Day: September 12, 2022

Ivory Coast said it will continue with its diplomatic efforts to get the release of 49 soldiers held in Mali since last July 10.

According to a source close to the presidency, local Executive also rejected that the (49) soldiers, who arrived in Bamako to support a UN peace mission, were taken hostage, according to the digital portal Africa News.

Days earlier, Malian transitional authorities accused the Ivorian soldiers of entering the country with no legal documents and of committing mercenarism.

The Ivorian soldiers, who arrived at Mali´s main international airport in the capital Bamako loaded with weapons and ammo, were positioned illegally in the national territory, with permission by the UN Stabilization Mission (MINUSMA), said Malian Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga.

The 49-soldier contingent was not part of MINUSMA, but was instead deployed by countries integrated into the mission.

The arrest of the 49 soldiers has triggered a diplomatic crisis between the two African governments.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Ethiopia’s Tigray rebels said they were ready for a ceasefire and would accept a peace process led by the African Union, removing an obstacle to negotiations with the government to end almost two years of brutal warfare.

The announcement was made amid a flurry of international diplomacy after fighting flared last month for the first time in several months in northern Ethiopia, torpedoing a humanitarian truce.

“The government of Tigray is prepared to participate in a robust peace process under the auspices of the African Union,” said a statement by the Tigrayan authorities.

“Furthermore, we are ready to abide by an immediate and mutually agreed cessation of hostilities in order to create a conducive atmosphere.”

The Ethiopian government has previously said it was ready for unconditional talks “anytime, anywhere,” brokered by the Addis Ababa-headquartered AU.

The Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) had until now vehemently opposed the role of the AU’s Horn of Africa envoy Olusegun Obasanjo, protesting at his “proximity” to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

AU Commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat issued a statement welcoming the development as a “unique opportunity towards the restoration of peace” and urged “both parties to urgently work towards an immediate ceasefire, engage in direct talks”.

Taye Dendea, Ethiopia’s state minister for peace, described the TPLF announcement as a “nice development” on Twitter but insisted the “so-called TDF (Tigray Defence Forces) must be disarmed before peace talks start. Clear stand!”

The TPLF statement, which coincided with Ethiopia’s new year, made no mention of preconditions, although it said the Tigrayans expected a “credible” peace process with “mutually acceptable” mediators as well as international observers.

TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael earlier this month proposed a conditional truce calling for “unfettered humanitarian access” and the restoration of essential services in Tigray, which is suffering food shortages and a lack of electricity, communications and banking.

In a letter to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, he also called for the withdrawal of Eritrean forces from across Ethiopia, and for troops to pull out of western Tigray, a disputed region claimed by both Tigrayans and Amharas, the country’s second-largest ethnic group.

Sunday’s statement said a negotiating team including TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda and General Tsadkan Gebretensae, a former Ethiopian army chief now in Tigray’s central military command, was “ready to be deployed without delay”.

Debretsion had disclosed last month that two rounds of confidential face-to-face meetings had taken place between top civilian and military officials, the first acknowledgement by either warring side of direct contacts.

The AU’s Faki had held halks Saturday with both Obasanjo, the former Nigerian president, and visiting US envoy for the Horn of Africa, Mike Hammer.

“May the parties in the conflict have the courage to choose talks over fighting, and participate in an African Union-led process that produces a lasting peace,” Hammer said in a new year’s message for Ethiopians on Sunday.

Fighting has raged on several fronts in northern Ethiopia since hostilities resumed on Aug 24, with both sides accusing the other of firing first and breaking a March truce.

The latest combat first broke out around Tigray’s southeastern border but has since spread to areas west and north of the initial clashes, the TPLF accusing Ethiopian and Eritrean forces of having launched a massive joint offensive on Tigray on Sept 1.

The United Nations said on Thursday that the renewed fighting had forced a halt to desperately needed aid deliveries to Tigray, both by road and air.

The March truce had allowed aid convoys to travel to Tigray’s capital Mekele for the first time since mid-December.

Untold numbers of civilians have been killed since the war erupted in Africa’s second most populous country, and millions of people across northern Ethiopia are in need of emergency aid.

Abiy, a Nobel Peace laureate, sent troops into Tigray in November 2020 to topple the TPLF in response to what he said were attacks by the group on federal army camps.

