Year: 2022

The acting head of the United Nations mission in eastern Congo said Wednesday that it would carry out a joint investigation with national police into the shooting deaths of three peacekeepers and a dozen Congolese civilians during anti-U.N. protests this week.

“As I said yesterday to the national authorities, we do not have any evidence that MONUSCO troops were firing at civilians,” the deputy chief of the mission Khassim Diagne told reporters, using the French acronym for the U.N. Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Reuters reported Tuesday that its reporter saw peacekeepers shoot dead two protesters as people threw rocks, vandalized and burned the U.N. compound in Goma, the provincial capital of Congo’s North Kivu province.

Diagne said the U.N. has the forensics capability to trace its bullets and is flying in a doctor from Kinshasa to conduct autopsies and extract the bullets for investigation.

MONUSCO is one of the U.N.’s biggest peacekeeping missions, with more than 16,000 troops and police in the eastern DRC.

North Kivu has been volatile for years but has seen a recent escalation of violence from armed groups, particularly the resurgent M23 rebels. Hundreds of angry protesters who accuse the U.N. of failing to protect them stormed U.N. compounds in Goma and Butembo earlier this week. Some threw stones and petrol bombs, broke into bases, looted and vandalized, and set fires. The deaths occurred when the protests turned violent.

Diagne said the demonstrators had been infiltrated by criminal elements who were focused on looting.

“Clearly they were trying to get away with a lot of equipment,” he said of images of people stealing sacks of rice, dry goods and other items.

He said the situation had cooled on Wednesday, but the mission remains vigilant.

Congolese security forces have reinforced the peacekeepers, and Diagne said that

North Kivu’s governor issued a strong statement late Tuesday banning demonstrations.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix, who is currently in Mali, will travel to Kinshasa on Friday to meet with officials and then continue to Goma.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also strongly condemned the violence.

The U.N. Security Council met late Tuesday at the request of India, who lost two peacekeepers in the violence, for a private briefing on the events.

The U.N. has warned that the M23 rebel group, which was defeated by the Congolese army and special MONUSCO forces in 2013, started to re-emerge in November of last year and is well armed and equipped.

Source: Voice of America

With less than two weeks before Kenya’s elections, millions of Kenyans watched a presidential debate Tuesday that had only one debater. Deputy President William Ruto appeared solo after his main opponent, Raila Odinga, refused to participate in the live event.

Ruto had the stage to himself for 90 minutes to answer questions and explain what he would do if he occupied the president’s office. He promised, among other things, to reduce the cost of living and fight corruption.

“We are a country that is faced with mounting challenges,” he said. “We have a huge track record of what we have achieved but there is tremendous opportunity out there for more to be achieved. … I believe I am the candidate with a plan to be able to get Kenya to the next level.”

Former prime minister Raila Odinga pulled out of the debate last week, saying he was not willing to debate someone who had no regard for ethics and public morals.

Ruto responded Tuesday night.

“My competitor is not here because he doesn’t have a plan, he doesn’t have an agenda, he cannot articulate anything to the people of Kenya,” Ruto said. “That’s why he is not here.”

A recent survey found Odinga holding a strong lead over Ruto heading into the final weeks before the Aug. 9 election.

Ruto has been deputy president for the past 10 years and held ministerial positions in the previous government. Michael Agwanda, a Kenyan political commentator, said Ruto is having trouble shaking off the political blame that comes with incumbency.

“I strongly believe he was caught between a hard place and a rock because he has been part of the system for a very long time,” Agwanda said.

Agwanda said Ruto has not been helped by saying he had limited power but also saying he had influence in government.

“That was more less basically not being straightforward,” Agwanda said.

Nairobi resident Mellanie Busienei watched Tuesday’s debate. She saod it changed her mind on who she will vote for come Aug. 9, though she did not reveal which candidate she now prefers.

“I just hope for the best definitely,” she said. “Yesterday’s debate changed who I was supposed to vote for. The fact that I have seen who can commit and who cannot, the promises and the agenda have always been the same since independence.”

Matilda Murage said she did not watch the debate. She said previous unfulfilled promises of earlier leaders have made her not vote.

“I don’t trust anybody there,” she said. “There is nobody I want to give my vote to because they lie, they steal. I’d rather keep my vote.”

Ruto, who is 55, is running for the Kenyan presidency for the first time. The 77-year-old Odinga is making his fifth bid for the top job.

Source: Voice of America

A nationwide labor protest in Nigeria spread to the capital, Abuja, on Wednesday, as protesters sought to pressure authorities to resolve a payment dispute with university teachers.

The lecturers walked out of classes Feb. 14 over the dispute and an unfulfilled government promise to invest $500 million in public universities. The strike has affected millions of Nigerian students.

Thousands of protesters comprising Nigerian workers from various sectors marched to the national assembly on the second day of a solidarity protest for the Academic Staff Union of Universities or ASUU.

The joint protest aims to pressure authorities to address lingering funding issues in public universities that prompted a lecturers’ strike five months ago.

But protesters said there are other issues, like insecurity and the state of Nigeria’s economy, that also need urgent attention.

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) President Ayuba Wabba said these issues stem from years of authorities neglecting the education system.

“The children of the working class, the children of the less privileged have been at home for the past five months and nobody cares, whereas their children are graduating daily from universities abroad and they have the audacity to post them on social media so that we can see,” Wabba said. “Once you deny citizens education, you have denied them everything.”

More than 8 million students in Nigeria’s public universities are affected by the strike including protester Adamu Umar, who is an undergraduate student of the Ahmadu Bello University.

“I’m almost getting to the point that I cannot tolerate anything from the Nigerian government anymore,” Umar said. “I gained admission in 2019, I am supposed to be a graduate by now.”

University lecturers abandoned classrooms on Feb. 14 after an unsuccessful meeting with education authorities to honor a 2009 promise made by the government to invest $500 million dollars into public universities.

Nigeria’s public universities are said to be suffering from low funding and poor management. Many also lack adequate facilities.

The protesters say Nigerian lecturers’ renumeration is low compared to their counterparts abroad.

Emmanuel Osadeke, chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities labor union, said authorities tried to punish the striking lecturers by not paying salaries during the strike.

“The first thing they did was to go and stop salaries instead of resolving the issue thinking that with two or three months we’ll come begging,” Osadeke said.

Instead, Osadeke said, the resilience of his union members could keep the strike going much longer.

“We must change the Nigeria university system no matter what happens,” he said.

Some lawmakers responded to protesters on Wednesday and asked that they give authorities some more time to pay the promised money.

In February, authorities said they had paid $230 million out of the $500 million agreed to.

The Nigerian Labour Congress represents millions of workers across various sectors, including lecturer unions.

A similar strike in 2020 lasted for nine months.

Source: Voice of America