NGOs accuse France of climate inaction in landmark court case

Issued on: 13/01/2021 -

NGOs want the French government to be held responsible for climate inaction

 JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER AFP/File

Paris (AFP)

A Paris court will begin hearing a complaint brought by NGOs backed by two million citizens on Thursday accusing the French state of failing to act to halt climate change.

The NGOs want to the court to hold the state responsible for ecological damage and say victory would mark a symbolic step in the fight to persuade governments to do more.

An international accord signed in Paris five years ago aims to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, and preferably to 1.5 degrees.

But experts say governments are far from meeting their commitments and anger is growing among the younger generation over inaction, symbolised by the campaigns of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg.

The French case is part of a mounting push from climate campaigners across the world to use courts against governments.

In 2019, the Dutch Supreme Court ordered the Netherlands to slash its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 percent of 1990 levels by the end of 2020 after a case brought by an NGO.

The French case began in December 2018 when four NGOs accused the government of failing to reduce emissions in a formal complaint backed by more than two million people in an online petition -- a French record.

Unsatisfied with the response, the NGOs, including Greenpeace France and Oxfam France, then filed their legal complaint in March 2019 seeking symbolic damages of just one euro ($1.21) from the state.

- Exceeding carbon budgets -

"We are full of hope for this hearing and the decision that will follow," Jean-Francois Julliard, director of Greenpeace France, told AFP.

Julliard said he wanted the court to recognise that the state was not doing enough.

"The icing on the cake would be a decision to urge the state to do more to put France back on the trajectory of the Paris Agreement", he said.

While France has committed to reducing its emissions by 40 percent by 2030 compared with 1990, the NGOs say it is exceeding the carbon budgets it pledged.

They also complain of shortcomings in the energy renovation of buildings or development of renewable energy, saying this is having a daily impact on the health and quality of life of the French.

- Natural disasters 'increasing' -

The NGOs have presented 100 testimonies from individuals with their case, after collecting more than 25,000 online.

"For me, climate change -- with the increase in the frequency of natural disasters, the rise in sea temperatures and the progression of coastal erosion -- is a reality now," said Jean-Francois, a producer of mussels on the island of Oleron in western France.

The government rejects accusations of inaction, pointing to the energy-climate law of 2019 that "reinforces the climate goals" by aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050 or a 40 percent drop in the use of fossil fuels by 2030.

In its defence sent to the court, the government also rejected the request for compensation over ecological damage, arguing that the French state cannot be held solely responsible for climate change when France represents around 1 percent of global emissions.

Julliard acknowledged the case could be a double-edged sword for the NGOs.

"If we lose, then it will be easy for the state to say: 'We won in court, so stop your incessant demands,'" he said.

© 2021 AFP

High cost to wildlife from shark nets protecting S.Africa beaches


Issued on: 13/01/2021 -

A black-tip shark is seen swimming during a baited shark dive in Umkomaas near Durban, South Africa   Michele Spatari AFP


Umkomaas (South Africa) (AFP)

"They're basically curtains of death," said shark diver Walter Bernardis as he reached over the side of his zodiac inflatable boat to pull up a net bobbing in eastern South Africa's subtropical waters.

The 200-metre (-yard) stretch of mesh is meant to protect swimmers basking on the eastern coast's palm-lined beaches from shark attacks.

But conservationists say the nets trap any large animal that swims too close to shore, making no distinction between sharks, dolphins, dugongs, sea turtles and whales.

"They're a passive system that has been put in the water and everything that puts its head in that net dies," said Bernardis, who quit a teaching job to bring tourists face-to-face with sharks and set the record straight about the fish.

The predators gained a bad name in the 1950s, when a string of deadly attacks prompted people to desert the popular white sand beaches in KwaZulu-Natal province, which now draws more than six million visitors each year.

Steven Spielberg's 1975 thriller "Jaws" compounded fears by gripping the public imagination with incorrect representations of sharks as human flesh-eaters.

