COVID’s US Toll Projected to Drop Sharply by the End of July

By MIKE STOBBE

FILE - In this April 26, 2021, file photo, CREC Academy of Aerospace and Engineering sophomore Brian Acevedo, 16, receives a COVID-19 vaccine from nurse Myra Glass, of East Hartford, during a mass vaccination site at Pratt & Whitney Runway in East Hartford, Conn. Teams of experts are projecting COVID-19's toll on the U.S. will fall sharply by the end of July, according to research released by the government Wednesday, May 5. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Teams of experts are projecting COVID-19′s toll on the U.S. will fall sharply by the end of July, according to research released by the government Wednesday.

But they also warn that a “substantial increase” in hospitalizations and deaths is possible if unvaccinated people do not follow basic precautions such as wearing a mask and keeping their distance from others.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention paper included projections from six research groups. Their assignment was to predict the course of the U.S. epidemic between now and September under different scenarios, depending on how the vaccination drive proceeds and how people behave.

Mainly, it’s good news. Even under scenarios involving disappointing vaccination rates, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are expected to drop dramatically by the end of July and continue to fall afterward.

The CDC is now reporting an average of about 350,000 new cases each week, 35,000 hospitalizations and over 4,000 deaths.

Under the most optimistic scenarios considered, by the end of July new weekly national cases could drop below 50,000, hospitalizations to fewer than 1,000, and deaths to between 200 and 300.

“We are not out of the woods yet, but we could be very close,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said, while noting that variants of the coronavirus are a “wild card” that could set back progress.

The projections are probably in line with what many Americans were already expecting for this summer.

With COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations and cases plummeting since January, many states and cities are already moving to ease or lift restrictions on restaurants, bars, theaters and other businesses and talking about getting back to something close to normal this summer.

New York’s subways will start running all night again this month, Las Vegas is bustling again after casino capacity limits were raised, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week suspended all restrictions put in place by local governments, though businesses may continue requiring people to wear masks and keep their distance, and many are still doing so.

Many people in Florida have resumed parties, graduations and recitals. Walt Disney World lets guests remove their masks for photographs.

“It does feel like life is returning to normal,” said 67-year-old Vicki Restivo of Miami, who after getting vaccinated resumed outings with her friends at restaurants and traveled to Egypt — and felt “very comfortable” about it.

President Joe Biden on Tuesday set a goal of delivering shots to 70% of U.S. adults by July Fourth. Such a goal, if met, would fit in with the best-case scenarios, said one of the study’s co-authors, CDC biologist Michael Johansson.

Under more pessimistic scenarios, with subpar vaccinations and declining use of masks and social distancing, weekly cases probably would still drop but could number in the hundreds of thousands, with tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths.

“Something I am asked often is when will the pandemic be over and when can we go back to normal. The reality is: It all depends on the actions we take now,” Walensky said.

All the projections trend down, illustrating the powerful effect of the vaccination campaign. But there’s a devastating difference between the more gently sloping declines in some scenarios and the more dramatic drops in others, said Jennifer Kates, director of global health and HIV policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“Each of these differences are people’s lives,” said Kates, who is part of a Kaiser research team that has focused on COVID-19 and was not involved in the CDC study.

The U.S. death toll stands at more than 578,000. The CDC paper gives no overall estimate of how high the number of dead might go. But a closely watched projection from the University of Washington shows the curve largely flattening out in the coming months, with the toll reaching about 599,000 by Aug. 1.

More than 56% of the nation’s adults, or close to 146 million people, have received at one dose of vaccine, and almost 41% are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

Johansson said the paper is intended not so much as a prediction of exactly what’s going to happen but as a way to understand how things might unfold if vaccination drives or other efforts stumble.

By September, assuming high vaccination rates and continuing use of prevention measures, the models indicate new cases could fall to just a few hundred per week and just tens of hospitalizations and deaths.

The paper also sketched out a worst-case scenario, in which cases could rise to 900,000 per week, hospitalizations to 50,000, and deaths to 10,000. That most likely would happen sometime this month, the projections said.

However, the paper’s projections are based on data available through late March, when the national picture was somewhat darker.

The CDC paper “is already looking a little outdated, because we’ve seen cases continue to go down, and hospitalizations go down, and deaths go down,” Kates said.

Nevertheless, Johansson warned: “We’re still in a tenuous position.”

There is variation from state to state in how well vaccination campaigns are going and how fast restrictions are being abandoned, and that will probably mean some states will suffer a higher toll from COVID-19 than others in the coming months, Kates said.

“If you take the foot off the gas,” she said, “you can really have some bad outcomes.”

The paper doesn’t look past September, and scientists cannot say for sure what the epidemic will look like next fall and winter because it’s not known how enduring vaccine protection will be or whether variants of the virus will prove to be a greater problem.

Like the flu, COVID-19 could increase as people move indoors in the cold weather.

“My hope is with enough people vaccinated we will be able to get to something that will resemble maybe a bad flu season,” said William Hanage, a Harvard University expert on disease dynamics who was not involved in the research. But “it’s not going to go away. It’s not going to be eradicated.”

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Associated Press writer Adriana Gomez Licon in Miami contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health & Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

US Backs Waiving Intellectual Property Rules on Vaccines

By JAMEY KEATEN and ZEKE MILLER

FILE - In this April 28, 2021, file photo, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai testifies during a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Biden administration is throwing its support behind efforts to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines in an effort to speed the end of the pandemic. Tai announced the government's position in May 5 statement, amid World Trade Organization talks over easing global trade rules to enable more countries to produce more of the life-saving vaccines. (Sarah Silbiger/Pool via AP, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Wednesday joined calls for more sharing of the technology behind COVID-19 vaccines to help speed the end of the pandemic, a shift that puts the U.S. alongside many in the developing world who want rich countries to do more to get doses to the needy.

United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the government’s position, amid World Trade Organization talks about a possible temporary waiver of its protections that would allow more manufacturers to produce the life-saving vaccines.

“The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines,” Tai said in a statement.

She cautioned that it would take time to reach the required global “consensus” to waive the protections under WTO rules, and U.S. officials said it would not have an immediate effect on the global supply of COVID-19 shots.

Tai’s announcement came hours after WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala spoke to a closed-door meeting of ambassadors from developing and developed countries that have been wrangling over the issue, but agree on the need for wider access to COVID-19 treatments.

The WTO’s General Council took up the issue of a temporary waiver for intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines and other tools, which South Africa and India first proposed in October. The idea has gained support among some progressive lawmakers in the West.

More than 100 countries have come out in support of the proposal, and a group of 110 members of Congress — all fellow Democrats of Biden — sent him a letter last month that called on him to support the waiver.

Opponents — especially from industry — say a waiver would be no panacea. They insist that production of coronavirus vaccines is complex and can’t be ramped up by easing intellectual property. They also say lifting protections could hurt future innovation.

Stephen Ubl, president and CEO of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, said the U.S. decision “will sow confusion between public and private partners, further weaken already strained supply chains and foster the proliferation of counterfeit vaccines.”

Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath, chief executive of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization trade group, said in a statement that the decision will undermine incentives to develop vaccines and treatments for future pandemics.

“Handing needy countries a recipe book without the ingredients, safeguards, and sizable workforce needed will not help people waiting for the vaccine,” she said.

Pfizer declined to comment on Biden’s announcement, as did Johnson & Johnson, which developed a one-dose vaccine meant to ease vaccination campaigns in poor and rural areas. Moderna and AstraZeneca didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The companies have made some efforts to provide vaccine doses to poor countries at prices well below what they’re charging wealthy nations.

