially they do not have any case against and that he is not a national security threat as they alleged,” Coltart said.

The government has dismissed accusations that Zimbabwe is disregarding media freedom.

On social media, The Information Ministry secretary, Ndabaningi Mangwana, said Moyo and Manhika had been arrested for breaking immigration laws.

Tabani Moyo of the Media Institute of Southern Africa — who is no relation to Jeffrey Moyo — said he welcomed Jeffrey Moyo’s release and was looking forward to the trial.

“Trial of Jeffrey Moyo is a trial on fairness in that you are only guilty when proven such,” he said. “Fairness is a key element in discharge of our judiciary services. So we are saying it’s fairness on trial that he is out on bail. It is the first step in that process. And we hope that to the conclusion of the case, fairness will be at the center of the trial as it should be to every Zimbabwean.”

No trial dates have been set for Manhika and Moyo. The two men face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.

Source: Voice of America

Nigeria’s female activists were on the front lines in last year’s mass protests against police brutality but say they do not always get the same recognition as their male counterparts.

From her homemade office, Nigerian activist Aisha Yesufu sets up her mobile device and records the day’s episode of her take on issues bedeviling the country.

She reaches thousands of online listeners every week to address issues of inequality, injustice, bad governance and sometimes, improved conditions in Nigeria.

Yesufu, 47, started participating in protests as a school student nearly three decades ago — but she says it has not been easy.

“I’m not that typical person you’ll see coming out to make demands — ‘Here I am. I’m a Muslim. I’m a woman. I wear hijab.’” she said. “And then it’s like, typically, you’re not supposed to speak as a Muslim. That’s how a lot of people look at it.”

In 2014, Yesufu gained prominence for co-founding the Bring Back Our Girls Movement, a group that raised global awareness demanding the release of 276 girls kidnapped by Boko Haram in northern Nigeria.

Last October, she took part in the End SARS protests, which targeted police brutality in the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

A viral picture of her kneeling with her clenched fist into the air, while heavily armed police officials charged toward protesters, became the movement’s symbol. But she says she feared for her life.

“The police were shooting at me. I literally thought I was going to die,” she said. “The only thing I said to God was, ‘God, please let it be a clean thing. Let whoever’s bullet is going to touch me, let it be straight to the heart. Let me fall dead, because I wouldn’t want to be on the floor in pain while some policemen and women will be standing over me and gloating.’”

Yesufu’s resilience over the years has inspired many other women in Nigeria.

During the End SARS protests, many women organized and led street demonstrations.

Among them, 22-year-old Rinu Oduala, who led protests in Lagos.

“I am constantly reminded that as a female growing up in Nigeria, I only need to be seen and not heard,” Oduala said. “So, I fight each day to use my voice and platform to talk about issues affecting my society.”

Nigerian culture, like many others in Africa, is highly patriarchal. But Vivian Bellonwu, founder of Social Action Nigeria, says things are changing gradually due to increasing levels of women’s education.

“It better exposes us to the rights and wrongs that have been going on,” Bellonwu said. “Not just that it exposes us, it also gives a kind of confidence that impossibilities do not exist and that conventions can always be challenged.”

Last month, Nigeria’s women’s affairs minister moved for a constitutional review that would give women up to 35% representation in public offices. The current figure is just 7%.

Bellonwu said it will take a major change before women are perceived as equals in Nigeria, something she said will not happen soon.

Source: Voice of America

French forces in Mali have captured a man they describe as a “high-ranking fighter of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara” (EIGS), the French military said Wednesday.

Dadi Ould Chouaib, also known as Abou Dardar, was arrested June 11 in the flashpoint “tri-border” region between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, the site of frequent attacks by extremist groups, the military said in a statement.

He was carrying “an automatic weapon, a night vision telescope, a combat vest, a telephone and a radio,” but surrendered without resistance.

He was located during a helicopter sweep as part of a joint mission between troops from France’s Barkhane operation and Nigerien forces.

Niger’s army said in a statement late Wednesday that the joint operation, launched June 8, had led to a clash Tuesday with “armed terrorists” that left a Nigerien dead and “12 terrorists neutralized.”

The term “neutralized” means “killed” in West African military contexts.

Dardar was formerly a member of the al-Qaida-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), many of whose fighters had joined EIGS.

First arrested in 2014, he was handed over to Malian authorities.

But he was one of around 200 prisoners released in October 2020 in exchange for four hostages, including French aid worker Sophie Petronin.

Dardar is suspected to have been one of the armed men who mutilated three people at a market in Tin Hama in northern Mali on May 2, cutting off their hands and feet, according to local sources.

According to the United Nations’ Mali mission, MINUSMA, the armed men were suspected of belonging to EIGS.

Dardar’s arrest will come as welcome news for France, after President Emmanuel Macron promised in February to step up efforts to “decapitate” extremist groups in the Sahel region.

France, the former colonial power in all three “tri-border” countries, is pursuing a strategy of targeting the leaders of militant groups.

Its military presence in the semiarid Sahel, Operation Barkhane, recently called for the elimination of a high-ranking fighter of the al-Qaida group in the Islamic Maghreb, an adversary of EIGS in the area.

Baye Ag Bakabo was responsible for the kidnapping and death of two French RFI journalists, Ghislaine Dupont and Claude Verlon, who were killed in northern Mali in 2013.

Macron recently announced that France will wind down its 5,100-strong Barkhane force, which has battled extremist groups in the Sahel for eight years.

He said earlier this month that he sees France’s future presence as being part of the so-called Takuba international task force in the Sahel, in which “hundreds” of French soldiers would form the “backbone.”

It would mean the closure of French bases and the use of special forces who would be focused on anti-terror operations and military training, he said.

But Macron’s plans have fueled fears that certain areas of the Sahel, in particular northern Mali, will pass completely into the hands of extremist groups, as local authorities appear unable to restore their grip on the region.

Source: Voice of America