Fires increase in Brazilian Amazon in July


Issued on: 01/08/2022 - 

Greenpeace picture showing smoke billowing from a fire in the Amazon forest in the municipality of Porto Velho, Rondonia State, Brazil, on July 27, 2022 

Christian BRAGA GREENPEACE/AFP


Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – The number of forest fires in the Brazilian Amazon increased by eight percent last month compared with July 2021, according to official figures released Monday, the latest alarm bell for the world's biggest rainforest.

Satellite monitoring detected 5,373 fires last month, up from 4,977 in July last year, according to the Brazilian space agency, INPE.

However, the number was well short of the worst July on record: 19,364 fires in 2005.

July is typically the start of the Amazon "fire season," when drier weather fuels more fires -- mostly set by farmers and speculators clearing land for agriculture, according to experts.

The increase in the Amazon came as major fires raged in California, France and Portugal amid rising temperatures.

This has been a worrying year for fires in the Amazon, a key resource in the race to curb global warming: INPE has detected 12,906 so far, up 13 percent from the same period last year.

"It's only the beginning of the Amazon dry season, when the number of criminal forest fires unfortunately explodes," said Romulo Batista of Greenpeace Brazil.

"In addition to decimating the forest and its biodiversity, those fires and destruction also affect the local population's health due to smoke inhalation," he said in a statement.

President Jair Bolsonaro, who comes up for reelection in October, is facing scrutiny for his government's controversial stewardship of Brazil's 60-percent share of the Amazon, where there has been a surge of fires and deforestation on his watch.

Since the far-right agribusiness ally took office in 2019, average annual deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has increased by 75 percent compared to the previous decade.

© 2022 AFP

Iran steps up Bahai persecution with wave of arrests

AFP , Monday 1 Aug 2022

Iranian authorities have stepped up persecution of the Bahais with a wave of arrests of prominent members of the country's biggest non-Muslim minority, leaving the battered community in shock, activists said on Monday.

The terraces of the Bahai faith temple on Mount Carmel in the northern Israeli port city of Haifa. AFP

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The Bahais in Iran, who have been subjected to harassment ever since the inception of the Islamic republic in 1979, had already complained that dozens of community members had been arrested, summoned or subjected to house searches in June and July.

But the intensification of the persecution reached a new peak on Sunday when 13 Bahais were suddenly arrested in raids on the homes and businesses of 52 Bahais across the country, Diane Alai, the representative of the Bahai International Community (BIC), told AFP.

She said those detained included prominent Iranian Bahai figures Mahvash Sabet, Fariba Kamalabadi and Afif Naemi who had previously each served a decade in jail and been part of a now disbanded Bahai administrative group known as the Yaran.

"This is an outrageous move," Alai told AFP. "It is an escalation."

"We did not want to believe that this was going to happen but we could see it in the making," she said, noting a "campaign of incitement to hatred" in pro-government media.

James Samimi Farr, of the Bahais of the United States, added: "For whatever reason there is an emboldened effort to persecute our community and test the waters of what can be done against us."

'Not a shred of proof'

Iran's intelligence ministry said Monday it had arrested members of the Bahai minority suspected of spying for a centre located in Israel and of working illegally to spread their religion.

They had been instructed to "infiltrate educational environments at different levels, especially kindergartens across the country", it said.

Bahais are used to accusations by Iran of links to Israel, whose northern city of Haifa of hosts a centre of the Bahai faith established due to the exile of a Bahai leader well before the State of Israel was established.

Such allegations contain "not one shred of proof," said Alai.

Samimi Farr said: "The government has felt emboldened to persecute us on flimsy pretexts that have been disproved again and again".

The Islamic republic recognises minority non-Muslim faiths including Christianity, Judaism and Zoroastrianism but does not extend the same recognition to Bahaism with followers estimated to number 300,000 in Iran.

Community leaders say Bahais have been subjected to persecution throughout the more than four decade-long existence of the Islamic republic, with members notably facing major obstacles to access higher education.

'Eliminate the community'

During her previous stint in prison, Fariba Kamalabadi got to know the daughter of late former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Faezeh Hashemi, who had herself been imprisoned in the wake of protests.

When Kamalabadi was allowed a brief break from prison in 2016, Faezeh Hashemi met her, breaking a major taboo in Iran and outraging conservatives and her own father.

Mahvash Sabet, who wrote poetry during her decade in Tehran's Evin Prison, was recognised in 2017 as an English PEN International Writer of Courage.

The Bahai faith is a relatively modern monotheistic religion with spiritual roots dating back to the early 19th century in Iran, promoting the unity of all people and equality.

Adherents say the tenets of the faith encourage a non-confrontational approach known as "constructive resilience" and insist the Bahais of Iran want to work for the good of the country and not against its leadership.

Iran is currently in the throes of a major crackdown affecting all walks of life in an economic crisis that has sparked protests. Filmmakers, unionists and foreign nationals have been arrested.

Alai said the latest spike in repression had just one ultimate goal. "Their aim is to eliminate the Bahai community as a viable entity."

Iguanas reproducing on Galápagos island century after disappearing

The remote island chain was made famous by British geologist 

and naturalist Charles Darwin's observations on evolution there.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE / August 1, 2022

A reptile from the Conolophus subcristatus species, one of three land iguanas endemic to the Galápagos Islands. 

(Wikipedia/Peter Wilton)

(AFP) — A land iguana that disappeared more than a century ago from one of the Galápagos Islands is reproducing naturally following its reintroduction there, Ecuador's environment ministry announced Monday.

The reptile from the Conolophus subcristatus species, one of three land iguanas living on the archipelago, disappeared from Santiago Island in the early part of the 20th century according to a 1903-06 expedition there by the California Academy of Sciences, the ministry said.

In 2019, the Galápagos National Park (PNG) authority reintroduced more than 3,000 iguanas from a nearby island to restore the natural ecosystem of Santiago, which lies at the center of the Pacific archipelago.

The remote island chain was made famous by British geologist and naturalist Charles Darwin's observations on evolution there.

In 1835, Darwin recorded a huge number of iguanas of all ages on Santiago.

PNG director Danny Rueda said "187 years later we are once again seeing a healthy population of land iguanas with adults, juveniles and newborns.

"It's a great conservation achievement and strengthens our hopes of restoration on the islands that have been severely affected by introduced species."

Located close to 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) off the coast of Ecuador, the Galápagos islands are home to unique flora and fauna and are a Natural World Heritage site.

Baby boom: the endangered wildlife revival at Cambodia's Angkor Wat

Suy SE
Mon, August 1, 2022 


The melodic songs from families of endangered monkeys ring out over the jungle near Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple complex -- a sign of ecological rejuvenation decades after hunting decimated wildlife at the site.

The first pair of rare pileated gibbons were released in 2013 as part of a joint programme between conservation group Wildlife Alliance, the forestry administration and the Apsara Authority -- a government agency that manages the 12th-century ruins.

The gibbon duo, named Baray and Saranick, were born from parents rescued from the wildlife trade and produced offspring a year later.

"We have now released four different pairs of gibbons within the Angkor forest and they have gone on to breed and now seven babies have been born," Wildlife Alliance rescue and care programme director Nick Marx told AFP.


"We are restoring Cambodia's natural heritage back into their most beautiful cultural heritage."

Globally, gibbons are one of the most threatened families of primates, while the pileated gibbon is listed as endangered.

Marx says his team rescues some 2,000 animals a year and many more will soon call the Angkor jungle home.

There are hopes that once the baby gibbons reach sexual maturity in about five to eight years, they will also pair up and mate.

"What we are hoping for the future is to create a sustainable population of the animals... that we released here within the amazing Angkor forest," Marx said.
- 'Big victory' -

Cambodian authorities have hailed the gibbon baby boom that began in 2014.


"This means a big victory for our project," Chou Radina from the Apsara Authority said, adding that as well as gibbons, tourists could now see great hornbills flying over Angkor Wat.

The programme has released more than 40 other animals and birds including silvered langurs, muntjac deers, smooth-coated otters, leopard cats, civets, wreathed hornbills, and green peafowl.

All were rescued from traffickers, donated or born in captivity at the Phnom Tamao wildlife sanctuary near Phnom Penh.

The Angkor Archaeological Park -- which contains the ruins of various capitals of the Khmer Empire, dating from the ninth to 15th centuries -- has some of the oldest rainforest in Cambodia.

It is also the kingdom's most popular tourist destination.

Since Angkor Wat became a world heritage site in 1992, its jungle, which covers more than 6,500 hectares, has benefited from increased legal and physical protections.

There are hopes that wildlife sightings will also spark interest in local and foreign tourists and boost conservation education efforts.
- Ongoing threats -

Rampant poaching, habitat loss from logging, agriculture and dam building has stripped much wildlife from Cambodian rainforests.


Last year, authorities removed 61,000 snare traps, environment ministry spokesman Neth Pheaktra said, adding that the government had launched a campaign to discourage hunting and eating of wildlife meat.

But widespread poverty even before the pandemic left many households without much choice but to continue hunting so their families could eat protein.

Animals are also hunted for traditional medicine and to be kept as pets.

According to Global Forest Watch, from 2001-2021 Cambodia lost 2.6 million hectares of tree cover, a 30 percent decrease since 2000.

Commercial interests are trumping protection efforts in some quarters -- the Phnom Tamao zoo and wildlife rescue centre is under threat from a shadowy rezoning development plan, Marx said.

Back at Siem Reap -- the gateway city to Angkor Wat -- villager Moeurn Sarin shops at the market for bananas, watermelon, rambutan and fish to feed the pileated gibbon families and otters.

"We are happy to conserve these animals," the 64-year-old said, adding he likes to watch the gibbons' tree swinging antics.

"In the future, these animals will have babies for the young generation to see."

suy/lpm/pdw/qan

Mountain melt shutters classic Alpine routes

Nina Larson with Alice Ritchie in Rome
Sat, July 30, 2022


Little snow cover and glaciers melting at an alarming rate amid Europe's sweltering heatwaves have put some of the most classic Alpine hiking routes off-limits.

Usually at the height of summer, tourists flock to the Alps and seek out well-trodden paths up to some of Europe's most iconic peaks.

But with warmer temperatures speeding up glacier melt and thawing permafrost -- which scientists say are driven by climate change -- routes that are usually safe this time of year now face hazards like falling rocks released from the ice.

"Currently in the Alps, there are warnings for around a dozen peaks, including emblematic ones like Matterhorn and Mount Blanc," Pierre Mathey, head of the Swiss mountain guide association, told AFP.

This is happening far earlier in the season than normal, he said.

"Usually we see such closures in August, but now they have started at the end of June and are continuing in July."

- 'Postpone' -

Alpine guides who usually lead thousands of hikers up towards Europe's highest peak announced earlier this week that they would suspend ascents on the most classic routes up Mont Blanc, which straddles France, Italy and Switzerland.

The Guide Alpine Italiane said on its Facebook page that the "particularly delicate conditions" caused by the temperature spike made it necessary to "postpone the climbs".

Mountain guides have also refrained -- reportedly for the first time in a century -- from offering tours up the classic route to the Jungfrau peak in Switzerland.


And they have advised against tours along routes on both the Italian and Swiss sides of the towering pyramid-shaped Matterhorn peak.

Ezio Marlier, president of the Valle D'Aosta guides association, said having to steer clear of routes most coveted by tourists was a blow after the Covid slowdowns.

"It is not easy... after two almost empty seasons to decide to halt work," he told AFP.

He stressed that the Italian Alpine region had shut only two and that there were many other breathtaking and safe routes to take.

But he lamented that many people simply cancelled their trip when they heard their preferred route was off-limits.

"There are plenty of other things to do, but usually when people want Mont Blanc, they want Mont Blanc."
- Dangerous glaciers -

Climbing on some of the thousands of glaciers dotting Europe's largest mountain range is also proving trickier.