For instance, Johnson & Johnson agreed last week to provide up to 220 million doses of its vaccine to the African Union’s 55 member states, starting in this year’s third quarter, and agreed in December to provide up to 500 million vaccines through 2022 for low-income countries via Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance.

Shares of Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson — huge companies with many lucrative products — fell less than 1% on the news. But Moderna, whose vaccine is the company’s only product, fell 6.2% in late-afternoon trading before gaining back two-thirds of a percent in after-hours trading.

It remained unclear how some countries in Europe, which have influential pharmaceutical industries and had previously shared U.S. reservations about the waiver, would respond.

WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said a panel on intellectual property at the trade body was expected to take up the waiver proposal again at a “tentative” meeting later this month, before a formal meeting June 8-9. That means any final deal could be weeks away at best.

Authors of the proposal have been revising it in hopes of making it more palatable.

Okonjo-Iweala, in remarks posted on the WTO website, said it was “incumbent on us to move quickly to put the revised text on the table, but also to begin and undertake text-based negotiations.”

“I am firmly convinced that once we can sit down with an actual text in front of us, we shall find a pragmatic way forward” that is “acceptable to all sides,” she said.

Co-sponsors of the idea were shuttling between different diplomatic missions to make their case, according to a Geneva trade official who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter. A deadlock persists, and opposing sides remain far apart, the official said.

The argument, part of a long-running debate about intellectual property protections, centers on lifting patents, copyrights and protections for industrial design and confidential information to help expand the production and deployment of vaccines during supply shortages. The aim is to suspend the rules for several years, just long enough to beat down the pandemic.

The issue has become more pressing with a surge in cases in India, the world’s second-most populous country and a key producer of vaccines — including one for COVID-19 that relies on technology from Oxford University and British-Swedish pharmaceutical maker AstraZeneca.

Michael Yee, a Jefferies Group biotech analyst, wrote to investors that the key access issues for developing countries aren’t patents or price, but an inadequate supply of the materials needed and the know-how to produce the vaccines and keep quality high — which one of Johnson & Johnson’s contract manufacturers in the U.S. failed to do, ruining millions of doses.

“Manufacturing supplies, raw materials, vials, stoppers, and other key materials are in limited supply for 2021,” and may still be next year and beyond, Yee wrote. That’s partly because it takes time to make all those components, and Moderna and Pfizer have commitments to buy them “from major suppliers in huge bulk over the foreseeable future.”

He added that Pfizer previously sought authorization to sell its vaccine to India, which rejected its application and asked that additional studies be run. The U.S., European Union and many other countries have given that emergency authorization.

Proponents, including WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, note that such waivers are part of the WTO toolbox and insist there’s no better time to use them than during the once-in-a-century pandemic that has taken 3.2 million lives, infected more than 437 million people and devastated economies, according to Johns Hopkins University.

“This is a monumental moment in the fight against COVID-19,” Tedros said in Wednesday statement. He said the U.S. commitment “to support the waiver of IP protections on vaccines is a powerful example of American leadership to address global health challenges.”

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Keaten reported from Geneva. AP Medical Writer Linda A. Johnson contributed from Fairless Hills, Pa.

Woman from Mali Gives Birth to 9 Babies in Morocco

By BABA AHMED and TARIK EL BARAKAH

A Moroccan nurse takes care of one of the nine babies protected in an incubator at the maternity ward of the private clinic of Ain Borja in Casablanca, Morocco, Wednesday, May 5, 2021. A Malian woman gave birth to nine babies after n ' to have waited only seven, announced Wednesday the Ministry of Health of Mali. . Halima CissÈ, 25, gave birth by caesarean section Tuesday in Morocco after being sent there for special care, the ministry said. (AP Photo / Abdeljalil Bounhar)

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — A Malian woman has given birth to nine babies at once — after expecting seven, according to Mali’s Minister of Health and the Moroccan clinic where the nonuplets were born.

It appeared to be the first time on record that a woman had given birth to nine surviving babies at once.

The five girls and four boys, and their mother, “are all doing well,” Mali’s health minister said in a statement.

The mother, 25-year-old Halima Cisse, gave birth to the babies by cesarean section on Tuesday in Morocco after being sent there for special care, Mali’s top health official announced.

Associated Press reporters saw some of the babies wiggling their hands and feet inside incubators Wednesday in the private Ain Borja clinic in Casablanca. Medical staff checked their status regularly in the neonatal ward wallpapered with cartoon characters.

Cisse had been expecting seven babies. Malian doctors, under government orders, sent her to Morocco for the births because hospitals in Mali, one of the world’s poorest countries, are ill-equipped to provide adequate care for this exceptional multiple pregnancy.

The Casablanca clinic’s director Youssef Alaoui told Moroccan state TV that they had been contacted by Malian doctors about the case a month and a half ago. They were not expecting nine babies, he said.

Cisse gave birth prematurely at 30 weeks and is now in stable condition after heavy bleeding for which she was given a blood transfusion, he said.

The cesarean was ordered after Cisse had “birth pains,” Alaoui, the clinic director, said. The babies weigh between 500 grams and one kilogram (1.1 and 2.2 pounds).

The Guinness Book of World Records said in an email to The AP on Wednesday that its current record for most living births at once is eight, and that it is verifying the Morocco birth.

The current holder of the Guinness record is American Nadya Suleman, who gave birth to eight premature but otherwise healthy children in 2009.

Alaoui, the clinic director, told The AP that as far as he was aware Cisse had not used fertility treatments. The Malian health ministry did not provide any other information about the pregnancy or births.

Yacoub Khalaf, a professor of reproductive medicine at King’s College London, said that such births would be extraordinarily unlikely without fertility treatment, and noted the dangers involved with such multiple births.

The mother “was at severe risk of losing her uterus or losing her life,” he said. The babies “could suffer physical and mental handicaps. The risk of cerebral palsy is astronomically higher.”

He urged more awareness worldwide about monitoring fertility treatments and about the risks and costs of having so many premature babies at one time.

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El Barakah reported from Rabat, Morocco. AP journalist Angela Charlton in Paris contributed to this report.

French Reporter Kidnapped by Jihadi Rebels in Northern Mali

By BABA AHMED

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) — Jihadi rebels kidnapped French journalist Olivier Dubois on April 8 while he was working in Mali’s northern city of Gao, the chief of Reporters Without Borders has announced.

A video released Wednesday shows Dubois saying he was kidnapped by the al-Qaida-linked group JNIM. In the video he calls on his family, friends and authorities to work for his release. The video could not be independently verified.

Reporters Without Borders chief Christophe Deloire confirmed the kidnapping to The Associated Press, and called for the reporter’s release.

“We ask the Malian and French authorities to do everything possible to obtain his release and send all our support to his family and loved ones,” he posted on Twitter.

Dubois was reporting in Gao in northern Mali and did not return to his hotel after lunch on April 8, Deloire said. Dubois usually works for LePoint Afrique.

The French Foreign Ministry confirmed his disappearance, saying they are in touch with his family and Malian authorities.

French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said authorities are currently making usual checks on the video and declined to provide more details.

“We are working closely with the Malian authorities,” he said. “We are reiterating our demand not to go to that area (in Mali) that is especially risky.”

Arnaud Froger, head of Reporters Without Borders’ Africa desk, told the AP “this video seems to indicate and confirm our worst fears.”

“We will see during the day if this information concerning his kidnapping is acknowledged by the different authorities, but obviously everything points in the direction that he is the hands of an armed group in the northeast of Mali right now.”

Reporters Without Borders is “calling on the authorities to do everything they can, to put every means at their disposal to try to secure his release and to make sure he can be freed without any further delay,” Froger said.

Mali has been in turmoil since a 2012 uprising prompted mutinous soldiers to overthrow the president. The power vacuum that resulted ultimately led to an Islamic insurgency and a French-led campaign that ousted the jihadists from the cities they controlled in northern Mali in 2013.

But insurgents remain active and extremist groups affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have moved from the arid north to more populated central Mali since 2015, attacking targets and stoking animosity and violence between ethnic groups in the region.

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AP writers Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal, and Angela Charlton, Sylvie Corbet and Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed.

Rights Critics Condemn French Sale to Egypt of 30 More Jets

May 4, 2021

FILE- In this Tuesday, June 18, 2019, file photo, a Dassault Rafale fighter jet performs its demonstration flight at Paris Air Show, in Le Bourget, north east of Paris, France. Egypt is buying another 30 Rafale fighter jets from France, building up its fleet of the advanced warplane to 54, second only to the French Air Force. Both countries confirmed the deal separately on Tuesday. The Egyptian military said the purchase would be financed with a 10-year French loan. The value of the deal wasn't given. (AP Photo/ Francois Mori, File)

PARIS (AP) — France is selling another 30 Rafale fighter jets to Egypt in a deal condemned Tuesday by rights advocates, including the French wife of a jailed activist.

The deal, confirmed separately by both countries, will build up Egypt’s fleet of the advanced warplane to 54, second only to the French air force. The sale makes good on France’s policy of not conditioning its economic and defense cooperation with Egypt on progress on human rights.

The wife of jailed Palestinian-Egyptian activist Ramy Shaath said France should be using the sale as leverage to pressure for human rights improvements and prisoner releases.

“It’s never too late. The planes have not been delivered yet,” Celine Lebrun-Shaath told The Associated Press. “The strategic partnership between France and Egypt is important but should be based on shared values and the respect of international law.”

“The implications of France’s failed diplomacy is my husband’s continued unjust imprisonment for 670 days,” she added.

Shaath, the son of a former Palestinian foreign minister, was detained in 2019 but has not been charged, and his wife, a French citizen, was deported.

The Egyptian military said the Rafale purchase would be financed with a 10-year French loan. The value of the deal wasn’t given.

The Geneva-based MENA Rights Group, which campaigns for rights and freedoms in the Mideast and North Africa, said the deal “clearly shows that the fate of the many human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience currently in jail does not carry much weight.”

Egypt’s first purchase of 24 Rafales in 2015, valued then at 5.2 billion euros ($5.93 billion), made it the first overseas buyer of France’s delta-winged, multi-role but hard-to-sell warplane.

Before Egypt’s purchase, Dassault Aviation’s fighter had been on the market for years, and in service for the French air force since 2006. Other multi-billion euro (dollar) sales have followed, including to India and Greece.

Dassault said the new order is proof of an “unfailing bond” between Egypt and the manufacturer.

The French Defense Ministry said the deal would create the equivalent of 7,000 jobs in France for three years and ”further strengthens the strategic and military partnership between France and Egypt.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said in December, when Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi visited Paris, that “disagreements” over human rights will not stand in the way of economic and defense deals.

El-Sissi has overseen the toughest crackdown on critics in Egypt in living memory, jailing thousands of Islamists along with pro-democracy activists, reversing freedoms won in the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, silencing critics and placing draconian rules on rights groups.

Egypt, Turkey Officials Meet for Talks to Reset Frayed Ties

By SAMY MAGDY

Turkish Foreign Ministry Deputy Sedat Onal, seated right, meets with Hamdi Sanad Loza, Egyptian deputy foreign minister along with their delegations, at the foreign ministry in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, May 5, 2021. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian and Turkish officials met Wednesday for talks aiming to reset ties between the two regional powers after years of enmity.

The two-day “political consultations” in Cairo are chaired by Hamdi Loza, Egypt’s deputy foreign minister, and his Turkish counterpart Sedat Onal.

Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, which announced the meetings in a statement late Tuesday, described the talks as “exploratory discussions” that would focus on “the necessary steps that may lead towards the normalization of relations between the two countries, bilaterally and in the regional context.”

The English-language version of Egypt’s state-run Ahram daily quoted an unnamed Egyptian official as saying the talks came after a year of direct and indirect communications to avert a confrontation between the two U.S. allies in Libya, where they back opposing side in the conflict.

Egypt and Turkey have been at loggerheads since the Egyptian military’s 2013 ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, who hailed from the Muslim Brotherhood group, supported by Turkey. Egypt has designated the group a terrorist organization.

Recently, top Turkish officials signaled a warming of ties with Egypt, a shift from their previous, sharply critical approach to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s government.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on March 12 that the two countries have had “intelligence, diplomatic and economic” contacts, adding that he hoped for “strong” ties between the two nations.

Turkish Trade Minister Mehmet Mus said earlier this week that Ankara also wants to boost economic and trade ties with Cairo, which remains Turkey’s biggest African trade partner, with a $4.86-billion-vlue in trade last year.

A week after Erdogan’s remarks, his government asked three Istanbul-based Egyptian TV channels linked to the Brotherhood to soften their critical political coverage of the Egyptian government, according to editors at the stations. The TV channels promptly stopped broadcasting some political programs.

Egypt welcomed the move, calling it a “good initiative from the Turkish side that establishes a favorable atmosphere to discuss issues of dispute between the two nations.”

Egyptian officials say Turkey must take substantial steps toward “genuine” talks to mend ties, including withdrawing hundreds of Turkish troops and thousands of Syrian mercenaries brought to Libya by Turkey, and also hand over Islamists wanted by Egypt on terror-related charges.

Claudia Gazzini, a Libya expert at the International Crisis Group, said a possible Egypt-Turkey rapprochement would help stabilize Libya, which has recently become a theater of rivalry between regional and world powers.

“There is not doubt that if these two regional rivals find a way to work together, improve bilateral ties and commercial ties and de-escalate what was a very confrontational relation over the past years, this will reflect in pushing forward political stability in Libya,” she said.

The two nations back opposing sides in Libya. Egypt, Greece and some other European countries were angered by a 2019 Turkish deal with Libyan officials that aimed to boost Turkish maritime rights and influence in the eastern Mediterranean.

Egypt and Greece responded by signing a separate deal to delineate their maritime boundaries, a deal which Ankara rejected.

Deaths at Sea Highlight Failings in Europe Migration Policy

By RENATA BRITO and SAMY MAGDY

May 4, 2021

In this undated family handout photo, 24-year-old Mohammed Abdel-Khaliq from Sudan is seen posing for a picture. Abdel-Khaliq is believed to be among more than 100 migrants and refugees to have died when their rubber boat went under in the Mediterranean Sea north of Libya on April 21, 2021. When they called repeatedly for help in late April, a rescue never came. It was the deadliest wreck so far this year in the Mediterranean Sea and has renewed accusations that European countries are failing to help migrant boats in trouble. (Family handout via AP)

CAIRO (AP) — As the waves pounded the gray rubber boat carrying more than 100 Africans hoping to reach Europe from Libya, those aboard dialed the number for migrants in distress frantically. In the series of calls to the Alarm Phone hotline, passengers explained that the dinghy had run out of fuel while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea and was filling up with water and panic.

On the other end of the line, activists relayed the boat’s GPS coordinates repeatedly to Italian, Maltese and Libyan authorities and later to Frontex, the European Union’s border and coast guard agency, hoping authorities would launch a rescue operation as required under international maritime law.

An analysis of the logs and emails from Alarm Phone and the NGO SOS Mediterranée as well as reports by the Libyan coast guard show that the national authorities contacted responded slowly, insufficiently or not at all to the pleas for help. In all, approximately 130 people are believed to have died between April 21 and April 22 as they waited in vain for someone to save them, roughly 45 kilometers (30 miles) from the Libyan coast.

