Greta Thunberg joins protest over wind farm on land used by reindeer herders

27 February 2023, 15:04

Norway. Picture: PA

The environmental activist helped blocked the entrance to the country’s energy ministry in Oslo over the project.

Greta Thunberg has joined dozens of activists in blocking the entrance to Norway’s energy ministry in Oslo to protest against a wind farm they say hinders the rights of the Sami Indigenous people to raise reindeer in Arctic Norway.

The activists, mainly teenagers, lay outside the ministry entrance holding Sami flags and a poster reading: “Land Back”.

The protesters from Young Friends of The Earth Norway and the Norwegian Sami Association’s youth council NSR-Nuorat said “the ongoing human rights violations” against Sami reindeer herders “must come to an end”.

Several of the activists donned the Sami’s traditional bright-coloured dress and put up a tent used by the Arctic people.

In October 2021, Norway’s supreme court ruled that the construction of the wind turbines violated the rights of the Sami, who have been using the land to raise reindeer for centuries. However, the wind farm is still operating.

Swedish environmental activist Ms Thunberg, who joined the demo early on Monday, said: “It is absurd that the Norwegian government has chosen to ignore the ruling.”

Over the weekend, the protesters had occupied the ministry’s lobby but were evicted by police early Monday, according to Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

They shifted their protest to chaining themselves outside the main entrance to the ministry, prompting authorities to urge employees to work from home.

By chaining themselves, “we make it practically more difficult to move us”, activist Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen told NRK.

Norway’s energy minister Terje Aasland told NRK that although the supreme court has ruled that the construction of the wind farm is invalid, the court does not say anything about what should happen to it.

The government must “make new decisions that are in line with the premise of the Supreme Court’s judgment,” Mr Aasland told the broadcaster.

Other activists who were sitting outside the doors of nearby government buildings “have been ordered to move and if they don’t we will remove them by force”, said police spokesman Brian Skotnes shortly before officers were seen carrying activists away.

They were not arrested.

The Sami live in Lapland, which stretches from northern parts of Norway through Sweden and Finland to Russia. They once faced oppression of their culture, including bans on the use of their native tongue.

Today, the nomadic people live mostly modern lifestyles but still tend reindeer.

By Press Association

Greta Thunberg joins activists' protest against a wind farm in Norway

FEBRUARY 27, 2023 

Copenhagen, Denmark — Dozens of activists, including Greta Thunberg of neighboring Sweden, blocked the entrance to Norway's energy ministry in Oslo Monday to protest a wind farm they say hinders the rights of the Sami Indigenous people to raise reindeer in Arctic Norway. The activists, mainly teenagers, lay outside the ministry entrance holding Sami flags and a poster reading "Land Back."

Sweden's Greta Thunberg (rear, 3rd R) and other young climate activists from the "Nature and Youth" and "Norwegian Samirs Riksforbund Nuorat" groups block the entrance of Norway's Energy ministry as they protest against wind turbines built on land traditionally used to her reindeer, in Oslo, Feb. 27, 2023

OLE BERG-RUSTEN/NTB/AFP/GETTY

The protesters from organizations called Young Friends of The Earth Norway and the Norwegian Sami Association's youth council NSR-Nuorat, said "the ongoing human rights violations" against Sami reindeer herders "must come to an end." Several of the activists donned the Sami's traditional bright-colored dress and put up a tent used by the Arctic people.

In October 2021, Norway's Supreme Court ruled that the construction of the wind turbines violated the rights of the Sami, who have been using the land to raise reindeer for centuries. However, the wind farm is still operating.

"It is absurd that the Norwegian government has chosen to ignore the ruling," said Thunberg, who joined the protest early Monday.

Over the weekend, the protesters had occupied the ministry's lobby but were evicted by police early Monday, according to Norwegian broadcaster NRK. They shifted their protest to chaining themselves outside the main entrance to the ministry, prompting authorities to urge employees to work from home.

Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg (C) and other young climate activists from the "Nature and Youth" and "Norwegian Samirs Riksforbund Nuorat" groups block the entrance of Norway's energy ministry as they protest against wind turbines built on land traditionally used by the Sami people to herd reindeer, in Oslo, Feb. 27, 2023

.OLE BERG-RUSTEN/NTB/AFP/GETTY

By chaining themselves, "we make it practically more difficult to move us," activist Ella Marie Hætta Isaksen told NRK.

Norway's Energy Minister Terje Aasland told NRK that although the Supreme Court has ruled that the construction of the wind farm is invalid, the court does not say anything about what should happen to it.

The government must "make new decisions that are in line with the premise of the Supreme Court's judgment," Aasland told the broadcaster.

