Palestinian Student Movement Calls for Engagement in Global Uprising

By Al Mayadeen English

3 May 2024 00:59

The movement expressed gratitude to the free students in all universities worldwide who have risen against genocide, aggression, and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestine.

The Palestinian Student Movement on Thursday called on all forces, unions, and students worldwide to engage in and escalate the global student uprising against "Israel's" genocidal campaign in Gaza. 

In a statement, the student movement reaffirmed its commitment to the struggle for national liberation, starting from the most urgent goal, which is to stop the genocide against the residents of Gaza, and leading to achieving freedom, independence, and the right of return.

The movement expressed gratitude to the free students in all universities worldwide who have risen against genocide, aggression, and crimes against humanity in occupied Palestine.

The movement further condemned the suppression, arrests, and incitement they faced by law enforcers. 

Police violence

Earlier today, the American Association of University Professors affiliated with Columbia University called for a vote of no confidence in President Shafik and the entire university administration.

In a statement, the association criticized the decision made by Shafik, the university's board of trustees, and other officials at Columbia University to summon New York police officers to disperse student protests on April 30th.

After New York Police arrested students protesting at Columbia University's Hamilton Hall, urging their university to divest from "Israel" on April 30, its faculty staff have said that they were "horrified" by these arrests. 

A Lecturer at Columbia Law School, Bassam Khawaja, said on May 1 that he was "horrified to see Columbia invite police onto our campus for the second time this month to arrest our students."

"Columbia has chosen escalation at every turn here, with disastrous results," Khawaja added.

"The administration said that the protests were a disruption and presented safety risks, but it is the administration itself that has disrupted campus life by locking us out, relocating or postponing students’ exams, bringing in police to arrest students, and inviting police to remain on campus for the next two weeks until graduation," he stressed. 

Speaking with The Independent, he said, "It’s quite unusual to have to be doing advocacy to ensure that our only students here in New York have the same right to protest to hold peaceful protests and express our support for human rights."

At Least 2,000 People Arrested in Pro-Palestinian Protests on US Campuses, AP Tally Shows

Body camera video from police when they broke up a demonstration at Columbia University shows officers having to move tables and other big furniture to get to the protests and even having to cut through chains at one point.

BY RYAN PEARSON, JULIE WATSON, JAKE OFFENHARTZ AND JOSEPH B. FREDERICK

6:33 PM EDT, May 2, 2024

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police have arrested more than 2,000 people during pro-Palestinian protests at college campuses across the United States in recent weeks, according to an Associated Press tally Thursday.

Demonstrations and arrests have occurred in almost every corner of the nation. In the last 24 hours, they’ve drawn the most attention at the University of California, Los Angeles, where chaotic scenes played out early Thursday when officers in riot gear surged against a crowd of demonstrators.

Hundreds of protesters at UCLA defied orders to leave, some forming human chains as police fired flash-bangs to break up the crowds.

At least 200 people were arrested, said Sgt. Alejandro Rubio of the California Highway Patrol, citing data from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Rubio said they were being booked at the county jails complex near downtown Los Angeles.

What to know about student protests

What’s happening: Student protests over the Israel-Hamas war have popped up at many college campuses following the arrest of demonstrators in April at Columbia University.

On campus: As students around the country protest, student journalists are covering their peers in a moment of uncertainty.

Another 300 people voluntarily left throughout the hourslong standoff, some filing out of the encampment with their hands over their heads in a show of peaceful surrender, according to the university. Others ran away as baton-wielding officers pushed into the hordes that numbered more than 1,000 people.

Later Thursday morning, workers removed barricades and dismantled the protesters’ fortified encampment. Bulldozers scooped up bags of trash and tents. Royce Hall was covered in graffiti.

Tent encampments of protesters calling on universities to stop doing business with Israel or companies they say support the war in Gaza have spread across campuses nationwide in a student movement unlike any other this century.

The demonstrations began at Columbia University on April 17, with students calling for an end to the Israel-Hamas war, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the Health Ministry there. Israel launched its offensive in Gaza after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took roughly 250 hostages in an attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in statement Thursday that the encampment had become “a focal point for serious violence as well as a huge disruption.” He said days of clashes between demonstrators and counterdemonstrators endangered people on campus, students were unable to get to class, buildings had to be closed and classes were canceled.

“The past week has been among the most painful periods our UCLA community has ever experienced,” he said. “It has fractured our sense of togetherness and frayed our bonds of trust, and will surely leave a scar on the campus.”

California Highway Patrol officers poured into the UCLA campus by the hundreds early Thursday. Wearing face shields and protective vests, they held their batons out to separate themselves from demonstrators, who wore helmets and gas masks and chanted: “You want peace. We want justice.”

For hours, officers warned over loudspeakers that there would be arrests if the crowd did not disperse. Protesters and police shoved and scuffled. Police helicopters hovered and the sound of flash-bangs pierced the air. Police pulled off protesters’ helmets and goggles as they made arrests.

Police methodically tore apart the encampment’s barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and dumpsters, then pulled down canopies and tents.

The law enforcement presence and continued warnings contrasted with the scene Tuesday night, when counterdemonstrators attacked the pro-Palestinian encampment. No one was arrested, but at least 15 protesters were injured.

Authorities’ tepid response drew criticism from political leaders, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom and officials pledged an independent review.

Ariel Dardashti, a graduating UCLA senior studying global studies and sociology, said no student should feel unsafe on campus.

“It should not get to the point where students are being arrested,” Dardashti said on campus Thursday.

Dardashti said he can relate to the trauma suffered by Palestinians.

“When my dad was fleeing Iran, he prayed that his children wouldn’t have to face antisemitism,” Dardashti said. “We’re afraid of having to flee again in the same way our parents did.”

Iranian state television carried live images of the police action at UCLA, as did Qatar’s pan-Arab Al Jazeera satellite network. Live images of Los Angeles also played across Israeli television networks.

Israel has branded the protests antisemitic, while Israel’s critics say it uses those allegations to silence opposition. Although some protesters have been caught on camera making antisemitic remarks or violent threats, protest organizers — some of whom are Jewish — call it a peaceful movement to defend Palestinian rights and protest the war.

President Joe Biden on Thursday defended the students’ right to peaceful protest but decried the disorder of recent days.

California Republican leaders blasted university administrations for failing to protect Jewish students and allowing protests to escalate into “lawlessness and violence.” They called for the firing of leaders at UCLA and Cal Poly Humboldt and pushed for a proposal that would cut pay for university administrators.

“We’ve got a whole lot of people in these universities drawing six figure salaries and they stood by and did nothing,” Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher told reporters.

Meanwhile, protest encampments at schools across the U.S. were cleared by police — resulting in more arrests — or closed up voluntarily.

A college professor from Illinois said he suffered multiple broken ribs and a broken hand during a pro-Palestine protest on Saturday at Washington University in St. Louis.

Bystander video shows the arrest of Steve Tamari, a history professor at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. He seems to be moving in to take video or photos of protesters being detained when multiple officers roughly take him down.

In a post on the social platform X, Sandra Tamari said her husband needed surgery on his hand and has nine broken ribs.

Tamari said in a statement Thursday that it was “a small price to pay for Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.” Campus police referred questions to the university’s communications department, which did not respond to a request for comment.

Elsewhere, University of Minnesota officials reached an agreement with protesters not to disrupt commencements. Similar agreements have been made at Northwestern University in suburban Chicago and Brown University in Rhode Island.

Meanwhile, a professors group at Columbia University condemned school leadership on Thursday for asking police to remove protesters in what the group called a “horrific police attack on our students.” Officers burst into a building Tuesday, breaking up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school.

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Offenhartz and Frederick reported from New York. Associated Press journalists around the country contributed to this report, including Ethan Swope, Krysta Fauria, John Antczak, Christopher L. Keller, Lisa Baumann, Stefanie Dazio, Jae C. Hong, Colleen Long, Karen Matthews, Sarah Brumfield, Carolyn Thompson, Philip Marcelo, Steve Karnowski and Eugene Johnson.