It was the deadliest wreck so far this year in the Mediterranean Sea, where more than 20,000 migrants or asylum seekers have perished since 2014, and has renewed accusations that European countries are failing to sufficiently help migrant boats in trouble.

Instead, human rights groups and the U.N.’s migration and refugee agencies and international law experts say European countries too often ignore their international obligations to rescue migrants at sea and outsource operations to the Libyan coast guard despite its limited capacity, reports of its ties to human traffickers, and the fact that those intercepted, including children, are placed in squalid, overcrowded detention centers where they face abuse, torture, rape and even death.

European nations, of course, routinely rescue migrants in distress. But no such rescue came on April 21.

Mubarak Jaber, who went to Libya to look for a job a year and a half ago, was among those who died in that wreck, according to his cousin, Mutawakel Ali, who just missed the boat himself. Jaber, 23, worked in construction, but struggled to send enough money back to his relatives in Sudan, so he contacted smugglers and boarded the migrant boat.

The rescue and coordination centers of Libya, Italy and Malta were first alerted that the boat needed help at 9:52 a.m. Central European Summer Time the next day, according to emails seen by The Associated Press.

Alarm Phone and SOS Mediterranée say they never received any response from Maltese authorities. The Armed Forces of Malta, responsible for maritime search-and-rescue operations, did not respond to several requests for comment from the AP.

It was only at 2:11 p.m., more than four hours later, that Alarm Phone received a response from Italian authorities, asking the activists to inform the “competent authorities” without specifying who those were.

Alarm Phone was only able to reach a Libyan officer nearly five hours after the first alert, at 2:44 p.m. They were told that the Libyan coast guard was indeed searching for three boats in the area — but with only one vessel.

A day after the wreck, Libyan coast guard spokesman Masoud Ibrahim Masoud told the AP that his agency found 106 migrants and two bodies from two other boats. Due to worsening weather and the poor health of those already found, they returned to port before locating the third boat, he said, adding that the support received from the EU was insufficient.

Frontex, which only patrols the Mediterranean by air, said it deployed two planes to look for the boat after being requested to do so by the Italians.

“Frontex did exactly what it had to do and above and beyond,” the agency’s spokesperson Chris Borowski told AP on April 24. “We alerted national rescue centers, we issued a mayday call to any vessel in the area to come to the rescue, and we stayed there as long as we could.”

But that mayday message was only sent at 7:15 p.m. according to SOS Mediterranée, more than nine hours after Italian, Maltese and Libyan authorities were first alerted. It is unclear why those three rescue and coordination centers did not issue an alert to vessels in the region sooner.

Frontex blamed the deaths on smugglers and deteriorating weather. On the night of April 21, waves reached 2 to 3 meters (6 1/2 to 10 feet) high.

Questioned by the AP about its role, the Italian coast guard referred back to a statement issued following the migrant deaths, saying the Libyans were responsible for the area where the boat got into trouble and coordinated the operation.

Setena Abdalla sobbed as she spoke from her home in Omdurman, Sudan, about the death of her only son: 24-year-old Mohammed Abdel-Khaliq.

“He was my whole life,” said the 54-year-old single mother.

Abdel-Khaliq had already attempted the crossing once before but was intercepted. He was determined to try again. On April 19, he phoned his mother for the last time.

A day later, he boarded a boat and now remains forever in the Mediterranean Sea.

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Brito reported this story from Barcelona, Spain. AP journalists Noha Elhennawy in Cairo, Maria Grazia Murru and Frances D’Emilio in Rome and Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed to this report.

UN Alliance of Civilizations Chief Condemns Killing of Religious Figure in Eastern DRC

By xinhuanet.com -May 3, 2021

The high representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), Miguel Moratinos, on Sunday strongly condemned the brutal killing of a religious figure in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Sheikh Ali Amin Uthman, the representative of the Islamic community of Beni, was killed on Saturday when unidentified gunmen stormed the central mosque and shot him dead during evening prayers. Moratinos also denounced the violent attacks over the past days in nearby villages that left 19 people dead.

Sheikh Uthman had been often vocal in his denunciation of violent extremism, said Nihal Saad, Moratinos’ spokeswoman, in a press statement.

Moratinos expressed the hope that the perpetrators of these heinous crimes would soon be brought to justice. He extended his deepest condolences to the family of Sheikh Uthman as well as the families of the other victims who were killed in the past few days in eastern DRC, said the statement.

Moratinos called for respect for the sanctity of the holy month of Ramadan and hoped that the spirit of compassion, peace and mutual respect prevails.

He recalled the recommendations of the UN Plan of Action to Safeguard Religious Sites and stressed the inherent right of everyone to practice the rituals of their religions or beliefs freely and safely, it said.

Tighten Security Network of ECOWAS-Prince Mba

By Ghana News Agency -May 1, 2021

Ecowas Map

Mr Prince Bagnaba Mba, President of Forum for Equity, a human rights organisation has called on the Economic Community for West African States, (ECOWAS) under the Chairmanship of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to strengthen security at their enclave to ward off terrorism.

He said the recent killing of the Chadian President Derby and territorial expansion in Nigeria called for a rapid response as a threat in Nigeria was equally a threat to the whole of Africa on account of the magnitude of the economy of the West African State.

Mr Mba who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency on the need to tighten security said although, Ghana was seemingly an oasis of peace, a strike from any part of the continent could have negative repercussions and rippling effects on the country and beyond.

He therefore cautioned member states to stay on an alert as Internal discord and lack of competence in intelligence and counter intelligence could ruin the dream of creating a region of economic development.

Mr Mba appealed to the President and chairman of ECOWAS to convene and come out with a comprehensive military approach to wipe out elements that were likely to create disunity and instability at the sub-region.

“ECOWAS forces succeeded in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and are capable as a joint force to stop upsurge of the menace of the religious terrorists at the Gulf of Guinea and beyond.

Mr Mba called for logistics support to build the capacities of member states to ensure safety for the free movement of goods and services.

Ghana Women Farmers Urged to Add Value to Their Products

By Ghana News Agency -May 4, 2021

Mrs Dennice Amponsah, an Officer for Women in Agricultural Developing Department in the Tamale Metropolitan Assembly, has urged women farmers to add value to their commodities to improve on their quality to suit world market standards.

She said “a value chain is the best way to produce higher quality products and generate more income to women farmers to enhance their capability in commercial farming”.

Mrs Amponsah said this at a Northern Regional engagement on COVID-19 and women access to the opportunities in the agricultural value chain, held in Tamale.

The event, organised by Savannah Women Integrated Development Agency (SWIDA-GH) in partnership with SEND GHANA, was to generate evidence-based issues on the impact of COVID-19 on women farmers for advocacy engagement with state actors to improve agriculture services.

She said adding value to food products sustained the nation’s food security, adding that, it ensured consumers had access to well packaged, preserved and healthy foods, which would improve on their wellbeing.

Hajia Alima Sagito Saeed, the Executive Director of SWIDA-GH, said women farmers played key role in the informal and formal stages of food value chains, including; producing, processing, trading and consumption.

She stated that fostering food value chains had become both a priority and a challenge for many stakeholders such as regional and national policy makers to create more job opportunities for women farmers to enhance their livelihoods.

According to her, there was the need for policymakers to put in place efficient intervention to address challenges that existed between efficient value chains and gender equality.

Mr Eluiyusy Ibrahim, a worker at Wumpini Agro Chemicals, advised the farmers to treat seeds with certified fungicides before nursing to enhance crop growth.

He urged the farmers to adopt crop protection measures such as removing and destroying diseased plants when detected early to prevent other healthy crops from being infected.

Madam Yakubu Rahinatu, Northern Regional Health Promoter, educated the women farmers on the COVID-19 measures and said, the women should avoid large gatherings, and avoid contacting people and advised them to wear face mask, when going out and trading in the market, use hand sanitizer when exchanging money with customers in the market and wash their hands often with soap under running water.

Photo Session with Participants in 10th Congress of DPRK's WPK Youth League

Kim Jong Un, general secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and president of the State Affairs of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, had a photo session with the participants in the 10th Congress of the youth league on April 29.

Present there were Jo Yong Won, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau and secretary for organizational affairs of the WPK Central Committee, Ri Il Hwan, secretary of the Party Central Committee, Kim Jae Ryong, department director of the Party Central Committee, and Kwon Yong Jin, director of the General Political Bureau of the Korean People's Army.

The participants in the Congress were greatly excited and delighted as they were honoured to have a photo taken at the plaza of the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, the supreme sanctuary of Juche, with the respected General Secretary who made sure that the 10th Congress of the youth league was glorified as the occasion of epochal turn which marked a milestone of fresh development in the history of the Juche-oriented youth movement, and gave fighting programme for strengthening the youth league.

When Kim Jong Un arrived at the venue of the photo session, all the participants raised stormy cheers of "Hurrah!" as a token of their deep reverence for him who treasures and loves young people most and brings them up to be the reliable successors to the dignified WPK and the pillars of the socialist state.

He warmly waved back to the enthusiastically cheering participants as a token of his encouragement to them.

He said that with the Congress held amid special interest of the Party as an occasion, the youth movement should definitely turn into the great driving force of socialist construction and all the young people should be prepared to be patriotic youth firmly safeguarding socialism and dedicating themselves to socialist construction so as to make the whole country be enlivened by them and steadily increase the ranks of exemplary young people of virtue.

He posed for a photo with the participants, expressing his belief that they would make tangible contributions to hastening the bright future of the Korean-style socialism by becoming the first standard-bearers in developing the youth league into the red vanguard ranks and steel-strong youth organization modelled on the revolutionary idea of the WPK and by becoming shock troopers who take the lead in opening the road of advance for carrying out the five-year plan set forth at the 8th Congress of the Party.

All the participants were firmly resolved to powerfully demonstrate the stamina and indomitable might of the young vanguard and patriotic youths unfailingly loyal to the ideology and leadership of the Party in the gigantic advance toward the fresh victory of the revolution, upholding the flag of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League carrying the great trust and expectation of the respected General Secretary as the banner of struggle.

KCNA

2021-04-30

Party and Government Officials Encourage Working People on May Day

On the occasion of the 131st May Day, the international holiday of working people all over the world, Party and government officials visited major sites of socialist construction on May 1 to congratulate the working people.

Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee the Workers’ Party of Korea, first vice-president of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly, Ri Pyong Chol, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission of the WPK and secretary of the Party Central Committee, Kim Tok Hun, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the WPK Central Committee and premier of the DPRK Cabinet, went to the construction sites of 10 000 flats in Pyongyang, the Chollima Steel Complex and other places to mark the holiday together with builders and workers.

Party and government officials and officials of the Cabinet and Party and power organs at all levels visited construction sites in the capital city, the Sangwon Cement Complex, the Pyongyang Kim Jong Suk Textile Mill, the Taechong Co-op Farm in Unpha County, the Sunchon Phosphatic Fertilizer Factory, the Kim Chaek Iron and Steel Complex and other industrial establishments and farms to meet workers, agricultural workers and intellectuals.

In the construction sites of 10 000 flats in Pyongyang and the construction site of the residential district of terraced apartment buildings on the bank of the Pothong River, Party and government officials encouraged the builders of various units, working together with them.

At the industrial establishments and farms in different parts of the country, Party and government officials placed flower baskets and bouquets before the mosaics depicting the great leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and paid tributes to them.

They encouraged labour innovators at production sites, workers' hostels and other places and asked them to learn from the fighting spirit and traits displayed by the Heroes during the period of postwar rehabilitation and the Chollima era in the 1950s and put spurs to the first year advance of the new five-year plan so as to bring about substantial change and tangible achievements.

That day, they enjoyed sports and entertainment games like volleyball, table tennis and yut games and art performances given by itinerant art squads together with working people.

2021-05-02

May Day Marked Across DPRK

They visited the Plaza of the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, the supreme sanctuary of Juche where the great leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are preserved in their lifetime appearance, and made a bow before the portraits of their smiling images.

Officials and working people visited the statues of the great leaders on Mansu Hill and the mosaics of their smiling images in other different parts of the country to lay flower baskets, bouquets and flowers and pay homage to them.

Colourful performances were given at theatres and open-air stages in the capital city of Pyongyang and local areas.

Various sports and amusement games were played at industrial establishments and cooperative farms in different parts of the country.

Officials in all provinces, cities and counties and those of industrial establishments and farms congratulated scientist, technicians, labour innovators and other exemplary working people on the occasion.

2021-05-02

14th Plenary Meeting of 14th SPA Standing Committee Held

The 14th Plenary Meeting of the 14th Standing Committee of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK was held on April 30.

Choe Ryong Hae, member of the Presidium of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, first vice-president of the State Affairs Commission of the DPRK and chairman of the Standing Committee of the SPA, presided over the plenary meeting.

The plenary meeting was attended by Vice-Chairmen Thae Hyong Chol and Pak Yong Il, Secretary General Ko Kil Son and members of the Standing Committee of the SPA.

Present there as observers were officials concerned of the Standing Committee of the SPA.

Put on the agenda items were the issue of adopting the Law of the DPRK on the Administration of Revolutionary Relics, the Law of the DPRK on the Protection of Software and the Law of the DPRK on the Administration of Bar Codes and the issue of modifying and supplementing the Law of the DPRK on the Protection of Environment and the Law of the DPRK on the Construction.

The participants were briefed on the main contents of the relevant laws and drafted modification and supplementation of the Law of the DPRK on the Protection of Environment and the Law of the DPRK on the Construction examined by the SPA Legislation Committee.

The Law of the DPRK on the Administration of Revolutionary Relics, which is composed of 5 chapters and 44 articles, deals with the principles of administration of the revolutionary relics, the honourable and important work for defending and carrying forward the glorious revolutionary history and immortal feats of the Workers' Party of Korea and arming the people firmly with the revolutionary traditions of Juche. It also contains the detailed articles related to the establishment of the system of administering the revolutionary relics for finding, collecting, ascertaining and preserving the revolutionary relics.

The Law of the DPRK on the Protection of Software stipulates the issues of protecting the copyrights of software, promoting the development of software and increasing investment in software development by establishing a strict system and order in registration and use of software. It also specifies the practical matters arising in observing and enforcing the law, including the guidance and control over software protection.

The Law of the DPRK on the Administration of Bar Codes deals with the issues arising in setting and using bar codes to ensure convenience of producers in development and undergoing relevant procedures for new products. It calls for ensuring the socialist commercial development and socio-economic stability by putting commodity sales on an IT basis and tightening supervision and control over the use of bar codes.

The law on the protection of environment stipulates the legal guarantee for providing cultured living conditions and environment to the people by enforcing a strict system and order in environment management, preservation and betterment of natural environment and prevention of environmental pollution, and the law on the construction details the contents concerning guidance and control over the designing, building, inspection of completed structures and construction. These laws also specify penalties to be imposed on violations of the laws.

Based on the study and discussion of the agenda items, the plenary meeting adopted with unanimous approval the decrees of the SPA Standing Committee "On Adopting the Law of the DPRK on the Administration of Revolutionary Relics", "On Adopting the Law of the DPRK on the Protection of Software", "On Adopting the Law of the DPRK on the Administration of Bar codes" and "On Modifying and Supplementing the Law of the DPRK on the Protection of Environment" and "On Modifying and Supplementing the Law of the DPRK on the Construction".

