Category: Key Issues

Malawi’s government said Saturday that it had received news of its diplomats’ alleged misconduct in South Africa with regret and that it would punish those involved when they returned home.

South Africa on Friday declared all Malawian diplomats persona non grata for abusing diplomatic privileges and gave them 72 hours to leave the country.

South Africa’s Ministry of International Relations said in a statement that the action followed an investigation that found the diplomats had been buying duty-free alcohol with cash and then reselling it to retailers.

A Malawi government spokesperson, Gospel Kazako, told local media Saturday that the government had already talked with some of its South Africa-based diplomats.

“What they are saying is that they are being accused of abusing the tax privileges that they had,” Kazako said. “You know, according to the Vienna Convention of 1961, diplomats have certain privileges, and one of the privileges is that of not paying tax in the hosting country on certain items and certain services. Alcohol is one of those items, so there was abuse, according to South African government.”

The South African Revenue Service said the scandal, which also involved diplomats from other countries including Rwanda, Burundi and Lesotho, had led to the estimated loss of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes every month. It has not yet been determined how long the illegal enterprise was operating.

Not ‘normal consumption’

John Chikago, Malawi’s former high commissioner to South Africa, told VOA the matter was strange and surprising.

“We buy with the diplomatic card, and you can’t just buy any amount, unless you have a party at your house or there is national day [celebration] for your country,” he said. “But if it is normal consumption, you should buy only one bottle or two bottles. But they were buying cartons. How? So, it appears there was a syndicate.”

Chikago said the issue could tarnish the image of Malawian diplomats in other embassies.

“That is the image we are giving to South Africa — that we are corrupt people, because embassies are the image of Malawi — so it must stop,” he said.

Sheriff Kaisi, a political science lecturer at Blantyre International University, dismissed fears that the incident would affect diplomatic relations between Malawi and South Africa. But he said the image of ordinary Malawians living in South Africa could be affected.

“We have quite a number of citizens living in South Africa,” he said. “They will be seen as people who are not trustworthy, people who cannot follow rules of the game.”

However, Malawi’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Friday evening that the Malawi government had conveyed regret to the South African government about the conduct of the diplomats involved, and that it would take appropriate action when the diplomats returned to Malawi.

Source: Voice of America

Protesters hit Nigeria’s streets Saturday to say democracy is under threat from rising insecurity and bad governance.

The Democracy Day demonstrations came as President Muhammadu Buhari has been struggling to control terrorism, criminal abductions and separatist movements. Last week, Buhari suspended Twitter after it deleted a controversial tweet of his. Protesters blasted the act as a dictatorial punishment against free expression.

The protests started early Saturday across many Nigerian states, including Abuja, Lagos, Oyo, Ondo and Port Harcourt.

The protesters were holding placards marked #Buharimustgo and demanding an end to insecurity and what they called systemic oppression.

Tear gas, gunshots

Some protests in Abuja were dispersed by security agents who fired tear gas canisters and gunshots into the air, according to eyewitnesses.

Their banners and placards were also seized by state security operatives, said Cletus Uba, who was at Gudu junction, one of the protest venues.

“I was here when all these protesters were around, and I know what they’re agitating for, the insecurities in the country,” Uba said. “When they were here protesting, police, soldiers, civil defense started shooting tear gas and guns into the air.”

There was a heavy presence of armed security men and women all over the Abuja metropolitan region on Saturday, and the same was seen in many states across the country.

But 15 kilometers from Gudu — the spot in Abuja where protesters were dispersed — hundreds of government supporters gathered in a counteraction.

The inscription on their green-and-white vests read, “I stand with Buhari.”

President’s ‘great worry’

The president on Saturday morning addressed the nation through the government broadcaster and said he was fixing insecurity issues.

“Let me assure my fellow citizens that every incident, however minor, gives me great worry and concern, and I immediately order security agencies to swiftly but safely rescue victims and bring perpetrators to justice,” he said.

Buhari, a former military general, was elected in 2015 on a vow to root out security threats and grow the economy.