Tunisian Opposition Wants Political Prisoners Freed Before Taking Part in Presidential Election

FILE - Tunisia’s President Kais Saied casts his ballot as he participates in the legislative elections in Tunis, Dec. 17, 2022. Tunisia’s main opposition coalition said Tuesday, April 30, 2024, it won’t take part in the upcoming presidential election unless Saied’s political opponents are freed and judicial independence is restored. Saied is widely expected to seek reelection, but it is unclear if anyone will challenge him. (AP Photo/Slim Abid, File)

BY BOUAZZA BEN BOUAZZA

10:18 PM EDT, April 30, 2024

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Tunisia’s main opposition coalition said Tuesday it won’t take part in the North African country’s upcoming presidential election unless President Kais Saied’s political opponents are freed and judicial independence is restored.

More than 20 political opponents have been charged or imprisoned since Saied consolidated power in 2021 by suspending parliament and rewriting the country’s constitution. Voters weary of political and economic turmoil approved his constitutional changes in a 2021 referendum with low turnout.

Saied is widely expected to run in the presidential election, likely to take place in September or October. It is unclear if anyone will challenge him.

The National Salvation Front, a coalition of the main opposition parties including once-powerful Islamist movement Ennahdha, expressed concern that the election wouldn’t be fair, and laid out its conditions for presenting a candidate.

They include freeing imprisoned politicians, allowing Ennahdha’s headquarters to reopen, guaranteeing the neutrality and independence of the electoral commission and restoring the independence of the judicial system, according to National Salvation Front president Ahmed Nejib Chebbi.

Ennahdha’s headquarters were shut down a year ago, and its leader Rached Ghannouchi – a former parliament speaker – was sentenced to 15 months in prison on charges of glorifying terrorism. His supporters say the charge is politically driven.

Under the constitutional changes Saied introduced, the president can appoint members of the electoral authority as well as magistrates.

Tunisia’s earlier charter had been seen as a model for democracies in the region.

Tunisia built a widely praised but shaky democracy after unleashing Arab Spring popular uprisings across the region in 2011. Its economic woes have deepened in recent years, and it is now a major jumping off point for migrants from Tunisia and elsewhere in Africa who take dangerous boat journeys toward Europe.

Court in the Central African Republic Seeks Arrest of ex-President Bozizé for Human Rights Abuses

FILE- President of the Central African Republic Francois Bozize speaks to the media at the presidential palace in Bangui, Central African Republic, Jan. 8, 2013. An internationally backed court in the Central African Republic issued an international arrest warrant Tuesday, April 30, 2024, for the country’s exiled former Bozize for human rights abuses from 2009 to 2013, a spokesperson said. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)

BY JEAN FERNAND KOENA AND SAMBU ASSANA

9:21 PM EDT, April 30, 2024

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — An internationally backed court in the Central African Republic issued an international arrest warrant Tuesday for the country’s exiled former President François Bozizé for human rights abuses from 2009 to 2013, a spokesperson said.

The Special Criminal Court was set up in the capital, Bangui, to try war crimes and other human rights abuses committed during the coups and violence that the country has experienced since 2003.

Court spokesperson Gervais Bodagy Laoulé said the warrant was for crimes committed under Bozizé's leadership in a civilian prison and at a military training center in the city of Bossembélém where many people were tortured and killed.

The warrant covers crimes from 2009 to 2013 by the presidential guard and other security forces, Laoulé said.

Bozizé current lives in exile in Guinea Bissau, where that country’s President Umaro Sissoco Embaló told the Associated Press that he had not received any request from Bangui about the arrest warrant, and that the country’s laws do not allow for extradition.

Ibrahim Nour, whose father was tortured and killed in the infamous Bossembélé prison, welcomed the arrest warrant.

“Justice may be slow, but it will eventually catch up with the executioners. That’s why I welcome the arrest warrant for the men who killed my father, and for whom we are waiting for explanations so that we can begin to mourn,” Nour said.

The court was created in 2015, but took several years to begin operating. Human Rights Watch has described its creation as a landmark to advance justice for victims of serious crimes.

Patryk Labuda, an expert in international criminal law at the Polish Academy of Sciences, told the AP that the warrant issued Tuesday sends a message about the court’s intention to prosecute wrongdoing by the state.

“This arrest warrant is certainly one of the most high profile developments in the 5 years the court has operated,” Labuda said.

Bozizé seized power in a coup in 2003, and was ousted by predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels a decade later. That led to a civil war between the rebels and mostly Christian militias marked by sectarian violence atrocities and the forced use of child soliders.

Both the U.S. and the United Nations targeted Bozizé with sanctions for fueling the violence.

The U.N., which has a peacekeeping mission in the country, estimates the fighting has killed thousands and displaced over a million people, or one-fifth of the population. In 2019, a peace deal was reached between the government and 14 armed groups, but fighting continues.

About 10,000 children are still fighting alongside armed groups in Central African Republic more than a decade after civil war broke out, the government said earlier this year.

“It’s a great day for us victims to learn that François Bozizé is the target of an international arrest warrant,” said Audrey Yamalé, a member of the Association of Victims of the 2013 Crisis. “But let’s not stop there. We would like Guinea Bissau to cooperate in his extradition.”

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Assana reported from Bissau. Associated Press writer Jessica Donati in Dakar, Senegal, contributed.

US Says it Will Return to Chad for Talks to Keep Troops in the Country

FILE - Gen. Michael Langley, USMC, Commander, U.S. Africa Command, testifies during a Senate committee hearing on Senate Armed Services hearing to examine the posture of United States Central Command and United States Africa Command, Thursday, March 16, 2023, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The U.S. military plans to return to Chad within a month for talks about revising an agreement that allows it to keep troops based there, an American general said Wednesday, May 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib, File)

BY FRANCIS KOKUTSE

1:42 PM EDT, May 1, 2024

ACCRA, Ghana (AP) — The U.S. military plans to return to Chad within a month for talks about revising an agreement that allows it to keep troops based there, an American general said Wednesday.

The U.S. said last month it was withdrawing most of its contingent of about 100 troops from Chad after the government questioned the legality of their operations there. This followed Niger’s decision to order all U.S. troops out of the country, dealing a blow to U.S. military operations in the Sahel, a vast region south of the Sahara desert where groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group operate.

U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Michael Langley, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, made the comments to reporters in Ghana at the second annual African Maritime Forces Summit, or AMFS.

He said the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Chad was expected to be temporary, and Chad had communicated to Washington that it wanted to continue the security partnership after the presidential election there.

“We’ll come back for discussions within a month to see in what ways, and what they need, to be able to build further in their security construct and also against terrorism,” Langley said. 

Government officials in Chad couldn’t immediately be reached for comment. The presidential election in Chad is scheduled for Monday, and analysts expect the incumbent to win.

Chad’s interim president, Mahamat Deby Itno, seized power after his father, who ran the country for more than three decades, was killed fighting rebels in 2021. Last year, the government announced it was extending the 18-month transition for two more years, which led to protests across the country.

Langley said the withdrawal of U.S. forces was a temporary step “as part of an ongoing review of our security cooperation, which will resume after Chad’s May 6 presidential election.”

Both Chad and Niger have been integral to the U.S. military’s efforts to counter violent extremist organizations across the Sahel region, but Niger’s ruling junta ended an agreement last month that allows U.S. troops to operate in the West African country.

Niger is home to a major U.S. air base, in the city of Agadez, about 920 kilometers (550 miles) from the capital, Niamey, using it for manned and unmanned surveillance flights and other operations. The U.S. has also invested hundreds of millions of dollars in training Niger’s military, since it began operations there in 2013.

Armed Groups Besieging Towns in Northeastern Mali Driving Residents, Many Children, to Hunger

In this 2018 photograph released by Mouvement pour le Salut de l'Azawad, Islamic State group commander Abu Huzeifa, known by the alias Higgo, poses in uniform. Mali's army said in a statement late Monday, April 29, 2024, that Huzeifa was killed by Malian state forces. The United States had announced a reward of up to $5 million reward for anyone providing information about him. Huzeifa was believed to have helped carry out an attack in 2017 on U.S. and Nigerien forces in Tongo Tongo, Niger, which led to the deaths of four Americans and four Nigerien soldiers. (AP Photo)

BY BABA AHMED AND JESSICA DONATI

1:26 PM EDT, May 1, 2024

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A humanitarian crisis is worsening in northeastern Mali where armed groups linked to Islamic State have besieged major towns leaving residents including some 80,000 children vulnerable to malnutrition, locals and an aid group warned Wednesday.

The town of Ménaka has been under siege for four months, driving up the prices of food. Other essential goods like medication are increasingly hard to find, residents and aid groups say.

“The humanitarian situation is catastrophic, with displaced people going from house to house asking for food for their families. Children are threatened with starvation,” Wani Ould Hamadi, deputy mayor of the town of Ménaka, told the Associated Press.

Mali, along with its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger, has for over a decade battled an insurgency fought by armed groups, including some allied with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. Following military coups in all three nations in recent years, the ruling juntas have expelled French forces and turned to Russia’s mercenary units for security assistance instead.

Col. Assimi Goita, who took charge in Mali after a second coup in 2021, promised to beat back the armed groups, but the United Nations and other analysts say the government has rapidly lost ground.

The aid group Save the Children said some 80,000 children were trapped inside the town of Ménaka facing malnutrition and disease, and many were unaccompanied having fled violence elsewhere.

“Children in Menaka are trapped in a living nightmare. Let us be clear: unless the blockade is lifted, starvation and disease will lead to deaths,” Siaka Ouattara, the country director, said in a statement.

Ayouba Ag Nadroun, a man who fled to Ménaka to escape violence in other parts of the country said he was unable to provide for his extended family of some 15 members, including many women and children, and surviving on scarce handouts of aid. “I have no job, how can I help them?” he told the AP.

“The blockades subject villagers to violence, hunger and fear and have long been a tactic used by these jihadist groups to punish communities for their perceived support of the government,” said Sahel analyst Corinne Dufka adding that they had often succeeded in pressuring the communities to sign non-aggression accords with the groups.

Mali’s leader, Goita, has promised to return the country to democracy in early 2024. But in September, the junta canceled elections scheduled for February 2024 indefinitely, citing the need for further technical preparations.

Last month, his ruling junta ordered all political activities to stop, and the following day ordered the media to stop reporting on political activities.

More Money is Going to African Climate Startups, But a Huge Funding Gap Remains

African climate-tech startups are increasingly raising money from private sources, but while those funds for climate solutions are growing, a huge gap remains in meeting the actual financial needs for climate action in Africa. (AP Video: Dan Ikpoyi, Produced by: Brittany Peterson)

BY CARLOS MUREITHI

10:14 AM EDT, May 2, 2024

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — When Ademola Adesina founded a startup to provide solar and battery-based power subscription packages to individuals and businesses in Nigeria in 2015, it was a lot harder to raise money than it is today.

Climate tech was new in Africa, the continent was a fledgling destination for venture capital money, there were fewer funders to approach and less money was available, he said.

It took him a year of “running around and scouring” his networks to raise his first amount — just under $1 million — from VC firms and other sources. “Everything was a learning experience,” he said.

But the ecosystem has since changed, and Adesina’s Rensource Energy has raised about $30 million over the years, mostly from VC firms.

Funding for climate tech startups in Africa from the private sector is growing, with businesses raising more than $3.4 billion since 2019. But there’s still a long way to go, with the continent requiring $277 billion annually to meet its climate goals for 2030.

Experts say to unlock financing and fill this gap, African countries need to address risks like currency instability that they say reduce investor appetite, while investors need to expand their scope of interest to more climate sectors like flood protection, disaster management and heat management, and to use diverse funding methods.

Still, the investment numbers for the climate tech sector — which includes businesses in renewable energy, carbon removal, land restoration and water and waste management — are compelling: Last year, climate tech startups on the continent raised $1.04 billion, a 9% increase from the previous year and triple what they raised in 2019, according to the funding database Africa: The Big Deal. That was despite a decline in the amount of money raised by all startups in total on the continent last year.

That matters because climate tech requires experimentation, and VC firms that provide money to nascent businesses are playing an essential role by giving climate tech startups risk capital, said Adesina. “In the climate space, a lot of things are uncertain,” he said.

The money raised by climate tech startups last year was more than a third of all funds raised by startups in Africa in 2023, placing climate tech second to fintech, a more mature sector.

Venture capital is typically given to businesses with substantial risk but great long-term growth potential. Startups use it to expand into new markets and to get products and services on the market.

Venture capitalists “can take risks that other people cannot take, because our business model is designed to have failures,” said Brian Odhiambo, a Lagos-based partner at Novastar Ventures, an Africa-focused investor. “Not everything has to succeed. But some will, and those that do will succeed in a massive way.”

That was the case for Adetayo Bamiduro, co-founder of MAX, formerly Metro Africa Xpress, which makes electric two- and three-wheelers and electric vehicle infrastructure in Nigeria and has raised just under $100 million since it was founded in 2015.

Adetayo said venture capitalists “are playing a catalytic role that is extremely essential.”

“We all know that in order to really decarbonize our economies, investments have to be made. And it’s not trivial investment,” he said.

The funds can also bridge the gap between traditional and non-traditional sectors, said Kidus Asfaw, co-founder and CEO of Kubik, a startup that turns difficult-to-recycle plastic waste into durable, low-carbon building material. His company, which operates in Kenya and Ethiopia, has raised around $5.2 million since it was launched in 2021.

He cites waste management and construction as examples of traditional sectors that can connect with startups like his.

“There’s so much innovation in these spaces that can transform them over time,” he said. “VCs are accelerating that pathway to transforming them.”

Besides venture capital, other investments by private equity firms, syndicates, venture builders, grant providers and other financial institutions are actively financing climate initiatives on the continent.

But private sector financing in general lags far behind that of public financing, which includes funds from governments, multilaterals and development finance institutions.

From 2019 to 2020, private sector financing represented only 14% of all of Africa’s climate finance, according to a report by the Climate Policy Initiative, much lower than in regions such as East Asia and Pacific at 39%, and Latin America and the Caribbean at 49%.

The low contribution in Africa is attributed to the investors putting money in areas they’re more familiar with, like renewable energy technology, with less funding coming in for more diverse initiatives, said Sandy Okoth, a capital market specialist for green finance at FSD Africa, one of the commissioners of the CPI study.

“The private sector feels this (renewable energy technology) is a more mature space,” he said. “They understand the funding models.”

Technology for adapting to climate change, on the other hand, is “more complex”, he said.

One startup working in renewable energy is the Johannesburg-based Wetility, which last year secured funding of $48 million — mostly from private equity — to expand its operations.

The startup provides solar panels for homes and businesses and a digital management system that allows users to remotely manage power usage, as it tries to solve the problems of energy access and reliability in southern Africa.

“Private sector financing in African climate is still rather low,” said founder and CEO Vincent Maposa. “But there’s visible growth. And I believe that over the next decade or so, you’ll start to see those shifts.”

Investors are also starting to understand the economic benefits of adapting to climate change and solutions as they have returns on investment, said Hetal Patel, Nairobi-based director of investments at Mercy Corps Ventures, an early-stage VC fund focused on startups building solutions for climate adaptation and financial resilience.

“We’re starting to build a very strong business case for adaptation investors and make sure that private capital flows start coming in,” he said.

Maëlis Carraro, managing partner at Catalyst Fund, a Nairobi-based VC fund and accelerator that funds climate adaptation solutions, urged more diverse funding, such as that which blends private and public sector funding. The role of public financing, she said, should be to de-risk the private sector and attract more private sector capital into financing climate initiatives.

“We’re not gonna go far enough with just the public funding,” she said. “We need the private sector and the public sector to work together to unlock more financing. And in particular looking beyond just a few industries where the innovation is writ large.”

Human Rights Watch Accuses Kenyan Government of Inadequate Response to Flooding

BY EVELYNE MUSAMBI

6:02 AM EDT, May 2, 2024

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Human Rights Watch accused Kenyan authorities on Thursday of not responding adequately to ongoing floods that have killed more than 170 people since the start of the rainy season.

The New York-based rights group said the government “has a human rights obligation to prevent foreseeable harm from climate change and extreme weather events and to protect people when a disaster strikes.”

Kenya’s Meteorology Department sent an early warning before the rainy season started, but President William Ruto only formed a response committee on April 24. By then, nearly 100 people had died due to the flooding.

Kenya, along with other parts of East Africa, have been overwhelmed by floods. More than 150,000 people are displaced and living in dozens of camps.

The rights group said the government did not draw lessons from the last year’s rainy season that left hundreds of people dead.

The meteorology department had warned that the country would experience increased rainfall due to the El Niño until early this year, but Ruto in October said the country had been spared by the weather pattern.

The government announced at the time that at least 10 billion Kenyan shillings ($75 million) would be released to prepare a nationwide response. It is unclear how the funds were used, and critics have accused the government of misappropriation.

Those affected by ongoing flooding in Mai Mahiu, in the west of the country, have accused the government of a slow response. At least 45 people died after a river overflowed and destroyed houses, with more than 80 people missing since Monday. The debris has not yet been cleared to recover any buried bodies.

On Tuesday, the government directed those living in flood-prone areas to move or be evacuated forcefully, as more rain is predicted across the country through May.

EVELYNE MUSAMBI

Musambi is an Associated Press reporter based in Nairobi, Kenya. She covers regional security, geopolitics, trade relations and foreign policy across East Africa.

A New Form of Mpox That May Spread More Easily Found in Congo’s Biggest Outbreak

BY MARIA CHENG AND CHRISTINA MALKIA

1:04 AM EDT, May 2, 2024

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo is struggling to contain its biggest mpox outbreak, and scientists say a new form of the disease detected in a mining town might more easily spread among people.

Since January, Congo has reported more than 4,500 suspected mpox cases and nearly 300 deaths, numbers that have roughly tripled from the same period last year, according to the World Health Organization. Congo recently declared the outbreak across the country a health emergency.

An analysis of patients hospitalized between October and January in Kamituga, eastern Congo, suggests recent genetic mutations in mpox are the result of its continued transmission in humans; it’s happening in a town where people have little contact with the wild animals thought to naturally carry the disease.

“We’re in a new phase of mpox,” said Dr. Placide Mbala-Kingebeni, the lead researcher of the study, who said it will soon be submitted to a journal for publication. Mbala-Kingebeni heads a lab at Congo’s National Institute of Biomedical Research, which studies the genetics of diseases.

The lesions reported by most patients are milder and on the genitals, Mbala-Kingebeni said, making the disease trickier to diagnose. In previous outbreaks in Africa, lesions were mostly seen on the chest, hands and feet. He also said that the new form seems to have a lower death rate.

In a report on the global mpox situation this week, WHO said the new version of the disease might require a new testing strategy to pick up the mutations.

With experts pointing out that fewer than half of people in Congo with mpox are tested, Mbala-Kingebeni said: “The risk is that unless patients themselves come forward, we will have a silent transmission of the disease and nobody will know.”

Mbala-Kingebeni said most people were infected via sex, with about a third of mpox cases found in sex workers. It was not until the 2022 global emergency of mpox that scientists established the disease was spread via sex, with most cases in gay or bisexual men. In November, WHO confirmed sexual transmission of mpox in Congo for the first time.

There are two kinds, or clades, of mpox, which is related to smallpox and endemic to central and west Africa. Clade 1 is more severe and can kill up to 10% of people infected. Clade 2 triggered the 2022 outbreak; more than 99% of people infected survived.

Mbala-Kingebeni and colleagues said they have identified a new form of clade 1 that may be responsible for more than 240 cases and at least three deaths in Kamituga, a region with a significant transient population traveling elsewhere in Africa and beyond.

Dr. Boghuma Titanji, an infectious diseases expert at Emory University who is not connected to the research, said the new mutations are concerning.

“This suggests the virus is adapting to spread efficiently in humans and could cause some pretty consequential outbreaks,” she said.

Although the mpox epidemics in the West were contained with the help of vaccines and treatments, barely any have been available in Congo. Congo’s minister of health has authorized the use of vaccines in high-risk provinces, said Cris Kacita Osako, coordinator of Congo’s Monkeypox Response Committee. He said officials are in talks with donor countries like Japan to help buy the shots.

“Once a sufficient quantity of vaccines is available … vaccination will be implemented as part of the response,” Kacita Osako said.

Dr. Dimie Ogoina, an mpox expert at Niger Delta University, said the new research is an unsettling reminder of an earlier — but different — outbreak.

“The notable spread among sex workers is reminiscent of the early stages of HIV,” he said, explaining that prejudices attached to treating sexually transmitted infections and the reluctance of people with mpox to come forward were worrying.

WHO’s emergencies chief, Dr. Michael Ryan, said last week that despite the ongoing spread of mpox in Africa and elsewhere, “there has not been a single donor dollar invested.”

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Cheng reported from London. Mark Banchereau in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.

Liberia Passes a Law Setting Up a Long-awaited War Crimes Court

FILE - Joseph Boakai, then Vice-President of Liberia, addresses the 64th session of the General Assembly at United Nations headquarters Friday, Sept. 25, 2009. Liberia’s President Joseph Boakai has signed a resolution to create a long-awaited war crimes court to deliver justice to the victims of the country’s two civil wars, characterized by the widespread and systematic use of mass killings, torture and sexual violence. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

BY MARK M. MENGONFIA AND JESSICA DONATI

4:13 PM EDT, May 2, 2024

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — President Joseph Boakai on Thursday signed an executive order to create a long-awaited war crimes court to deliver justice to the victims of Liberia’s two civil wars, characterized by widespread mass killings, torture and sexual violence.

Human rights groups have described how girls were subjected to gang rapes, while children were recruited to fight, often after witnessing the killing of their parents. The back-to-back civil wars killed an estimated 250,000 people between 1989 and 2003.

The legislation was passed by both the parliament and the senate, and signed off by a majority of lawmakers, including some who would face prosecution.

“The conviction that brings us here today is that, for peace and harmony to have a chance to prevail, justice and healing must perfect the groundwork,” Boakai said in a statement.

Victims and activists for justice have been calling for a court to try those accused of war crimes for decades. A post-war truth and reconciliation commission in 2009 identified a list of people to be prosecuted for war crimes, but the government didn’t take action. Justice was a key issue in the presidential election last year, helping Boakai defeat soccer great and then President George Weah.

Liberia began as a settlement for freed slaves from the United States in 1822, but declared itself an independent nation 25 years later. The resolution calls for international donors to fund the court. A number of legal steps still need that need to happen for an independent and effective court to be set up.

Beth Van Schaack, the U.S. envoy for global criminal justice, said the U.S. would fund the court, if it was set up appropriately, and other donors had also expressed an interest in supporting it once a framework and other details were clear.

“For many citizens of Liberia, they see this as essential to a larger project establishing the rule of law in Liberia, so that there’s faith in institutions,” she said.

Human Rights Watch and other civil society groups published a joint report a year ago calling on the Biden administration to push Liberian officials to set up the long-awaited court and fund its operations.

“Liberian activists have been calling for accountability for these crimes for nearly two decades,” said Lindsay Bailey, a human rights lawyer with the San Francisco-based Center for Justice and Accountability. “It is necessary to give victims justice and a full account of what happened to their loved ones. Accountability also helps to build respect for the rule of law and a durable peace.”

Liberia’s post-war truth and reconciliation committee listed eight people as leaders of warring factions, including two who currently serve in the senate. Both signed off on the resolution, including ex-warlord and Sen. Prince Johnson, who said he supported it because his constituents needed justice. Johnson was also named first on the committee’s list of “most notorious perpetrators” and is accused of killing, extortion, massacre, torture and rape among other charges.

Among the other leaders named by the committee in 2009 was Charles Taylor, a former president. Taylor is in jail in the United Kingdom, serving a 50-year sentence for war crimes including murder, rape and using child soldiers. He was the first former head of state convicted by an international war crimes court since World War II.

While no one has been tried in Liberia, a handful of others have also been convicted of war crimes overseas. Mohammed Jabbateh, a rebel commander who witnesses said sliced a baby out of a pregnant woman’s stomach, killed civilians and ordered his soldiers to rape young girls, was sentenced to 30 years in the U.S.

Kunti Kamara was sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity, including systematic torture in France.

___

Jessica Donati reported from Dakar, Senegal.

China to Host 'Palestinian Unity Talks' Between Hamas, Fatah

A senior official from Hamas says the group is willing to join a unified government for Gaza and the West Bank with Fatah on the condition of a 'fully sovereign Palestinian state'

APR 27, 2024

(Photo Credit: Getty Images)

Delegations from Palestinian resistance faction Hamas and the West Bank-ruling Fatah have traveled to China for “unity talks” hosted by Beijing as the country looks to expand its newfound role as a mediator in West Asia.