"The glaciers are in a state that they are usually in at the end of the summer or even later," said Andreas Linsbauer, a glaciologist at Zurich University.

"It is sure that we will break the record for negative melts," he told AFP.

He said a combination of factors were contributing to a "really extreme" summer, starting with exceptionally little snowfall last winter, meaning there was less to protect the glaciers.

Sand also blew up from the Sahara early in the year, darkening the snow, which makes it melt faster.

And then the first heatwave hit Europe in May, with subsequent ones following in June and July, pushing up temperatures even at high altitudes.

The rapid melting can make glaciers more dangerous, as seen with the sudden collapse of Italy's until then seemingly harmless Marmolada glacier earlier this month, which saw 11 people killed as ice and rock hurtled down the mountain.

While scientists have yet to draw clear conclusions on what caused the disaster, one theory is that meltwater may have reached the point where the glacier was frozen to the rock, loosening its grip.
- 'Invisible threat' -

Mylene Jacquemart, a glacier and mountain hazard researcher at Zurich's ETH university, told AFP there were many unknowns about the catastrophe.

"But the general theme is definitely that more meltwater... makes things complicated and potentially more dangerous."

Mathey, who said warmer temperatures had put mountain guides on high alert, also voiced concern that meltwater filtering under a glacier posed an "additional and invisible threat".

But despite the challenges, he voiced confidence that guides would find solutions, seeking out alternative routes to keep showing off Alpine splendours.

"Resilience is really in the mountain guides' DNA," as is adaptability, he said.

"Humans have to adapt to nature and to the mountains, not the other way around."

nl-bur/fg

'Warn everyone': Spain's gay community acts as monkeypox spreads


Marie GIFFARD
Sat, July 30, 2022 


Whether it's abstinence, avoiding nightclubs, limiting sexual partners or pushing for a swift vaccine rollout, Spain's gay community are on the front line of the monkeypox virus and are taking action.

"With this monkey thing, I prefer to be careful... I don't have sex any more, I don't go to parties any more, and that's until I'm vaccinated and have some immunity," said Antonio, a 35-year-old from Madrid who declined to give his surname.

Antonio, who often went to nightclubs and sometimes to sex parties, decided to act as cases continued to increase.

Spain on Saturday reported its second monkeypox-related death.

Outside of Africa, the only other such death has been in Brazil.

More than 18,000 cases have been detected throughout the world outside of Africa since the beginning of May, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Spain is one of the world's worst-hit countries. The country's health ministry's emergency and alert coordination centre put the number of infected people at 4,298.

As cases increase globally, the WHO has called on the group currently most affected by the virus -- men who have sex with men -- to limit their sexual partners.

Before going on holiday abroad, one holidaymaker said he would avoid "risky situations".

"I didn't go to sex clubs anymore and I didn't have sex either," the 38-year-old explained.
- Lack of vaccines -

"This is not like Covid, the vaccine already exists, there's no need to invent it. If it wasn't a queer disease, we would have acted more -- and faster," said Antonio.

Like other members of the gay community, he believes the authorities have not done enough.

NGOs have denounced a lack of prevention, a shortage of vaccines and stigmatisation linked to the virus.

This is despite the WHO declaring the monkeypox outbreak a global health emergency.

Early signs of the disease include a high fever, swollen lymph glands and a chickenpox-like rash.

The disease usually heals by itself after two to three weeks, sometimes taking a month.

A smallpox vaccine from Danish drug maker Bavarian Nordic, marketed under the name Jynneos in the United States and Imvanex in Europe, has been found to protect against monkeypox.

It took Antonio three weeks to get an appointment to be vaccinated, after logging on to the official website every day at midnight.

Appointments "are going as fast as tickets to the next Beyonce concert", another joked referring to the gay icon.

So far, Spain has only received 5,300 doses which arrived in late June.

The Spanish health ministry declined to comment when contacted by AFP.
- 'Anyone can catch it' -

Nahum Cabrera of the FELGTBI+ NGO, an umbrella group of over 50 LGBTQ organisations from all over Spain, insists there is an urgent need to vaccinate those most at risk.

That means not just gay men, but anyone who has "regular sex with multiple partners, as well as those who frequent swingers' clubs, LGTBI saunas etc", he said.

"It risks creating a false sense of security among the general population, and they relax into thinking that they are safe and that it only happens to men who have sex with men," he said.

The target age group for vaccination is those aged between 18 and 46, he added.

Older people are vaccinated against smallpox which was eradicated in Europe in the early 1970s.

"We are facing a health emergency... that affects the LGBTI community, so people think it is insignificant, that it is not serious," said Ivan Zaro, of the Imagina MAS (Imagine More) NGO.

"This is exactly what happened 40 years ago with HIV.

Image director Javier spent three days in hospital in early July after becoming infected.

After three weeks in isolation, a challenge after the pressures of Covid, he told his family and friends.

The 32-year-old, who is in a monogamous relationship, said he still did not know how he had caught it.

"I warn everyone," he said. "It's an infectious disease, anyone can catch it."

mig/chz/pvh/gw/ach

HEALTHY SCEPTICISM
Afghans cast doubt on Kabul killing of Al-Qaeda chief


Issued on: 02/08/2022 

Kabul (AFP) – Many Afghans expressed shock or doubt Tuesday that Al-Qaeda's chief had been killed in Kabul by a US drone strike, saying they couldn't believe Ayman Al-Zawahiri had been hiding in their midst.

"It's just propaganda," Fahim Shah, 66, a resident of the Afghan capital, told AFP.

Late Monday, US President Joe Biden announced Zawahiri's assassination, saying "justice has been delivered" to the Egyptian with a $25 million bounty on his head.

A senior US official said the 71-year-old was on the balcony of a three-storey house in the upmarket Sherpur neighbourhood when targeted with two Hellfire missiles shortly after dawn Sunday.

"We have experienced such propaganda in the past and there was never anything in it," Shah said.

"In reality, I don't think he was killed here."

The Taliban admitted earlier Tuesday that the US had carried out a drone strike, but gave no details of casualties -- and did not name Zawahiri, who was considered a key plotter of the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

On Sunday, the interior ministry had denied reports of a drone strike, but Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Tuesday that was because an investigation was underway.

Kabul resident Abdul Kabir said he heard the strike Sunday morning, but still called on the United States to prove who was killed.

"They should show to the people and to the world that 'we had hit this man and here is the evidence'," Kabir said.

"We think they killed somebody else and announced it was the Al-Qaeda chief... there are many other places he could be hiding -- in Pakistan, or even in Iraq."

The strike is sure to further sour already bitter relations between Washington and the Taliban, which pledged to stop Afghanistan from being a sanctuary for militants as part of the agreement that led to the US troop withdrawal last year.

University student Mohammad Bilal was another who thought it unlikely Zawahiri had been living in Kabul.

"This is a terrorist group and I do not think they will send their leader to Afghanistan," Bilal said.

"Leaders of most terrorist groups, including the Taliban, were either living in Pakistan or in the United Arab Emirates when they were in conflict with former Afghan forces," he said.

A straw poll, however, found some believers in the capital.

Kabul housewife Freshta, who asked not to be further identified, said she was shocked to learn of Zawahiri's killing.

"It's so uncomfortable to know that he was living here," she said.

A shopkeeper who also asked not to be named said he too wasn't surprised.

"Any terrorist group can enter our land, use it and get out easily," he told AFP.

"We don't have a good government. We are unable to protect ourselves, our soil and our property."

© 2022 AFP

French bullfight foes eye coup de grace for 'immoral' spectacle

Jostling crowds packed the streets of Bayonne for the bullfighting feria that ended Sunday, a sea of fans clad all in white except for bright red bandanas or sashes 

GAIZKA IROZ AFP

02/08/2022 - 

Paris (AFP) – As thousands of bullfighting aficionados gather across southern France for traditional summer ferias, opponents of the practice are reviving their fight for an outright ban, confident that public opinion is finally on their side.