But his administration has been plagued by reckless attacks carried out by insurgents and bandits, as well as a booming kidnapping-for-ransom market. His cabinet has been severely criticized for not addressing those issues sooner.

Rising insecurity was not the only reason protesters were marching in the streets. They said last week’s Twitter ban was an attempt to gag free speech.

Ariyo Dare of the Nigeria Center for Liberty, one of the protesting groups, said, “The banning of the Twitter platform in Nigeria is undemocratic, irresponsible, thoughtless and very insensitive. Nigeria should be a leading light in terms of democracy in Africa.”

Nigerian authorities, who say social media has been used to promote comments that threaten the existence of the state, are now in talks with Chinese officials to create an internet firewall, according to Nigeria’s Foundation for Investigative Journalism.

But as the country marked Democracy Day, many protesters and critics said Buhari was Nigeria’s biggest threat to democracy.

Source: Voice of America

NEW YORK – The U.N. General Assembly voted Friday to give two-year terms on the powerful 15-nation Security Council to five countries.

Albania, Brazil, Gabon, Ghana and the United Arab Emirates all ran unopposed for available seats in their regional groups, and each secured the necessary two-thirds majority required of the secret ballots cast.

They will begin their terms on Jan. 1, 2022.

The council deals with issues of international peace and security. It has the power to deploy peacekeepers to trouble spots and to sanction bad actors. New members bring different experiences, perspectives and national interests to the council and can subtly affect dynamics among its members.

The council currently has several Middle Eastern crises on its agenda, including the Israeli-Palestinian situation and conflicts in Libya, Syria and Yemen.

Richard Gowan, U.N. director for the International Crisis Group and a long-time U.N. watcher, says the United Arab Emirates may play a role in those areas and elsewhere.

“The UAE has a lot of influence not only in the Middle East but in the Horn of Africa, and other council members will hope the Emiratis will use their influence to help stabilize countries like Sudan and Ethiopia,” Gowan said.

Gowan notes that Albania is a country that has “seen the U.N. fail awfully in its region in the past.”

The U.N. failed to stop the Balkan war of the early 1990s, leading to NATO bombing in 1995. Then in 1999, Kosovo’s ethnic Albanians fought Serbs to gain independence.

“Albania’s main interest on the U.N. agenda is of course still Kosovo, but the Security Council only has very limited influence there now,” Gowan told VOA.

UAE Ambassador Lana Nusseibeh noted that the council’s work does not end when resolutions are adopted.

“The UAE will be part of the coalition that speaks to strengthen the results-oriented nature of the council as much as possible,” she said, adding that the council is most effective when it is united.

But in recent years, diverging views, particularly among its permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — have stymied action on urgent issues.

“The Security Council’s record on recent crises has been pathetic,” Louis Charbonneau, U.N. director at Human Rights Watch, told VOA.

“Whether it involves war crimes in Gaza, massive human rights abuses in Myanmar, or atrocities in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the most you can usually expect is the occasional statement of concern — and that’s if you’re lucky,” he said.

The countries elected Friday will replace exiting members Estonia, Niger, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Tunisia and Vietnam on Jan. 1.

They will join the five other current non-permanent members: India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico and Norway, and the five veto-wielding permanent members: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

Source: Voice of America

NAIROBI – Kenyan authorities are working to eradicate trachoma, an infectious disease that is a leading cause of blindness in Africa. About 7 million people in central Kenya are at risk for the disease.

As Elizabeth Partoti, sits outside a clinic in Kajiado county in Kenya, she stares, unseeingly, into the dry and brittle spaces outside the health facility. In a few minutes a surgeon will carry out a corrective eye operation and allow the more than 70-year-old woman to see clearly for the first time in over a decade.

She is one of thousands of people in Kenya who have either lost or are gradually losing their sight due to trachoma.

“My eyes have been bothering me because I have grown old,” she said. “The eyelashes are always getting into my eyes, causing me a lot of pain, my granddaughter has been helping, removing them physically with her fingers, but it is very painful.’’

Trachoma is caused by bacteria that attack the inner surfaces of the eyelids.