According to a Fatah official who spoke with Reuters, the delegation from the party that controls the Palestinian Authority (PA) is led by Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. For its part, the Hamas delegation is reportedly led by senior official Mousa Abu Marzouk.

“We support strengthening the authority of the Palestinian National Authority and support all Palestinian factions in achieving reconciliation and increasing solidarity through dialogue and consultation,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press briefing on 26 April.

The visit will mark the first time Hamas officials have visited China since Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October and the start of the Israeli genocide in Gaza.

A Chinese diplomat, Wang Kejian, met Hamas politburo chief Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar last month, according to the Chinese foreign ministry. Beijing says the talks sought to open a pathway to reconcile the two Palestinian parties.

Last year, China brokered a historic rapprochement deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, ending years of hostility. Beijing's diplomatic success also opened the door for talks to end the Saudi-led war in Yemen.

The highly unpopular Fatah has been the de facto ruler of the occupied West Bank since 2006, when Hamas won the last legislative elections to be held in Palestine.

Hamas' victory at the polls was not welcomed by then-US President George Bush, who put in motion a covert initiative to ignite a Palestinian civil war and prevent Hamas from taking power. The meddling from Washington, Israel, and allied Arab states led to a Fatah-Hamas war in 2007 that saw the two parties split control of the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip, respectively.

In 2016, a leaked audio revealed that, 10 years earlier, Hillary Clinton suggested the Palestinian elections be rigged, calling them “a big mistake.”

"I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake. And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win," Clinton said.

China's diplomatic efforts come on the heels of a statement by senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya, who earlier this week suggested that the armed wing of Hamas could be folded into a “Palestinian national army” if Palestinian statehood is achieved.

He also said that Hamas would be willing to join the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and form a unified government for Gaza and the West Bank with Fatah on the condition of a “fully sovereign Palestinian state” on pre-1967 borders and “the return of Palestinian refugees in accordance with the international resolutions.”

In January, Russia hosted a round of “unity talks” between several Palestinian factions, including Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), PFLP General Command, and the Al-Saiqa organization.

Democrats Push for Further Crackdown on Columbia University Students

By Al Mayadeen English

Democrats join Republicans in calling for the disbandment of the encampments at Columbia University as the students garner more and more international attention.

The Columbia University board has recently come under pressure from several Democrat House Members to end the ongoing encampment and protests against the genocide in Gaza, demanding that the faculty "act decisively" in the face of the student protests, Axios reported on Monday.

This group of House Democrats sets a precedent, as the Republicans have been leading the campaign against the pro-Palestine students, and though the Democrat Biden administration is responsible for the police crackdown on these students, the party itself had not publicly adopted any policy on the demonstrations. 

Some 21 lawmakers signed a letter to the university's board in which they voiced their "disappointment that, despite promises to Columbia University has not yet disbanded the unauthorized and impermissible encampment of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish activists on campus," Axios said, which echoes the same rhetoric of Republicans who are calling the protesters anti-Semitic for their anti-Zionist sentiment and despite there being countless Jewish students mobilizing for the cause. 

Calling for the disbandment of the encampments on campus, the lawmakers, led by New York's Dan Goldman and New Jersey's Josh Gothheimer, warned that "if any Trustees are unwilling to do this, they should resign so that they can be replaced by individuals who will uphold the University's legal obligations under Title VI."

Panel against suppression of protests

The President of Columbia University faced increased pressure on Friday as a campus oversight committee strongly condemned her administration's actions in suppressing a pro-Palestine demonstration in the school.

Universities across the United States have witnessed in the past few weeks a historic surge in student protests in support of Palestine and Gaza, calling for ending all agreements with "Israel" and divesting from the occupation entity. Students also demanded an end to US support to "Israel" and involvement in the genocidal war.

Cross-country protests in the US continue to grow as the Israeli genocide in Gaza reaches its 206th day. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Saturday that the number of Palestinians killed in the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Strip since October 7 has now reached 34,388, with 77,437 injured.

After Columbian students established their Gaza Solidarity Encampment on April 17, University President Nemat Minouche Shafik summoned the NYPD to the campus to disperse the demonstrations, resulting in the arrest of over 100 students. But shortly after, outraged by the footage of their fellow students being arrested, a new group of students arrived on campus and set up another encampment in protest.

Shafik had issued an ultimatum to student protesters: either negotiate an agreement with the administration to disband the encampment or the school would pursue alternative measures to dismantle it. However, the demonstrators remained steadfast in their demands, with new supporters swelling their ranks.

The Columbia University Senate passed a resolution following a Friday meeting, stating that Shafik's administration had eroded academic freedom and disregarded the privacy and due process rights of students and faculty members by involving the police and terminating the protest.

"The decision... has raised serious concerns about the administration's respect for shared governance and transparency in the university decision-making process," it said.

The Senate, predominantly comprising faculty members and other staff with a minority representation of students, refrained from explicitly mentioning Shafik in its resolution and opted for a less severe tone than a censure. The president, also a member of the Senate, did not attend.

Deadline withdrawn

Late on April 25, Columbia University went back on an overnight deadline set for pro-Palestine protesters to leave their encampment, amid more college campuses in the United States attempting to stop such protests from taking place. 

US police made large-scale arrests in universities all over the country, and even used chemical irritants and tasers to stop the protesters who are expressing solidarity for Palestine. 

Columbia University is still the center of the student protest movement as it is where these protests began. 

In a statement released at 11:07 pm (03:07 GMT today), the office of Columbia University President Minouche Shafik went back on the midnight deadline to disperse a large tent camp with around 200 students. 

Columbia University Protest Negotiations Collapse, Will Not Divest

By Al Mayadeen English

The negotiations regarding the protests at Columbia University over the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza collapse as students have determined that the faculty was negotiating in bad faith.

Columbia University refused to divest from the Israeli occupation as negotiators did not manage to reach an agreement, University President Minouche Shafik announced Monday morning in an email, the Columbia Spectator reported.

Shafik "urge[ed] those in the encampment to voluntarily disperse," adding that the University was "consulting with a broader group in our community to explore alternative internal options to end this crisis as soon as possible."

The President of Columbia University faced increased pressure on Friday as a campus oversight committee strongly condemned her administration's actions in suppressing a pro-Palestine demonstration in the school.

Talks between members of the administration, the University's Senate, and the protesting students have been ongoing for the past week with the goal of achieving the student's demands in exchange for getting them to stop protesting and camping on campus. However, the effort has faltered due to "bad faith" on the university's end.

The faculty had announced a midnight deadline for reaching an agreement before it began exploring "alternative options for clearing the West Lawn."

After the deadline expired, the students negotiating on behalf of the protesters left the talks and pledged to return only on the condition of "good faith bargaining and protections for nonviolent protesters against police and military violence" as they have been getting assaulted and detained by the local police department, with some even calling for the army to be mobilized against their peaceful protests.

After the negotiators left, the university backed down on its decision and decided to postpone the deadline. 

Inadequate offers

The email, moreover, underlined that the university had made several other offers, including one to develop an "expedited timeline" for divestment from the Israeli occupation and another to establish a process allowing students to access a frequently updated list of the university's direct investment holdings.

"The university's goal for the talks was a collaborative resolution with the protestors that would result in the orderly removal of the encampment from the lawn," Shafik claimed. "The students also were asked to commit going forward to following the university's rules, including those on the time, place, and manner for demonstrations and events."

Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) addressed the negotiations Sunday, describing the University's offers as "unacceptable."

Some demands by the students include amnesty for disciplined students, divestment from the Israeli occupation, and financial transparency on the university's holdings. 

Moreover, CUAD highlighted that "The University has openly admitted to surveilling students involved in the current encampment, and has stated that they would face a disciplinary process if they fail to identify themselves."

"The University still withholds the right to punish students who do identify themselves for any actions it deems a 'violation of policies.' Finally, the University's offer is contingent on the camp being dismantled without noise and the ejection of non-affiliates," it added, which completely goes against the negotiators' demands.

Democrats pressure campaign

The email came before it was revealed by Axios that the Columbia University board has recently come under pressure from several Democrat House Members to end the ongoing encampment and protests against the genocide in Gaza, demanding that the faculty "act decisively" in the face of the student protests.

