Day: July 3, 2022

West African leaders attended a summit Sunday as their regional bloc pursues its efforts to resolve the political impasse in the coup-hit nations of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea.

A summit last month of the Economic Community of West African States put off imposing further economic and financial sanctions on the three nations. They were suspended from the bloc following military coups and are under international pressure to hold democratic elections.

Malian authorities recently announced a transition roadmap that includes scheduling a presidential election for February 2024 and a March 2023 constitutional referendum.

It remains to be seen if participants at Sunday’s summit in Accra, the Ghanaian capital, will accept the proposal.

ECOWAS sanctioned Mali in January by shutting down most commerce with the country, along with its land and air borders with other countries in the bloc. The measures have crippled Mali’s economy.

The juntas in Guinea and Burkina Faso have proposed three-year transition periods, which ECOWAS rejected as too long a wait for elections.

The wave of military coups began in August 2020, when Col. Assimi Goita and other soldiers overthrew Mali’s democratically elected president. Nine months later, he carried out a second coup, dismissing the country’s civilian transitional leader and assuming the presidency himself.

Mutinous soldiers deposed Guinea’s president in September 2021, and Burkina Faso’s leader was ousted in a January coup.

The political upheaval came as many observers started to think that military power grabs were a thing of the past in West Africa.

Source: Voice of America

Pope Francis urged the people and leaders of Congo and South Sudan on Saturday to “turn a page” and forge new paths of reconciliation, peace and development.

Francis issued a video message on the day he had planned to begin a weeklong pilgrimage to the two African countries. He canceled the scheduled trip last month because of knee pain that makes walking and standing difficult.

In the message, Francis said he was “greatly disappointed” to not be able to travel and promised to visit “as soon as possible.”

He urged the people of both countries not to allow themselves to be robbed of hope despite the violence, political instability, exploitation and poverty that he said had pained them for so long.

“You have a great mission, all of you, beginning with your political leaders: It is that of turning a page in order to blaze new trails, new paths of reconciliation and forgiveness, of serene coexistence and of development,” Francis said.

He said political leaders owed the pursuit of such goals to young people who dream of peace “and deserve to see those dreams come true.”

“For their sake, above all, it is necessary to lay down arms, to overcome all resentment, and to write new pages of fraternity,” the pope said.

He was joined in issuing separate video messages by the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, and the moderator of the Church of Scotland Right Rev. Dr. Iain Greenshields, who were supposed to have accompanied Francis on the South Sudan leg of the trip. In their messages, they expressed disappointment that the visit had to be postponed but urged South Sudanese to nevertheless keep working for peace.

“Peace requires much more than not being at war. It must be created together, with your fellow leaders and even with your enemies,” Welby said in his message. Greenshields urged the South Sudanese to “give expression to Jesus’ words that ‘Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God.’”

While Francis was unable to travel, he is due to celebrate a special Mass at St. Peter’s on Sunday for Rome’s Congolese community. He sent his No. 2, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, to visit both Congo and South Sudan on the days he was supposed to have been there.

The Catholic Church has always played a role in Congo, especially in the establishment of democracy and advocacy for human rights. The church deployed about 40,000 electoral observers in the 2019 election that brought Felix Tshisekedi to the presidency. Tshisekedi, an opposition figure, defeated then President Joseph Kabila’s chosen candidate in what was Congo’s first peaceful, democratic transfer of power since independence from Belgium in 1960.

There were high hopes for peace and stability once South Sudan gained its long-fought independence from Sudan. But it slid into ethnic violence in December 2013. A 2018 peace deal that binds President Salva Kiir and his deputy, Riek Machar, in a unity government encourages authorities to hold elections before February 2023.

Source: Voice of America

The World Food Program warns conflict, climate change, COVID-19, and skyrocketing prices of food, fuel, and fertilizer are further threatening stability and development prospects in Africa’s Sahel region.