Dr. Peter Ekwum, an eye surgeon who has been carrying out trachoma surgeries in Kajiado county, says sight loss from trachoma is preventable but irreversible if not treated in time.

“Every time you blink, the eyelashes rub on the cornea and with time they peel off the first layer of the cornea, which results in an ulcer,” he explained. “The ulcer is very painful, but at the end of the day, the ulcer will heal and leaves a scar.”

That repeated scarring of the eye’s cornea eventually impairs vision and often leads to irreversible blindness.

About 7 million people live in 12 central Kenyan counties where trachoma is endemic because of a dry climate and the pastoral and nomadic lifestyle there. Flies in the area help spread the disease.

About 53,000 people are currently infected with the disease.

Like other countries affected by trachoma, Kenya had wanted to eliminate it by 2020, the World Health Organization’s target. The target date has now been moved to 2023. Dr. Ernest Barasa, Kenya’s National Trachoma Coordinator, said, “The way forward for Kenya in the trachoma elimination program is to clear the remaining trachoma trichiasis backlog, which stands at around 5,000 at the moment. That is 5,000 people who require urgent surgeries to avert blindness in the 12 trachoma-endemic counties.’’

To eradicate trachoma, experts say, people in areas prone to the disease must take greater precautions.

Most of the communities at risk are nomadic, sometimes living with livestock.

“The flies breed because of the dung and urine,” Ekwumm the eye surgeon, said, “and now because the flies are breeding, every time they discharge in a child’s face, the bacteria is carried from the children to the mother.”

Kenya’s plans to defeat trachoma depend on donors for the money for detection, treatment and prevention programs.

Only with more contributions, Kenya says, will it be able to eliminate the disease.

Source: Voice of America

GAROWE, SOMALIA – Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region has taken a first step toward banning female genital mutilation (FGM) in a country where almost all women and girls are forced to undergo the internationally condemned practice.

Puntland President Said Abdullahi Deni and his cabinet this week approved a bill to be submitted to parliament that would criminalize the ancient ritual, a measure anti-FGM campaigners said would boost their efforts to end the practice.

“It will be forbidden to circumcise girls. Girls in Puntland must be left the way they are born. Anyone who performs circumcision in the region will face the full force of the law,” Puntland Justice Minister Awil Sheikh Hamud told reporters.

Justice Ministry officials said the bill includes stiff penalties for those who perform FGM, including hospitals, midwives and traditional circumcisers. No date has yet been set for it to be presented before parliament for a vote.

FGM, which involves the partial or total removal of the female genitalia, is almost universal in Somalia – with 98% of women and girls having been cut, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

There is currently no national law outlawing FGM in the Horn of Africa country.

Both Puntland and the breakaway state of Somaliland have issues fatwas – religious edicts – against the practice in the past, but there is no parliamentary legislation is in place.

FGM affects 200 million girls and women globally and can lead to a host of serious medical problems, according to the World Health Organization.

It can cause long-lasting mental and physical health problems including chronic infections, menstrual problems, infertility, pregnancy and childbirth complications. In some cases, girls can bleed to death or die from infections.

In many communities, girls are married soon after cutting, stifling their progress in education, health and employment. School closures caused by the pandemic could lead to an extra 2 million girls being cut in the next decade, the UNFPA has estimated, hampering global efforts to stamp out the practice by 2030.

In Somalia, where the vaginal opening is also often sewn up – a practice called infibulation – charities have reported a surge in cases as circumcisers offer door-to-door services for girls stuck at home due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Campaigners said legislation banning FGM would boost their fight to end the practice.

Hailing it as a “great milestone,” the UNFPA’s head in Somalia, Anders Thomsen, said the bill would “have a ripple effect in the campaign to end FGM in Puntland” if approved.

“This means girls will be safe from the brutal cut,” he added in a statement.

Somali anti-FGM campaigner Maymun Mahad said she still remembered undergoing the “very painful” practice. “As a young woman, I welcome the move by the cabinet,” she said.

Source: Voice of America