The TPLF recaptured most of Tigray in a surprise comeback in June 2021 and expanded into Afar and Amhara, before the fighting reached a stalemate.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Calls are mounting in Kenya for Britain to return the head of a revered tribal leader who led a bloody resistance movement against colonial rule more than a century ago, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Koitalel Arap Samoei spearheaded fierce opposition to the construction of the so-called “Lunatic Express,” a railway from Kenya’s Indian Ocean port of Mombasa through Nandi in the Rift Valley to Lake Victoria in Uganda.

Many thousands of people are believed to have been killed in the more than decade-long struggle that began in 1895 when surveyors first marked out land in Nandi as a route for the railway.

Kenyan historians say British colonial authorities lured Samoei to a meeting in October 1905 ostensibly to negotiate a truce but instead he and a number of fellow warriors were shot dead.

Samoei, an Orkoiyot or spiritual leader of the Nandi people, was decapitated and his head taken to England as a war trophy, according to Nandi elders.

The death on Thursday of Queen Elizabeth II, who was on a visit to Kenya in 1952 when she became monarch, has reignited demands for Britain to face up to the horrors of its colonial past.

Nandi County government attorney George Tarus said the Nandi people wanted Samoei’s head returned to his ancestral homeland for a proper burial, a call echoed widely on social media in Kenya.

The queen “meant so much to so many people… despite the history of the British empire and its atrocities”, he said, highlighting the strong relations between Britain and Kenya today.

“But as the world is mourning the passing of Queen Elizabeth II maybe now is the right time to implore the British government to do what is only right — return the head of Koitalel Samoei and issue an apology publicly to the people of Nandi.”

Tarus said 20,000 people were killed during the uprising and thousands more displaced when British authorities seized 140,000 acres of fertile land in Nandi now used for tea plantations by British multinationals.

“To this date there hasn’t been any compensation from the British government,” said Tarus, who is leading legal efforts to seek justice for the Nandi community.

He said this was despite Britain agreeing in 2013 to compensate over 5,000 Kenyans who had suffered abuse during the 1950s Mau Mau rebellion against colonial rule.

In 2006, heirs of colonial-era British army colonel Richard Henry Meinertzhagen, said to be the man who killed Samoei, returned a walking stick and baton to Kenya that had belonged to the tribal leader.

Samoei launched his unsuccessful and ultimately fatal struggle after foretelling that a black snake spitting fire – a steam engine – would pass through Nandi, destroying tribal culture and disenfranchising local farmers and cattle herders.

Tarus said he believed the British took Samoei’s head not only as a trophy but also to study.

“I think they wanted to find out how… he could resist the British for 11 years with their sophisticated weapons while the Nandi were only using mainly bows and arrows.”

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Fourteen irregular migrants had been rescued and 6 bodies recovered off Chebba, in the Mahdia governorate, spokesman for the National Guard Houssemeddine Jebabli said.

The coast guards assisted by a team of divers of the National Navy are still searching for the missing.

The boat capsized on the night of Sept 6-7. A helicopter had been dispatched to help with the rescue operation, the official added.

According to initial investigations, between 34 and 37 people had been on board the boat, he said.

Jebabli pointed out that the Tunisian coast guards had managed to foil 1,489 attempts at irregular migration from Jan 1 to Sept 9, 2022.

Some 20,018 irregular migrants had been prevented to cross the sea borders, he indicated, adding that these migrants had been nationals of sub-Saharan African countries (12,466) and Tunisians (7,552).

526 irregular migration organisers had been arrested and 823 boats seized, the official said.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

The National Union of Tunisian Journalists (SNJT) announced in a statement the release of journalist Ghassen Ben Khélifa, who had been in custody for 5 days on the instructions of the prosecutor’s office of the Judicial Counter-Terrorism Division.

The SNJT had strongly condemned on Sept 7, the arbitrary arrest of journalist Ben Khélifa, founder of the website “Inhiyez,” after his home and his parents’ had been raided without the presentation of a warrant and his unjustified detention for 5 days.

The Union further decried “the ease with which the Public Prosecutor’s Office issues detention warrants against citizens and journalists without any suspicion or evidence of crimes,” pointing out that journalists, bloggers and human rights defenders are exposed daily to defamation campaigns, threats and electronic bullying by pages that support the government, without the justice system taking the slightest action, despite the numerous complaints lodged to this effect.