This group of House Democrats sets a precedent, as the Republicans have been leading the campaign against the pro-Palestine students, and though the Democrat Biden administration is responsible for the police crackdown on these students, the party itself had not publicly adopted any policy on the demonstrations. 

Some 21 lawmakers signed a letter to the university's board in which they voiced their "disappointment that, despite promises to Columbia University has not yet disbanded the unauthorized and impermissible encampment of anti-Israel, anti-Jewish activists on campus," Axios said, which echoes the same rhetoric of Republicans who are calling the protesters anti-Semitic for their anti-Zionist sentiment and despite there being countless Jewish students mobilizing for the cause. 

Universities across the United States have witnessed in the past few weeks a historic surge in student protests in support of Palestine and Gaza, calling for ending all agreements with "Israel" and divesting from the occupation entity. Students also demanded an end to US support to "Israel" and involvement in the genocidal war.

Cross-country protests in the US continue to grow as the Israeli genocide in Gaza reaches its 206th day. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza announced on Saturday that the number of Palestinians killed in the ongoing Israeli genocide in the Strip since October 7 has now reached 34,388, with 77,437 injured.

After Columbian students established their Gaza Solidarity Encampment on April 17, University President Nemat Minouche Shafik summoned the NYPD to the campus to disperse the demonstrations, resulting in the arrest of over 100 students. But shortly after, outraged by the footage of their fellow students being arrested, a new group of students arrived on campus and set up another encampment in protest.

‘We Cannot Breathe’ – Gaza Residents Living in Shelters, Inhaling Fume

April 27, 2024 

Displaced Palestinians in a makeshift refugee camp in Gaza. (Photo: Abdallah Aljamal, Palestine Chronicle)

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By Abdallah Aljamal – Gaza

“We have no alternative for cooking food but to light fires. Our hands have turned black and burnt, and so have our faces”.

The Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip has announced that diseases and health complications such as chest pain, breathing difficulties, respiratory illnesses, and asthma have spread across the region due to the lack of cooking gas, which forces residents to rely on open fires for cooking.

Along with a genocidal war, which has killed and wounded well over 110,000 Palestinians in Gaza, Israel has also imposed a complete siege on the enclave.

“There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on October 9. Since that moment, only a very limited quantity of aid has entered Gaza, leading to a catastrophic humanitarian situation. 

The Palestine Chronicle spoke with three residents from Gaza, who talked about the hardship they have been enduring during the last seven months.

Our Faces are Burnt 

“We have been out of cooking gas in my house since the first month of the war, and there is no cooking gas in Gaza City to refill our cylinders,” Hajj Abu Mahmoud Shhaiber told The Palestine Chronicle. 

“I have searched everywhere, but there is no gas available, and the occupation prevents its entry into the north of the Gaza Strip,” he added.

Therefore, for the last seven months, the Shhaiber family has been forced to cook our food on firewood. This, however, has caused us significant health complications.

“My wife, my daughters who help us with cooking and myself, we all suffer from chest pain, respiratory issues, and breathing difficulties,” he told us, explaining that the problem is exacerbated by the fact that there is no medicine in Gaza City, and that all health centers and hospitals have been destroyed or shut down. 

“We have no alternative for cooking food but to light fires. Our hands have turned black and burnt, and so have our faces,” Shhaiber continued. 

“I always feel short of breath, and I am constantly coughing and wheezing, but unfortunately, we have no alternative, due to the Israeli siege.”

No Other Option

“I still live with my children in the Northern Governorate. My home and my family’s home were destroyed, but we live in displacement centers,” Rond al-Masri told us. 

“I lost my gas cylinders during the bombing of my house, and I don’t have a stove or gas for cooking. Therefore, I have to rely on canned food when it’s available to feed my children,” she continued. 

Rond told us that they are forced to light fires to prepare food.

“There is no other option available to us, and there is no alternative to cooking gas but to light fires. Throughout the day, my children search for wood and cardboard for us, and if available, we light a fire and prepare food,” Rond said.

Rond’s children got sick and the woman explained that this is due to a combination of factors. 

“They have fallen ill due to poor hygiene, and from spending long hours under the sun searching for food. Moreover, exposure to carbon monoxide from the fires and the smoke they constantly inhale have caused us respiratory diseases,” the woman said, desperately.

“In northern Gaza, there are no hospitals or clinics to obtain medication . I can only heat some water for my children to drink and alleviate chest and respiratory pains,” Rond said. 

‘Immediate Actions’ 

According to another resident, Muatasim Jabr, this is part of Israel’s deliberate policy to kill Palestinians in every way possible. 

“They kill us by bombing and gunfire, but death by hunger is the most painful and agonizing. Killing through disease by spreading respiratory illnesses in the absence of treatment is also incredibly painful and deadly,” he said.

“Many respiratory diseases require oxygen, and the occupation destroyed the central oxygen room at Al-Shifa Hospital,” Jabr explained, adding that now there is only a small oxygen room at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, in the Jabaliya refugee camp.

“Unfortunately, it is insufficient to cover the thousands of cases in need of oxygen due to bombings, killings, and the spread of diseases,” the main said.

Jabr called on international institutions, the United States, Arab countries, and European countries to pressure the occupation to stop the war and to provide the basic needs for the residents of the Gaza Strip. 

“We need immediate action to save Gaza from the environmental, health, and humanitarian disasters caused by the occupation during this war”.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

– Abdallah Aljamal is a Gaza-based journalist. He is a correspondent for The Palestine Chronicle in the Gaza Strip. His email is abdallahaljamal1987@gmail.com

AGOA to be Expanded to All of Africa and Extended to 2041

SUNDAY APRIL 28 2024

U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) speaks during a press conference following the weekly Senate caucus luncheons on Capitol Hill in Washington, US on March 12, 2024. 

By LUKE ANAMI

The US Congress has put forward proposals that would see the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa) extended to 2041.

Senators Chris Coons of Delaware and James Risch of Idaho last week introduced the bipartisan Agoa Renewal and Improvement Act of 2024, which would see Agoa cover 54 African countries.

The extension is expected to integrate Agoa with the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) to support the development of intra-African supply chains.

Enacted in 2000, Agoa is due to expire next year.

Speaking in Nairobi during the fourth edition of the regional American Chamber of Commerce Kenya (AmCham) business summit, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said the plans to extend Agoa were on course.

“President Biden and our administration have made it a priority to renew Agoa. It is the decision of the US Congress, so we have to work with some of the members,” Ms Raimondo told The EastAfrican.

Coons and Risch’s proposed update would push Agoa beneficiaries to increase their exports under the agreement.

“This bipartisan bill aims to refine Agoa’s eligibility criteria, increase transparency, and hold US agencies accountable for their advice to the president,” Senator Risch said.

The proposed bill will require an Agoa Forum to be held annually no later than September 30.

The current statute requires Agoa beneficiaries to transmit a “textile visa” to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) with every shipment of apparel. This bill will eliminate requirements for textile visas, boosting Kenya’s apparel and clothing exports to the US.

The CBP no longer requires textile visas to monitor imports, and they are in use only because statute requires them for trade with Agoa beneficiaries.

“The Agoa Renewal and Improvement Act is necessary to support continued economic development on the continent while further strengthening ties between the United States and partners in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Senator Coons.

Kenya’s private sector welcomed the new proposals and hoped that it would spur more exports to the US.

Jas Bedi, chairperson of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) said the US has “tried to consider our views for the last 20 years.”

Agoa covers most—but not all—goods imported to the US from sub-Saharan Africa. The list of covered goods has not been substantially updated since the program was created in 2000.

But under the new Agoa Bill, this would task the U.S. International Trade Commission with producing a study into the economic effects of adding additional products to the list of covered goods.

To participate in the expanded rules of origin, North African countries would be required to meet Agoa’s eligibility requirements related to governance, human rights, and foreign policy.

While Agoa is limited to sub-Saharan African countries, this bill would modify Agoa’s rules of origin to allow inputs from North African AfCFTA members to count toward the requirement that 35 percent of a product’s value originate in the region.

This change would help support the development of intra-African supply chains.

The US legislators believe that Agoa would provide US businesses interested in sourcing from Africa or investing in its supply chain assurance that the region possesses long-term trade potential.

On income graduation, under current law, countries lose eligibility for Agoa benefits once they become “high-income” according to the World Bank’s measure of GDP per capita.

Yet developing economies often have volatile GDP numbers that fluctuate year-to-year.

This Bill would ensure that countries do not lose eligibility until they have maintained “high-income” status for five consecutive years.

Further, the president may extend a country’s eligibility for up to an additional five years to allow time for the negotiation of a free trade agreement.

On the clause on prohibiting imports of goods made with forced labour, the current statute prohibits the import of any goods made wholly or in part by forced labor.

The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act supports enforcement of that prohibition on goods manufactured in China, especially goods from Xinjiang.

This Bill reemphasizes that prohibition, and calls on the Secretary of Commerce to submit a report on the procedures in place to ensure that imports under Agoa are compliant with these US laws.

EAC’s ‘Fragile’ States Set for Fastest GDP Growth

MONDAY APRIL 29 2024

Busy streets of Kinshasa, DR Congo, reveal the country’s massive economic potential. FILE | PHOTO | AFP

By BOB KARASHANI

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has named South Sudan, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as the East African Community (EAC) member states poised for the quickest economic growth trajectories in the 2024-2025 period. This, is despite the three being the most conflict-stricken in the region.

The IMF’s latest regional economic outlook report for Sub-Saharan Africa published last week forecasts a 1.2 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth for South Sudan, from 5.6 to 6.8 percent, even as it grapples with economic disruptions and humanitarian support problems caused by the war in neighbouring Sudan.

GDP growth in Burundi is projected to jump from 4.3 to 5.4 percent and in DR Congo from 4.7 to 5.7 percent. All three countries are included in the report's group of countries in ‘Fragile and Conflict-Affected Situations’.

Four of the other five EAC countries are below the full 1 percent growth marks, but the report does not give any particular reason(s) for the troubled trio’s exceptionally positive outlooks while citing many of their problems.

Somalia, the newest EAC member having joined just last month, is not mentioned at all. Kenya and Rwanda have the lowest growth trajectory forecasts at 0.1 and 0.3 percent respectively, but Kenya is still tops in terms of GDP estimates for 2024 at $104 billion, which places it 7th overall on the list of largest economies in the continent.

Tanzania is the only other EAC country in the top 10 for Africa with a current GDP estimate of $79 billion.

According to the report launched on April 19 during the annual IMF-World Bank Spring Meetings in Washington D.C., the economic prospects for sub-Saharan Africa are still gradually improving after the general downturn induced by the global Covid-19 pandemic.

GDP growth across the region is projected to hit 4.0 percent in 2025, after rising from 3.4 percent in 2023 to 3.8 percent in 2024, and two-thirds of the countries anticipate further growth in 2025.

The report, however, warns that risks remain as governments continue to grapple with financing shortages, high borrowing costs and impending debt repayments.

“A funding squeeze persists and amid these challenges, sub-Saharan Africa will need additional support from the international community to develop a more sustainable future,” it says.

The IMF outlook is that DRC and South Sudan both experiencing tough security situations, in DR Congo’s case because of the raging conflict east of the country which shows little sign of cooling off anytime soon and has the potential to inflict long-term harm to the economy.

Figures are also included showing that DR Congo is second only to Burundi in terms of highest monetary and forex exchange rates in the EAC region.

On the positive Burundi forecast for 2025, the report again did not offer explanations. However, another IMF team that visited Bujumbura in January noted that real GDP had rebounded from an 2.7 percent growth in 2023 to 4.3 percent this year and projected a stronger economic recovery going forward.

The most recent IMF ground assessment of the situation in South Sudan was done in December 2023 when a staff team visited Guba for consultations on medium-term fiscal policies to address the country’s fragility issue.

It commended government efforts to maintain macroeconomic policies that have allowed the country's foreign exchange rate to "show signs of stabilization in recent months", but also noted that South Sudan's risk of debt distress remained high amid low levels of forex reserves and fiscal buffers.

The Fund has recently appointed a public finance management advisor at the request of South Sudan authorities to help in reforming budget execution, cash management and fiscal reporting processes.

This followed a technical assessment in February this year that the country's finance ministry faced "significant challenges" in preparing realistic budgets and enforcing disciplined budget execution due to a post-civil war recovery environment that was still "fragile."

But the report still predicts that DR Congo's average consumer prices will drop to 8.5 percent in 2025 from 19.9 percent in 2023 and 17.6 percent in 2024, which would be the lowest consumer prices threshold recorded for the country in almost two decades.

The director of the IMF's African Department, Abebe Aemro Selassie, said during the report launch that the DR Congo government deserved commendation for pursuing "very difficult but important reforms over the last few years" to ensure a degree of macroeconomic stability to the country.

Mr Selassie pointed out that DR Congo was about to wrap up a three-year, $1.5 billion program with the IMF, the first between the two parties that has "gone through the full cycle without interruption" in terms of consistent implementation by the government.

"If the government shows strong interest to pursue another program once the current one ends, we would be very happy to engage in discussions along those lines," he said.

The growth would be driven by increasing agricultural production, public investments and other ongoing economic reforms under the Fund's latest Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement for Burundi which is aimed at supporting financial sector resilience in the post-pandemic period, the team said.

Somalia Stabilization Force: Uganda Troops Answer Call Up; Anyone Else?

MONDAY APRIL 29 2024

Uganda People’s Defence Force soldiers ahead of their deployment to the African Union Mission in Somalia in 2018. FILE | AFP

By JULIUS BARIGABA

Ugandan authorities have confirmed that the country’s forces will remain in Somalia after the expiry, at the end of this year, of the current mandate of the African Union mission, but the other troop-contributing countries from the region, Kenya and Burundi, are yet to be invited into the arrangement.

The EastAfrican has learnt that the current troop-contributing countries want to be part of the security plan that will replace the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (Atmis) on January 1, 2025, because they are already heavily invested in Somalia’s transition.

Nathan Mugisha, Uganda’s Deputy Head of Mission in Somalia, said Uganda Peoples Defence Forces (UPDF), who were the first boots on the ground in March 2007, will continue to deploy there as part of the proposed post-Atmis security arrangement.

“Uganda will be here in whatever form,” he told journalists in Mogadishu on April 17, adding that the new AU-led mission is being planned on the basis of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2719, and revealing that “they [UNSC] have asked us to stay and we’ve said yes”.

The spokespersons of the Kenya and Burundi contingents could not confirm if their armies would maintain a presence in Somalia, saying it was too early to discuss the arrangement.

They indicated that the post-Atmis security framework is not up to their countries to decide but a process led by the Federal Government of Somalia.

After the collapse of Mohammed Siad Barre’s regime in 1991, Somalia became a failed state, wallowing in economic ruin, political turmoil and destruction stemming from a bloody conflict fuelled by armed clan factions, religious extremism and later terrorism that even global powers tried but failed to stop.

Mugisha says this is the state of affairs into which Uganda led the way as the African Union’s peacekeeping mission, and other African countries followed suit, with Burundi sending in troops in December 2007, and later Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti joined the force that says it has now liberated 80 percent of Somali territory.

“Some people used to think that this mission was dead on arrival,” said Mugisha. “When the rest of the world was scared to set foot in Somalia, Uganda sent troops here.”

But al-Shabaab remains a threat, and with Atmis drawing down to 5,000 troops since June last year – while passing the baton to the Somali National Army – the enemy has regrouped and reclaimed lost territory in Galmudug and Hirshabelle.

Ugandan commanders under Atmis say that Somalia needs more time to generate a force that can defend its vast territory and that a security vacuum could arise when the mandate of Atmis ends on December 31, 2024.

In a recent interview with journalists, Uganda contingent commander Brig-Gen Anthony Lukwago alluded to open spaces that are left as the peacekeepers exited in the previous two drawdowns (June and December 2023), allowing al-Shabaab space to attack civilians.

“They are telling us to draw down but we will still have a force on the ground. We are not about to create an Afghanistan here,” he said. “What happens to these places? The population will either become vulnerable to al-Shabaab attacks or subscribe to al-Shabaab. You can see the fix they are in.”

Another drawdown due in June this year will target 4,000 troops, of whom 1,000 will be Ugandans.

The AU force has just over 13,000 troops in Somalia, down from 22,000 at the peak of deployment. After the June drawdown, the mission will be down to 9,000 personnel.

