Day: August 27, 2022

My dear friends,

Minister Radman,

It is wonderful for me, to address the Convention of the Croatian Ambassadors.

I have to say that the relations between Greece and Croatia have come to full maturity after 30 years. This year is the anniversary of 30 years of our diplomatic relations. And I have to say, the Greek-Croatian relations are a success story: a success story for the EU, a success story for the Balkans. And we are going to continue cooperating together, looking on issues of our region together and trying together to bring the Western Balkans into our European family.

Thank you so much for this great opportunity.

Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic

Results from Angola’s election show the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola or MPLA will maintain its nearly half-century in power by a slim majority.

Angola’s main opposition has vowed to challenge the results of Wednesday’s vote as the country’s ruling party is set to extend its reign for another five years, giving it a total of 52 years in power.

Incumbent President Joao Lourenco of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola party, known by its Portuguese acronym MPLA, has won a second five-year term in office after garnering 51% of Wednesday’s presidential vote with more than 97% of the votes tallied.

The UNITA opposition has rejected the results, calling them unreliable.

MPLA has been losing support while the opposition support has been growing in past elections.

Borges Nhamirre is a researcher for Institute for Security Studies. He says the government of President Lourenzo must change how it governs.

“This is a clear message that half of the population of Angola don’t support MPLA policies and we have a very big problem in Angola; the winner takes all. So it means no matter how many votes the opposition got from the polls, MPLA will rule alone. So it’s on MPLA now to listen to those people to rule not only for their supporters but to rule for all the Angolans. If that’s not going to happen, then it will be five years of a very difficult government and people contesting.”

The opposition UNITA has complained of a lack of transparency in the electoral process and disagrees with the results — which show they are losing the election.

The party, led by Adalberto Costa Junior, say they are doing their own tallying and are preparing to share their results.

The ruling party’s popularity in this election had dropped by 10 percentage points from the previous election when they got 61% of the votes cast.

The MPLA lost the capital Luanda with more than 60% of the voters casting ballots in favor of the opposition.

Experts say the vote against MPLA in the Luanda province shows the electorate is demanding political change.

Nhamirre says this could herald a tough time for all Angolans.

“I think it will be difficult for them to accept this result and this will be a big challenge to MPLA on how to deal with people… How to convince people who overwhelmingly voted for the opposition that now the MPLA will rule them. I think these will be challenging times.”

The two parties have been rivals since the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975. The two sides fought a civil war for more than 25 years, where hundreds of thousands died.

Critics of MPLA say it has failed to deliver on its promises to fight corruption and uplift people from poverty.

The opposition says it will challenge the result through legal means— and called for calm as the electoral process continues.

However, some experts and even the opposition question whether the courts can overturn the results if they discover irregularities and illegalities in the electoral process.

Aurea Mouzinho is an economist and political commentator based in Luanda. She says the opposition has limited options in its effort to challenge the results.

“Compromising 42% at this stage might not be the best thing UNITA could do for its own credibility. It could cost them in the next election cycle as people may understand as a party that agrees with what MPLA and its institutions fabricate in terms of results instead of pursuing more transparency and legitimate representation of the people’s will.”

The electoral agency has come under criticism from the opposition groups and civil society groups for its lack of transparency up to the election.

UNITA will need to challenge the results at the constitutional court after the electoral commission’s official announcement of the results.

Source: Voice of America

Somali authorities say a record drought has created near-famine conditions in South West state. New arrivals at relief camps say they are eating animal skins to survive.

Baidoa, the administrative capital of Somalia’s South West state, is one of the worst drought-affected areas in the country. People who have lost their livelihoods due to drought arrive at relief camps every day in search of humanitarian assistance.

Sumadle, a new camp on the outskirts of Baidoa, hosts hundreds of new arrivals, mostly from the marginalized Eyle community.

Some of the Eyle walk over 150 kilometers to Sumadle after losing their livestock and harvests because of three consecutive seasons of no rain.

Iisho Mad Keer Madey, a young and pregnant mother of four, told VOA she took a difficult journey to arrive at the camp from Hawal-Barbar, in Bay region.

Madey said she and her children walked for two days and two nights to arrive at camp. She said people helped the exhausted family with a ride in an auto-rickshaw. She migrated after losing 20 goats and 20 camels because of drought, forcing her to beg to feed her children.

Habibo Ibrahim Haydar, the administrator of the camp, said the camp houses more than 300 new arrivals who have nothing to eat, and some have started to eat animal skins because they have not received humanitarian aid so far.

Two and half kilometers away there is another relief camp. Mercy Corps, an American humanitarian group, is providing the people there with water and cash to live in the camp, but it is not enough.

Mukhtar Haji Abukar, 73, arrived at the camp three days ago from the Bakol region. He told VOA he lost everything because of the drought.

Abukar said he had 60 cattle before the drought and now the only thing remaining is the animal skin he was sitting on. He said he and his family hadn’t cooked anything today or last night. It took him four days and four nights to get here from Bakol.

Abukar said this drought is the worst he has seen in his entire life.