The SNJT said Ben Khalifa was prosecuted for a “non-existent link between the journalist and a page belonging to the Ennahdha movement that calls for the overthrow of Kais Saied.”

A protest march was staged last Friday from the SNJT’s seat towards the Habib Bourguiba Avenue to demand the release of journalist Ben Khelifa.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

At a time of unprecedented challenges and upheaval, “solutions lie in solidarity,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a message commemorating the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation.

“South-South and triangular cooperation are critical for developing countries to mitigate and adapt to climate disruption, address the global health crisis, including COVID-19 recovery, and achieve all 17 Sustainable Development Goals,” said the top UN official.

The UN chief stressed the importance of Southern-led development solutions being shared “far and wide.”

“South-South and triangular cooperation must play an ever-increasing role in resolving our common challenges,” he said.

But that does not absolve wealthier states of their responsibilities to work constructively with the developing world, “especially to reduce growing inequalities between and within nations,” Guterres said.

In commemorating the day, he encouraged “all nations and communities to redouble cooperation and build bridges to achieve an equitable and sustainable future for all.”

“South-South and triangular cooperation must have a central place in our preparations for a strong recovery,” said the secretary-general.

“We will need the full contributions and cooperation of the global South to build more resilient economies and societies and implement the Sustainable Development Goals.”

To highlight the importance of South-South cooperation, the UN General Assembly proclaimed Sept. 12 as the United Nations Day for South-South Cooperation.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

Fifty million people around the world are trapped in forced labour or forced marriage, the UN said, warning that their ranks had swelled dramatically in recent years.

The United Nations had set a goal to eradicate all forms of modern slavery by 2030, but instead the number of people caught up in forced labour or forced marriage ballooned by 10 million between 2016 and 2021, according to a new report.

The study, by the UN’s agencies for labour and migration along with the Walk Free Foundation, found that at the end of last year, 28 million people were in forced labour, while 22 million were living in a marriage they had been forced into.

That means nearly one out of every 150 people in the world are caught up in modern forms of slavery, the report said.

“It is shocking that the situation of modern slavery is not improving,” Guy Ryder, head of the International Labour Organization (ILO), said in a statement.

“Nothing can justify the persistence of this fundamental abuse of human rights.”

The Covid-19 pandemic, which worsened conditions and swelled debt levels for many workers, has heightened the risk, the report found.

Coupled with the effects of climate change and armed conflicts, it has contributed to “unprecedented disruption to employment and education, increases in extreme poverty and forced and unsafe migration”, compounding the threat, it said.

It is a long-term problem, the report cautioned, with estimates indicating entrapment in forced labour can last years and forced marriage is often “a life sentence.”

Women and children are by far the most vulnerable.

Children account for one out of five people in forced labour, with more than half of them stuck in commercial sexual exploitation, the report said.

Migrant workers are meanwhile more than three times more likely to be in forced labour than non-migrant adult workers, it showed.

“This report underscores the urgency of ensuring that all migration is safe, orderly, and regular,” Antonio Vitorino, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), said in the statement.

Modern slavery is present in basically every country in the world, with more than half of cases of forced labour and a quarter of forced marriages in upper-middle income or high-income countries.

The report found that the number of people – mainly women and girls – stuck in forced marriages had risen by a full 6.6 million since the last global estimates in 2016.

The number of people in forced labour swelled by 2.7 million over the same period.

The increase was driven entirely by more forced labour in the private economy, including in forced commercial sexual exploitation.

But the report also said that 14 percent of those in forced labour were doing jobs imposed by state authorities, voicing concern about abuse of compulsory prison labour in a number of countries, including the United States.

It also pointed to grave concerns raised by the UN rights office about “credible accounts of forced labour under exceptionally harsh conditions” in North Korea.

And it highlighted the situation in China, where several UN agencies have warned of possible forced labour, including in the Xinjiang region, where Beijing stands accused of detaining more than one million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.

Beijing has vehemently rejected such charges, claiming it is running vocational training centres to help root out extremism.

A report published by former UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet on Aug 31 said more information was needed, but that labour schemes in the region appeared to be discriminatory and to “involve elements of coercion.”

Monday’s report welcomed China last month having ratified the ILO Forced Labour Convention, creating “renewed momentum for cooperation with the government and social partners to pursue these issues (and) to combat forced labour.”

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK