Africa
At river where Tigrayan bodies floated, fears of ‘many more’
From time to time, a body floating down the river separating Ethiopia’s troubled Tigray region from Sudan was a silent reminder of a war conducted in the shadows. But in recent days, the corpses became a flow.
Bloated, drained of color from their journey, the bodies were often mutilated: genitals severed, eyes gouged, a missing limb. The Sudanese fishermen who spotted them, and the refugees from Tigray who helped pull them to shore, found many corpses’ hands bound. Some of them had been shot.
The Associated Press reported dozens of bodies floating down the Tekeze River earlier this week and saw six of the graves on Wednesday, marking the first time any reporters could reach the scene. Doctors who saw the bodies said one was tattooed with a common name in the Tigrinya language and others had the facial markings common among Tigrayans, raising fresh alarm about atrocities in the least-known area of the Tigray war.
Read:Tunisia on edge as president suspends parliament, fires PM
“They are from Tigray,” said Garey Youhanis, a Tigrayan who helped bury several bodies found on Sunday. With a piece of red cord, he demonstrated how their hands were tied behind their backs. He squatted on the rock-strewn shore, crossed himself and prayed.
The deaths are the latest massacre in a nine-month war that has killed thousands of civilians and is now spilling into other regions of Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country and the anchor of the often-volatile Horn of Africa. Though Tigray forces in June reclaimed much of the region as Ethiopian and allied forces retreated, western Tigray is still controlled by authorities from Ethiopia’s neighboring Amhara region, who have cleared out many ethnic Tigrayans while saying the land is historically theirs. Witnesses have told the AP of watching mass expulsions.
More than 60,000 Tigrayans fled to Sudan, where thousands remain in makeshift camps a short walk from the river in the hope of hearing news from those who still arrive. Some scrutinized the bodies in the river for clues, and they have asked Sudanese police and the United Nations to exhume them for autopsies.
“In the last one week, 43 bodies were buried around this river,” the surgeon from the nearby Tigray town of Humera, Tewodros Tefera, told the AP. He and other refugees believe the bodies were dumped into the river at Humera, which has seen some of the worst violence since the war began in November.
“Some had amputated limbs and legs,” Tewodros said. “There was a man which we buried yesterday, his genital area was completely severed. ... So this is the kind of trauma that we’re seeing of western Tigray.”
He told the AP they hadn’t heard of any new bodies since Tuesday, when at least seven were found. But he believes an active search along the river could reveal “many, many more,” perhaps hundreds.
Ethiopia’s government has accused the rival Tigray forces of dumping the bodies themselves for propaganda purposes. A “fake massacre,” the spokeswoman for Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Billene Seyoum, told reporters on Thursday.
But the discovery has increased international pressure on the prime minister, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, at a time when his government is already accused by the U.N., the United States and the European Union of besieging Tigray and blocking food and other aid to millions of people. Hundreds of thousands face famine conditions in the world’s worst hunger crisis in a decade.
Ethiopia’s prime minister in recent days referred to the Tigray forces as “weeds” and a “cancer,” bringing a warning from the U.N. special envoy on genocide prevention that such dehumanizing language “is of utmost concern.” Ethiopia’s government has said such talk is not meant to describe ordinary Tigrayans.
But the bodies in the river brought new fears of ethnic cleansing, or the forcing of a population from a region through expulsions and other violence.
Read: Jihadis expand control to new Burkina Faso fronts
“We are deeply concerned by the latest developments,” the U.N. refugee agency in Sudan said on Thursday. It confirmed seeing one of the bodies pulled from the river along with “what appear to be several fresh graves.” It said it was unable to confirm the identifies of the dead or how they died.
Like other international aid organizations, the U.N. agency said it has no access on the Ethiopian side of the border region. Underlining that absence, the U.N. humanitarian agency on Wednesday tweeted a map showing no foreign aid group active in western Tigray. One that had worked there, the Dutch section of Doctors Without Borders, had its operations suspended by Ethiopia on July 30, accused by the government of spreading “misinformation” and illegally using satellite radio equipment.
Ethiopia’s government has alleged that aid groups are arming and supporting the Tigray forces, without evidence.
“Those who want corridors for weapons and non-humanitarian goods to be brought into them continue to try to manipulate the realities on the ground in an attempt to convince the world that unfettered access is not happening” in Tigray, the prime minister’s spokeswoman said. She called the Tigray forces, who dominated Ethiopia’s repressive government for years but were sidelined when Abiy took office, a “terrorist organization that has hijacked the well-being of the people of Tigray.”
Phone, internet and banking services remain down across the Tigray region of some 6 million people, and the U.N. says more than 5 million need help now. The Tigray forces, who have pushed into the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions and displaced more than 200,000 people, have said restoring basic services is a precondition to negotiations to end the war.
Tigray forces on Thursday entered the Amhara town of Lalibela, a UNESCO World Heritage site for its rock-hewn churches, a resident told the AP. While they entered peacefully, “yeah, we’re scared,” he said, worried about damage to what residents call the “new Jerusalem.” He estimated thousands of fighters were there and “many people are running away.” He spoke on condition of anonymity for his safety.
With the Tigray forces pushing south after threatening to go as far as the capital if needed, the U.N. humanitarian chief and the USAID administrator in visits to Ethiopia this week urged a cease-fire and talks. Sudan has offered to play a role in mediation. Sudan also could be a direct aid corridor to Tigray.
But the prime minister’s spokeswoman called Ethiopia’s relationship with Sudan “a bit tricky,” pointing to a border dispute. “That element needs to be thoroughly addressed before Sudan can be entertained as a credible party in negotiations,” she said.
For the refugees in Sudan, each body found in the river is a reminder of loved ones trapped in the fighting.
Read:25,000 troops deployed to quell South Africa riots, 117 dead
Horrified, refugees in the Sudanese border community of Hamdayet spotted one body that looked familiar. Like most of the Tigrayans killed in the war, it was a young man.
“How can I not feel the death of my brother and friend?” said one of the Tigrayans who buried him, Awet, who gave only his first name. “I’m very sorry.”
The dead man’s name was Robel, the surgeon Tewodros said. By the water’s edge, his fingers tapping his graying temple in anxiety, he checked his phone for news of other bodies found.
Tunisia on edge as president suspends parliament, fires PM
Troops surrounded Tunisia’s parliament and blocked its speaker from entering Monday after the president suspended the legislature and fired the prime minister and other top members of government, sparking concerns for the North African country’s young democracy.
In the face of nationwide protests over Tunisia’s economic troubles and the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, President Kais Saied decided late Sunday to dismiss the officials, including the justice and defense ministers.
Some demonstrators cheered the firings, shouting with joy and waving Tunisian flags.
But others accused the president of a power grab, and the country’s overseas allies expressed concern that it might be descending again into autocracy. In a move sure to fuel those worries, police raided the offices of broadcaster Al-Jazeera and ordered it shut down.
READ: Tunisian president fires premier after violent protests
Tunisia, which ignited the Arab Spring in 2011 when protests led to the overthrow of its longtime autocratic leader, is often regarded as the only success story of those uprisings.
But democracy didn’t bring prosperity. Tunisia’s economy was already flailing before the pandemic hit, with 18% unemployment, and young people demanding jobs and an end to police brutality protested in large numbers earlier this year.
The government recently announced cuts to food and fuel subsidies as it sought its fourth loan from the International Monetary Fund in a decade, further fueling anger in impoverished regions.
The pandemic has only compounded those problems, and the government recently reimposed lockdowns and other virus restrictions in the face of one of Africa’s worst outbreaks.
Angry at the economic malaise and the poor handling of the pandemic, thousands of protesters defied virus restrictions and scorching heat in the capital, Tunis, and other cities Sunday to demand the dissolution of parliament. The largely young crowds shouted “Get out!” and slogans calling for an early election and economic reforms. Clashes erupted in many places.
“I must shoulder the responsibility and I have done so. I have chosen to stand by the people,” the president said in a solemn televised address.
Saied said he had to fire the prime minister and suspend parliament because of concerns over public violence. He said he acted according to the law — but parliamentary speaker Rached Ghannouchi, who heads the Islamist party that dominates the legislature, said the president didn’t consult with him or the prime minister as required. The three have been in conflict.
READ: Bangladeshi migrants among 43 missing as boat sinks off Tunisia
“We have taken these decisions ... until social peace returns to Tunisia and until we save the state,” Saied said.
While the dissolution of parliament cheered some protesters, others in Tunisia were opposed — and the composition of each camp wasn’t entirely clear. Police intervened Monday to prevent clashes outside the parliament building between demonstrators supporting the president and lawmakers from the dominant Ennahdha party and their allies who opposed the move. Both sides shouted and some threw stones, according to an Associated Press reporter.
Ghannouchi, the speaker, tried to enter parliament overnight, but police and military forces guarding the site stopped him. He sat in a car outside the building for nearly 12 hours before leaving Monday afternoon — his next steps were unclear.
He called the president’s move “a coup against the constitution and the (Arab Spring) revolution,” and insisted the parliament would continue to work.
Saifeddine Makhlouf, founder of and lawmaker in a coalition of hardline Islamists, also denounced the president’s move as a coup.
“We will not let it pass,” he said.
Tensions between the prime minister and president have been blamed for poor management of the virus, while a bungled vaccination drive led to the dismissal of the health minister this month.
To date, 7% of the population has been fully vaccinated, while more than 90% of the country’s intensive care unit beds are occupied, according to health ministry figures. Videos have circulated on social media showing bodies left in the middle of wards as morgues struggle to deal with growing deaths.
Ennahdha has been a particular target, accused of focusing on its internal concerns instead of managing the virus.
Security forces also moved in Monday on the Tunis offices of Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite news network said on its Facebook page. The reason for the move was not immediately clear.
Al-Jazeera, citing its journalists, said 10 “heavily armed police officers” entered their bureau without a warrant and asked everyone to leave. “The reporters’ phones and other equipment were confiscated, and they were not allowed back into the building to retrieve their personal belongs,” the organization said.
Qatar and its Al-Jazeera network have been viewed by some Middle Eastern nations as promoting Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood. Its offices have been shut down in other countries over that, most noticeably in Egypt after the 2013 coup that brought current President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to office.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said it hoped “the voice of wisdom” would prevail in the turmoil and that the rule of law would be established again.
Inside and outside Tunisia, from the U.N. to the European Union and beyond, concern was raised about whether the nascent democracy was taking an authoritarian turn.
Former President Moncef Marzouki called for political dialogue, saying in a Facebook video, “We made a huge leap backward tonight, we are back to dictatorship.”
U.N. officials were in touch with Tunisians “trying to see to it that all of the various parties ... do what they can to ensure that the situation does remain calm,” deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said. The already volatile region “cannot bear to have more unrest than it has presently had,” he said.
German Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Adebahr said the government was in discussion with Tunisian authorities about the “worrisome” situation.
READ: Tunisian carrying Quran fatally stabs 3 in French church
“We think it’s important now to return really quickly to the constitutional order,” Adebahr told reporters in Berlin. She stopped short of calling it a coup, but said the Tunisian president appeared to be relying on a “pretty broad interpretation of the constitution” to defend his actions.
France, Tunisia’s former colonial ruler, said it counts on “respect for a state of law and the return, as soon as possible, to the normal functioning of institutions.” Paris called on all to avoid violence “and preserve democratic advances.”
Italy, likewise, appealed for respect of the Tunisian Constitution and the rule of law, while Turkey hoped “democratic legitimacy” is soon restored.
The president invoked a constitutional article that allows him to assume executive power and freeze parliament for an unspecified period of time in cases of “imminent danger threatening the institutions of the nation and the independence of the country and hindering the regular functioning of the public powers.”
Jihadis expand control to new Burkina Faso fronts
Florent Coulibaly, a soldier in Burkina Faso’s army, says he hasn’t been sleeping well for the past few months as he is often roused at 3 a.m. to fight jihadi rebels.
Until recently life was peaceful in western Burkina Faso’s Comoe province, but an increase in attacks by extremist groups in the country’s west has put the military on edge.
“It tires us. It gives us a lot of work. It scares us, too,” said Coulibaly, 27. “We don’t know where (the jihadis) are going to come from. They see us, but we don’t see them. They know us, but we don’t know them.”
Also read: Burkina Faso says at least 100 civilians killed in attack
Over the past six months, his battalion has doubled its patrols from once a week to twice, but Coulibaly says the men are ill-equipped, overworked and worry the area could be overrun by jihadis.
Burkina Faso is experiencing an increase in extremist violence by groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Last month, at least 11 police officers were killed when their patrol was ambushed in the north. The country also experienced its deadliest violence in years when at least 132 civilians were killed in an attack in its Sahel region.
The jihadi rebels are also expanding their reach within Burkina Faso. Extremist violence centered in the country’s north and east has spread into the west and southwest areas near Mali and Ivory Coast, bringing residents and security forces in those areas to brace for more conflict.
The move into western Burkina Faso makes strategic sense for the groups who can use it as a base to extend their operations in West Africa. The thick vegetation gives them cover and the area can give them territorial control over the smuggling route between Gulf of Guinea countries and Mali.
Attacks in three regions of Burkina Faso’s south and southwest quadrupled from four to 17 between 2018 and 2019, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project. There were nine attacks last year — a reduction that analysts attribute to increased military operations as well as the expansion of violence across the border in neighboring Ivory Coast.
In June, a soldier was killed in northeastern Ivory Coast on the border with Burkina Faso, and in March there was an attack by 60 gunmen on two security outposts in Ivory Coast, killing three people.
Also read: Gunmen kill 24 in attack near church in Burkina Faso
“This attack confirmed the intention of armed groups to target the north of coastal countries. This is likely a new phase in the groups’ strategy to expand into these areas,” said Florent Geel, deputy director-general for Promediation, an international organization focused on mediation.
During a trip in April to the towns of Banfora and Gaoua in the west and southwest, as well as one village near the border with Ivory Coast, local defense groups and security forces told The Associated Press they didn’t have the manpower to stem the violence and felt like it was just a matter of time until the area was inundated by jihadis. Civilians also say they’ve started living in fear.
Last year, for the first time, jihadis posted notes on classroom doors warning students and teachers to stay away, said a 35-year-old primary teacher in a village in Comoe province who didn’t want to be named for fear of his safety. While his village hasn’t been attacked, it has become militarized with checkpoints stoking paranoia among residents.
“The situation is deteriorating .. In the past you could leave (the village) at midnight with your motorbike ... But today you are not going to take the risk ... When you’re sleeping you’re on the lookout, when you hear a strange noise you startle, but before it wasn’t like that,” he said.
Large numbers of teachers, including himself, are asking to transfer from less secure villages, which are easier for jihadis to attack, into larger towns like Banfora, he said.
Burkina Faso’s army is also trying to work with the Ivorian military by conducting joint patrols and sharing intelligence, but during at least one clash with jihadis, the Ivorian soldiers refused to fight, the military said.
Some areas have no security presence and rely on local defense groups to stave off extremists. In Gaoua, a group of Dozos — traditional hunters who operate across the region — said they’re often the first to arrive when there is an attack, with the army showing up three hours later or not at all.
“It’s discouraging,” said Noufe Sansan, a Dozo chief. Pointing to a text message on his phone that he received from a security officer informing him that there are more than 60 extremists hiding in a nearby forest, he said news of attacks in the once peaceful area have become almost daily.
The Dozos are trying to strengthen their forces and alert the community of the potential for future violence, but want help from the government. Two years ago, they asked for 24 motorbikes to increase mobility to better respond to attacks, but have yet to receive anything, he said.
Meanwhile, civilians who escaped the volatility in the north in hopes of rebuilding their lives in more peaceful parts of the country, say they’re fed up from fleeing.
Seated on the ground in Niangoloko village, 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Ivory Coast’s border, Saydou Gamsore described how he fled his home last year because of the extremist violence and said if he’s attacked again, he’d rather die than keep moving.
“We are tired of running away,” said the 76-year-old. “Even if it means death … I will stay here.”
25,000 troops deployed to quell South Africa riots, 117 dead
In one of the largest deployments of soldiers since the end of white minority rule, 25,000 South African troops began taking up positions Thursday to help quell weeklong riots sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma. At least 117 people have been killed in the violence, authorities said.
The government said 10,000 soldiers were on the streets by Thursday morning patrolling alongside police, and the South African National Defence Force had also called up all of its reserve force of 12,000 troops.
In a show of strength, a convoy of more than a dozen armored personnel carriers brought soldiers into Gauteng province, South Africa’s most populous, which includes the largest city, Johannesburg, and the capital, Pretoria.
Buses, trucks, airplanes and helicopters were also being used to move the large deployment of troops to trouble spots in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal province that have seen violence in mainly poor areas.
The unrest erupted last week after Zuma began serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court for refusing to comply with a court order to testify at a state-backed inquiry investigating allegations of corruption while he was president from 2009 to 2018.
Protests in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal quickly escalated into a spree of theft in township areas, although it has not spread to South Africa’s seven other provinces, where police are on alert.
More than 2,200 people have been arrested for theft and vandalism and 117 people have died, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, acting minister in the presidency said Thursday. Many were trampled to death in chaotic stampedes when shops were being looted, according to police.
“These are not demonstrations. This is economic sabotage and we are investigating with a view to apprehending the instigators,” Ntshavheni said at a briefing Thursday. One person has been arrested and 11 others are under surveillance for inciting and planning the unrest, she said.
The armed patrols have brought stability to Gauteng, authorities said. Army troops stood guard at the large Maponya mall in Soweto, which was one of the few retail centers not badly hit by the rampage but remained closed.
Volunteer groups cleaned up shattered glass and debris from shops that had been stormed and looted in Johannesburg’s Soweto, Alexandra and Vosloorus areas.
“I spoke to some of the guys who are unemployed in my area to come and help. The mayor supported us with transport to get here. We came here with two buses,” said George Moswetsa, a resident of Vosloorus in eastern Johannesburg who was helping to clean up a mall that had been trashed.
The unrest, however, continued Thursday in KwaZulu-Natal, Zuma’s home province. There were renewed attacks on shopping centers and several factories and warehouses were smoldering after being hit by arson attacks.
Police discovered more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition in Durban on Wednesday night, which Minister of Police Bheki Cele said belonged to people who were instigating the violent riots in the province.
The continued violence in KwaZulu-Natal appears well-planned, said South African analyst William Gumede.
Also read: Rioting, looting continues in South Africa, deaths up to 32
“In KwaZulu-Natal, it’s well-coordinated, well-funded. If you look at it, strategic commercial hubs were blocked, strategic roads were blocked at really key points. It was very organized,” said Gumede, chairman of the Democracy Works Foundation, a group supporting governance in Africa.
Zuma, throughout his political career, including his nine years as president, acquired many allies in South Africa’s military and security services who were reluctant to respond to the violence in his home province, Gumede said.
“The arson, the looting and then the burning of malls, the burning of warehouses, I mean, that indicates a really strategic destruction of the economy of KwaZulu-Natal,” said Gumede. “There’s a whole lot of organization behind that.”
Soldiers and police worked to reopen the N2 and N3 toll highways, which have been closed for days as burned-out trucks blocked the roads. The highways are important transport routes carrying fuel, food and other goods to all parts of the country and their prolonged closure threatens to cause shortages of essential goods.
The rail line to the strategic Indian Ocean ports of Durban and Richard’s Bay was also closed by the unrest, the state-owned transportation company, Transnet said. The 688-kilometer (427-mile) rail line ferries hundreds of tons of goods weekly to the ports, including vehicles, gold ore, aviation fuel, petrol, wheat and citrus fruit. The goods are then shipped to markets in Asia, Europe, and the United States.
Security forces increased their presence in the Durban suburb of Phoenix, where the riots caused racial tensions to flare. The predominantly Indian residents of Phoenix had been patrolling their area against the unrest and are accused of shooting Black people suspected of being rioters.
“Lives have been lost. The communities have a standoff and are in a bad way because it is the Indian community and the neighboring communities, who are African,” Cele told a news conference in Phoenix, where he said 15 people had been killed.
Gumede said the way forward for South Africa is to prosecute the perpetrators, both those that stole property and those who may have instigated the violence.
“This is going to be very important,” the analyst said. “First to restore the rule of law in South Africa and to prevent impunity, because if people can get away with looting without being prosecuted, they will do it again. ... So it’s going to be very important. I think we may have to set up special courts.”
In neighboring Zimbabwe, the police issued a warning Thursday against people getting goods stolen from South Africa.
“With sad events happening in South Africa, the Zimbabwe Republic Police will not hesitate to arrest anyone who has received or is in possession of stolen goods from South Africa,” the police statement said, advising people to have receipts for verification that goods were purchased legally. “A criminal in South Africa is a criminal in Zimbabwe.”
The largest deployment of soldiers since South Africa won democracy in 1994 was in March 2020, when 70,000 army troops were sent out to enforce the country’s strict lockdown to combat the spread of COVID-19.
‘I was in tears’: South Africans take stand against looting
Surveying the uneasy standoff between South African soldiers and huddles of young men faced off Wednesday across the rubble-strewn street in front of Soweto’s Maponya mall, Katlego Motati shook her head sadly.
“I’m standing here against vandals and hooligans,” the 32-year-old said of the weeklong unrest and looting sparked by the imprisonment of ex-President Jacob Zuma, which has left at least 72 people dead.
She was one of scores of residents who came out to stand against the rioting that has rocked poor areas of South Africa for the past week.
“When I saw the destruction on the news, I was in tears, seeing how all this has panned out,” Motati said. “At the end of the day, we will be struggling because of this. Our economy is going to be really damaged.”
South African police and the army grappled to bring order Wednesday to impoverished areas in Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu-Natal provinces that have been hit by rioting and theft sparked by Zuma’s imprisonment last week.
Read:Rioting, looting continues in South Africa, deaths up to 32
More than 200 violent incidents happened overnight, the government said.
The government dramatically increased to 25,000 the number of army soldiers deployed to assist police in restoring order, Minister of Defense Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula announced Wednesday night, an acknowledgment that widespread patrols may be needed to prevent renewed attacks by gangs of poor youths.
Some 1,234 people have been arrested in the mayhem, and many of the deaths were caused by chaotic stampedes as thousands of people ransacked shops, stealing food, electrical appliances, liquor and clothes, police said.
Motati said she knows some of those who took part in the looting.
“People my age, in my neighborhood, are bragging about stealing things and getting shopping carts full of stuff,” she said. “Soon they will be coming to my place to borrow sugar. Those things won’t help them.”
Motati, a trained chef with her own catering business, said it is hard to find clients amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“The pandemic has worsened things, for sure, but poverty, unemployment was bad already,” she said of the economy, which was in recession before the pandemic.
South Africa’s jobless rate of 32%, is even higher among people younger than 35. Although the country of 60 million has Africa’s most developed economy, it is one of the most unequal in the world, with more than 50% of people living in poverty and many suffering chronic food insecurity, according to the World Bank.
South Africa’s poverty has grown since 1994 when apartheid, the brutal system of racial oppression, ended with democratic elections exacerbating frustrations.
Read:South Africa ramps up vaccine drive, too late for this surge
“The pandemic and lockdowns put even more people out of work. ... This was just an opportunity for people to take whatever they could get,” Motati said. “I don’t think it stems from Zuma being locked up — it was building before that. Then one person kicks down the door and others follow suit.”
The violence erupted last week after Zuma began serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court for refusing to comply with a court order to testify at a state-backed inquiry investigating allegations of corruption while he was president from 2009 to 2018.
The protests in Gauteng and Kwa-Zulu-Natal provinces escalated into a spree of theft in township areas, although it has not spread to South Africa’s other seven provinces, where police are on alert.
KwaZulu-Natal, the eastern province that is Zuma’s home area and where the protests first ignited, has seen significant violence. Trucks going to and from Durban, South Africa’s largest port, may have to travel in convoys protected by the army, business leaders said.
The province is the center of South Africa’s largest ethnic group, the Zulus, where Zuma has drawn considerable support. However, the Zulu monarch, King Misuzulu kaZwelithini, appealed Wednesday for an end to the mayhem and for peace to be restored.
“My father’s people are committing suicide,” he said. “When food cannot be delivered because trucks and warehouses are burned, our people will go hungry.”
The violence “has brought shame to all of us,” he said.
Arson has damaged several factories and the government ordered gasoline not be sold in containers to discourage illegal fires.
A tense order appeared to have been achieved Wednesday by security forces in Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous province which includes the largest city, Johannesburg.
“I can confirm that currently it’s calm in Gauteng,” said army Col. Mmathapelo Maine, as soldiers brandishing rifles stood by, protecting the large Maponya mall in Soweto.
Read:Virus infections surging in Africa’s vulnerable rural areas
“We have control of the situation and this is with the cooperation of the community,” Maine said.
Across the street, scores of residents lined up to buy bread from a truck selling directly to people instead of delivering to shops that had been closed.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met online Wednesday with National Assembly political party leaders to urge all to work together to restore order.
Ramaphosa has had consultations over the past two days “with different sectors of society to develop a society-wide response to the current outbreaks of public violence and economic damage,” said Tyrone Seale, the president’s acting spokesman.
“The president said the destruction witnessed by the nation hurt all South Africans, not only those in the affected areas,” he said. “And it hurt the poor, the elderly, and the vulnerable the most.”
At Soweto’s Diepkloof shopping center, business owners assessed the damage.
“It’s just like being raped,” said Thandi Johnson, looking at her shop, TWJ Events Supply, that had been cleaned out the day before by rioters. “And then you see the rapist walking past you,” she said gesturing toward residents walking by.
“Twelve years I’ve been working on this business and it’s destroyed in one day,” she said, shaking with anger as she looked at where she had sold balloons and decorations for children’s parties and other events.
“They pushed me aside,” she said of the rioters. “I pleaded with them that I am one of them, but they just came in and took everything. Look!” she said pointing to the bare shelves. “I didn’t come here by train, I’m a Sowetan! I’m born here.”
Read:Tigray fighters in Ethiopia reject cease-fire as ‘sick joke’
Johnson said she is worried that insurance will not cover her losses because she is not covered for political violence. “I’ll be finished,” she said.
At the same shopping center, a band of young men was sweeping up broken beer bottles and trash in front of a liquor store that had been looted the day before.
“We’re trying to be the youth who bring hope back to our country,” said Thando Matsepe, 24, of the Zodwa Khoza Foundation, a youth development group.
“Yesterday this place was destroyed. So we are trying to clean up and get the country back up on its feet,” he said.
“This was crime. It was not a ‘Free Zuma’ campaign. It started with Zuma, but this is not how things should be done in South Africa. They have the right to protest peacefully, nicely. But this brings destruction. Everybody will suffer.”
Rioting, looting continues in South Africa, deaths up to 32
South Africa’s rioting continued Tuesday with the death toll rising to 32 as police and the military struggle to quell the looting and violence in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal provinces.
Many of the deaths occurred in chaotic stampedes as scores of people looted food, electric appliances, liquor, and clothing from retail centers, KwaZulu-Natal premier Sihle Zikalala told the press on Tuesday morning.
“Yesterday’s events brought a lot of sadness. The number of people who have died in KwaZulu-Natal alone stands at 26. Many of them died from being trampled on during a stampede while people were looting items,” said Zikalala.
Also read: Former South African president Zuma to face corruption trial
In Gauteng, South Africa’s most populous province which includes the largest city, Johannesburg, six people have died, said officials.
The deployment of 2,500 soldiers to support the South African police has not yet stopped the rampant looting although arrests are being made at some areas in Johannesburg, including Vosloorus in eastern Johannesburg.
Looting continued Tuesday in Johannesburg shopping malls in township areas including Jabulani Mall and Dobsonville Mall in Soweto. There were also reports of continued looting in centers in KwaZulu-Natal.
Also read: COVID-19 corruption puts 'lives at risk' in South Africa
The violence started in KwaZulu-Natal last week as protests against the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma, who began serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court. He was convicted of defying a court order to testify before a state-backed inquiry probing allegations of corruption during his term as president from 2009 to 2018.
The sporadic pro-Zuma violence spiraled into a spree of criminal theft in poor, township areas of the two provinces, according to witnesses. So far the lawlessness has not spread to South Africa’s other nine provinces.
The Constitutional Court, the country’s highest court, heard Zuma’s application to have his sentence rescinded on Monday. Zuma’s lawyer presented his arguments that the top court made errors when sentencing Zuma to prison. After 10 hours of testimony on Monday, the court judges said they would study the arguments and announce their decision at a later date.
Florida suspect in Haiti president killing deepens mystery
The arrest of a failed Haitian businessman living in Florida who authorities say was a key player in the killing of Haiti’s president deepened the mystery Monday into an already convoluted plot surrounding the assassination.
Haitian authorities identified the suspect as Christian Emmanuel Sanon, 62, who once expressed a desire to lead his country in a YouTube video. However, he is unknown in Haitian political circles, and associates suggested he was duped by those really behind the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in an attack last week that critically wounded his wife, Martine, who remains hospitalized in Miami.
Read: 2 Haitian Americans detained in slaying of Haiti president
A Florida friend of Sanon told The Associated Press that the suspect is an evangelical Christian pastor and a licensed physician in Haiti, but not in the U.S. The associate, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of safety concerns, said Sanon told him he was approached by people claiming to represent the U.S. State and Justice departments who wanted to install him as president.
He said the plan was for Moïse to be arrested, not killed, and Sanon would not have participated if he knew Moïse would be assassinated.
“I guarantee you that,” the associate said. “This was supposed to be a mission to save Haiti from hell, with support from the U.S. government.”
Echoing those sentiments was the Rev. Larry Caldwell, a Florida pastor, who said he worked with Sanon setting up churches and medical clinics in Haiti from 2000-2010. He doesn’t believe Sanon would have been involved in violence.
“I know the character of the man,” Caldwell said. “You take a man like that and you’re then going to say he participated in a brutal crime of murder, knowing that being associated with that would send him to the pits of hell? ... If there was one man who would be willing to stand in the breach to help his country, it would be Christian.”
Read: Haiti President Jovenel Moïse assassinated at home
Haiti’s National Police chief, Léon Charles, said Moïse’s killers were protecting Sanon, whom he accused of working with those who plotted the assassination.
Charles said officers found a hat with the logo of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 20 boxes of bullets, gun parts, four license plates from the Dominican Republic, two cars and correspondence, among other things, in Sanon’s house in Haiti.
Twenty-six former Colombian soldiers are suspected in the killing and 23 have been arrested, along with three Haitians. Charles said five suspects are still at large and at least three have been killed.
“They are dangerous individuals,” Charles said. “I’m talking commando, specialized commando.”
A U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official told AP that one of the suspects in Moïse’s assassination was at times a confidential source to the agency, and that the suspect reached out to his contacts at the DEA after the killing and was urged to surrender. The official said the DEA and a U.S. State Department official provided information to Haiti’s government that led to the surrender and arrest of one suspect and one other individual, whom it didn’t identify.
Meanwhile, Colombia’s national police chief, Gen. Jorge Luis Vargas, said that a Florida-based enterprise, CTU Security, used its company credit card to buy 19 plane tickets from Bogota to Santo Domingo for the Colombian suspects. Most arrived in the Dominican Republic in June and moved into Haiti within weeks, Vargas said.
Read: 'We need help': Haiti's interim leader requests US troops
He said that Dimitri Hérard, head of general security at Haiti’s National Palace, flew to Colombia, Ecuador and Panama in the months before the assassination, and Colombian police are investigating whether he had any role in recruiting the mercenaries. In Haiti, prosecutors are seeking to interrogate Hérard over the assassination.
Charles said Sanon was in contact with CTU Security and that the company recruited the suspects in the killing. He said Sanon flew into Haiti in June on a private jet accompanied by several of the alleged gunmen.
The suspects’ initial mission was to protect Sanon, but they later received a new order: to arrest the president, Charles said.
“The operation started from there,” he said, adding that 22 additional suspects joined the group.
Charles said that after Moïse was killed, one suspect phoned Sanon, who got in touch with two people believed to be masterminds of the plot. He did not identify them or say if police know who they are.
Sanon’s associate said he attended a recent meeting in Florida with Sanon and about a dozen other people, including Antonio Enmanuel Intriago Valera, a Venezuelan émigré to Miami who runs CTU Security. He said a presentation was made for rebuilding the country, including its water system, converting trash into energy and fixing roads.
He said Sanon asked why the security team accompanying him to Haiti were all Colombians. Sanon was told Haitians couldn’t be trusted and that the system is corrupt, the associate said. He said Sanon called him from Haiti a few days before the assassination and said the Colombians had disappeared.
“I’m all by myself. Who are these people? I don’t know what they are doing,” the associate quoted Sanon as saying.
Sanon “is completely gullible,” the associate added. “He thinks God is going to save everything.”
Sanon has lived in Broward County in Florida, as well as in Hillsborough County on the Gulf Coast. Records also show he resided in Kansas City, Missouri. He filed for bankruptcy in Florida in 2013 and identified himself as a medical doctor in a video on YouTube titled “Leadership for Haiti.”
However, records show Sanon has never been licensed to practice medicine or any other occupation covered by Florida’s Department of Health.
Sanon said in court papers filed in a 2013 bankruptcy case in Florida that he was a physician and a pastor at the Tabarre Evangelical Tabernacle in Haiti. He said he had stakes in enterprises including the Organization of Rome Haiti, which he identified as a non-governmental organization, a radio station in Haiti and medical facilities in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
At the time of his bankruptcy, he and his wife reported income of $5,000 per month, and a home in Brandon, Florida, valued at about $143,000, with a mortgage of more than $367,000. A federal bankruptcy trustee later determined they hid ownership of about 35 acres in Haiti from creditors.
Florida records show Sanon started about a dozen businesses over the last 20 years, all of which failed, including ones that appeared related to medical imaging, physical therapy, fossil fuel trading, real estate and veganism.
In a 2011 YouTube video, Sanon denounced Haiti’s leadership as corrupt, accusing them of stripping the country of its resources, saying: “They don’t care about the country, they don’t care about the people.”
He falsely claimed that Haiti has uranium, oil and other resources that have been taken by government officials.
“Nine million people can’t be in poverty when we have so much resources in the country. It’s impossible,” he said. “We need new leadership that will change the way of life.”
Sanon’s arrest comes as a growing number of politicians have challenged interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph, who is currently in charge of Haiti with backing from police and the military.
U.S. officials, including representatives from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, met Sunday with Joseph, designated Prime Minister Ariel Henry and Joseph Lambert, the head of Haiti’s dismantled Senate, whom supporters have named as provisional president in a challenge to Joseph, according to the White House National Security Council.
The delegation also met with Haiti’s National Police and reviewed the security of critical infrastructure, it said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the delegation received a request for additional assistance. She said a potential deployment of U.S. troops remained “under review,” but also suggested that Haiti’s political uncertainty was a complicating factor.
“What was clear from their trip is that there is a lack of clarity about the future of political leadership,” Psaki said.
U.S. President Joe Biden said he was closely following developments, adding: “The people of Haiti deserve peace and security, and Haiti’s political leaders need to come together for the good of their country.”
Meanwhile, U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Haiti’s request for security assistance is being examined.
The United Nations has been involved in Haiti on and off since 1990, but the last U.N. military peacekeepers left the country in 2017.
South Africa ramps up vaccine drive, too late for this surge
Some in wheelchairs, others on canes, hundreds of South Africans waited recently on the ramps of an open-air Johannesburg parking garage to get their COVID-19 vaccine shots. Despite the masks, social distancing and blustery weather of the Southern Hemisphere winter, a celebratory atmosphere took hold.
“What a relief!” said Vincent Damon, a 63-year-old electrical technician, after getting his second dose. “In the last four days, I’ve lost four friends. All of them under 60. This pandemic has gotten worse. It’s frightening.”
New infections in South Africa rose to record levels in recent days, part of a rapid rise across the continent, and experts say the surge here hasn’t yet peaked. To fight the new wave, South Africa reimposed several restrictions, including shutting restaurants and bars and limiting alcohol sales — and its vaccination drive is finding its feet after several stumbles.
But even as the campaign gathers pace, experts say it’s too late to reduce the deadly impact of the current spike. Instead, South Africa is now rushing to vaccinate enough of its 60 million people to blunt the impact of the next inevitable surge.
Read:Virus infections surging in Africa’s vulnerable rural areas
“Our vaccination campaign is gathering momentum, but obviously it’s too late to do much in terms of reducing the impact of this current resurgence we’re experiencing, which by all accounts is going to completely dwarf what we experienced either in the first or second waves in South Africa,” said Shabir Madhi, dean of health sciences and professor of vaccinology at the University of Witwatersrand.
South Africa accounts for more than 35% of the 5.8 million cases recorded by Africa’s 54 countries, although it is home to just over 4% of the continent’s population. The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths in the country more than doubled over the past two weeks to more than 360 fatalities per day on July 9.
Its troubles reflect a broader trend. Neighboring Zimbabwe went back into lockdown on July 6, and Congo, Rwanda, Senegal and Zambia are among the 16 African countries battling the new surge of infections sweeping across the continent.
“Africa has just marked the continent’s most dire pandemic week ever. But the worst is yet to come as the fast-moving third wave continues to gain speed and new ground,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa.
“The end to this precipitous rise is still weeks away. Cases are doubling now every 18 days, compared with every 21 days only a week ago,” she added Thursday.
The current upsurge comes while the continent’s vaccination rates are painfully low: Just 16 million, or less than 2%, of Africa’s 1.3 billion people are now fully vaccinated, according to the WHO.
More than 4 million South Africans, or about 6.5%, have received at least one dose, with 1.3 million fully vaccinated, according to government figures Saturday. Still, the drive is picking up speed after a bumpy campaign so far, marked by missteps and bad luck.
Although South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was quick to respond to COVID-19 and put the country into one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in March last year, his officials were slow to place firm orders for vaccines, say critics.
Read:Fearing COVID, struggling Malawian women forgo prenatal care
This appeared to be resolved when South Africa’s first delivery of vaccines — 1 million doses of AstraZeneca — arrived in February. Just as the government was to begin administering the shots to front-line health care workers, a small study showed that AstraZeneca provided low protection against the beta variant, which was dominant in South Africa at the time. The AstraZeneca vaccines were scrapped, and South Africa quickly pivoted to Johnson & Johnson, which was still in testing but appeared to show protection against the mutation.
