Pro-choice demo held outside home of conservative US Supreme Court justice

Issued on: 14/09/2021 - 

Pro-choice advocates demonstrate outside the home of US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in Chevy Chase, in the suburbs of the US capital 

Nicholas Kamm AFP

Chevy Chase (United States) (AFP)

Scores of pro-choice protesters rallied outside the home of US Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh following the top legal body's decision not to block a hugely controversial law banning abortion in Texas.

Some 60 people chanted "my body, my voice" as they marched through the affluent neighborhood in capital Washington, closely watched by police.

"I believe that currently the Supreme Court is infringing on our rights and Brett Kavanaugh is a big part of that," said 18-year-old demonstrator Sophia Geiger.

Although the Supreme Court enshrined a woman's right to an abortion in the landmark 1973 case known as Roe v. Wade, Republican-led conservative states are attempting to roll back access through legislation.

The courts have regularly blocked such attempts, but a Supreme Court shifted to the right by Donald Trump -- who appointed Kavanaugh -- refused to strike down the latest Texas law banning terminations after six weeks.

"We've had multiple women's marches... and clearly, they have not gotten the message," Geiger said. "So now we want to inconvenience him."

Nadine Bloch, a member of the ShutdownDC group and the event organizer, said they were demonstrating outside Kavanagh's home "to make our voices heard".

"We're starting with Brett -- we haven't said we're not going to go to any others," she said.

A 75-year-old Texas woman, who gave her name as Nancy, said she had been fighting for decades, remaining vigilant even after Roe v. Wade.

"I have been marching starting in the 60's, I have been supporting choice, not abortion, choice, my entire life," she said.

Echoing the concerns of civil rights groups, she said restricting abortions would disproportionately affect those already marginalized by society.

"The only ones who will be hurt are the poor people, who also are the minorities in many, many cases," she said.

The Texas law has been strongly criticized.

President Joe Biden said it "blatantly violates" constitutional rights established under Roe v. Wade, while campaigners have called it "cruel, unconscionable, and unlawful."

© 2021 AFP

Libya: Could Moammar Gadhafi's family stage a comeback?

The children of the country's brutal and erratic former dictator are getting more popular as elections approach. They could benefit from an increasingly fragmented political scene.

    

After almost 42 years in power, Moammar Gadhafi's reign ended in 2011

This week, the Gadhafi name was in the headlines again. Saadi Gadhafi, the third son of former Libyan dictator, Moammar Gadhafi, was released from prison on Sunday. Reports indicated he left the country for Turkey immediately after his release.

Saadi had been held in a prison in Tripoli for seven years, charged with crimes against protesters during the country's 2011 uprising that toppled his father's regime and also of the 2005 murder of a popular Libyan soccer player, Bashir al-Rayani, who had been openly critical of the Gadhafi regime. A court of appeal had already acquitted Saadi, who played football professionally, of the latter in 2018.

According to agency reports, Saadi, 47, was only released last week because of negotiations between senior tribal figures, the country's interim prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah and Fathi Bashagha, a former interior minister, who has a chance of becoming the country's prime minister after elections in late December.

Saadi Gadhafi, who was released from a Tripoli prison on Sunday, seen here in 2015

Some locals in the city of Tripoli were skeptical about the motivations of those who had arranged Saadi's release. "In my opinion, all of this is because of political agreements between those people who are close to the presidency," Abdellatif Dakdak, a fuel engineer, told pan-African broadcaster, Africanews.

Political ambitions

Long-time Libya observers believe those dubious locals may have a point: As the country's December 24 election nears, the Gadhafi name is likely to become increasingly important.

Moammar Gadhafi ruled Libya for over four decades until his regime was brought down by a revolution in 2011. Of his seven sons, three were killed during the violent uprising that followed.

Afterwards, remaining members of his family — sons Mohammed and Hannibal, daughter Aisha and wife Safia — were granted asylum in Oman. Hannibal, 45, is thought to be in custody in Lebanon after being arrested there in late 2015, on charges related to the case of a Lebanese cleric who disappeared in Libya in 1978. Hannibal's wife and children apparently have refugee status in Damascus in neighboring Syria.

