Somalia News Gazette

Inspections of ships carrying Ukrainian grain and other food exports have slowed to half their peak rate under a wartime agreement brokered by the United Nations, creating backlogs in vessels meant to carry supplies to developing nations where people are going hungry, United Nations and Ukrainian officials say.

Some officials from the United States and Ukraine accuse Russia of deliberately slowing inspections, which a Russian official denied.

As the grain initiative got rolling in August, 4.1 inspections of ships — both heading to and leaving Ukraine — took place each day on average, according to data the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul provided to The Associated Press. Inspection teams from Russia, Ukraine, the U.N. and Turkey ensure ships carry only food and other agricultural products and no weapons.

In September, inspections jumped to 10.4 per day, then a peak rate of 10.6 in October. Since then, it’s been downhill: 7.3 in November, 6.5 in December and 5.3 so far in January.

“The hope had been that going into 2023, you would see every month the daily rate of inspection going up, not that you would see it halved,” USAID Administrator Samantha Power said in an interview Thursday at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

The slowdown in inspections “has a material effect … in terms of the number of ships that can get out,” said the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development. “That, in turn, inevitably has a knock-on effect on global supply.”

More than 100 vessels waiting

More than 100 vessels are waiting in the waters off Turkey either for inspection or for their applications to participate to clear, with the waiting time of vessels between application and inspection averaging 21 days in the last two weeks, according to the U.N.

Despite fewer average daily inspections, U.N. figures showed that more grain got through last month, up 3.7 million metric tons from 2.6 million in November. The coordination center said that was because of the use of larger vessels in December.

The U.N.’s deputy spokesman in New York linked the slowdown in inspections to the backlogs in ships, saying the rate needs to pick up but did not pin blame on Russia.

“We, as the U.N., are urging all the parties to work to remove obstacles for the reduction of the backlog and improve our efficiencies,” Farhan Haq told journalists Wednesday.

The number of inspections of ships to and from Ukraine is a crucial measure of the throughput of Ukrainian grain to world markets, but not the only one: Other factors include port activity, harvest and agricultural supply, silo stockpiles, weather, ship availability and the capacity of vessels.

The initiative

The Black Sea Grain Initiative was designed to free up Ukrainian wheat, barley and other food critical to nations in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, where shortages of affordable supplies sent food prices surging and helped throw more people into poverty.

Proponents hoped a November extension of the deal would spur an acceleration of inspections — and thus help ship millions of tons of food out of three Ukrainian ports disrupted by Russia’s invasion 11 months ago.

But Power of USAID said the U.S. was “very concerned” that Moscow might be deliberately dragging its heels on inspections.

“Costs of actually exporting and shipping are now up 20% because you have these crews that are just idling for the extra time it takes because the Russian Federation has cut down on the number of inspections it will participate in,” she said.

Asked whether Russia was deliberately slowing the inspections, Alexander Pchelyakov, a spokesman for the Russian diplomatic mission to U.N. institutions in Geneva, said: “That’s simply not true.”

“The Russian side adheres to the number of daily inspections in accordance to the reached agreements,” he said by text message.

In a Facebook post Thursday, the Ukrainian Ministry of Infrastructure said ship backlogs began in November.

“The average waiting time is from 2 to 5 weeks, which also leads to millions of losses for cargo owners,” the ministry wrote, adding that Russia had “artificially reduced the number of inspection teams from 5 to 3 without any explanation.”

The time needed for inspections was “artificially increased by checking the performance of vessels,” it added, saying there were cases “when Russians refuse to work for fictitious reasons.”

Turkey’s Defense Ministry didn’t immediately response to emails seeking comment about the inspection slowdowns.

Russia says sanctions create obstacles

The grain initiative, brokered by the U.N. and Turkey, came with a separate arrangement to help Russia export its food and fertilizer as farmers worldwide face soaring prices for the nutrients needed for their crops.

Russia has complained that Western sanctions have created obstacles to its agricultural exports. While sanctions don’t target Russian food or fertilizer, many shipping and insurance companies have been reluctant to deal with Moscow, either refusing to do so or greatly increasing the price.

Overall under the deal, 17.8 million tons of Ukrainian agricultural products have been exported to 43 countries since August 1, the U.N. said. China — a key ally of Russia — has been a top recipient, followed by Spain and Turkey.