At first, South Africa received such small shipments of the J&J doses that its campaign lurched from week to week. But then a South African pharmaceutical firm was contracted by J&J to produce its vaccine, using large batches of ingredients sent from the U.S. The South African company, Aspen Pharmacare, has the capacity to assemble and package more than 200 million doses of the J&J vaccine per year, one of very few firms in all of Africa with that capability.
But just as the first 2 million J&J doses produced by Aspen were about to be used to kick start South Africa’s sputtering vaccination drive, the U.S. drug regulator recommended a pause in the distribution of the vaccine over concerns about rare blood clots. The suspension was brief, but South Africa eventually had to discard its doses because they were made with materials provided by a U.S. factory where there were concerns about contamination.
A further obstacle came when Health Minister Zweli Mkhize was suspended amid a corruption scandal in which his family members are accused of benefitting from an inflated government contract.
This all exacted a toll on South Africa’s vaccination drive. By the middle of May, the country had inoculated just 40% of its 1.25 million health care workers — a segment of the population it had hoped to be finished vaccinating by that time before moving on to the general public.
In recent weeks, the supply issues have eased: Large shipments are arriving weekly of the 40 million Pfizer doses that South Africa purchased. The country is getting another 31 million J&J vaccines, most assembled in South Africa. Vaccinations began for those 60 and over in late May, and schoolteachers and police officers became eligible for vaccines in June. In early July, shots opened up to those age 50 and over, and later this month the eligibility will be expanded to those 35 and older.
Vaccination sites have multiplied from a few dozen to several hundred, and the country soon hopes to be on pace to inoculate two-thirds of its population by the end of February.
Read:In poorest countries, surges worsen shortages of vaccines
The increased supply can be seen at the vaccine center atop the Johannesburg parking garage. It started giving about 200 shots per day when it opened in May. In the first week of July it reached 1,000 a day and last week it was jabbing 2,000 daily, according to workers at the busy site.
Even if the country can manage to get about half of the population over 40 vaccinated in the coming months, expert Salim Abdool Karim said he thought it would blunt the impact of another surge.
“We could basically avert a significant fourth wave, maybe it could just be a minor fourth wave,” said Abdool Karim, who is director of the Center for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa. “But that is contingent on one thing: that we do not have to fight a new variant. As we’ve seen with the beta and delta variants, a new one could change everything.”
Haiti President Jovenel Moïse assassinated at home
Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated after a group of unidentified people attacked his private residence, the country’s interim prime minister said in a statement Wednesday.
First Lady Martine Moïse is hospitalized following the attack late Tuesday, interim Premier Claude Joseph said.
Read: Haiti fights large COVID-19 spike as it awaits vaccines
Joseph condemned what he called a “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act,” adding that Haiti’s National Police and other authorities had the situation in the Caribbean country under control.
The nation of more than 11 million people had grown increasingly unstable and disgruntled under Moïse’s rule. Its economic, political and social woes have deepened, with gang violence spiking heavily in the capital of Port-au-Prince, inflation spiraling and food and fuel becoming scarcer at times in a country where 60% of the population makes less than $2 a day. These troubles come as Haiti still tries to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake and Hurricane Matthew that struck in 2016.
Moïse, 53, had been ruling by decree for more than two years after the country failed to hold elections, which led to Parliament being dissolved. Opposition leaders have accused him of seeking to increase his power, including approving a decree that limited the powers of a court that audits government contracts and another that created an intelligence agency that answers only to the president.
In recent months, opposition leaders demanded the he step down, arguing that his term legally ended in February 2021. Moïse and supporters maintained that his term began when he took office in early 2017, following a chaotic election that forced the appointment of a provisional president to serve during a year-long gap.
Read: Hurricane Elsa races toward Haiti amid fears of landslides
Haiti was scheduled to hold general elections later this year.
Zimbabwe returns to strict lockdown to fight virus surge
Zimbabwe has returned to strict lockdown measures to combat a resurgence of COVID-19 amid vaccine shortages, the country’s information minister announced Tuesday.
Infections have dramatically increased in recent weeks despite a night curfew, reduced business hours, localized lockdowns in hotspot areas, and a ban on inter-city travel. The virus has spread to rural areas which have sparse health facilities.
Read:Virus infections surging in Africa’s vulnerable rural areas
To try to contain the spread, most people must stay at home, similar to restrictions on movement adopted in March last year when towns and cities became almost deserted, Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa announced after a Cabinet meeting Tuesday.
People will now need letters from employers to justify why they must venture out of their neighborhoods “with immediate effect,” said Mutsvangwa.
“Stiffer penalties will be imposed for violations,” including revoking the licenses of offending businesses, she said.
Read:Fearing COVID, struggling Malawian women forgo prenatal care
Zimbabwe is one of more than 14 African countries where the delta variant is quickly spreading.
Infections are shooting up. Zimbabwe’s 7-day rolling average of daily new cases quadrupled over the past two weeks from 2.04 new cases per 100,000 people on June 21 to 8.39 new cases per 100,000 people on July 5, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Previously the country’s crowded cities were the centers of infection, but now rural areas are hard hit, said Mutsvangwa.
Read:Ethiopia declares immediate, unilateral cease-fire in Tigray
Government officials reported shortages of personal protective equipment, misinformation discouraging people from getting vaccines and shortages of health care workers. Some rural district hospitals require bulk oxygen tanks, while others need “functional” isolation centers, Mutsvangwa said.
Zimbabwe is one of many African countries suffering a resurgence of the disease, in contrast to other parts of the world where vaccines have allowed a return to something like normal life. To date, 9% of Zimbabwe’s 15 million people have received at least one vaccine dose and 3.7% have received two doses. Across Africa, less than 2% of the continent’s 1.3 billion people have received at least one vaccine jab, according to the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.