Saif al-Islam withdrew from Libyan politics in 2008, saying he was frustrated with the pace of change

But perhaps the most significant scion of the Gadhafi family today is 49-year-old Saif al-Islam, the only family member who has political ambitions at the moment, sources said.

After the uprising Saif was captured by tribal militias in Zintan, in northwestern Libya. He was released by them in 2017 and is thought to still be living among his former captors. In July, in an interview with the New York Times, the first he had given a Western publication for years, Saif hinted at a presidential bid this year.

Potential comeback

It may sound strange to international observers but there is a genuine chance for the son of Moammar Gadhafi, a ruler renowned for his eccentricity and brutality, to make some kind of political comeback in Libya.

Mostly this is due to the increasingly fragmented nature of the Libyan political scene at the moment.

In the recent past, the country's various factions were more easily classified. For example, in 2011, they were either pro-revolutionary or pro-Gadhafi. Over the past few years as civil war broke out, they could be split into eastern or western factions, as the two major groups fighting for control of the country had strongholds at either end of the nation. Rebel military commander Khalifa Haftar was based in the east and Fayez al-Sarraj headed an internationally recognized government in the west.

Libya's interim prime minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah (center left) in Berlin in June

"There is no actor or group that can clearly dominate the Libyan political scene," confirmed Tim Eaton, a senior researcher at Chatham House and the author of a report on the evolution of Libya's war economy.

"It has become very complicated and very localized. It's like a game of 3D chess with different leaders and networks trying to forge alliances, or perhaps working on certain things together but on a limited basis." 

For example, as Eaton wrote in a detailed analysis of the Libyan military, Haftar has tried to integrate Gadhafi loyalist officers into his own senior leadership since 2016 "in an attempt to expand his military alliance."  

No ideology

"The Libyan political landscape is really fragmented on a cellular level and incredibly politically fluid," added Mohamed Omar Dorda, one of the co-founders of for-profit consultancy Libya Desk, which has worked with German think tanks, including the Konrad Adenauer and Friedrich Ebert foundations, and is well networked inside the country and with the former regime.

"Traditional alliances are a thing of the past. Now everyone is talking to everyone and people who were arrested back in 2011 and completely sidelined, are starting to look like they could become a go-to alliance," Dorda told DW.   

Dorda believes the negotiations around the recent release of prisoners like Saadi Gadhafi are part of that alliance-building. These political mergers are no longer ideological, he noted, they're purely transactional and about political power. Which is where the Gadhafi family comes back into it.  

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi at a press conference in Paris in 1973

President Gadhafi?

They are still popular with some Libyans and could make for potential allies too, even for those who previously considered them enemies. "There are people in Libya who would agree that, given the events of the past few years, the country was better off under Gadhafi," Eaton explained. 

"Some of these are the same people who would explain the troubles of the past few years as being caused by terrorists or by foreign interference. There are people in Libya who never abandoned the Gadhafis and places right across the country still flying the green flag," he said, referring to the fact that Moammar Gadhafi chose green for the Libyan flag in 1977.  

Saif al-Islam (left on poster) was seen by some as a potential reformer in his father's regime

"There is certainly a constituency for Saif," Eaton said.

Dorda argues that Saif "has a good chance of performing well in elections or, if he were not to run and took up a kind of kingmaker role where he supports another candidate, he's all but guaranteed a position of power."

Eaton is a little more skeptical. "Although you need to be careful of the sources, some polling certainly suggests he's the most electable name – and he [Saif] would draw a lot of confidence from that," Eaton conceded. 

"But it's difficult to see how he could rise back to prominence," the Chatham House analyst argued. "He can't operate out in the open and is not able to move freely around Libya, nor does he have any armed forces loyal to him. It seems a bit far-fetched to me." 

Algeria arrests another journalist amid crackdown on press freedom

Issued on: 14/09/2021 - 

Protests in front of the offices of the newspaper Liberté in Algiers, April 25, 2021. 

© AFP (archives)

Text by: NEWS WIRES

Algerian authorities have arrested a journalist from a local French-language newspaper and searched his house, a rights group and one of his colleagues said Monday.

"Mohamed Mouloudj, journalist at the Liberte daily, was arrested on Sunday and his house searched," the Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LADDH) said on Facebook.

"He is still in custody in Algiers."

Mouloudj's newspaper, where he has worked for a decade, did not immediately comment, but one of his colleagues confirmed the arrest.

"He had already had run-ins with the security services, who took away his passport for months," Ali Boukhlef said

"He had also been taken in for questioning several times."

Another Algerian journalist, Hassan Bouras, was arrested a week ago and formally placed in preventive detention on Sunday, accused of "glorifying terrorism" among other crimes, his lawyers said.

Algeria is ranked 146th out of 180 countries and territories on the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index.

According to prisoners' rights group CNLD, around 200 people are in jail in connection with the Hirak pro-democracy protest movement that has shaken the North African country sporadically since 2019, or over individual freedoms.

Also on Monday, the police announced the arrest of 16 people suspected of belonging to the Movement for the Autonomy of Kabylie (MAK), which the government says is a terrorist organisation.

They were detained in connection with an investigation into recent forest fires in the northeastern Kabylie region, and the lynching of a man after rumours spread that he had started deadly blazes in the area.

An unidentified journalist was said to be among the 16 suspects.

The official APS news agency, quoting the police, said 11 of those arrested were "involved" in the killing of Djamel Ben Ismail, who had volunteered to help put out the fires that killed dozens in August.

More than 80 suspects have been detained over the man's death.

(AFP)

Feline generous: Japan cat lovers give $2 million to kidney research

Issued on: 14/09/2021

Domesticated cats and their bigger cousins in the wild are highly prone to genetic kidney problems Amir MAKAR AFP

Tokyo (AFP)

Cats may have nine lives, but their time on Earth is often cut short by kidney problems -- so people in Japan who want their feline friends to live longer have donated nearly $2 million to the search for a cure.

As the coronavirus pandemic hit the economy last year, scientists at the University of Tokyo lost their corporate funding for a study on preventing kidney disease in cats.

But thousands of Japanese cat lovers mobilised online to donate to the researchers after an article about their plight by news agency Jiji Press went viral.

"I lost my beloved cat to kidney disease last December... I hope this research will progress and help many cats to live without this disease," one woman wrote in a message alongside her $20 donation.

Another donor, who gave $90, said: "I recently got a kitten. I make a donation in the hope that it will be in time for this cat."

Domesticated cats and their bigger cousins in the wild are highly prone to kidney problems because of a genetic inability to activate a key protein discovered by the Tokyo researchers.

The protein called AIM helps clean up dead cells and other waste in the body, preventing the kidneys from becoming clogged.

Immunology professor Toru Miyazaki and his team are working on ways to produce the protein in a stable quantity and quality.

They hope to develop a new remedy they say could double the current feline life expectancy of roughly 15 years.

"I hope that ultimately veterinarians will give (cats) jabs every year like vaccines," Miyazaki told the AFP-affiliated AFPBB News.

"It would be good to give them one or two doses every year" of AIM, he said.

Around 3,000 unsolicited donations were sent to the team hours after the article was published in July.

This surged to 10,000 in just a few days -- more than the total number of donations the university usually receives in a year.

And by mid-September, the amount donated had reached 207 million yen ($1.9 million).

"It was the first time I understood first-hand how much my research is anticipated," said Miyazaki.

His team's research on how AIM -- short for apoptosis inhibitor of macrophage -- functions in the body was published in 2016 in the journal Nature Medicine.

They are also developing pet food containing a substance that could help activate the non-functional AIM in feline blood.

© 2021 AFP

Five things to know about Dante on the 700th anniversary of his death

Issued on: 14/09/2021 - 

Dante Alighieri -- whose name is third line from the top -- is considered the father of the Italian language 

Vincenzo PINTO AFP

Rome (AFP)

Dante Alighieri is chiefly remembered as the author of the "Divine Comedy" and as the father of the Italian language.

On the 700th anniversary of his death in the night between September 13 to 14th, 1321, here are five things to know about a titan of world literature.

- Father of Italian language -

Dante is credited with helping create the Italian language by using the Tuscan vernacular of his time -- rather than Latin -- to write his masterpiece.

The "Divine Comedy", originally called simply "Comedy", is an imaginary journey through hell, purgatory and heaven, published in several stages in the early 14th century.

Its popularity led other medieval Italian authors, such as Petrarch and Boccaccio, to also write in the vernacular, laying the literary foundations of Italian.

Italy is marking the 700th anniversary of Dante's death

 Vincenzo PINTO AFP

It is no coincidence that the institute for spreading Italian language and culture abroad is called the "Dante Alighieri Society."

As part of 700th anniversary events this year, Italy is also preparing to open a Museum of the Italian Language in Florence, housed within the Santa Maria Novella church complex.

- On par with Shakespeare -

The "Divine Comedy" is a poem, a personal tale of redemption, a treaty on human virtue, as well as one of the most influential pieces of science fiction.

Its first section, the "Inferno" (Hell) -- with its circles of hell where punishments are inflicted on those having committed the seven deadly sins -- still shapes the way we imagine the afterlife, at least in Christian terms.

British poet T.S. Eliot famously said: "Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them; there is no third."

"Dante and Shakespeare divide the modern world between them; there is no third," poet T.S. Eliot famously said 

Vincenzo PINTO AFP

Argentine writer and bibliophile Jorge Luis Borges considered the "Divine Comedy" as "the best book literature has ever achieved."

- Dante in popular culture -

Generations of writers, painters, sculptors, musicians, filmmakers and cartoonists have been inspired by the "Divine Comedy", particularly the "Inferno".

These include everyone from Sandro Botticelli, William Blake, Salvador Dali and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, to the creators of X-Men comic books and novelist Dan Brown.

Auguste Rodin's famous "The Kiss" sculpture depicts Paolo and Francesca, the adulterous lovers Dante meets in the second circle of hell.

Generations of writers, painters, sculptors, musicians, filmmakers and cartoonists have been inspired by Dante's "Divine Comedy", particularly its "Inferno"

 Vincenzo PINTO AFP/File

The "Divine Comedy" was also a key inspiration for Oscar-nominated thriller "Se7en", for a popular video game ("Dante's Inferno"), while Dante is quoted in popular TV series such as "Mad Men".

Bret Easton Ellis' black comedy "American Psycho" opens with the epigraph "Abandon hope all ye who enter here" -- one of the most-used quotes from the "Inferno".

- Durante, but call me Dante -

Like many other greats from Italy's cultural past -- Giotto, Leonardo, Michelangelo -- Dante is usually known only by his first name, which is a diminutive of "Durante."

He was born in Florence in 1265, exiled in 1302, and he died in Ravenna, on Italy's eastern Adriatic coast, on September 13 or 14, 1321.

Hailing from a wealthy family, albeit not aristocratic, Dante never worked for a living and dabbled in politics as well as literature, philosophy and cosmology.

Dante was born in Florence in 1265 but exiled in 1302

 Vincenzo PINTO AFP

He had at least three children with his wife Gemma Donati, but his lifelong muse was another woman, Beatrice, who appears in the "Divine Comedy" as his guide in heaven.

- Dante the politician -

Dante was active in politics, serving as one of Florence's nine elected rulers, or priors, for a regular two-month term in 1300.

At the time, Italian cities were constantly on the verge of civil war between Guelfs, the papal faction, and Ghibellines, who sided with Holy Roman emperors.

Dante started out as a Guelf, but after being exiled with the indirect help of Pope Boniface VIII, he became increasingly critical of papal encroachment in political affairs.

Criminal lawyer Alessandro Traversi has called a conference in May of legal experts to re-examine Dante's convictions that led to his exile 

Vincenzo PINTO AFP

He was put on trial and banished from Florence after a new regime took over the city and persecuted its old ruling class, and remained an exile until his death.

In 1302, a judge ordered Dante and his allies to be burnt at the stake if they tried to come back. The sentence was later changed to death by beheading.

In the "Divine Comedy", the poet takes the opportunity to settle scores with many of his foes, notably reserving a place in hell for Boniface VIII.

© 2021 AFP

Palestinians hail Israel jailbreak despite recaptures

Issued on: 14/09/2021

A Palestinian boy stands next to a poster showing the six Palestinian prisoners who escaped from Israel's Gilboa prison, before four were recaptured, at the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank

 JAAFAR ASHTIYEH AFP/File

Jenin (Palestinian Territories) (AFP)

Four of the six Palestinians who staged a Hollywood-style escape from an Israeli prison may be back behind bars, but in their home town they are being celebrated as heroes.

When cellphones buzzed last week in Jenin with news of the spectacular jailbreak from a high-security prison, Abu Antoine dreamt his nephew Zakaria Zubeidi might never be caught.

"In the hour after the announcement, we were filled with hope," Abu Antoine told AFP. "We said to ourselves: 'If he hasn't been arrested yet, maybe he'll be free forever'."

Zubeidi, 46, was the most prominent of the six who had dug a tunnel underneath a sink and made their way to freedom, embarrassing their captors and sparking a massive manhunt.

Jenin in the occupied West Bank is a historic flashpoint in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Zubeidi is one of the city's most famous sons.

A picture released by the Israeli police shows Zakaria Zubeidi, left, and Mohammad Ardah, two of the six Palestinian militants who escaped from an Israeli prison, blindfolded after being recaptured - 

ISRAELI POLICE/AFP/File

During the second intifada, or uprising, of 2000-2005 he was the local leader of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, the armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah faction.

He has since run afoul of both Israeli and Palestinian authorities and, after agreeing to lay down his arms more than a decade ago, also dabbled in theatre.

He was arrested by Israel in 2019 and was serving time in Gilboa prison, along with the other five escapees, all members of the group Islamic Jihad.

The jailbreak marked a high-profile embarrassment for Israel's vaunted security establishment.

A shop in the West Bank town of Jenin is closed on September 12 in solidarity with the six Palestinian prisoners who escaped from a high-security prison earlier in the week JAAFAR ASHTIYEH AFP/File

In Palestinian areas, it sparked joy, with supporters handing out sweets in celebration.

There was feverish speculation the six may have escaped to neighbouring Jordan or Syria.

Jenin's resistance iconography was also freshened up, with new posters of the fugitives plastered on concrete walls beside the torn and fading images of the "martyrs" of the intifada.

- 'Incomplete victory' -

But on Friday night, two of the six escapees were re-arrested by Israeli security forces, in the majority Arab Israeli city of Nazareth.

Abu Antoine, brother of escaped and recaptured Palestinian prisoner Zakaria Zubeidi, at their home in the Jenin camp for Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank

 JAAFAR ASHTIYEH AFP

The next morning, Zubeidi and another fugitive were also picked up, at a lorry park outside Nazareth.

Two members of the group remain at large.

All six of the escapees have been implicated in planning or perpetrating attacks on Israelis, and news of the re-arrests was welcomed across Israel.

Abu Antoine said the "escape remains a victory for Palestinians" but conceded the re-captures had made that victory "incomplete".

He recalled that Zubeidi's grandfather had escaped in the summer of 1958 from Israel's since-closed Shata prison.

This image provided by the Israel Prison Service shows the escape tunnel dug beneath a sink at the Gilboa prison in northern Israel - Israel Prison Service/AFP/File

Palestinian newspaper clippings from the time, shared this week on messaging apps, noted the "glory" the escape had brought to the family.

A fresh Palestinian effort was underway to bolster the heroic status of the latest jail-breakers.

Shortly after Israel released photos of Zubeidi following his re-arrest, handcuffed and appearing forlorn, a doctored image began circulating on Palestinian social media accounts showing him smiling.

Falestine al-Youm (Palestine Today), the television voice of Islamic Jihad, has broadcast tributes to its escapees, highlighting its member Mahmud Abdullah Ardah, 45, who spent 25 years in prison and is considered the mastermind of the jailbreak.

- 'Dancing with joy' -

A giant poster of Ardah adorns his family home in the village of Arraba, just outside Jenin.

A giant poster of the Islamic Jihad group's Mahmud Abdullah Ardah adorns his family home in the village of Arraba, just outside Jenin 

JAAFAR ASHTIYEH AFP/File

Wearing a white-dotted hijab, Ardah's mother Fatiha was glued to the rolling TV tributes.

"When he was released, I was dancing with joy," she told AFP. "I hoped the door of our house would open and he would be there."

Ardah's brother Mohammed told AFP he was contacted by an Israeli intelligence officer while his brother was on the run.

"He said to me: 'If Mahmud comes home, let him kiss his mother then call us and we'll arrest him'."

"I told him 'no, I will not call you,'", Mohammed recounted, although that moment never came.

Fatiha al-Ardah, mother of escaped Palestinian prisoner Mahmud Abdullah Ardah, at their home in the village of Arraba after her son's arrest by Israeli authorities

 JAAFAR ASHTIYEH AFP

Ardah was arrested in Nazareth, without putting up resistance, after being pursued by an Israeli helicopter.

"I couldn't believe it," Mohammed said.

"But I thought, 'at least he is still alive'. And I realised that for him five days of freedom are the equivalent of 50 years."

© 2021 AFP

Facing investor pressure, Chevron to boost 'lower carbon' spending


Issued on: 14/09/2021 - 

Chevron plans to boost investment in "lower carbon" energy, while investing primarily in oil and gas

 JUSTIN SULLIVAN GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP/File
1 min
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New York (AFP)

Chevron said Tuesday it will lift spending on lower carbon energy while still investing primarily in fossil fuels as it updated its climate strategy in the face of investor pressure.

The US oil giant said it would more than triple spending through 2028 to $10 billion on its "lower carbon businesses," including $2 billion to lower the carbon intensity of Chevron's operations.

The program includes increasing production of renewable natural gas, renewable fuels and boosting hydrogen production, according to a press release ahead of presentations by executives later Tuesday.

However, the capital spending is still much lower than that planned for conventional oil and gas. Chevron said in March it plans $14 billion to $16 billion in annual capital spending between 2021 and 2025.

Also, the company did not promise to reach "net zero" emissions in its overall business by 2050, a pledge taken by rivals such as Royal Dutch Shell and Total.

Like its US rival ExxonMobil, Chevron has faced intensifying pressure from investors on climate policy.

In May, 61 percent of shareholder voted in favor of a shareholder proposal calling on Chevron to reduce its "Scope 3" carbon emissions, those connected to products sold by the company.

Shareholders also narrowly defeated a proposal requiring a report on a "Net Zero 2050" scenario, such as ones discussed by the International Energy Agency.

In a presentation on Chevron's website, Chief Executive Mike Worth said the company would update its climate change report next month to include a response to the Scope 3 proposal and net zero.

Activists expressed skepticism about Chevron's approach to climate change and the energy transition in interviews ahead of Tuesday's investor presentations.

The company's statements since the shareholder vote have been "not very promising," said Mark van Baal, founder of Follow This, a Dutch activist shareholder group that authored the Scope 3 resolution at Chevron.

"If the world is to avoid climate disaster, then the reductions need to be done this decade," van Baal said on Monday.

© 2021 AFP

WAR IS RAPE

Rights abuses committed by all sides in growing Tigray conflict - UN

Issued on: 14/09/2021 - 

This camp in the town of Azezo, Ethiopia, hosts Ethiopians as well as Eritrean refugees uprooted by the ongoing war in the region of Tigray, July 12, 2021. 

AFP - EDUARDO SOTERAS

The UN human rights chief said Monday that gross violations were being perpetrated by all sides in Tigray and warned that the conflict risked spreading throughout the Horn of Africa.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that civilian suffering was widespread in the northern region of Ethiopia.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed sent troops into Tigray in November last year.

The 2019 Nobel Peace Prize winner said the move was in response to attacks on army camps by the Tigray People's Liberation Front, then the region's ruling party.

The 10-month-old conflict between government forces and Tigray rebels has claimed the lives of thousands and triggered a major humanitarian crisis.

Noting that fighting has spread to other regions of Ethiopia, Bachelet said: "The conflict risks spilling over to the whole Horn of Africa."

Forced displacements

Bachelet said that in recent months mass detentions, killings, systematic looting, and sexual violence had continued to create "an atmosphere of fear and an erosion of living conditions" that resulted in the forced displacement of Tigrayan civilians.

"Civilian suffering is widespread, and impunity is pervasive," said the former president of Chile.

"Even with the changing dynamics in the conflict, there has been one constant: multiple and severe reports of alleged gross violations of human rights, humanitarian and refugee law by all parties."

UN will need support of African states in Tigray conflict, says leading analyst

Bachelet's office and the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission have completed the field work in a joint investigation, with a report due on November 1.

"It is already clear that cases documented comprise multiple allegations of human rights violations, including attacks on civilians, extrajudicial killings, torture, and enforced disappearances among other grave abuses," said Bachelet.

"Sexual and gender-based violence has been characterised by a pattern of extreme brutality, including gang rapes, sexualised torture and ethnically targeted sexual violence."

Child soldiers

Bachelet added that during the period under review, Tigrayan forces had allegedly been responsible for attacks on civilians, including indiscriminate killings resulting in nearly 76,500 people being displaced in Afar region and an estimated 200,000 in Amhara.

More than 200 individuals have reportedly been killed in the most recent clashes in these regions, and 88 individuals, including children, have been injured, she said.

Ethiopia’s Tigray war spills into neighbouring regions

"We have also received serious reports of recruitment of children into the conflict by Tigrayan forces, which is prohibited under international law," said Bachelet.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on all parties to end hostilities immediately, without preconditions, and negotiate a lasting ceasefire.

"Looking ahead, a sustainable peace will only come through accountability, a genuine inclusive dialogue and a national reconciliation process," she said.

(With AFP)

#WATERISLIFE

How the water crisis in English-speaking Cameroon is hitting students and the poor
Issued on: 13/09/2021 - 

A close view of the municipal water source at Mt Cameroon forest reserve, constructed by the Germans to supply drinkable water to the city of Buea, Cameroon.

 © Wikimedia/CC/Atabong Armstrong

Text by: RFI

At a stream in the Bomaka neighbourhood of Buea, Cameroon, a woman is using sand to wash her 20-litre jerrycan before filling it with water.

Emerencia Fosuh, a hairdresser, has been using the stream for the past four years as her only source of water. Locals call the tiny river "Mr Peter Water".

“I’m getting this water for bathing, and if I have to use the toilet, I will beg water from my neighbours,” she tells Africa Calling correspondent Batata Boris Karloff.

The jerrycan is heavy, and it’s difficult to bring it up to her house, she adds.

“I used to bathe even four times a day but now I can’t lie, I will bathe just once. I’ve been here for four years and I am so tired of this. I can’t keep going to people’s houses to ask for water because of this crisis.”

Many residents in this part of Buea, the capital of the anglophone South West region, have had no running water in their homes for years.

The four-year rupture in service, according to Malomba Esembe, the Member of Cameroon’s Parliament for Buea Urban Constituency, was due to an industrial accident caused by ENEO, Energy of Cameroon.

“I was made to understand that around Molyko checkpoint, works were being done by ENEO to fix concrete pipes, led to the destruction of one of the main pipes that supplies water to that area,” he says, after looking into the matter and discussing with Camwater, the government supplier of water.

Students suffer, too

He’s referring to Molyko, the large student neighbourhood that has a higher population than other parts of the regional capital.

For students on a tight budget, their only way of getting water is to order it from local businessmen, called ‘truck pushers’, who bring it from boreholes and sell it in the neighbourhoods.

University student Josiene Konyuy regularly orders water. She says she doesn’t trust the source of the water she buys, but she doesn’t have a lot of choice.

“The truck pushers carry water from borehole and since you do not follow them to carry the water, I don’t trust the source. Given the fact that to buy a container of water is strenuous due to distance one has to cover, we just order for water from truck pushers and we pay a thousand francs,” says Konyuy.

The water lasts for four days, so she usually has to buy water at least twice a week, which is very costly.

“While we suffer to get water, some people are actually taking advantage of the situation to make money,” she adds.

It’s a booming business, according to Frankline, a truck pusher, who just sold all his water for the day.

“As part time work, I can make about 2,000-2,500CFA (€3 - €3.80) a day if my customers call me regularly. For my colleagues who are steady in the business they can make 9,000-10,000CFA (€13.70 - €15.20) per day,” he says.

The truck pushers buy the water from the borehole owner and vary the price of water based on how far they have to bring it.

“In terms of distance, a gallon of water can cost 100-200CFA (€0.15 - €0.30), and in Molyko, the cheapest price is 150CFA”.

The demand is high, and he has more orders, so he needs to get more from the borehole. Although Frankline knows he is benefitting from the water crisis, he feels for the students who are forced to buy water like this.