Low and lower-middle income countries received 44% of the wheat exported under the deal, with nearly two-thirds of that going to developing economies, the world body said. The U.N.’s World Food Program purchased 8% of the total.

The organization says nearly 350 million people worldwide are on the brink of starvation because of conflict, climate change and COVID-19, an increase in 200 million from before the pandemic.

Source: Voice of America

A U.S. military strike has killed approximately 30 Islamist al-Shabab militants near the central Somali town of Galcad, where Somalia’s military was engaged in heavy fighting, U.S. Africa Command said in a statement.

The operation, which the U.S. military described as a “collective self-defense strike,” occurred Friday about 162 miles (260 km) north of the capital Mogadishu, where Somali national forces were under attack by more than 100 al-Shabab fighters, the statement said.

U.S. Africa Command, the military arm of the American government’s presence on the continent, said no civilians were injured or killed in the strike. It said three vehicles were destroyed.

Al-Shabab fighters had stormed a Somali military base in Galcad Friday and killed at least seven soldiers, according to the Somali government and the militant group. The fighters exploded car bombs and fired weapons but were eventually repelled.

Somalia’s Information Ministry said in a statement that in addition to al-Shabab killing seven soldiers, their soldiers had killed 100 of the group’s fighters and destroyed five gun-mounted pickup vehicles known as ‘technicals’.

Al-Shabab has been fighting since 2006 to topple the country’s central government and install its own rule, based on a strict interpretation of Islam.

Friday’s attack underscored the formidable threat that al-Shabab poses for Somalia’s military, despite government successes against the al-Qaida-allied militants last year.

Source: Voice of America

Officials in Cameroon say separatists have killed two election officials in Cameroon , capital of the Northwest region. The rebels have vowed to disrupt Cameroon’s March 12 Senate elections. The government says election preparations will continue, despite the killings.

Cameroonians say they got up on Friday morning and noticed that the military presence in major streets of Bamenda, the capital of Cameroon’s Northwest region, had increased.

The military said several homes, especially in the area around Foncha Street, a popular neighborhood, were searched Thursday night but did not say why the search was carried out or if any arrests were made.

It is on Foncha Street that the body of Gilbert Yufela Tateng, district chairman of Cameroon’s elections management body in Jakiri town, about 90 kilometers north of Bamenda, was found Thursday morning.

The military said Tateng was shot and killed Wednesday night.

The elections body, ELECAM, said Tateng was preparing for Cameroon’s March 12 senatorial elections.

ELECAM also said John Fai, its official in charge of organizing elections in Momo, an administrative unit in the Northwest region, was also killed on Thursday. Both ELECAM and the government of Cameroon say the officials were killed by separatists.

Capo Daniel, spokesperson and deputy defense chief of the separatist Ambazonia Defense Forces, said the two officials defied separatists’ orders and were involved in election preparations.

“Any Ambazonia citizen that participates in Cameroon’s senatorial elections will face serious consequences. The officials of Cameroon that are charged to conduct such elections, will be hunted by our forces for charges of enabling colonialism,” Daniel said. “Two officials of ELECAM have already suffered the fate for collaborating with an enemy state to enforce its laws on our people.”

Separatists dismiss local media reports that Fai was killed by an angry mob.

Ambazonia is what English-speaking separatists call the breakaway state they are fighting to carve out from majority French-speaking Cameroon.

President Paul Biya last week announced that Senate elections will be held March 12. ELECAM staff are in their offices accepting candidate applications ahead of the January 28 registration deadline.

ELECAM chairperson Enow Abrams Egbe told a news conference in Yaounde this week that security has been improved following separatists’ threats to disrupt the elections.

“We must be ready to meet the challenges ahead, and in so doing, bring our efficient contributions to the peacebuilding process, dialogue and national cohesion in our dear and beautiful country,” Egbe said. “Our vision and ambition is to increase voter turnout and preserve citizens’ rights to vote as guarantee for inclusive and universally accepted electoral process in our country,”

Cameroon’s government says the elections must take place as planned.

About 15,000 councilors in 60 divisions across Cameroon make up the electoral college that will vote on March 12.

Lawrence Tangwa, a councilor from Bui, an administrative unit where Jakiri is located, says voters, candidates and elections officials should not be punished for organizing or participating in elections.

“I know that there are threats quite alright, but it is the right of the state to protect citizens and property,” Tangwa said. “It is a civic responsibility to take part in elections, it is your own way that you participate in local development because if you’re not there to choose the persons that will lead you, certainly people will make wrong choices for you and I think that they (voters and candidates) are all mobilizing towards the 12th of March.”

Separatists in English-speaking western Cameroon launched their rebellion in 2017 after what they said was years of discrimination by the country’s French-speaking majority.

The conflict has killed more than 3,500 people and displaced more than a half-million, according to the United Nations

Source: Voice of America

The World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos wrapped up Friday after a week that featured feverish discussion of the war in Ukraine, rifts over global trade, and Greta Thunberg crashing the party of the global elite.

Here’s a summary of the hottest topics and main events:

Tanks

Ukraine sent a huge delegation to Davos to lobby hard for new weapons and financial support to help it push Russian forces out of occupied territories, with the German-made Leopard tanks high on the wish list.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who made an appearance on Wednesday, was pressured from all sides to greenlight the export of the tanks from Poland and Finland — to no avail.

When asked why he was hesitating by a Ukrainian in the audience for his speech, Scholz never mentioned the word tank, saying instead that “we are never doing something just by ourselves but together with others, especially the United States.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in the first of two appearances by video link in Davos, said pointedly that “the time the free world uses to think is used by the terrorist state to kill.”

Russian ministers and oligarchs, once welcomed with open arms, were absent again for the second year running.

Subsidies

International trade and globalization have been articles of faith for the Davos set since the WEF started 50 years ago, but worries that both are under threat were evident in this year’s official theme: “Cooperation in a fragmented world.”

One of the biggest concerns is that a race between the U.S., China and the European Union to subsidize “clean tech” — from renewable energy technology to electric cars and batteries — could put the international trading system under further strain.

EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen warned on Tuesday that she saw “aggressive attempts to attract our industrial capacities away to China and elsewhere.”

She also referred to the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a $369 billion package to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which is causing alarm in Europe over its potential impact on European companies.

“Do it too,” U.S. climate envoy John Kerry replied.

The IRA was a “valid concern” for Europeans, Julie Teigland, a managing partner at EY consultancy’s Europe, Middle East, India and Africa region, told Agence France-Presse.

“We have to be careful not to escalate into a trade war. I don’t think anybody wants that. Nobody wants a war on subsidies,” she added.

‘Big Oil’

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivered one of the most noteworthy speeches this year, launching a frontal attack on oil and gas companies over their role in global warming.

Guterres drew a parallel between the actions of oil companies and those of tobacco companies that covered up the adverse effects of cigarettes.

“Some in Big Oil peddled the big lie. And like the tobacco industry, those responsible must be held to account,” he said.

He was referring to a study published in the journal Science that said ExxonMobil had dismissed the findings of its own scientists on the role of fossil fuels in climate change.

“We knew nothing — we read the papers (but) I do not have climate scientists at TotalEnergies,” the boss of the French firm Patrick Pouyanne shot back.

Greta Thunberg

Three years after attending as a teenager and facing off with then U.S. President Donald Trump, Greta Thunberg returned, but this time without a visitor’s badge.

Speaking at an event with other climate activists, she said it was “absurd” to think that people in Davos were part of the solution to global warming and defended her decision to shun political and business leaders.

“Without massive public pressure from the outside, these people are going to go as far as they possibly can … They will continue to throw people under the bus for their own gain,” the 20-year-old said.

She held a small protest in the snow and cold on Friday, this time without getting detained by police — unlike in Germany earlier in the week where she was protesting against an expanding coal mine.

ChatGPT

There were a dozen public sessions devoted to artificial intelligence, and nothing was talked about more than ChatGPT, the chatbot capable of producing strikingly quick and cogent texts on almost any topic.

Made by OpenAI — the hottest startup in the Silicon Valley region of California — the chatbot is seen as proof of the power of artificial intelligence, but also a source of worry that a whole host of jobs will disappear.

“The applications are going to initially put some people out of jobs,” Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said, while expressing confidence that affected people would find new positions. “That adjustment period can be difficult, can be scary, etc. But I think the end state is going to be good.”

The boss of Microsoft, Satya Nadella, likened it to the “knowledge-worker equivalent of the Industrial Revolution. It’s going to help everybody.”

The computer giant announced on Wednesday it was laying off 10,000 employees in the coming months.

Source: Voice of America

U.S. officials say food insecurity in Africa will worsen this year because of climate change, conflict, and market disruptions caused partly by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Speaking online to journalists Thursday from Malawi, Cary Fowler, special envoy for Global Food Security, said looking for solutions is key.

“As much as I wish I could bring the hopeful message that the food crisis will be over this year, we have to recognize that the chief drivers of the food crisis are still with us,” Fowler said. “And it behooves us, therefore, to be looking at solutions for all of those, or adaptive measures. That’s the situation as I see it today.”

According to the 2022 Global Food Crisis Report, one in every five Africans goes to bed hungry, and at least 140 million people on the continent face acute food insecurity.

African farmers continue to practice traditional farming methods, but the weather has been unpredictable in recent years, causing farmers to produce less food. Farmers complain about high seed and fertilizer prices and a failure to produce enough food for the population.

Drought also has contributed to food insecurity in some parts of the continent, particularly the Horn of Africa, destroying livestock and crops and forcing people to rely on humanitarian assistance for food and medicine.

In 2022, the U.S. government invested $11 billion in humanitarian assistance in 55 countries, including some from Africa.

Dina Esposito, the USAID Global Food Crisis Coordinator, said her government is also supporting African farmers in producing their own food to overcome hunger and food insecurity.

“We have also got a global hunger initiative that is exactly focused on what are the right systems and approaches to advancing agriculture, taking that very localized context in mind, advancing drip irrigation and other forms of water-saving measures where it makes sense, helping farmers adapt to a changing climate in other ways, fundamentally always looking – we see our role really as helping these farmers shift from subsistence farming to more intensified and sustainable production,” she said.

Esposito also said the U.S. government is committed to partnering with leaders to advance global food insecurity and solve global hunger.

Koech Oscar teaches land, resource management and agricultural technology at the University of Nairobi. He said no single African country can solve the food crisis alone, and there is a need for a regional approach to deal with growing hunger on the continent.

“We need our nations to work together because of our connectedness. We are one ecosystem at the end of the day, our animals are in Uganda. Some of them are going to Tanzania and others are coming in, so we need to have regional strategists to support our communities because these are regional problems and we need to see significant investment in this production, especially in agriculture,” he said. “You look at the national budgets of these African countries, how much goes into agriculture because we cannot have a peaceful nation, we cannot have a prosperous nation, development, without people producing food for themselves and enough food for themselves.”

Last October, African ministers of agriculture meeting in Ethiopia pledged to support sustainable food security, transform food systems, and build a viable commercial agricultural ecosystem on the continent.

Source: Voice of America

DAVOS, Switzerland The head of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning World Food Program says support from donors like the United States and Germany have allowed it to postpone — though not entirely avert — famine in Somalia but stressed that “we’re not out of this yet.”

WFP Executive Director David Beasley said countries in the Horn of Africa have faced “unprecedented climate impact” from years of drought, and the U.N. agency had been expecting to announce famine in Somalia before donors “stepped up in magnificent ways.”

“And we’ve been able to — I don’t know if the right word is ‘avert’ famine — but we definitely have postponed it,” he told The Associated Press at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday. “We’ve been fortunate so far, given the climate shocks inside Somalia. But we’re not out of this yet.”

But he warned that “we still could end up with a famine technically in Somalia” because “famine-like conditions” already exist.

“Once you officially declare to be a famine, well, it’s too late,” Beasley said.

Famine is the extreme lack of food and a significant death rate from outright starvation or malnutrition combined with diseases like cholera. A formal famine declaration means data shows more than a fifth of households have extreme food gaps, more than 30% of children are acutely malnourished and over two people out of 10,000 are dying every day.

Beasley, who has announced plans to step down in April, has parlayed his political experience as a former Republican governor of the U.S. state of South Carolina to wrest greater funding for the World Food Program from Washington under both the Biden and Trump administrations.

The United States announced $411 million in additional funding for Somalia’s crisis last month after a report by the U.N. and other experts said more than 8 million Somalis are badly food insecure because of drought and high food prices. Thousands have died.

Source: Somali National News Agency