Other activists who were sitting outside the doors of nearby government buildings "have been ordered to move and if they don't we will remove them by force," said police spokesman Brian Skotnes shortly before officers were seen carrying activists away. They were not arrested.


The Sami live in Lapland, which stretches from northern parts of Norway through Sweden and Finland to Russia. They once faced oppression of their culture, including bans on the use of their native tongue.

Today the nomadic people live mostly modern lifestyles but still tend reindeer.

As CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reported several years ago, in a cruel irony, the climate change that wind farms are aimed at easing by shifting to green energy is actually making the Samis' centuries-old tradition of animal husbandry more difficult.

Warmer average temperatures have meant less snow and more ice in the region over the last decade or so, one Sami herder told Phillips, and reindeer cannot forage for their preferred food, lichen, through ice.

 

Reindeer near Santa's hometown need help to survive climate change

In our series "Eye on Earth," we explore how climate change is threatening a symbol of Christmas: Santa's famous reindeer. Over the past 20 years, wild reindeer and caribou populations have declined by more than two million. Mark Phillips reports from a city known as Santa's home town to find out why these animals are struggling to survive after more than a million years on earth.

DEC 5, 2019

Syria's Assad meets senior Arab lawmakers in Damascus
Reuters

 Syrian parliament members and Parliamentary Speaker Hammouda Sabbagh meet with a delegation from the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union in Damascus, Syria February 26, 2023. 

REUTERS/Firas Makdesi

DAMASCUS, Feb 26 (Reuters) - A delegation of senior Arab parliamentarians met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Sunday, another sign of thawing ties after more than a decade of isolation over the conflict in Syria.

The heads of the Iraqi, Jordanian, Palestinian, Libyan, Egyptian and Emirati houses of representatives, as well as representatives from Oman and Lebanon, traveled to Syria as part of a delegation from the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union.

They met with Syrian parliamentarians and with Assad, according to Syrian state news agency SANA.

"We cannot do without Syria and Syria cannot do without its Arab environment, which we hope it can return to," said Iraqi parliament speaker Mohammed Halbousi.

Syria was largely isolated from the rest of the Arab world following Assad's deadly crackdown against protests that erupted against his rule in 2011.e

The Arab League suspended Syria's membership in 2011 and many Arab countries pulled their envoys out of Damascus.

But Assad has benefited from an outpouring of support from Arab states following the devastating earthquake on Feb. 6, which killed more than 5,900 people across his country, according to a tally of U.N. and Syrian government figures.

Donors have included Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which both supported rebels seeking to overthrow Assad in the early years of the Syrian conflict.

Egypt's President Abdul Fattah al-Sisi spoke with Assad by phone for the first time on Feb. 7 and Jordan's foreign minister made his first trip to Damascus on Feb. 15.

Assad then traveled to Oman on Feb. 20 - the first time he left Syria since the quake.

He had rarely left Syria during the war, travelling only to close allies Russia and Iran whose military support helped him turn the tide of the conflict.

Assad's 2022 visit to the UAE was his first trip to an Arab state since the 2011 outbreak of war.

Arab parliamentary delegation visits quake-hit Syria for 1st time since 2011

Visit aims to show solidarity with Syria following earthquakes
Ibrahim Al-Khazen |26.02.2023


DAMASCUS, Syria

An Arab parliamentary delegation visited the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Sunday to show solidarity with the victims of the Feb. 6 earthquakes that killed thousands in Syria and Türkiye.

The visit was the first since 2011 when Syria’s membership in the Cairo-based Arab League was suspended amid a deadly regime crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

Egypt’s state news agency MENA said Parliament Speaker Hanafi Al-Gebali arrived in Damascus as part of an Arab parliamentary delegation to show solidarity with Syria following the earthquakes.

Iraq’s state news agency INA said Parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbousi also visited Damascus and was welcomed by the head of the Syrian regime, Bashar al-Assad.

“The delegation represents the Inter-Parliamentary Union to confirm support to Syria and stand by its people in the plight caused by the earthquake,” al-Halbousi said in statements cited by Syrian state news agency SANA.

At least 44,218 people were killed by two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye on Feb. 6.

The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, affected more than 13 million people across 11 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Elazig, and Sanliurfa.

In Syria, at least 5,840 people have been killed in the earthquake disaster.

* Ikram Imane Kouachi contributed to this report

U.S. Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons Stern’s Travel to Sydney, Australia for WorldPride


MEDIA NOTE
OFFICE OF THE SPOKESPERSON
FEBRUARY 26, 2023

U.S. Special Envoy to Advance the Human Rights of LGBTQI+ Persons Jessica Stern will be in Sydney, February 27 to March 5, to participate in WorldPride. WorldPride is an event that began in 2000 and promotes LGBTQI+ issues internationally via festivals, cultural activities, and a human rights conference. WorldPride Sydney (WPS) represents the first time the event will be held in the southern hemisphere and coincides with the 50th anniversary of the first Australian Gay Pride Week, the 45th anniversary of the first Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and the fifth anniversary of marriage equality in Australia.

Special Envoy Stern will speak at the WPS Human Rights Conference, and meet with public officials, business leaders, and civil society members from Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific Island countries. The Special Envoy will conclude her trip by participating in Sydney’s annual walk across the rainbow bridge on the morning of March 5.

The next WorldPride celebration will be held in Washington, D.C. in 2025.

How the world's most endangered cat was saved from extinction: RAZOR



Hidden among the rolling, grassy hills of southern Spain live some of Europe's most elusive - and endangered - creatures.

The Iberian lynx once used to roam the Iberian peninsula in its thousands, silently stalking prey and avoiding humans.

But by the turn of the century fewer than a hundred remained, becoming the world's most endangered cat.

Now, an ambitious effort initiated by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) has managed to bring the species back from the brink of extinction.

RAZOR's Reya El-Salahi travelled to the Sierra Morena mountains to see how it all works.

Nearly wiped out

By 2002, only 94 lynx remained in southern Spain and neighboring Portugal

There are many reasons why the population fell so drastically, says Ramon Perez de Ayala, the lynx project lead at WWF.

The big cat was hunted by humans, its natural habitat was steadily destroyed and several illnesses took hold in the population of its favorite food - the rabbit.

Many were also killed in road accidents as Spain expanded its transport network, says Perez de Ayala.

But 20 years on, its numbers have rebounded, hovering at around 1,300.

More than 22 organizations and hundreds of people across Spain and Portugal are now involved in programs which include captive breeding and public awareness campaigns.

 

A female Iberian lynx named Solera is released with other four lynxes, as part of the European project 'Life Lynx

Connect'. /Jon Nazca/Reutes


Back from the brink

The first step was to drastically boost the species' main food source. Rabbits are released into concrete pipes laid underground that serve as warrens. They are also regularly checked for signs of disease.

Lynxes were then released in areas where there was a known population of breeding felines.

Another challenge was working out how to count the remaining lynx population. The initial census found fewer than a hundred, and 70 of those were in these hills.

Monitoring is still a key part of the work. Wildlife workers sometimes go through the lynx's fecal matter to check that the animal is healthy.

They are also tracked in the wild with GPS tags.

A lifelong effort

But it's not just about maintaining the peninsula's delicate ecological balance.

For many like Perez de Ayala saving the lynx is a personal mission.

The conservationist breaks down in tears as he tries to explain what the cat's incredible rebound means to him.

"If they told us 20 years ago that we would be here today...we wouldn't have trusted them," he says.

"I've spent my entire life working on this. Hopefully, I will retire with the lynx safe."

More from RAZOR, the science show you need in your life

Ukrainians in Canada: workplaces are welcoming, but newcomers are overqualified

By Ritika Dubey The Canadian Press
Posted February 26, 2023 

Viacheslav Samsonenko would need at least two years of experience to work as a professional engineer in Canada.

So, like many newcomers, he signed up for a job below his qualifications and is working hard to move up.

Samsonenko, who moved to Canada last May after fleeing the war in Ukraine, knew two decades of work experience in the field wouldn’t be relevant in Canada.

But he managed to find work in the same industry within a month of arriving in Canada.

“I’m glad to be here in Canada (and) do my favourite work,” said Samsonenko, who has been working as an estimator for a British Columbia-based construction company.

He said it wasn’t hard finding a job in his preferred industry but it will be a while before he becomes a professional civil engineer in Canada — requiring him to write a series of tests and continue gaining experience.

Samsonenko’s situation isn’t unique. People working in immigration say newcomers often struggle to land meaningful jobs that are in line with their qualifications or previous work experience.

“It boils down to the lack of Canadian experience (for many employers),” said Darrel Pinto, employment director at Jumpstart Refugee Talent, a refugee-led non-profit organization helping newcomers find relevant jobs.

Newcomers often feel they get screened out of opportunities, he said. The lack of soft skills and cultural integration are among the biggest problems when it comes to employers accepting newcomers into professions, he added.

The equivalency of education credentials is another barrier that employers need help understanding.

Pinto said employers fail to recognize that some foreign universities “far exceed the quality of graduates than our own Canadian universities.”

“Many newcomers tell me that the United States is far more open and welcoming to their differences compared to the Canadian marketplace, which is a little bit more closed,” he said

Viktoriia Kulakovska moved to New Brunswick last August after fleeing the war that reached her hometown in Odesa, about 475 kilometres south of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

Kulakovska and her husband, both qualified as lawyers, were running their legal firm in Ukraine. Soon enough, she found out her law degree was not recognized in Canada. Instead, she landed a finance job through networking.

She said her husband has been going to English classes in Fredericton and is also preparing for a career shift. He is considering becoming a taxi or truck driver.

She said she sees a lot of opportunities to try new things in Canada, but obtaining another law degree might not be feasible for her and her husband.

And that is the case for many immigrants to Canada.

A report this week from the Royal Bank of Canada indicates that despite immigrants being younger and better educated, they have a harder time than Canadians finding jobs that match their qualifications.

However, Pinto said the experience of Ukrainians coming to Canada after the Russian invasion last year is different from other waves of refugees.

The government responded innovatively to the crisis in eastern Europe, said Pinto.

“That made it a softer landing for them when they arrived in Canada.”

Faster timelines to process open work permits under a special program, faster resettlement services and increased assistance in landing jobs in the community worked well for the Ukrainian newcomers, which he said could also become a template for future newcomers from other countries.

Patrick MacKenzie, CEO of the non-profit Immigration Employment Council of B.C., agreed.

MacKenzie recalled a recent case when a Ukrainian landed a job at a Vancouver bakery before even coming to Canada. “He just needs to get here now.”

“Ukrainians are being welcomed into the workplace, and employers are finding that they’re contributing really quickly,” he said, adding the higher level of Canadians’ awareness about the war in Ukraine could also play a role.

“I hope employers will take that lesson and apply it more broadly to all newcomers to Canada so that we can make headway on the underemployment that we see so many immigrants face,” he said.

Since March 2022, the Canadian government has received more than 860,000 applications from Ukraine, and close to 170,000 Ukrainians have arrived in Canada, the government site show

But language continues to be the biggest barrier, particularly for professional jobs, said Kael Campbell of Victoria, B.C.-based Red Seal Recruitment Solutions.

Some recruiters, however, are starting to challenge the Canadian experience narrative, he said.

“There’s either work experience or there’s not,” Campbell said.

With the latest Ukrainian wave, Campbell said recruiters are working to educate Canadian employers about the opportunity the newcomers are bringing to the table.

“(We’re) encouraging employers to be open to hiring Ukrainians and to sharing the knowledge that they have.”

This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta and Canadian Press News Fellowship.

In heart of Haiti's gang war, one hospital stands its ground

By Megan Janetsky and Fernanda Pesce | AP
February 26, 2023 

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — When machine gun fire erupts outside the barbed-wire fences surrounding Fontaine Hospital Center, the noise washes over a cafeteria full of tired, scrub-clad medical staff.

And no one bats an eye.

Gunfire is part of daily life here in Cité Soleil – the most densely populated part of the Haitian capital and the heart of Port-au-Prince’s gang wars.

As gangs tighten their grip on Haiti, many medical facilities in the Caribbean nation’s most violent areas have closed, leaving Fontaine as one of the last hospitals and social institutions in one of the world’s most lawless places.

“We’ve been left all alone,” said Loubents Jean Baptiste, the hospital’s medical director.

Fontaine can mean the difference between life and death for hundreds of thousands of people just trying to survive, and it offers a small oasis of calm in a city that has descended into chaos.

The danger in the streets complicates everything: When gangsters with bullet wounds show up at the gates, doctors ask them to check their automatic weapons at the door as if they were coats. Doctors cannot return safely to homes in areas controlled by rival gangs and must live in hospital dormitories. Patients who are too scared to seek basic care due to the violence arrive in increasingly dire condition.

Access to health care has never been easy in Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. But late last year it suffered a one-two punch.

One of Haiti’s most powerful gang federations, G9, blockaded Port-au-Prince’s most important fuel terminal, essentially paralyzing the country for two months.

At the same time, a cholera outbreak made worse by gang-imposed mobility restrictions brought the Haitian health care system to its knees.

The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, said this month that violence between G9 and a rival gang has turned Cité Soleil into “a living nightmare.”

Reminders of the desperation are never far away. An armored truck driven by hospital leaders passes by hundreds of mud pies baking in the harsh sun to fill the stomachs of people who can’t afford food. Black spray-painted “G9” tags dot nearby buildings, a warning of who’s in charge.

In a February report, the U.N. documented 263 murders between July and December in just the small area surrounding the hospital, noting that violence has “severely hampered” access to health services.