In a trip for journalists arranged by Mercy Corps CEO Tjada D’Oyen McKenna said the situation in Somalia is dire and “beyond comprehension.”

“I met two women who had lost babies along the way and had to bury them on the roads as part of their journey,” she said. “We at Mercy Corps are providing cash to vulnerable families to buy food and other essentials and also providing water and hygiene kits to prevent disease spread.”

Somalia is witnessing one of the worst droughts in recent history. More than 1 million people have already been displaced by the drought, according to the United Nations.

The U.N. said more than 7.7 million Somalis—nearly half of the country’s population – need humanitarian assistance because of the drought.

UNICEF earlier told VOA that drought-related malnutrition has already killed 500 children in Somalia.

Source: Voice of America

An Ethiopian government airstrike hit the capital of the volatile Tigray region Friday, reportedly killing several people. The airstrike followed the collapse of a humanitarian cease-fire in northern Ethiopia that had halted fighting for five months.

The French news agency Agence France-Presse reports that just before 3 p.m. local time Friday, the Ethiopian Air Force bombed targets in the Tigray region’s capital of Mekelle.

A doctor at a Mekelle hospital later told the Reuters news agency the airstrike hit a children’s playground, killing at least four people, including two children.

The Ethiopian federal government issued a statement online advising all citizens in Tigray to keep away from potential military targets.

Some on Twitter pointed out that most communications have been severed in Tigray for months due to a government shutdown of the internet, and that people inside Tigray would have no way of seeing the statement.

In an email to VOA, government spokesperson Selamawit Kassa said the Ethiopia Air Force is targeting only military sites. She accused the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, of “dumping fake body bags in civilian areas in order to claim that the Air Force attacked civilians.” The TPLF, which has been fighting against the federal government since November 2020, is an armed political movement and the ruling party in the Tigray region.

An information war between the federal government and the TPLF has been ongoing since the civil war began almost two years ago.

Airstrikes are another escalation in the recent return to fighting in northern Ethiopia. On Wednesday, ground fighting in the Amhara region effectively ended a five-month cease-fire, which had raised hopes of peace talks.

The international community has expressed grave concern over the renewed hostilities. Humanitarian organizations say even before fighting intensified, large parts of Tigray were likely in a state of famine.

Source: Voice of America

Malawi’s government has closed three television stations and six radio stations for failing to pay annual license fees. The country’s media authority is expected to revoke the licenses of up to 30 broadcasting outlets by the end of the year. A local media advocacy group says the action is ill-advised and unfair.

Mandy Pondani, vice chairperson of the Media Institute for Southern Africa in Malawi (MISA-Malawi) told VOA the shutdowns are shrinking the media space and washing away freedoms and democratic gains attained over the last thirty years.

She said Malawi’s Communication Regulatory Authority, or MACRA, should consider the economic impact of the closures.

“We are looking at an economy that is not doing well,” Pondani said. “You can agree with me that in Malawi now almost every business has been affected. And obviously media institutions have been making a lot of money. And we are also coming from the pandemic which almost shut down the institutions. So, we thought maybe MACRA would have been considerate enough in issues like those.”

The affected media houses are Rainbow Television, Angaliba Television, Ufulu Television, Angaliba FM, Capital Radio, Sapitwa FM, Joy Radio, Ufulu FM and Galaxy FM.

Recent notices from MACRA show that in total, licenses for 23 radio stations and six television stations may be revoked by the end of the year.

Some stations paid their fees but are still being shut down.

Aubrey Kusakala, station manager for Rainbow Television, said his station was closed despite settling its $10,000 bill.

He feels the matter is politically motivated.

“Because we are looking at how we have been treated,” he said. “We made a payment on the 20th of June. They withdrew that payment almost two months later, meaning to us that they were not interested in the money. They were interested in our closure. Some of the information we have gathered clearly shows that the government through MACRA did not want us to exist on the market.”

“What is happening now is unprecedented,” said Pondani. “In the 50 year-plus of independence for Malawi, we have never seen a regime shut down media houses as this regime is doing. And it is denting and not reflecting well on the administration. If truth is to be told everybody knows the role the media played for this administration to be in power. And then to be going through this treatment it really doesn’t feel well, it doesn’t feel nice.”

MISA-Malawi said the shutdowns have eliminated 250 jobs held by media professionals and support staff and that another 500 people are expected to lose their jobs by the end of the year.

Zadziko Mankhambo, communications manager for MACRA, said the shutdowns have nothing to do with press freedom or politics, and there are conditions attached to the broadcast licenses, which must be followed.

Among them, he says, is adherence to the timetable for payments.

“Moreover, MACRA is one of the agents that have advocated for media freedom,” he said. “At the moment, MACRA is ensuring that there are more media houses. And as we are talking there are so many licensees who are waiting to have frequencies to start operating according to the law.”

Mankhambo said MACRA has no plans to reverse its action unless there are changes to the law the authority is enforcing.

However, MACRA has said the closed media houses can apply for new licenses once they settle their outstanding payments.

Source: Voice of America