Month: May 2022

U.N. officials warn that soaring prices of food, fuel, fertilizers, and other commodities due to the Russia-Ukraine war could have a profound destabilizing impact on the African continent.

Africa is still reeling from the socio-economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has plunged some 50 million people into extreme poverty. The continent is also tackling crises generated by climate change, conflict, and political unrest.

Added to this toxic mix is now the war in Ukraine.

Ahunna Eziakonwa, the U.N. Development Program’s assistant administrator and regional director for Africa, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is reverberating badly on the continent.

“Things that really was stunning for the continent and a rude awakening is how much it depends—almost 90% dependence on external sources of goods for what it needs to keep its population alive. Food and medicine,” she said.

Eziakonwa said the impact of soaring inflation due to price hikes of food, fuel, fertilizer and other commodities will soon begin to bite. She said Africa’s reliance on imports of food and other goods from Russia and Ukraine will create another front of discontent and possibly unrest in a growing number of nations.

UNDP-Africa Senior Economist Raymond Gilpin said rising inflation is putting several large investments on hold across the continent. He cited as examples the development of a huge steel mill complex in Nigeria and fertilizer plants in Angola.

Golpin warned tensions are rising in hot spots such as the Sahel, parts of Central Africa, and the Horn of Africa as the Russia-Ukraine war begins to fester.

“Particularly in urban areas, low-income communities, which could spillover just to violent protests and … probably also violent riots,” he said. “Also, and countries that have elections scheduled for this year and next year are particularly vulnerable because this could become a trigger.”

UNDP officials are calling for global action to address the problems in Africa resulting from measures taken half a world away. They say the long-term consequences of this new global crisis pose great risks to peace and stability efforts on the continent.

These dangers, they note, come at a time when Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for nearly half of global deaths caused by terrorism as seen in the record number of coups last year.

Source: Voice of America

Moroccan police said Friday they had arrested a suspected Islamic State group member, in cooperation with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, who was implicated in plotting “acts of terrorism.”

The announcement came ahead of the opening next Wednesday in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh of a conference of member countries in the U.S.-led coalition against IS.

The suspect, based in the kingdom’s northeastern Berkane region, was implicated in the “preparation of a terrorist plot aimed at delivering a serious blow to public order,” Morocco’s counterterrorism police, the Central Office of Judicial Research, said in a statement.

“The outlines of his terrorist conspiracy were unmasked on the basis of research and technical investigation carried out jointly with the FBI,” it added.

This operation “is further evidence of the persistent dangers of the terrorist threat that hangs” over Morocco and “the importance of bilateral cooperation … with the United States in the fight against terrorism.”

The suspect, a 37-year-old engineer, “ran a closed user group dedicated to extremist goals and projects and aimed at recruiting and drawing in sympathizers,” the statement said.

His objective was to carry out attacks against Moroccan and foreign dignitaries on Moroccan soil, it alleged.

Morocco has been spared the jihadi violence that has shaken other Middle East and North African countries in recent years, but the security services regularly report arrests of suspects in operations targeting militant cells.

Since 2002, the police say they have arrested more than 3,500 suspects in terrorism-linked cases.

Source: Voice of America

Editor’s note: Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch.

Some civilians evacuated from Mariupol steel plant, surrounding areas

The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross were able to evacuate nearly 500 civilians in two humanitarian operations this week in southern Ukraine. One hundred people, including 17 children, who had been sheltering for weeks in the tunnels and basements of the mammoth Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, got out May 2. Others were evacuated from Mariupol, Manhush, Berdiansk, Tokmak and Vasylivka, and were receiving humanitarian assistance in Zaporizhzhia. A few dozen evacuees chose to remain in Mariupol to search for their relatives. A third operation was underway at the end of the week.

Evacuation of Civilians from Mariupol Steel Plant Under Way Friday

Accountability for war atrocities

Several countries, as well as the International Criminal Court, are assisting Ukrainian prosecutors in collecting, documenting and preserving evidence of war crimes carried out since Russia’s invasion February 24. They are using 21st century technology to find perpetrators and bring them to justice.

A Trove of Digital Evidence Documents War Crimes in Ukraine

Ukraine’s traumatized generation

The U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, said Friday that millions of children in Ukraine have suffered psychological trauma after more than two months of relentless bombing and shelling, a lack of food, the inability to go to school, and the loss of other essential services.

UNICEF: Ukraine War Has Devastating Psychological Impact on Children

Aid trickling into Northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region

Despite a March 25 cease-fire in northern Ethiopia, aid groups said they are struggling to get food and medicine to those in need. Even outside the worst-affected areas in Tigray, which are off limits to reporters, providing aid is fraught with risks and challenges.

As Tigray Aid Blockade Continues, Nearby Areas Also in Desperate Need of Food, Medicine

WHO: Nearly 15 million COVID-related deaths worldwide

The World Health Organization said Thursday that the COVID-19 pandemic directly or indirectly caused 14.9 million deaths worldwide from Jan. 1, 2020, to Dec. 31, 2021. Known as “excess mortality,” the figure represents the number of people who died versus the number who would have been expected to die had there not been a pandemic.

COVID Caused 14.9 Million Excess Deaths Globally: WHO

In brief

— Secretary-General Antonio Guterres traveled to West Africa this week, making stops in Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. One of the aims of his trip was to see and hear firsthand about the impacts the war in Ukraine is having on food security in the region. On Monday, the U.N. chief will be back on the road, making a two-day visit to Moldova to meet with Ukrainian refugees.

— A recent upsurge in fighting between South Sudanese armed groups has led to the deaths and injuries of dozens of people, the rapes and abductions of multiple women, and the burning and looting of homes. The U.N. says some 40,000 people have been forcibly displaced from their homes and are in need of shelter and other assistance. South Sudan’s humanitarian situation is severe, with nearly 7 million people needing assistance, but funding is scarce. The U.N. says it has received only 8% of the $1.7 billion needed this year.

Quote of note

“People would first drive for three days and then go on foot. Children, strollers, some carrying kids on their shoulders. Oh God, it’s so tough when I think about it. We were driving on the highway. It’s such a nightmare, there was so much shooting and shelling. I don’t know how the woman who was driving the car we were in, I don’t know how she managed, but we finally arrived to Manhush.”

— Tetiana Prykhodko tearfully describing to VOA’s Yaroslava Movchan how she fled from the besieged city of Mariupol to the town of Manhush, ultimately arriving at a center for displaced persons in Dnipro, where they met.

What we are watching next week

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield heads to the Syrian-Turkish border Monday. She will visit the Bab al-Hawa border crossing which connects southern Turkey with northwestern Syria and is the sole remaining international crossing that humanitarians can use to get vital aid to millions of civilians living in non-government-controlled areas. Russia has wanted to shutter this crossing for some time, arguing that aid moved across lines of conflict inside the country and controlled by Damascus is sufficient. The U.N. Security Council will have to decide in early July whether to continue access via Bab al-Hawa or end it. Several countries, including the United States, would like to see cross-border access expanded. Thomas-Greenfield will then continue to Brussels to attend an EU pledging conference for Syria where she is expected to announce new humanitarian support for the people of Syria and countries hosting Syrian refugees.

Source: Voice of America