That was the case for 34-year-old Millen Siltant, a street vendor who sits in a hospital hallway waiting for a checkup, her hands nervously clutching medical paperwork over her pregnant belly.

Nearby, hospital staff play with nearly 20 babies and toddlers — orphans whose parents were killed in the gang wars.

Normally, Siltant would travel an hour across the city by colorful buses known as tap-taps for her prenatal checkups at Fontaine. There she would join other pregnant women waiting for exams and mothers cradling malnourished children in line for weigh-ins.

All the clinics in the area where she lives have closed, she said. For two months last year she couldn’t leave the house because gangs holding the city hostage made travel through the dusty, winding streets nearly impossible.


“Some days, there’s no transportation because there’s no fuel,” she said. “Sometimes there’s a shooting on the street and you spend hours unable to go outside … Now I’m worried because the doctor says I need to get a C-section.”

Health care providers told the Associated Press that the crisis has caused more bullet and burn wounds. It has also fueled an uptick in less predictable conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and sexually transmitted infections, largely because of slashed access to primary care.

Pregnant women are disproportionately affected. Gynecologist Phalande Joseph sees the repercussions every day when she leaves her hospital dormitory and pulls on her light blue scrubs.

The young Haitian doctor snaps on a pair of white surgical gloves and makes an incision into a pregnant patient’s belly with a steady hand that only comes with practice.

She works swiftly, conversing with medical staff in her native Creole, when a burst of wailing erupts from a baby girl nurses swaddle in pink blankets.

Operations like these have grown more common, Joseph explains in between C-sections, because the very conditions that have intensified amid the turmoil can turn a pregnancy from high risk to deadly.

This year, 10,000 pregnant women in Haiti could face fatal obstetric complications due to the crisis, according to U.N. data.

Those risks are only compounded by the fact that many of Joseph’s patients are sexual violence survivors or widows whose husbands were killed by gangs. Permeating the struggle is an air of fear.

“If they start having contractions at 3 a.m., they are terribly scared of coming here because it is too early, and they are scared something might happen to them because of the gangs,” Joseph said. “Many times when they arrive, the baby is already suffering, and it is too late so we need to do C-section.”

That became most evident to Joseph last October when four men came rushing to a hospital carrying a woman giving birth stretched out on top of a door. Because of gang lockdowns, the woman couldn’t find any transportation to the hospital after her water broke.

“These four men were not even her family. They found her delivering on the street ... When I heard she lost the baby, it shook me,” she said. “The situation in my country is so bad, and there is not much we can do about it.”

Started as a one-room clinic to provide basic medical services to a community with no other resources, Fontaine Hospital Center was opened in 1991 by Jose Ulysse.

Ulysse and his family have worked to expand the hospital year after year. They fight to keep their doors open, Ulysse said.

Even when firefights arrive at the doors of Fontaine, the hospital reopens few hours later. If it were to close for longer, administrators worry that it could lose momentum and would be hard to reopen.

Today, it’s the only facility to perform C-sections and other high-level surgeries in Cité Soleil.

Because most of the people in the area live in extreme poverty, the hospital charges little to nothing to patients even as it struggles to purchase advanced medical equipment with funds from UNICEF and other international aid providers. Between 2021 and 2022, the facility saw a 70% jump in the number of patients.

The hospital possesses a certain level of protection because it accepts all patients.

“We don’t pick sides. If the two groups face off, and they arrive at the hospital like any other person, we treat them,” Jean Baptiste said.

Even the gangs understand the importance of medical care, he added. Yet the walls still feel like they’re closing in.

Rising carjackings of medical vehicles have made it impossible for Fontaine to invest in an ambulance. When ambulance operators are called from areas like Cité Soleil, they offer a simple response: “Sorry, we can’t go there.”

Fontaine’s mobile clinic can now travel little more than a few blocks outside the facility’s walls.

Doctors worry, but they keep working, just as they’ve always done.

“You say, well, I have to work. So let God protect me,” Jean Baptiste said. “As this situation gets worse, we go out and decide to face the risks. … We have to keep pushing forward.”

Somali Americans Rally in Washington, Demand End to Hostility

February 26, 2023
Mohamed Olad Hassan

Somali American demonstrators gather during a rally outside the State Department in Washington, Feb. 24, 2023, to call attention to the clashes in a disputed town in Somalia’s breakaway Somaliland region.

WASHINGTON —

Somali-American demonstrators from across the United States have called for a cessation of hostility after three weeks of clashes in a disputed town in Somalia’s breakaway Somaliland region left over 100 people dead and more than 500 wounded.

About 200 Somali Americans from across the United States gathered outside the U.S. State Department Friday to call attention to the violence.

Local militias are fighting to pull three regions – Sool, Sanaag and Cayn -- away from Somaliland in order to rejoin Somalia. Cease-fire calls have so far been ignored.

Some of the demonstrators carrying the Somali flag, banners, and placards were seen chanting anti-war slogans in support of the victims of the fighting in Las Anod, the capital of Sool.

"Down, down with Muse Bihi," protesters chanted, referring to Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi.

They demanded immediate, and unconditional cessation of the fighting in Las Anod.

"It is forbidden to kill the innocents, the children, elders, or women. Somaliland cannot rule by force. We will not allow Muse Bihi to kill innocent people," said one of the protesters, Abdirashid Mohamed Farah.

Abdirahman Mohamed Abdi, Somalia’s former minister of fisheries and marine resources was among the demonstrators.

He said the people in Las Anod are suffering simply because they want to withdraw from Somaliland and be governed by Somalia to the south.

“We are from 15 states in the U.S and Canada. We are here to tell Somalis and the United States government that we want to express our feelings and show solidarity with the innocent people of Las Anod,” Abdi said.

“We call for the United States to pressure Somaliland to cease the hostility,” he added.

“Our people in Las Anod are dying for the sake of the unity of Somalia, and we are here to show solidarity with them, and thank to all those who supported us and sympathized us in this cause,” said another demonstrator, Fawzia Haji Dirir.



The demonstrators also marched toward Djibouti's Washington embassy, accusing that nation of supporting Somaliland in the fight, but Djiboutian Economy and Finance Minister Ilyas Moussa Dawaleh Saturday denied his country’s involvement in the conflict to VOA.

“The accusers have no evidence to prove, and the only Djibouti guns in Somalia are those in the hands of our Hill Walal soldiers,” Dawaleh said, referring to Djibouti soldiers in Somalia who are part of the African Union peacekeeping forces.

The Washington rally came amid ongoing international efforts to end the fighting.

The U.N. and other diplomatic missions in Somalia, including the U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu, have called on both sides to end to the hostility and negotiate a resolution of their differences, as has Somalia’s government.

“On February 23, a delegation from the U.S. Embassy in Mogadishu led by Chargé d’Affaires Tim Trenkle visited Hargeisa [Somaliland’s capital] to meet with Somaliland government officials, civil society representatives, and youth leaders to discuss security, prosperity, and democracy in the region,” the U.S Embassy in Mogadishu said in a February 23 statement.

“The delegation was received by Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi. The Chargé d’Affaires reiterated the United States and international community’s call for an immediate, unconditional ceasefire in Las Anod and condemned the tragic loss of life and violence,” the statement added.

A Standoff

Somaliland President Muse Bihi announced last week that he would be dispatching clan elders to seek an end to the violence. However, clan elders in the battle-battered town demanded that Somaliland pull out its troops as a precondition for dialogue.

Despite local calls for peace and international efforts, shelling and gunfire continued in Las Anod Saturday, killing at least 20 people, residents and hospital sources told VOA.

Spokesmen for both sides, who spoke to VOA Somali have traded accusations.

Spokesman for the traditional elders in Las Anod Garaad Abdikarim Ali said the Somaliland army launched an attack and bombarded the city with artillery Saturday.

SEE ALSO:
Dozens Killed in Eastern Somaliland Clashes

In response, Somaliland Army spokesman Abdi Dhere said local militias, supported by al-Shabab militants have launched an attack on Somaliland army base.

Doctors and hospitals in Las Anod said this week that 105 people had been killed and 602 injured in the three weeks of fighting.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Wednesday the clashes in Las Anod had left at least 150 people dead and over 600 others wounded since February 6.

A VOA reporter in the town said the fighting has escalated this week, as both sides dug trenches to defend their positions, while mortar and tank shells pounded throughout the city.

Somaliland considers the territory as a part of its breakaway region and that giving up could jeopardize its efforts for international recognition of its separation from Mogadishu.

SOUTH AFRICA

SAPS special task force unit ranks among world's top 10 SWAT teams

Covert unit performs well at World SWAT challenge, rating tops in Africa

26 February 2023 - 17:34
Gill Gifford

Senior journalist

World top 10 ranking South Africa's Special Task Force Unit has returned from Dubai after competing in the five-day World SWAT Team Challenge, where they placed ninth out of 55 countries.
Image: Supplied

The South African Police Service's special task force unit has been rated among the top ten SWAT teams in the world.

The prestigious ranking was achieved at an annual five-day event in Dubai in which 55 teams from law enforcement agencies around the world competed against each other in brutal challenges.

A SWAT team is a group of elite police marksmen specially trained in weapons and tactics — which include high-risk tasks such as hostage situations, extreme violence and other dangerous tasks that include special skills such as bomb disposal, diving, tracking and sharp shooting.

National police spokesperson Brig Athlenda Mathe said the challenge assesses the tactical acumen, mental focus and physical endurance of task force members, with the competition designed to promote the exchange of knowledge and expertise and strengthen partnerships to make communities safe.

Mathe said the five days of intense and rigorous challenges took place in the UAE and ended with South Africa’s “taakies” coming in ninth place with 183 points. This was a vast improvement on last year when the unit was placed 13 after picking up 82 points, she said.

The component head responsible for specialised operations and the team’s overall commander, Maj-Gen Nonhlanhla Zulu, who was part of the competing team in Dubai, was proud of the team and their achievement.

“The members’ performance is commendable. In the world we are number nine, but on the African continent we are number one. This is a huge achievement. We beat Kenya and Libya. So yes, we are satisfied with the results, we hope to do better next time. We are happy to be back to continue to deal decisively with serious and violent crime in our country,” Zulu said.

The special task force is a highly specialised unit. Members are chosen through a gruelling selection process and those who make the grade only respond to high-risk incidents, which include hostage-taking cases, search and rescue missions, as well as providing specialised operational support to other units within the SAPS.

 Sunday Times. 

Panic as Mediterranean waters recede following quakes

Egypt's Sinai, Libya, Algeria and Palestine, including the city of Acre and some beaches in the Gaza Strip, have seen new rocks exposed on their beaches with tidal waters moving five to 20 metres, leading to fears that a tsunami will strike.

Mohammed Asad
February 26, 2023 


Social networking sites have been abuzz with fears that the Mediterranean Sea is receding the Middle East by up to 20 metres since the large earthquakes that hit the region earlier this month.

Egypt's Sinai, Libya, Algeria and Palestine, including the city of Acre and some beaches in the Gaza Strip, have seen new rocks exposed on their beaches with tidal waters moving five to 20 metres, leading to fears that a tsunami will strike.

Dr Zeyad Abu Heen, a seismologist and the official in charge of the Department of Disasters and Crises at the Islamic University in Gaza, tells MEMO: "The subject of tsunami waves is not included in the Mediterranean Sea because it is a semi-closed sea and resembles a large lake."

Instead, he says, the only way for such an event to occur in the area is through "a vertical movement which breaks the earth's crust, so a vertical displacement occurs, resulting in the displacement of water and the formation of huge and high waves travelling at a speed of up to 800 kilometres per hour, meaning that they will reach the shores of Palestine within minutes or an hour at most."

Putting people's fear at rest, Abu Heen says the earthquakes that devastated large parts of southern Turkiye and northwestern Syria took place several weeks ago and it has now been more than 24 hours since the subsequent large tremor, so fears of a tsunami are unfounded.

He explained that what is happening along the shore is a natural phenomenon, but people's fears have been heightened following the earthquakes.










READ: Palestinian refugees rescued in Mediterranean Sea

Germany: Food banks turn 30 with no end in sight

Germany's first Tafel food bank opened in Berlin 30 years ago. There, people in need can receive groceries that would otherwise be thrown away. What began as a spontaneous idea has become a nationwide political entity.

Lisa Hänel

The inspiration came from the United States. A member of a Berlin women's group had read an article about volunteers in New York who were distributing discarded groceries to homeless people. "And then we thought, 'OK, we can do that too,'" Sabine Werth told DW. "We wanted to set a place at the table for those who otherwise couldn't afford it."

Together with fellow members of the group, called "Initiativgruppe Berliner Frauen," she founded the first Tafel, as food banks are called in Germany, the name being one of the German words for "table."

That was 30 years ago. The original food bank remains the largest in the country and has since become an independent registered association. And the idea spread rapidly: Today there are 936 Tafel food banks throughout Germany. Depending on how big the food banks are, the organizers go to supermarkets, local food retailers and bakeries several times a week, or even daily, to collect leftover food that is still good to eat, thus saving waste while supporting people suffering poverty.

Food banks in crisis

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Sometimes, large supermarket chains also deliver their excess goods to the food banks in the evenings once or twice a week. The banks are then opened for people who first need to prove their need, for example, with a document from the social welfare office, before they can pick up things like apples, sausage and bread.

"We follow the classic Robin Hood principle. We take from where there is too much and give to where it is needed. But we do it legally," said Werth smilingly.