2021-05-02

Pledge Meeting of Youth Held in DPRK

A meeting of the young vanguard was held on April 30 to vow to give full play to the might of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League under the leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un.

Present there were Ri Il Hwan, secretary of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, delegates to the 10th Congress of the youth league and youth and students in the capital city of Pyongyang.

Mun Chol, chairman of the Central Committee of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League, made a report to be followed by speeches by Kim Song Hyok, chairman of the North Hamgyong Provincial Committee of the youth league, Ri Kum Hyok, chairman of the North Phyongan Province Unjon County Committee of the youth league, and Kim Chong Song, chairman of the Kim Il Sung University Committee of the youth league.

They said that the immense trust placed by the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un in the young people by giving important guidelines for strengthening the Juche-oriented youth movement and having a significant photo taken with the participants in the 10th Congress of the youth league led five million young vanguard to display their fighting spirit and courage like an erupting volcano.

They stressed the need for all the youth league officials and young people to powerfully demonstrate the invincible might of the youth league, successor to and reserve for the WPK and a shock brigade of socialist construction, in the new historic advance of the Korean revolution.

They pledged to consolidate the Socialist Patriotic Youth League into the vanguard organization of loyalists who breathe and act in line with the idea and will of Kim Jong Un and become passionate loyalists who unconditionally carry out the Party's plans and determinations through thick and thin.

They underscored the need for the young people to leave their clear footprints in the most difficult sites of economic construction and make youthful vigour pervade the whole country under the uplifted slogan "Let us demonstrate the mettle of patriotic youth in the worthwhile struggle for socialist construction!"

They called on the young people to regard it as the most sacred duty and the highest expression of patriotism to defend the country and firmly safeguard by force of arms the socialist country permeated with the precious blood and sweat of the revolutionary forerunners.

They called on the youth to steadily expand the ranks of exemplary young people of virtue and take the lead in pervading the country with the atmosphere stirring with creation of positive deeds and beautiful traits.

They were firmly resolved to powerfully demonstrate all over the world the heroic spirit of young vanguard and the invincible might of the Socialist Patriotic Youth League in the worthwhile struggle to realize the great action programme set forth by the Party Congress, rallied close around Kim Jong Un.

A letter of pledge to Kim Jong Un was adopted at the meeting.

Then there was a march.

2021-05-02

Kim Yo Jong Issues Statement in DPRK

Kim Yo Jong, deputy department director of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, issued the following statement on May 2:

Most recently, "defectors from the north" in south Korea committed an intolerable provocation of scattering leaflets against the DPRK again.

We have already seriously warned the south Korean authorities of the consequences to be entailed by their wrong act of giving a silent approval to the human scum’s wild moves for the north-south relations.

This notwithstanding, the south Korean authorities winked at the reckless acts of the "defectors from the north" and did not stop them once again.

I can hardly repress my displeasure over such sordid acts.

We regard the manoeuvres committed by the human scum in the south as a serious provocation against our state and will look into an action corresponding to them.

Whatever decision we make and whatever action we take, the responsibility for the consequences thereof will entirely rest with the south Korean authorities who did not put the dirty human scum under their control.

We can no longer remain an onlooker.

2021-05-02

Korean Working People on May Day 2021

Working people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea are celebrating May Day significantly, demonstrating the revolutionary spirit and might.

Kim Song Ho, head of a department of the Central Committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea, said: In the annals of the revolution, the Korean working people have dynamically promoted socialist construction, taking the lead in overcoming severe trials and hardships under the leadership of the Workers’ Party of Korea. Under the unfurled banner of self-reliance, they successfully built on the debris a socialist industrial state in a short period after the war by displaying the spirit of Chollima. In the trying days when the country was experiencing hardship, they fought with a do-or-die determination and will and thus made a great contribution to the development of the self-reliant defence industry and to the cause of building a powerful socialist country.

Their devoted efforts made great strides in the efforts to put the national economy on a Juche-oriented and self-supporting basis even in the face of the decades-long challenges from the hostile forces. The material and technical foundations of the agricultural sector have been built up and large numbers of assets conducive to the economic development and promotion of the people’s wellbeing created.

Today, the heroic working class of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and other working people are fully demonstrating their might in socialist construction by giving full play to patriotic enthusiasm and unexcelled creative spirit.

Under the banner of self-reliance, they are waging a vigorous production campaign for implementing the new five-year plan for the national economic development set forth by the WPK, and effecting miracles and innovations in all fields of the national economy.

They study hard in the distance education system and other study-while-you-work systems to prepare themselves as intelligent workers and scientific and technical personnel and make positive tangible contributions to sci-tech development of their units and the building of a knowledge-based economy with fresh inventions and valuable technical innovations.

They conduct mass-based sporting, cultural and artistic activities on a regular basis and establish a cultured way of production and life so as to create new culture of socialism and make the whole society seethe with a vibrant spirit.

The working people of the DPRK, based on the principle of collectivism “One for all and all for one”, are helping and leading one another forward to make collective and coordinated innovations in production and construction.

2021-05-01

In a Reversal, Nigeria Wants U.S. Africa Command Headquarters on the Continent

3 MAY 2021

Council on Foreign Relations (New York)

By John Campbell

On April 27, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, in a virtual meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, requested that the United States move the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) headquarters from Stuttgart, Germany to Africa. The request marks a reversal of official Nigerian opposition--first made public twelve years ago--to AFRICOM plans to move to the continent.

The shift likely reflects the conclusion that the security situation in West Africa and Nigeria is out of control, spurring a willingness to consider options hitherto unacceptable.

Buhari argued that AFRICOM's headquarters should be closer to the theater of operations. He also seemed to imply greater U.S. involvement in West African security, including a kinetic dimension in the context of greater Western support for West Africa's response to its security threats. The statement released by President Buhari's office following the meeting did not indicate whether the president offered Nigeria to host the AFRICOM headquarters.

When President George W. Bush established AFRICOM in 2007, a military-civilian hybrid command in support of Africa, African official reaction was largely hostile, seeing the effort as "neo-colonialist." The Nigerian government took the lead in persuading or strong-arming other African states against accepting the AFRICOM headquarters, which was thereupon established at Stuttgart, Germany, already the headquarters of the European Command.

However, AFRICOM's effective response to humanitarian crises, such as quickly establishing field hospitals in Ebola-affected areas in 2014, has ameliorated--at least somewhat--African hostility. More immediately, West Africa especially is facing security challenges beyond the ability of African states to control on their own. France has been the most important outside force against jihadi terrorism, but French involvement in seemingly never-ending military operations is unpopular at home, and President Emmanuel Macron has raised the specter of a drawdown or withdrawal in West Africa as he prepares for potentially strong opposition in the 2022 French presidential election.

Up to the death of dictator Idriss Déby on April 27, Chad fielded the most effective West African fighting force against various jihadi groups and worked closely with France, the United States, and other partners. However, post-Déby, Chad is becoming a security unknown, with indigenous insurrections far from quelled and opposition demonstrations to the succession in the capital, N'Djamena. In Nigeria, in some quarters at least, panic has emerged over the erosion of security, and calls on the Buhari administration to seek outside help have been growing.

In addition to opposing AFRICOM in the first place, the Nigerian military authorities have been largely uncooperative with the U.S. military. Hence, U.S. military involvement in Nigeria beyond limited training operations is minimal, and the country does not host any American defense installations. Successive Nigerian governments have wanted to purchase sophisticated American military equipment but have rejected U.S. oversight. In fact, Nigerian purchases of U.S. military material have been rare, despite their high-profile, ultimately successful purchase of twelve A-29 Super Tucanos--sophisticated aircraft.