“We are sympathetic with students because it is not normal for students to be buying water since water is a free commodity given by nature,” he says in Pidgin, noting that they already have a lot of expense for books and housing.

“We feel for them even as we receive their money, actually, but some of us have gone to school and there’s no work, so that’s why we are pushing trucks. We plead with the government to look into the situation,” he adds.

Water needed for work, and combatting Covid-19

Hairstylist Fosuh says she makes less money because of the lack of water.

“Like now, for instance. A lady came and said she wants me to put product in her hair. I told her that I can’t because of the distance to get water. I just told her to look for another saloon,” she says.

She’s lost a number of customers that way.

“Even if I come here to fetch water before getting home, I am already tired and I can’t work. Some will want to wash their hair and style but I can’t due to lack of water,” she adds.

Lack of water has also affected the effectiveness of dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the prescribed guidelines against the virus is to wash hands regularly with soap and clean running water. For some residents in Buea, keeping to this is not feasible.

“If you look around the town even the buckets placed at strategic points for persons to wash their hands are no longer present. In some institution the is just a bottle of sanitizer whereas we are advised to wash our hands regularly,” says university student Konyuy.

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“It is really scarce to see a bucket to wash hands and this scarcity coupled with the COVID-19 guidelines is causing a lot of issues. Molyko carries the heart of Buea in terms of population, hence priority needs to be given here, but it’s not the case,” she adds.

MP Esembe says that he has been ensured by Camwater that the repairs will be taken care of, although ENEO will be footing the bill.

“They have prepared an estimate of the repairs which has to be sponsored by ENEO that did the destruction,” he says.

Esembe says that Cameroon’s President Paul Biya had taken a loan out with Xim Bank of China to expand water and distribution in the area.

“Buea, Tiko and Mutengene which will amongst other things see the construction of a treatment site in Mutengene so the government is doing what needs to be done and Camwater is in charge of implementing government policy—they’re not sleeping,” he adds, speaking of the different areas in the region.

“If you go behind my house my drum is there waiting for rain, I am the one praying for this rainy season more than anybody,” says Fosuh.

“I actually need this rain because I don’t have the strength to be coming here to the stream,” she adds.

Indian woman brings her community's environmental concerns to France through video

Issued on: 14/09/2021 -

Adita Prithika Subramanian is president of the RFI listeners' club Agnichiragu Phoenix, Tirupur, Tamil Nadu, India in the RFI studios, Paris, 13 September 2021. She won the RFI Club prize in the 2020 edition of the ePOP short video prize dedicated to the environment. 

© RFI / Ollia Horton

Text by: Ollia Horton

Video by: RFI

The annual ePOP short video competition is an international initiative sponsored by RFI and its partners. It encourages populations exposed to environmental and climate change to share their experiences and challenges. RFI met with Adita Prithika Subramanian, from Tamil Nadu, India, one of the winners of the 2020 edition.

Adita Prithika Subramanian, from Tirupur, India won the 2020 RFI Club Prize in the annual ePOP video contest for her film Farming between Factories, a look at the sources of pollution in Tamil Nadu state in southern India, the heart of the country's textile industry.

In the video, we hear about local farmers who have been selling their land as the number of hosiery plants grows.

Without proper waste management, the effluent from the industry is destroying the nearby waterways which nourish the community.

"Since resources are scarce, we are skeptical and apprehensive of a bleak future," says 50 year-old Geeta Palaniswarmy says in the video.

A farmer in the village of Kovil Vali, whose family have been cultivating the land there for over a hundred years, she remembers a time of abundant rainfall and bountiful harvest, but she says climate change is bringing hotter temperatures.

Adita Prithika's prize included a trip to Paris to attend an ePOP workshop and five ePOP kits for her club to continue her projects (tripod, lavalier microphone, USB key, report bag, and t-shirt).

Because of the Covid pandemic, her trip to France was postponed until September 2021, where she was able to join the 2021 winners and participate in the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Marseille.

Adita joined RFI's Ollia Horton in the studio to talk about the highlights of her trip, why she is enthusiastic about being the president of the RFI Agnichiragu Phoenix Listeners' Club and what she would like to film next