The food bank now serves a much wider variety of people than just those in the homeless community. It provides welcome relief to many single parents, pensioners needing a top-up and refugees. For such people, it is only when a little money can be shaved off the monthly food budget that other purchases are possible, such as a child's school exercise book or a visit to the movies.

Sabine Werth started working for the food bank 30 years ago

Image: Berliner Tafel e.V.
Poverty in Germany

The umbrella organization for the food banks in Germany estimates that 2 million people visited them last year — a sharp increase, about 50%, compared with the year before. Despite Germany being one of the world's richest countries, 13.8 million people there were affected by or threatened with poverty in 2022. As a rule, poverty in Germany refers to relative rather than absolute poverty. People are not facing immediate starvation or freezing. But even so, poverty in Germany still means a lack of participation in society, children having hungry days without lunch, no holiday travel and inferior education.

The food banks began as a way of saving food and alleviating hardship, but they have now become a gauge of poverty — or, as the chairperson of the national umbrella organization, Jochen Brühl, told DW, "a seismograph for societal situations and developments." He said that when the first Tafel opened in 1993, poverty was not yet a widely discussed topic in German society. According to him, the general tenor was that poverty did not exist in Germany: Whoever wanted to work, worked.

"Fortunately, that sentiment has changed dramatically over the past 30 years," Sabine Werth said. "There is no political party, no parliamentary group, nobody on the political scene who would say that there is no poverty in Germany."

Brühl says that this is partly down to the existence of food banks, with the fact that there is one in almost every city making poverty very tangible.

Sabine Werth is proud that the Berliner Tafel now employs more than 2700 volunteers

Image: Berliner Tafel

'Food is political'

A visit to one of the many food banks in Germany quickly provides a sense of this. In Eitorf, a village near Bonn, Paul Hüsson gives a tour of the food bank he runs with 56 volunteers. With a touch of noticeable pride, he leads the way to the courtyard where goods are distributed on Mondays and Tuesdays, and opens a small warehouse where bags of pasta, packets of flour and tins of vegetables are stacked. It does not take long for Hüsson to become political. He maintains that welfare payments are too low, and says that the €9 ($9.50) monthly public transport ticket, a pilot project that ran throughout Germany from June to August 2022, was a blessing for those with little money.

The food banks often intervene in sociopolitical debates — and that is intentional. "If we are genuinely engaging with these issues, that automatically makes us political," said Brühl. "Not in the sense of being affiliated with any particular political party. But we have influence at a sociopolitical level because we hold up a mirror to society and show what is obviously not working in some places." Or, as Sabine Werth puts it succinctly at the door to the Tafel in Berlin: "'Food is political."

Hüsson explained that he himself had much to learn about how complex poverty is. Currently, half the clients of his food bank are children. "That cuts deep," he said, pointing toward his heart.

Paul Hüsson and his food bank in the small western town of Eitorf support around 580 peopleI

mage: Lisa Hänel/DW

Keeping the state at arm's length

Ever since the food banks formed, there has also been criticism, with some saying they make things too easy for the state and people in need. What becomes clear in conversations with food bank volunteers and leaders, however, is that they expressly do not want to be a part of the government social welfare system.

All of them emphasize that it is wrong for social welfare offices to send people to food banks when they say their monthly allowances are not enough. "We are increasingly slipping into a situation where some are pricing us into our welfare system. But we do not want that, and we are vehemently opposed to it," said Brühl. In Berlin, said Sabine Werth, the food bank does not accept any financial support from the state for that reason, in order to maintain its independence.

The food banks engage in sociopolitical debates — a sticker on the door to the Berliner Tafel reads: 'Food is political'

Image: Berliner Tafel

What does the future hold for food banks?

The past three years have been extremely challenging for the food banks. Inflation, the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic have caused considerable strain, with a 50% increase in people in need. Many of the institutions are at their limit, as Brühl notes. But despite this, they keep going, he says.

At this 30-year milestone the food banks are reflecting on their development — from that first site in Berlin to hundreds throughout Germany, along with a sociopolitical advocacy role. But Sabine Werth waves aside the question of her vision for the next three decades. "I never thought in those dimensions," she said. "Thirty years ago, I never thought that we would be where we are now. Food bank work is full of new surprises every day."

Jochen Brühl says he thinks that the Tafel food banks' future is guaranteed. "I believe food banks will reinvent themselves as needed," he says, because they always react to what is happening in society, not the other way around.

Paul Hüsson in Eitorf is focused on practical concerns: He is trying to find new premises, as the current ones are slowly becoming too small. It looks as though food banks will still be needed in 30 years' time, even in affluent Germany.

This article was originally written in German.