"I think the majority of French people share the view that bullfights are immoral, a spectacle that no longer has its place in the 21st century," said Aymeric Caron, a popular former TV journalist and animal rights activist who was recently elected to parliament as part of the hard-left France Unbowed party.

For years, critics have sought a final legal blow against what they call a cruel and archaic ritual, but none of the draft bills presented have ever been approved for debate by National Assembly lawmakers.

French courts have also routinely rejected lawsuits lodged by animal rights activists, most recently in July 2021 in Nimes, home to one of France's most famous bullfighting events.

But Caron, based in Paris, told AFP that the time was ripe for a new proposal given growing concerns about animal welfare, with a draft bill to be submitted this week.

"I do indeed hope this bill will be debated in parliament in November... it would be a first," he said.

The prospect seems all the more likely after France Unbowed won dozens of new seats in recent elections, helping to strip President Emmanuel Macron of his centrist majority in parliament.

The goal is to modify an animal welfare law that allows exceptions for bullfights -- as well as cock fighting -- when it can be shown that they are "uninterrupted local traditions."

Such exceptions are granted to cities including Bayonne and the mediaeval jewel of Mont-de-Marsan in southwest France near Spain, where the practice has its origins, and along the Mediterranean coast including Arles, Beziers and Nimes.
'Respecting the animal'

For Caron, "it's not a French tradition, it's a Spanish custom that was imported to France in the 19th century to please the wife of Napoleon III, who was from Andalusia," the countess Eugenie de Montijo.

That argument is unlikely to convince the jostling crowds who packed the streets of Bayonne for the bullfighting feria that ended Sunday, a sea of fans clad all in white except for bright red bandanas or sashes.

"The people who want to ban it don't understand it. Bullfighting is a drama that brings you closer to death... You're afraid, but that's a part of life," said Jean-Luc Ambert, who came with friends from the central Auvergne region.

Like many other fans, his friend Francoise insisted that bullfighting is an art as much as a sport, where "a man puts his life on the line, while respecting the animal."

"We're not trying to convert anyone -- I just want the people against it to leave us alone," she told AFP.

The guest star of the Bayonne feria, Spanish matador Alejandro Talavante, did indeed find an appreciative audience, with the crowd demanding the award of the bull's ear for his performance.

It's a conflict that echoes the widening rift in France between rural dwellers steeped in deep agriculture traditions, and Parisians and other urban residents accused of trampling on the country's cultural heritage -- often derided as "the Taliban of Paristan."

Widespread support?

Andre Viard, president of the national bullfighting association, shrugged off the threat of a ban.

"This comes up in every parliamentary session," Viard told AFP of Caron's efforts to find allies for the France Unbowed initiative.

"We tell the other parties: Why do you want to be associated with a bill that attacks a cultural freedom protected by the Constitution, and territorial identity?"

The debate echoes similar opposition in other countries with bullfighting histories, including Spain and Portugal as well as Mexico, Colombia and Venezuela.

In June, a judge in Mexico City ordered an indefinite suspension of bullfighting in the capital's historic bullring, the largest in the world.

Caron is banking on support from across the political spectrum, including top members of Macron's party such as the head of his parliamentary group Aurore Berge, who was among 36 lawmakers who called for a bullfighting ban last year.

An Ifop poll earlier this year found that 77 percent of respondents approved of a ban, up from 50 percent in 2007.

"More and more people are concerned about animal suffering, including in bullfights," Claire Starozinski of the Anti-Bullfighting Alliance told AFP, adding that many people don't realise that the bulls are actually killed.

"I know there are MPs from other parties who will support me, and have said so," Caron said -- though he admitted that more mainstream lawmakers such as Berge might be reluctant to join his leftish campaign.

"Is she going to remain true to her convictions, or make a political calculation that prevents her from supporting me? That's what will be at stake in the talks over the coming weeks and months."

© 2022 AFP

WAIT, WHAT?