If opposition to AFRICOM is now muted, it has not gone away. Former Nigerian Senator Shehu Sani, an outspoken critic of the United States, characterized Buhari's volte-face as "an open invitation for recolonisation of Africa." In his view, Nigeria should seek only "technical assistance." Buhari is promising much better multilateral cooperation; it remains to be seen whether he can deliver.

From an American perspective, moving AFRICOM's headquarters after fourteen years in Stuttgart would be a major undertaking. The defense review, now underway, will likely include the AFRICOM headquarters location issue. However, should the AFRICOM headquarters move, it is unlikely--if not impossible--that it would be to Africa, with its logistical challenges.

Some in the U.S. Congress support moving AFRICOM's headquarters to the United States as a cost-effective alternative. For example, South Carolina's senators, both Republican, have advocated moving it to Charleston, the site of large U.S. military installations.

Blog posts represent the views of CFR fellows and staff and not those of CFR, which takes no institutional positions.

Read the original article on CFR.

Africa: Covid-19 Death Toll Exceeds 122,000 Across Continent

Eric Boniphace/DW

Art work in Tanzania raising awareness about Covid-19.

3 MAY 2021

allAfrica.com

Cape Town — As of May 3, confirmed cases of Covid-19 from 55 African countries reached 4,565,548 while over 12,401,980 vaccinations have been administered across the continent.

Reported deaths in Africa reached 122,297 and  4,079,615 people have recovered. South Africa has the most reported cases - 1,584,064 - and 54,417 people died. Other most-affected countries are Morocco ( 511,856), Tunisia ( 311,743), Ethiopia ( 258,384 ), Egypt ( 229,635), Libya ( 177,871 ) and Nigeria ( 165,153).

For the latest totals, see the AllAfrica interactive map with per-country numbers. The numbers are compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (world map) using statistics from the World Health Organization and other international institutions as well as national and regional public health departments.

AllAfrica interactive map with per-country numbers.

UN Rights Office Profoundly Disturbed Over Violence Against Protesters in Chad

DW/ Blaise Dariustone

30 APRIL 2021

UN News Service

The UN rights office, OHCHR, said on Friday that it is deeply disturbed by security forces in Chad's use of live ammunition during recent protests after the death of former President Idriss Déby, on 19 April.

Six people were reportedly killed and several wounded in the capital, N'Djamena, on Tuesday - and in the second largest city, Moundou, Marta Hurtado, spokesperson for OHCHR, told the regular press briefing in Geneva.

And while more than 700 people have been arrested, it is not clear how many are still in detention.

Respect human rights

With further protests and general strikes due to take place in the coming days, Ms. Hurtado said that Chad remains "bound by its obligations" under international human rights law to "protect and respect human rights", including the right to life, and to "facilitate the exercise of the right to freedom of peaceful assembly".

She told journalists that a blanket ban on demonstrations may "undermine the exercise of the right to peaceful assembly".

Reminding that the Transitional Military Council itself declared on 20 April that it would abide by Chad's international treaty obligations, she urged the authorities to do so.

Follow the rules

Defence and security forces must receive clear instructions to refrain from the use of force against peaceful protesters, said the UN official, adding that the handling of violent incidents must be aligned with the rule of law and relevant international human rights laws and standards.

Firearms should only be used against individuals representing "an imminent threat to life or of serious injury, and only as a matter of last resort", Ms. Hurtado said, adding that all those detained for exercising their rights to peaceful assembly must also be "promptly released".

"We also call on all relevant State institutions to conduct impartial, prompt, effective and transparent investigations into any human rights violations that may have occurred - including the apparent use of unnecessary or disproportionate force to disperse protests", she said.

Chart peaceful way forward

At this is a "delicate period for the country", the OHCHR official stressed the crucial importance of putting human rights at the centre of all efforts.

Ensure an "inclusive, participatory process in charting the way forward towards a return to civilian rule and constitutional order, she said.

Read the original article on UN News.

Chad: UN Condemns Deadly Force By Chadian Security 

1 MAY 2021

Voice of America (Washington, DC)

By Lisa Schlein

Geneva — The U.N. human rights office condemns the deadly use of force by Chad's security forces against peaceful protesters demanding a return to civilian rule.

Nationwide demonstrations throughout the past week have been met with a fierce response by Chad's defense and security forces, who reportedly killed six people on Tuesday and wounded several others.

The U.N. human rights office expresses grave concern at what it calls excessive, disproportionate use of force, including the use of live ammunition against protesters.

In addition, U.N. human rights spokeswoman Marta Hurtado says 700 people reportedly have been arrested. She says those actions are in violation of international law, which obligates countries to protect and respect human rights, including the right of freedom of peaceful assembly.

"The decree imposing a blanket ban on demonstrations without prior authorization may undermine the exercise of the right to peaceful assembly. We also note that the Transitional Military Council itself declared on 20 April that it would abide by Chad's international treaty obligations," Hurtado said.

Chad's president, Idriss Deby, was killed by rebels April 20. Chad's military appointed a transitional military council headed by Deby's son, Mahamat Idriss Deby, until new elections were to be held in 18 months.

Hurtado said that decree has elicited an outcry of protest from Chad's political opposition, triggering mass demonstrations against continued military rule.

"The people on the street are demanding that the country comes back to the constitutional order and civilian rule.... They want the authorities to hear their demand," Hurtado said.

The U.N. human rights office is calling on state authorities to conduct impartial, effective and transparent investigations into human rights violations that may have occurred, including the use of excessive force against protesters.

Chad: Military Council Names New Transition Government

3 MAY 2021

Radio France Internationale

The military junta that took power in Chad last month after the shock death of veteran leader Idriss Déby named a transition government on Sunday, the army spokesman said.

The so-called Transitional Military Council (CMT) had pledged to restore democracy to the poor Sahel country within 18 months after what the opposition condemned as an "institutional coup".

New government

Déby's 37-year-old son Mahamat, the country's new strongman, named a government comprising 40 ministers and deputy ministers, junta spokesman Azem Bermandoa Agouna said in a televised statement.

Déby also created a new national reconciliation ministry to be headed by Acheick Ibn Oumar, a former rebel chief who became a diplomatic adviser to the presidency in 2019.

Longtime opposition politician Saleh Kebzabo was not named to the transition government, but he issued a statement saying he "recognised" it.

Two members of his party were given portfolios.

Another opposition figure, Mahamat Ahmat Alhabo, will be justice minister in the country of around 16 million.

Chad was thrown into turmoil by Déby's death, announced just the day after he was declared the winner of an April 11 election -- giving him a sixth mandate after 30 years at the helm.

Earlier Sunday, the junta announced the lifting of an overnight curfew introduced after Déby's death.

The army said Déby died from wounds sustained in fighting with rebel forces in the north of the poor Sahel country last month.

Tensions are high in the country, with the military saying that six people were killed last week during demonstrations in the capital N'Djamena and the south against the formation of the junta.

A local aid group has put the death toll at nine. More than 650 people were arrested during the protests, which had been banned by the authorities.

The military has said that Déby died during fighting with rebels from the Libya-based Front for Change and Concord in Chad (FACT), who had launched an election day offensive on April 11.

The announcement of Déby's death aged 68 came only a day after he was proclaimed winner of the presidential election, handing him a sixth term in office after three decades of iron-fisted rule in the former French colony.

The election held no suspense, as his top threats had been sidelined.

Landslide re-election

Déby died on April 19 from wounds he suffered fighting the Libya-based rebels, according to the authorities.

A career soldier who seized power in 1990 and exercised it ruthlessly, Déby died on the day that the electoral commission confirmed that he had won a landslide victory, the authorities say.

The rebels have threatened to march on N'Djamena, where a team from the African Union arrived last week to assess ways to accelerate a return to democratic rule.