Alarmed, the provincial tourist industry set out to keep sharks away from skittish beachgoers.

Today 37 beaches are lined with nets and baited drum lines, spread over more than 300 kilometres (190 miles) north and south of the provincial capital Durban.

- No taste for humans -

The barriers have successfully reassured holidaymakers.

Throngs of people spend the southern hemisphere summer in KwaZulu-Natal, packing the beaches with tents and parasols -- although access was limited this year due to coronavirus.

Not a single lethal shark encounter has been reported in protected areas in more than 67 years, according to the publically-funded KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) sharks board.

Yet figures suggest the predators rarely strike humans, regardless of whether they are separated by nets.

Only around 100 shark attacks were reported globally in 2019, according to records compiled by the University of Florida.

Human flesh is not usually part of a shark's diet, consisting mainly of smaller fish and other animals such as seals and squid.

Only five out of hundreds of shark species are considered threats to man, including the aggressive bull and tiger sharks.

Keeping them away from people, however, has other costs.

At least 400 sharks suffocate each year after being trapped too long by nets and baited hooks, says the KZN sharks board.

- 'False' security -

"In 2019 we caught 690 animals," said Matt Dickens, head of research at the KZN sharks board, which defends the barriers.

"Many of those were released alive," he added, noting that commercial fishing in South Africa catches 10 times more.

Shark diver and guide Gary Snodgrass was forced to change the name of one of his tours a few years ago because sightings of certain species had become rare.

"We can't call it a tiger shark dive any more because we're seeing them so seldom... they have decreased in number dramatically."

Global shark populations are threatened by habitat destruction, overfishing and the lucrative shark fin trade.

Humans kill an estimated 100 million sharks annually, according to scientific findings published in 2013, and eight species are now protected by CITES.

Still there is little public sympathy for creatures associated with vicious gaping jaws and razor-sharp teeth.

But scientists and conservationists stress the animals are important for the ecosystem and key to regulating marine populations.

They also note that shark barriers are barely effective, especially against large species.

In fact, divers have noticed that most animals can swim under the mesh, which is only six metres deep, and often get stuck on their way back from the shoreline, rather than on the way in.

Nets and drum lines give swimmers a "false" sense of security and signal "to people that sharks are dangerous", said Jean Harris, head of South African conservation group Wild Oceans.

What needs to change, she added, is "people's minds".

Africa dominates top 10 forgotten crises of 2020

"These 10 crises received 26 times less attention — in terms of online news articles — than the launch of PlayStation 5" 

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only sapped media attention from global humanitarian crises, but it has also made them worse, NGO CARE International has warned.


Central African Republic has been on the list of unreported crises for several years

As the coronavirus pandemic dominated headlines across the world throughout 2020, major humanitarian crises went unreported, relief agency CARE International said on Tuesday.

In an annual report titled "Suffering in Silence," the NGO highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic not only diverted attention away from humanitarian crises but has also helped exacerbate them.

CARE called out media organizations for not prioritizing populations from Guatemala to Malawi who are in dire need and how this affects humanitarian response.

CARE analyzed and ranked the 10 humanitarian crises with the lowest number of online news articles mentioning them, starting with the emergency that received the least amount of media attention at number one.

"These 10 crises received 26 times less attention — in terms of online news articles — than the launch of PlayStation 5," CARE said.

Burundi tops the list

Six African countries made the list, sharing a list of malaise ranging from internal displacement, hunger and malnutrition, and chronic poverty.

Burundi, the fifth-poorest country in the world, topped the list with 2.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance. The country has one of the highest rates of chronic malnourishment in the world, the report said. 

The crisis of internally displaced persons in Madagascar has not been remedied for years

"The Central African Republic (CAR), Madagascar, Mali and Burundi have appeared on the list across multiple years, yet the people in these countries don’t get sufficient media attention," the report said, highlighting a number of African nations on the list.

The suffering is particularly acute for those living in the Central African Republic, a country whose "perennial" massive crises go largely underreported each year.

"Despite its significant mineral deposits that include gold, diamonds and uranium, as well as rich arable land, CAR sits at second last on the 2019 Human Development Index," the report added. 

Climate change and conflict converge

Non-African countries on the list also share an urgent need for aid amid food insecurity, but they also face conflict and climate change as structural factors fueling their humanitarian crises.

Pakistan, ranked seventh on the list and the world's fifth most populous country, has been plagued by the intersection of conflict, the effects of climate change, and pervasive poverty.


Pakistani farmers were helpless in 2020 amid swarms of locusts

In 2020, "Pakistan suffered its worst locust plague in history, forcing the government to import wheat for the first time in six years," the report said. This was followed by extreme flooding which destroyed crops, food supplies and livestock.

Madagascar is another underreported nation particularly ravaged by climate change, CARE highlighted. The island nation suffers from "recurrent, protracted droughts, and an average of 1.5 cyclones per year — the highest rate in Africa."

The report stressed that an estimated one fifth of Malagasy people, some 5 million, are directly affected by recurring natural disasters, including cyclones, floods and droughts. 

Three straight years of drought have led to water scarcity in Madagascar

Pandemic worsens humanitarian crises

The pandemic has not only sapped international attention away from these humanitarian crises, but it has also helped to worsen them, CARE said.

"The effects of COVID-19, coupled with the growing impacts of climate change, have increased the number of people in need by 40% — the single largest increase ever recorded in one year," the report read.

The NGO also noted a marked decrease in bilateral development aid as donor governments, typically richer and developed nations, have diverted their resources to address the economic and social fallout of COVID-19 at home.

Ukraine, the only European country on the list, is one such example. Years of conflict in its eastern regions have lost relevance in today’s media landscape, CARE said. The elderly and women have been left most vulnerable.

"The stress associated with the conflict has been further exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic and restrictions, which have limited people’s ability to cross the contact line, access basic services and markets, and receive the humanitarian aid they normally rely on," the report read.

CARE called on news media to improve reporting of humanitarian crises in 2021. The NGO warned that amid continued focus on the coronavirus pandemic and the diversion of major donor resources, increased media attention could help keep humanitarian lifelines afloat.

'Uganda election feels like a war': human rights lawyer

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has confirmed a social media blackout during the election period amid calls to uphold human rights. The government has sent a massive military presence to "maintain order."


The deployment of security personnel in Uganda's 2021 election is unprecedented

As Ugandans prepare to cast their ballots in what observers consider one of the most competitive elections in Uganda's political history, President Yoweri Museveni confirmed that social media has been switched off ahead of the polls on Thursday, January 14.

"The government has closed social media. This is unfortunate but it's unavoidable," Museveni said in a national address on Tuesday.

While working on this article, the author was unable to communicate with DW correspondents or rights activists in Uganda via WhatsApp. There were also considerable difficulties calling people in Uganda directly over standard mobile phone networks.

Netblocks, an organization that tracks internet connectivity, reported that most social media networks were down as of Tuesday, including Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram and Viber.


"The internet is very slow. The network is not good at all," Madina, a resident of Uganda's capital, Kampala, told DW. "We can't download anything from Facebook. We can't download anything. So we are in that situation."

She said the social media blackout would have a big impact because "for us, we use our phones to see what is going on in Uganda or other countries. ... They [the authorities] don't want us to know or get what will take place on January 14. That is what they are avoiding maybe."

The heavy security presence in Uganda has been compared to a war — not an election

Heavy army presence in the capital

The social media shutdown is adding to what is already a tense election atmosphere in urban centers where Museveni has deployed the military, fearing riots that could overwhelm the regime.

The military presence is particularly heavy in Kampala, where scores of armored vehicles with mounted guns are patrolling the capital.

"It doesn't feel as though the country is going into an election," said Nicholas Opiyo, a renowned Ugandan human rights lawyer. "It feels as though the country is at war."