Stakeholders, who include the Federal Government of Somalia, the UN, AU and international partners like the European Union, the US and Turkey, have proposed an AU-led multinational force to take over from Atmis.

The EU, a key partner in the rebuilding of the country’s security sector, has consistently warned that while drawdowns are taking place, the FGS has not achieved adequate force generation to replace the lost capacity of Atmis.

Brig-Gen Lukwago said that rebuilding Somalia’s security forces especially the army, has not matched the task at hand: “They haven’t really built an adequate force that can conduct operations, defend borders and secure the population from al-Shabaab.”

Within the diplomatic and security sectors, there are indications that the stabilisation force that will replace Atmis will focus on key centres such as Mogadishu, but experts punch holes in this strategy as defending from the rear, instead of attacking enemy bases.

For bilateral arrangements, continued deployment in Somalia under the new force will come with a new burden of demands and put a strain on TCCs budgets to provide funding to cover salaries and allowances for soldiers, the purchase of materiel, arms and ammunition.

UN-invited countries, on the other hand, will enjoy international partners' support. The EU, for instance, has already indicated that although the scope and size of the stabilisation force is not yet clear, Brussels is willing to provide funding for it.

Kenya Postpones Reopening of Schools as Flood-related Deaths Near 100

Children fleeing floodwaters that wreaked havoc at Mororo, border of Tana River and Garissa counties,

By Africa News

Kenya has postponed the reopening of its schools by one week due to ongoing flooding caused by heavy rains, as flood-related deaths since mid-March in the East African country neared 100.

Some schools remained "adversely affected" by the flooding, the Education Ministry said Sunday night. Local media reported that more than 100 schools were flooded, some with collapsed walls and roofs blown away.

All schools were set to reopen on Monday but will now open on May 6.

Ninety-three people have died in the flooding in Kenya and that number is expected to rise after a boat capsized in northern Garissa county on Sunday night. The Kenyan Red Cross said it had rescued 23 people from the boat, but more than a dozen people were still missing.

Heavy rains have been pounding the country since mid-March and the Meteorology Department has warned of more rainfall.

The East African region is experiencing flooding due to the heavy rains, and 155 people have reportedly died in Tanzania while more than 200,000 people are affected in neighbouring Burundi.

The highest number of deaths in Kenya have been reported in the capital, Nairobi, according to police records.

Kenya's main airport was flooded on Saturday, forcing some flights to be diverted, as videos of a flooded runway, terminals and cargo section were shared online.

The airport's manager, Henry Kegoye, said the flooding was from ongoing refurbishment work that was due to be completed in June. Heavy rains had overwhelmed a temporary drainage system set up by the contractor.

More than 200,000 people across the country have been affected by the floods, with houses in flood-prone areas submerged and people seeking refuge in schools.

President William Ruto had instructed the National Youth Service to provide land for use as a temporary camp for those affected.

At Least 45 People Die in Western Kenya as Floodwaters Sweep Away Houses and Cars

Police in Kenya say at least 40 people have died after a dam collapsed in the country’s west. The floodwaters swept through houses and cut off a major road, police official Stephen Kirui told The Associated Press.

3:27 PM EDT, April 29, 2024

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Flash floods and a landslide swept through houses and cut off a major road in Kenya, killing at least 45 people and leaving dozens missing on Monday, the Interior Ministry said.

Police official Stephen Kirui initially told The Associated Press that the Old Kijabe Dam, located in the Mai Mahiu area of the Great Rift Valley region that is prone to flash floods, had collapsed, carrying with it mud, rocks and uprooted trees.

But in a statement late Monday the Nakuru County said that the water mass that caused the flash floods was a clogged railway tunnel.

Vehicles were entangled in the debris on one of Kenya’s busiest highways and paramedics treated the injured as waters submerged large areas.

The Kenya Red Cross said 109 people were hospitalized while 49 others were reported missing.

William Lokai told Citizen TV that he was woken up by a loud bang and shortly after, water filled his house. He escaped through the roof together with his brother and children.

Ongoing rains in Kenya have caused flooding that has killed at least 169 people since mid-March, and the country’s Meteorology Department has warned of more rainfall.

Kenya’s Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki ordered the inspection of all public and private dams and water reservoirs within 24 hours starting Monday afternoon to avert future incidents. The ministry said recommendations for evacuations and resettlement would be done after the inspection.

The Kenya National Highways Authority issued an alert warning motorists to brace for heavy traffic and debris that blocked the roads around Naivasha and Narok, west of the capital, Nairobi.

The wider East African region is experiencing flooding due to the heavy rains, and 155 people have reportedly died in Tanzania while more than 200,000 people affected in neighboring Burundi.

A boat capsized in Kenya’s northern Garissa county on Sunday night, and the Kenyan Red Cross said it had rescued 23 people but more than a dozen people were still missing.

Kenya’s main airport was flooded on Saturday, forcing some flights to be diverted, as videos of a flooded runway, terminals and cargo section were shared online.

More than 200,000 people across Kenya have been hit by the floods, with houses in flood-prone areas submerged and people seeking refuge in schools.

President William Ruto had instructed the National Youth Service to provide land for use as a temporary camp for those affected.

Jill Stein – Who is the US Presidential Candidate Arrested at Pro-Palestine Protest?

April 29, 2024

Jill Stein was arrested by police at Washington University in St. Louis. (Design: Palestine Chronicle)

By Robert Inlakesh

Jill Stein’s recent arrest has been highlighted as an example of how peaceful demonstrators are cracked down upon unjustly by US law enforcement.

Green Party Presidential candidate, Jill Stein, was arrested by police at Washington University in St.Louis this Saturday, making her one of over 100 arrested during anti-war protests taking place at college campuses throughout the United States. 

Yet, many who are stuck in the American two-party paradigm are not even aware that this third option exists, due to a lack of relevant media coverage. 

Who is Jill Stein?

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Jill Stein practiced internal medicine in her professional life for 25 years and was a graduate of Harvard Medical School in 1979, after having studied psychology, sociology, and anthropology prior to this. 

While still working as a physician, Stein found intrigue in the connection between health and the quality of one’s local environment, leading her to a path of activism after having noticed the links between toxic exposures and illness. 

In the late 1990s, she began protesting the “Filthy Five” coal plants in Massachusetts and ended up receiving awards for environmental activism in the years 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2004. 

She also co-authored two reports on the issue, entitled ‘In Harm’s Way: Toxic Threats to Child Development’ in 2000, and the ‘Environmental Threats to Healthy Aging’ in 2009. Despite having joined the Democratic Party in the United States, she decided to leave and join the Green Party when “killed campaign finance reform” in her State, she told reporters in 2016.

Having organized two campaigns to become governor of Massachusetts, despite beating her Republican opposition fell short of winning both races. 

She did however run for the local legislative body in Lexington, Massachusetts, winning a seat in both 2005 and 2008. At the Green-Rainbow Party state convention in 2006, Jill Stein was nominated for Secretary of the Commonwealth and in a two-way race with a Democrat, gained 353,551 votes, or the equivalent of 17.7% of the vote.

Presidential Election

In 2012, Jill Stein ran for President of the United States, making history as the first Green Party candidate to have qualified for federal matching funds, but fell far short of competing with Barack Obama and Mitt Romney who she accused of both being representatives of Wall Street. 

In 2016, Stein again won 1 percent of the popular vote in the Presidential election and warned what the two-party corporate system could foster as the result of electing either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump at the time.

During 2016, Jill Stein was also arrested for her activism that supported the Standing Rock protests by the North Dakota authorities. 

Assisting non-profits and marginalized communities to combat environmental injustice and racial discrimination, she has managed to win victories on “campaign finance reform, racially-just redistricting, and the clean-up of incinerators, coal plants, and other toxic threats”. 

She has also long been a proponent of a Green New Deal, ending the US’s foreign wars and advocates for respecting international human rights law, as well as a Medicare-for-all system. 

As a Jewish American, she has also long been an active supporter of Palestinian human rights and has been particularly vocal in condemning Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Stein, along with Cornell West are the only two actively pro-Palestinian Presidential Candidates who are running for office in the 2024 elections. 

Jill Stein’s recent arrest, while being present in supporting the ongoing mass-student protest movement across college campuses, has been highlighted as an example of how peaceful demonstrators are cracked down upon unjustly by US law enforcement.

(The Palestine Chronicle)

– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.