Chad, with a well-respected fighting force, is central to the West's fight against jihadists in the Sahel, where myriad Islamist extremist groups operate.

France's 5,100-strong Barkhane anti-jihadist force is headquartered in N'Djamena.

Chad Military Council Announces Key Ministerial Posts

By KRISTA LARSON

Mourners chanting as some hold the coffin during the funeral of one of the victims who was killed earlier this week, at a cemetery in N'Djamena, Chad, Saturday, May 1, 2021. Hundreds of chanting mourners carrying Chadian flags gathered Saturday to bury victims who were shot dead earlier this week amid demonstrations against the country's new military government.(AP Photo/Sunday Alamba)

N’DJAMENA, Chad (AP) — Chad’s transitional military council pressed ahead Monday with solidifying its hold on power after announcing a new government over the weekend that kept key ministries in the hands of allies.

Mahamat Idriss Deby, 37, was put in charge of the central African country earlier this month after the military announced that his father, Idriss Deby Itno, had been killed by rebels on the battlefield after more than three decades in power.

Political opponents immediately decried the army’s move as a coup d’etat, taking to the streets in protest.

Security forces violently put down one demonstration in the capital last week, fatally shooting at least six protesters, according to witnesses. Hundreds of others were detained by police.

Under the posts announced late Sunday, Chad’s new justice minister, who is now tasked with overseeing the cases of those protesters, comes from an opposition party. And for the first time, a minister of “reconciliation and dialogue” has been named.

However, the newly named ministers of national defense and public security are both supporters of the military transitional council that took power following the longtime president’s death.

The Transformers party, which has been at the forefront of the recent anti-government demonstrations, however, was not included in the new government lineup.

The prime minister’s post already was handed to Albert Pahimi Padacke, an opposition politician who had placed second in last month’s election held just before the president was killed.

The military has said that Idriss Deby Itno was mortally wounded while visiting troops on the front line who were facing an armed rebel group that sought to attack the capital, N’Djamena, and overthrow the government. Clashes continued last week 300 kilometers (186 miles) north but no new statements have been made by either side for days now.

16 Niger Soldiers Killed in Attack Near the Border with Mali

By DALATOU MAMANE

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — An ambush on a military patrol near Niger’s border with Mali killed 16 Niger soldiers and left one missing, the government said.

The patrol was returning from a security mission near the border with Mali in Tillia in the northern part of Niger’s Tahoua region when it was attacked by a band of men riding motorcycles on Saturday evening, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement late Sunday. Six other soldiers were wounded in the ambush.

Niger’s military also intercepted a group of suspected extremists Friday night, killing at least 24 who were preparing to attack Baibangou, a village about 100 kilometers (62 miles) north of the capital, Niamey, according to a statement from the ministry of defense.

“While in police custody, before being transported to Niamey, the suspected terrorists tried to escape around 4 a.m. and 24 of them were shot dead by the army,” the defense ministry said.

Both incidents are being officially investigated.

Niger and neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali are battling the spread of deadly extremist violence from groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. The increasing violence has killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands despite the presence of regional and international troops.

In Niger, hundreds of civilians have already been killed this year.

In January, at least 100 people were killed in Niger’s western villages of Tchombangou and Zaroumdareye.

In March, a series of attacks on villages near Niger’s troubled border with Mali left at least 137 people dead in the deadliest violence to strike the West African nation.

French Prosecutors Request End of Rwanda Genocide Probe

FILE - In this Tuesday, May 17, 1994 file photo, refugees who fled the ethnic bloodbath in neighboring Rwanda carry water containers back to their huts at the Benaco refugee camp in Tanzania, near the border with Rwanda. A report commissioned by the Rwandan government due to be made public on Monday, April 19, 2021 concludes that the French government bears "significant" responsibility for "enabling a foreseeable genocide" that left more than 800,000 dead in 1994 and that that France "did nothing to stop" the massacres. (AP Photo/Karsten Thielker, File)

PARIS (AP) —Paris prosecutors on Monday requested the end of a years-long investigation of accusations of involvement of France’s peacekeeping force in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda in which an estimated 800,000 people were slaughtered.

French investigative magistrates are now in charge of making the definitive decision.

Prosecutors concluded that the investigation didn’t establish evidence that French forces were involved in crimes of complicity of genocide and complicity of crimes against humanity.

The probe didn’t show any potential support from French forces during the massacres, consent or evidence that the military refrained from intervening when facing such crimes, the statement detailed.

The investigation had been open in 2005 after six complaints had been filed by Rwandan nationals accusing the French-led military intervention backed by the U.N., named Operation Turquoise, of involvement in the genocide.

The prosecutors’ announcement comes after French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent steps to improve relations with Rwanda, following decades of tensions over Paris’ attitude before and during the genocide.

A March report commissioned by Macron in May concluded that French authorities had been “blind” to the preparations for genocide and then reacted too slowly to appreciate the extent of the killings and to respond to them.

Another report from the Rwandan government said last month that the French government bears “significant” responsibility for “enabling a foreseeable genocide.”

Gunmen Kill Dozens in Attack in Eastern Burkina Faso

By SAM MEDNICK

KAYA, Burkina Faso (AP) — At least 30 people were killed by gunmen in eastern Burkina Faso Monday, according to the government.

The attack occurred in Kodyel village in the Komandjari province near the border with Niger, government official Labidi Ouoba told the Associated Press by phone after fleeing the attack.

Jihadists surrounded the village and went house to house setting fire to them and killing people, said Ouoba.

“I ran early because the terrorists usually look for authorities. We all pray that peace comes back now in our country. We are tired,″ he said.

The attack comes exactly one week after two Spanish journalists and an Irish conservationist were killed and a Burkinabe soldier went missing when their anti-poaching patrol was ambushed by jihadists in the same region. That same day last week, 18 people were killed in Yattakou village in the country’s Sahel region.

Another resident, Mediempo Tandamba, who fled Monday’s attack said approximately 100 Islamic extremists entered the town on motorcycles, tricycles and pick up trucks. Four of his brother’s children were killed.

“We are very afraid here today,” said Tandamba.

Burkina Faso’s ill-equipped army has been struggling to contain the spread of jihadists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State who have killed thousands and displaced more than a million people. Last year the government enlisted the help of volunteer fighters to help the army, but the volunteers have incurred retaliation by the extremists who target them and the communities they help.

The jihadists killed civilians Monday because the village had provided fighters to the volunteer program, said Heni Nsaibia, an analyst with the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project.

Congo Declares End to Latest Ebola Outbreak in Nation's East

By JEAN-YVES KAMALE

KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — Congo has declared an end to the latest Ebola outbreak that killed six people in its east.

Congo’s Minister of Public Health, Dr. Jean-Jacques Mbungani on Monday announced the end of the outbreak that began Feb. 7 in the town of Butembo in the North Kivu province.

The World Health Organization also confirmed the end to the outbreak, congratulating Congo on combatting it within three months. There were 12 cases of Ebola, with six deaths and six recoveries in four health zones in the North Kivu province, according to WHO. The last two patients had been discharged from the Ebola Treatment Center of Katwa in Butembo on March 24.

This was the 12th Ebola outbreak in conflict-ridden Congo since the virus was first discovered in the country in 1976, and the third to hit the country in less than a year. Its onset came less than three months after Congo’s 11th outbreak in the western province of Equateur officially ended in November.

A 2018 outbreak in Eastern Congo was the second deadliest in the world, killing 2,299 people before it was ended in June. That outbreak lasted for nearly two years and was fought amid unprecedented challenges, including entrenched conflict between armed groups, the world’s largest measles epidemic, and the spread of COVID-19.

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AP writer Carley Petesch in Dakar, Senegal contributed.