He described the mood in Kampala as apprehensive, telling DW that many people he knew had sent their families out of the country or to the countryside because they were scared.
Internet access a basic human right

The social media shutdown will make it more difficult though for independent monitors and journalists to report on violence and any other issues that may hinder the elections.

In a letter addressed to the Ugandan government, the Committee to Protect Journalists on Tuesday joined 54 other organizations calling on President Museveni to keep the internet connected during and after Thursday's polls.

The letter stresses that any disruption to the internet will impede journalists from effectively reporting and also infringe on citizens' rights to gain essential information at a critical moment.

The letter also expressed concern over a request from Museveni's government to Google that asked the tech giant to shut down opposition figures' YouTube channels.

Opposition presidential candidate for the National Unity Platform, Robert Kyagulanyi, popularly known as Bobi Wine, warned on Twitter that the government had denied many international journalists accreditation to cover the election.

Controversial social media tax

President Yoweri Museveni in 2018 complained that young people spend too much time on WhatsApp and other online applications — and were responsible for spreading false information.

Later that same year, Uganda's government introduced the "over-the-top" tax — commonly known as the social media tax — for online services such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter.

Since then, social media users in Uganda have to pay an additional USh200 ($0.05, €0.04) to access social media platforms.

This led to technically savvy Ugandans taking to Virtual Private Networks, or VPNs, to evade payment.

For many young Ugandans critical of the government, boycotting the tax has become a way to rebel against the Museveni and his National Resistance Movement party.

Election observers from IGAD, East Africa's regional body, are among those who will monitor the polls

The added advantage is that those who are already using VPNs are able to easily get around this latest social media blackout.

"Since [Monday], we have been having a problem with the internet, especially those people who are using [the social media tax]. They have found it so challenging but with people who had already downloaded VPN, they are okay," Gerald Sengelo, a Kampala resident, told DW.

Uganda is now the the 15th country in Africa to restricted social media access due to elections since 2015, according to the privacy protection company Surfshark.

Ugandans have to pay a social media tax to access platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook or Twitter

The 'Facebook controversy'

On Monday, Facebook took down several accounts linked to President Museveni's administration.The social media giant alleged that some of the profiles were fake and manipulated public opinion to favor the government while attacking the opposition.

The government rejected the accusations and blamed Facebook for "meddling in the country's election."

It has since demanded that those deleted accounts be reinstated.

"Uganda is ours. It's not anybody's. There is no way anybody can come and play around with our country to decide who is good, who is bad," President Museveni said in response to Facebook's takedown orders.

Rights activist Nicholas Opiyo said he was not surprised by the tech giant's move.

"We saw it a long time coming because the Ministry of Information had created a group of people to abuse others online," Opiyo said. "They [Ugandan government] created a system that would manipulate public conscience and public debate. And gladly, Facebook was able to identify and block these accounts."

According to the award-winning lawyer, Facebook should have blocked those accounts a long time ago because they distorted the quality of the political debate.

"They create an artificial debate online to try and paint a picture that is not the truth. So I'm really happy that Facebook took that step," Opiyo added.
Paying the ultimate price

Opiyo spent time in jail after facing charges of money laundering and is now out on bail.

He described the allegations as a continuation of a pattern targeting civil society leaders. "It left me more emboldened to continue doing what we were doing," Opiyo said.

President Yoweri Museveni is aiming for a sixth term in office

"It might be difficult to do it, but we'll try as much as we can, using all means and resources to continue doing what we do to defend human rights because our work is most needed in times such as this."

The Ugandan government has cracked down on opposition politicians and activists, as well as journalists. It accuses the opposition of flouting COVID-19 prevention rules.

"When the authorities seek to abuse rights. When they seek to silence people, then we should seek them more. So we will continue doing what we do. And I'm happy to pay the ultimate price."

Uganda elections disrupt stretched economy

Wambi Michael contributed to this article.

This article was updated on 13.01.20 to reflect news developments.

Uganda prepares to vote in general election marred by 'repression'

Issued on: 12/01/2021

President Yoweri Museveni and singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine are the main contenders in Uganda's presidential elections on January 14, 2021. 

AFP - SUMY SADURNI,YASUYOSHI CHIBA

Text by: Tom WHEELDON  

VIDEOS AT THE END

Uganda will vote on Thursday in presidential and parliamentary elections marred by political repression as singer-turned-politician Bobi Wine challenges President Yoweri Museveni’s 34-year rule.

The most prominent of the 10 opposition candidates is the National Unity Platform’s Bobi Wine – a 38-year-old ragga star who has used his popularity with Uganda’s youthful population to defy the 76-year-old president and his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.

On December 26, the government banned campaign rallies in the capital Kampala and 15 other counties, citing the risk of spreading Covid-19.

This is despite Uganda recording just 301 coronavirus deaths. Its population is regarded as one of the least at-risk because it is the world’s second-youngest, with more than 48 percent of Ugandans aged under 15.

‘A staged event’

Wine (whose given name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu) said at a press conference on January 7 that he “expected a live bullet targeted at me any time”, and announced that he had asked the International Criminal Court to investigate Museveni and senior officials for human rights abuses dating back to 2018 – namely “widespread use of shoot to kill, beatings and other violence”.

One of Wine’s bodyguards was killed and two journalists injured in confrontations between security forces and his supporters on December 27. Wine said his bodyguard died after an army vehicle ran him over. He added that the bodyguard was helping an injured cameraman who was reportedly shot in the head in an earlier altercation. The army said the bodyguard died from injuries caused by falling out of a car.

The following day, Patrick Oboi Amuriat, presidential candidate for the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC) party, collapsed and was hospitalised after police pepper-sprayed him in the eyes as he tried to join supporters at a rally.

'Clear manipulation of public debate'

November had seen a much higher death toll. Wine was arrested for breaking Covid-19 restrictions at a rally – sparking unrest across the country, with protesters blocking roads in Kampala. The security forces cracked down with tear gas and bullets. At least 54 people were killed and more than a thousand arrested.

“This is no longer really an election,” said Nic Cheeseman, professor of democracy and international development at Birmingham University. “It is a staged event to try to legitimate Museveni’s presidency and the ruling party.”

“Violent repression is nothing new in Uganda,” added Eloise Bertrand, an expert on Uganda at Warwick University. But “repression appears to have intensified this time and to target more stakeholders”.

Museveni declared that “the overall security posture of Uganda is robust” and that “it was definitely a miscalculation for the schemers to imagine that they could use such anti-people techniques” in a televised address on November 30.

The Ugandan president then appointed his son, a general, as head of the special forces on December 17. “It’s clear that this is about ensuring control of the most effective element of the military,” said Ben Shepherd, a former adviser on the Great Lakes region at the British Foreign Office, now a consulting fellow at the Chatham House Africa Programme.

‘Sanitised from quacks’

The government has cracked down on the media and civil society as well as opposition candidates and their supporters. “You are insisting you must go where there is danger,” the head of the Ugandan police Martin Okoth Ochola told journalists at a press conference on January 8. “We shall beat you for your own sake to help you understand that you do not go there.”

Ali Mivule, one of the two cameramen injured at the December 27 Wine rally, told Voice of America that after he was “fully identified as a journalist”, the police commanding officer “pointed the tear gas gun at me and shouted ‘collateral damage’”.

Authorities unsuccessfully demanded on December 9 that Google shut down at least 14 YouTube channels that support Wine and most of which livestream his campaign events – accusing them of relaying “extremist or anarchic messages”.

The state-run Media Council announced on December 10 that both Ugandan and foreign journalists would be forbidden from covering the elections unless they gained accreditation. Foreign reporters who had already been certified were told to renew their accreditation requests.

The next week, the regulatory body said in a Facebook post that it was registering journalists to ensure that reporting is “sanitised from quacks” – adding that journalists enjoying “recognition by state players” would get a “safe pass to cover events”.

Three journalists from Canada’s CBC News were arrested and deported from Uganda in late November, despite having been accredited.

Museveni’s government has also cracked down on Ugandan civil society. Armed police arrested and blindfolded prominent human rights lawyer Nicholas Opiyo and his dining companions – three other lawyers and a Wine staff member – at a restaurant on December 22.

“Any group that questions the authorities is being brutalised,” he told FRANCE 24’s Leela Jacinto in November. “I don’t feel safe, but this is my home and I’m not going anywhere.”

Opiyo’s arrest came after the state in October closed down National Election Watch Uganda – an umbrella bloc of civil society organisations intending to scrutinise the elections – accusing two NGOs in the group of “financing terrorism”.

“Attempts to monitor the elections have been cut off and stymied at every turn,” Cheeseman put it.

At the same time, the Ugandan government has been active on social media in support of Museveni, according to Facebook, which on January 11 closed a network of accounts linked to officials on the grounds that they “used fake and duplicate accounts to manage pages, comment on other people's content, impersonate users, re-share posts in groups to make them appear more popular that they were.”

Which way for Uganda? Bobi Wine takes on longtime incumbent Museveni

‘A structural change in Ugandan politics’

Museveni and the NRM were hailed as forces of stability after his seizure of power from dictator Milton Obote in 1986, the culmination of a five-year guerrilla war.

“Museveni remains popular among large sections of the rural population, especially older voters who remember positive things that happened during his presidency in the 1990s and 2000s such as big improvements to internal security and impressive economic growth,” Shepherd said.

But Museveni faced amplifying criticism after Uganda’s constitution was changed in 2005 to abolish presidential term limits – before a further amendment removed age limits in 2017.

The president’s main challenger in the 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016 elections was Kizza Bisegye, Amuriat’s predecessor as leader of the FDC. The 2006 elections went to court, where judicial review found evidence of extensive vote-rigging to benefit Museveni. Bisegye was charged with treason in 2016 and has repeatedly been arrested and attacked. He is not standing in this year’s elections.

After becoming an MP in 2017, Wine supplanted Bisegye as Uganda’s major opposition leader by using Afrobeat music to appeal to the country’s youthful electorate. Wine has dubbed his polemical ragga songs “edutainment” – education through entertainment.

The opening lines of his 2016 hit Situka (meaning “Rise up” in the Luganda language) exemplify this approach: “When leaders become misleaders, and mentors become tormentors, when freedom of expression becomes a target of suppression, opposition becomes our position.”

“Wine is a charismatic, engaging and effective speaker”, Cheeseman said. “He has also shown particular bravery, and this has made him a kind of living martyr in Uganda.”

“Bobi Wine is categorically different from Kizza Bisegye as a threat to the Ugandan establishment; Bisegye represents the old school of politics to much of Uganda’s huge population of young people,” Shepherd said. “Many of them – largely thanks to the country’s relative developmental achievements earlier in Museveni’s tenure – are well-educated and well-connected to the outside world, but lack opportunities.”

“That’s created a structural change in Ugandan politics that elites have been aware of but don’t really know how to deal with,” he concluded.

 

Uganda bans social media ahead of critical vote

Issued on: 12/01/2021 - 

Posters of the candidates for Uganda's Jan. 14 presidential election 

along a street in Kampala, January 6, 2021. AFP - SUMY SADURNI

Text by: NEWS WIRES

VIDEO AT THE END 

Uganda banned social media and messaging apps on Tuesday, two days ahead of a presidential election pitting Yoweri Museveni, one of Africa'slongest-serving leaders, against opposition frontrunner Bobi Wine, a popular singer.

Users complained on Tuesday that they were unable to access Facebook and WhatsApp, social media platforms being widely used for campaigning by all sides ahead of Thursday's election in the East African country.

In a letter seen by Reuters to internet service providers dated Jan. 12, Uganda's communications regulator ordered them to block all social media platforms and messaging apps until further notice.

Campaigning ahead of the vote has been marred by brutal crackdowns on opposition rallies, which the authorities say break COVID-19 curbs on large gatherings. Rights groups say the restrictions are a pretext for muzzling the opposition.

>> Read more on Uganda's election campaign marred by violence

At 38, Wine is half the age of President Yoweri Museveni and has attracted a large following among young people in a nation where 80% of the population are under 30, rattling the ruling National Resistance Movement party.

Wine is considered the frontrunner among 10 candidates challenging Museveni, the former guerrilla leader who seized power in 1986 and brought stability to a country after the murderous reigns of dictators Milton Obote and Idi Amin.

While security forces have intimidated the opposition at previous elections, the run up to this year's vote has been especially violent. In November, 54 people were killed as soldiers and police quelled protests after Wine was detained.

On Tuesday, Wine said soldiers raided his home in Kampala and arrested his guards while he was giving an interview to a Kenyan radio station. He also said a team member who works mainly as a mechanic was shot dead by the military overnight.

Reuters was not immediately able to verify the claims and a military spokesmen did not respond to a call seeking comment.

Patrick Onyango, police spokesman for the capital Kampala, denied Wine's home had been raided or that anyone was arrested, saying: "We were just rearranging our security posture in the area near his home, specifically removing some checkpoints."

'Unacceptable breaches'

A source in Uganda's telecom sector said the government had made clear to executives at telecoms companies that the social media ban was in retaliation for Facebook blocking some pro-government accounts.

Neither Ibrahim Bbossa, Uganda Communications Commission spokesman nor government spokesman Ofwono Opondo answered calls requesting comment. An aide to Minister of Information Judith Nabakooba said she was unable to comment at the moment.

The U.S. social media giant said on Monday it had taken down a network in Uganda linked to the country's ministry of information for using fake and duplicate accounts to post ahead of this week's election.

A Facebook spokeswoman said the company had no comment on reports users were facing difficulties accessing the platform.

"Any efforts to block online access to journalists or members of the public are unacceptable breaches of the right to information," the International Press Institute, a global media watchdog, said in a statement.

Wine has been using Facebook to relay live coverage of his campaigns and news conferences after he said many media outlets had declined to host him. Most radio and TV stations are owned by government allies and Uganda's leading daily is state-run.

Museveni, 76, has won every election since the first under his presidency in 1996, though they have been tarnished by intimidation of the opposition and accusations of vote rigging.

Uganda is a Western ally, a prospective oil producer and is considered a stabilising force in a region where war has plagued some neighbours. It also contributes the biggest contingent of an African Union force fighting Islamist insurgents in Somalia.


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Museveni said on Twitter that he would address the nation at 7 p.m. (1600 GMT) on Tuesday.

I will address the country today ahead of Thursday's Presidential and Parliamentary elections. pic.twitter.com/GSBpMUMSbc— Yoweri K Museveni (@KagutaMuseveni) January 12, 2021

The European Union is not deploying election observers as advice from previous observers about how to make the polls fair went unheeded, the bloc's ambassador to Uganda has said. The African Union will deploy observers.

At a news conference on Tuesday, Wine and two other opposition candidates - Patrick Amuriat and Mugisha Muntu - urged Ugandans to turn out and "protect their vote" by staying at polling stations to observe counting.

(REUTERS)

Tai Chi enters UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list

Taijiquan, or Tai Chi is a centuries-old martial art originally designed for the battlefield, now often seen as a form of physical exercise. It joins acupuncture, calligraphy and Beijing Opera to represent Chinese civilisation on the UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list.

The Arab Spring, 10 years on: 

Martyrs, but no jobs, in cradle of Tunisia's revolution

SERIES (3/4)
Issued on: 13/01/2021 

A bereaved mother clings to a portrait of her son who died ten years ago during the Arab Spring uprising. © FRANCE 24 screengrab

Text by:FRANCE 24 

Video by: Mohamed FARHAT

This week marks ten years since deposed strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali fled Tunisia, the first to fall as the 2011 Arab Spring took hold across North Africa and the Middle East. Although democratic advances have been made, many Tunisians feel that the revolution’s promise of a better life never really materialised. That’s especially the case in the country’s poorer interior, where much of the anger first boiled over. FRANCE 24 brings you the third instalment in a series of four reports this week from Tunisia, a decade after the dawn of the Arab Spring.