WFP warns a wave of hunger and suffering is sweeping across part of the Sahel, driving people to the brink of desperation and upending years of development gains.

The agency reports 12.7 million people are acutely hungry, including 1.4 million on the verge of starvation. It says 6 million children are acutely malnourished, making them vulnerable to disease and even death if they do not receive treatment for their condition.

Alexandre Le Cuziat is WFP senior emergency preparedness and response adviser for West Africa. Speaking from Dakar in Senegal, he warns the number of people suffering from acute hunger and the number of malnourished children is likely to rise during the current lean season when food stocks are at their lowest.

“What we see is that acute hunger is driven primarily by conflict that will continue to trigger massive population displacements and the violence is often preventing people from accessing markets, fields, or humanitarian assistance. The region also bears the consequences of a climatic shock with very, very poor rains in 2021, one of the worst in the last 40 years,” he said.

Le Cuziat says the conflict in Ukraine has driven up food and energy prices. He adds it also has led to shortages of fertilizer needed for the planting season, which is now over.

He notes less than half of the region’s fertilizer needs have been met. This, he says, could result in a 20% drop in agricultural production in the region this year, further increasing the levels of hunger.

He says needs in the region are at record highs at a time when resources to respond to emergencies are dwindling. He says a lack of money is forcing WFP to reduce the number of people receiving assistance and to cut rations for the remaining beneficiaries.

“Even before the conflict in Ukraine drove up the global prices of food, fuel, and fertilizer, we were forced to cut rations by up to 50% in all of the Sahelian countries, as well as Nigeria, CAR. And our emergency nutrition programs are also underfunded, which combined to the cuts I was mentioning on our operations is going to put a lot of stress on what little resources the poorest families have left,” he said.

Le Cuziat says WFP requires $329 million in the next six months for its life saving operation and to prevent the Sahel from becoming, what he calls, an all-out humanitarian catastrophe.

Source: Voice of America

Les pompiers civils de Man ont sensibilisé, samedi 02 juillet 2022, plusieurs femmes de la commune sur les risques domestiques dans l’enceinte du Centre de secours d’urgence (CSU).

A l’initiative de la Jeune chambre internationale (JCI) de Man, cette conférence-formation, la sixième du genre, mise en œuvre en partenariat avec le CSU, a porté sur le thème « Plus d’accidents domestiques meurtriers à Man ».

Selon le directeur projet, Seydou Doumbia Badian, ce programme de formation vient à point nommé “parce qu’il va permettre aux populations d’avoir déjà les prérequis en terme de réactions quand elles sont face à un cas de sinistre”.

Prise en charge d’un asthmatique avant l’arrivée des secours

Le responsable du Centre de secours d’urgence (CSU) de Man, le lieutenant Yoboué N’guessan Jean Henoc, animateur de la formation, a aidé à connaître les risques, les effets induits, leurs dangers, et surtout à savoir comment les éviter et comment réagir en cas d’accident.

Les sapeurs pompiers ont fait la démonstration de quelques gestes utiles à effectuer en face d’un sinistre avant l’arrivée sur les lieux d’une équipe de secours. Par l’occasion, les numéros pour joindre le CSU de Man ont été communiqués aux populations.

Pour sa part, le sixième adjoint au maire de la commune, Fofana Djakaridja a salué ce projet de sensibilisation des ménages sur les risques domestiques. Il a invité la Jeunes chambre internationale de Man ‘’à multiplier ce genre d’activité pour le bonheur des populations’’.

La JCI de Man entend apporter sa contribution pour une prise de conscience des populations, afin d’éviter les drames sur les lieux de travail et dans les ménages.

La JCI est une organisation à but non lucratif de jeunes citoyens actifs qui se consacrent à la création de changements positifs dans leurs communautés. Les membres JCI, appelés Jaycees, s’impliquent dans leurs communautés en identifiant les problèmes existants et cherchent des solutions ciblées pour créer un impact positif.

Source: Agence Ivoirienne de Presse