Little has changed in Kasserine’s Ezzouhour neighbourhood over the past decade. Yet this town, near the Algerian border, was one of the epicentres of Tunisia’s revolution, home to bereaved families for whom the bitterness remains.

“It was our children that brought freedom to this country. People are proud of them,” says the father of one of several protesters who died a decade ago. “But their parents, they’re just pushed aside. We owe our son, so give him justice.”

Kasserine boasts a brand new roundabout, but many of the structural problems behind the Arab Spring’s outpouring of anger remain. They include poverty, unemployment, corruption and a dearth of public services.

“Today, there are positives, like freedom of speech, the freedom to set up campaign groups and associations,” says Bassem Salhi, a local youth activist. “But Kasserine remains one of the poorest and most marginalised towns, and that’s the responsibility of successive governments.”

Since the revolution, the mountains around Kasserine have witnessed violent clashes between security forces and jihadist groups. In a small hamlet some 50 kilometres from Kasserine, we meet Mustapaha Dehbi, whose nephew was murdered last month by jihadists who suspected him of being an informant.

“This was our home and then the terrorists came and took over,” he says. “That’s my brother’s house – look, he doesn’t even have electricity. Look how my mother lives. My daughter doesn’t have anywhere to sleep. Kasserine has many martyrs of the revolution, and its countryside is starving.”

FRANCE 24's Karim Yahiaoui, Mohamed Farhat and Chris Moore have this report from Kasserine. To watch, click on the video player 

 

Residents of Pakistani city of Karachi in grip of water mafia

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'Corals are being cooked': A third of Taiwan's reefs are dying


Issued on: 13/01/2021 -

Coral reefs cover less than one percent of the ocean floor but support a quarter of all marine species Victor Bonito REEF EXPLORER FIJI/AFP/File

Taipei (AFP)

Nearly a third of Taiwan's corals are dying from bleaching caused by warming oceans in an alarming phenomenon that poses a severe threat to the island's delicate underwater ecosystem, conservationists warned Wednesday.

An investigation conducted last year in 62 locations around the island by the Taiwan Coral Bleaching Observation Network (TCBON) showed bleaching had reached its worst recorded levels.

Half of Taiwan's reefs have been hit by bleaching with 31 percent so badly impacted that they are dying and probably beyond saving.

"It's like the corals are being cooked," said Kuo Chao-yang, a postdoctoral scholar at the Biodiversity Research Center at Taiwan's leading research institute, Academia Sinica.

Coral reefs cover less than one percent of the ocean floor but support a quarter of all marine species, providing them with food and shelter.

Warming waters due to climate change cause corals to expel the food-producing algae living in their tissues, breaking down their symbiotic relationship and leading to loss of colour and life in a process known as bleaching.

The lack of typhoons last summer -- which could have stirred up cooler waters from the deep -- aggravated the bleaching, Kuo, a member of TCBON, told AFP.

Much of the ocean they surveyed last summer was above 30 degrees Celsius for three months. The worst area was in Little Liuqiu, a coral island off the southwest coast in the Taiwan Strait where 55 percent of corals have now been seriously bleached.

Another alarming sign was bleaching in Yehliu, off the colder northeast coast, for the first time since 1998.

"Coral reefs are the rainforest in the ocean. A coral reef without corals is just like a forest without trees and the reef-associated creatures will have to leave because there is no shelter or food," Kuo said.

"If corals are dead, the coral reef ecosystem will start to collapse as its root is cut."

Mingo Lee, a diver who helps document coral health in Taiwan, described the level of bleaching as like "snow in the ocean".

"It was white everywhere... I have never seen anything like that in my 20 years as a diver," he told reporters.

© 2021 AFP