Somalia appoints al Shabaab co-founder as religion minister

Sheikh Muktar Robow Abuu Mansuur, a senior official of the Al-Shabaab group, walks along the frontline, north of Mogadishu

Tue, August 2, 2022 at 6:55 AM·

By Abdi Sheikh

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre on Tuesday named a co-founder and spokesman of the Islamist al Shabaab as minister for religious affairs, a move that could either help strengthen the fight against the insurgents or provoke further clan clashes.

Mukhtar Robow had a $5 million U.S. bounty on his head after he co-founded al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab and served as the group's spokesman.

Al Shabaab insurgents have killed tens of thousands of people in bombings in their fight to overthrow Somalia's Western-backed central government and implement its interpretation of Islamic law.

Robow split from the group in 2013 and publicly denounced al Shabaab when he came to the government side in 2017.

But the relationship soured after he grew too politically powerful. Somalia's previous government arrested Robow in December 2018 as he campaigned for the regional presidency of southwest state.

Security forces shot dead at least 11 people in the protests that followed, sparking criticism from the United Nations.

Robow's new job sparked a flurry of hashtags on twitter crowing he had made it #FromPrisonertoMinister. He had been held under house arrest until recently.

His appointment could help strengthen government forces in his native Bakool region, where insurgents hold substantial amounts of territory but where Robow also commands support. Or it could fan flames with the region's president, who sees him as a political rival.

"We welcome his appointment. The move will advance reconciliation and will serve as a good example for more high level al-Shabab defections," said political analyst Mohamed Mohamud.

"Al Shabaab members who might be thinking of surrendering ... can dream of serving their country at the highest levels."

New President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, elected by lawmakers in May, has promised to take the fight to the insurgents after three years in which his predecessor, consumed by political infighting, took little action against al Shabaab.

That allowed the insurgents to build up substantial reserves of cash and carry out attacks over a wide swathe of Somalia. Last week scores of al Shabaab fighters and Ethiopian security forces were killed in clashes along the two nations' shared border.

(Additional by Abdi Sheikh and Daud Yusuf in Nairobi, Kenya; Writing by Katharine Houreld and George Obulutsa; Editing by Estelle Shirbon)

Natural disaster losses hit $72 bn in first half 2022: Swiss Re

Nathalie OLOF-ORS
Tue, August 2, 2022 


Total economic losses caused by natural disasters hit an estimated $72 billion in the first half of 2022, fuelled by storms and floods, Swiss reinsurance giant Swiss Re estimated Tuesday.

Though the figure is lower than the $91 billion estimate for the first six months of 2021, it is close to the 10-year average of $74 billion, and the weight is shifting towards weather-induced catastrophes.

"The effects of climate change are evident in increasingly extreme weather events, such as the unprecedented floods in Australia and South Africa," said Martin Bertogg, Swiss Re's head of catastrophe perils.

The Zurich-based group, which acts as an insurer for insurers, said the losses were also propelled by winter storms in Europe as well as heavy thunderstorms on the continent and in the United States.

So-called secondary natural disasters like floods and storms -- as opposed to major disasters such as earthquakes -- are happening more frequently, the reinsurer said.

"This confirms the trend we have observed over the last five years: that secondary perils are driving insured losses in every corner of the world," Bertogg said.

"Unlike hurricanes or earthquakes, these perils are ubiquitous and exacerbated by rapid urbanisation in particularly vulnerable areas," he said.

"Given the scale of the devastation across the globe, secondary perils require the same disciplined risk assessment as primary perils such as hurricanes."

Swiss Re said floods in India, China and Bangladesh confirm the growing loss potential from flooding in urban areas.

Man-made catastrophes such as industrial accidents added on a further $3 billion of economic losses to the $72 billion from natural disasters, taking the total to $75 billion -- which is down on the $95 billion total for the first half of 2021.
- Insured losses at $38 bn -

Total insured losses stood at $38 billion: $3 billion worth of man-made disasters and $35 billion worth of natural catastrophes -- up 22 percent on the 10-year average, said the Swiss reinsurer, warning of the effects of climate change.

February's storms in Europe cost insurers $3.5 billion, according to Swiss Re estimates.

Australia's floods in February and March set a new record for insured flood losses in the country at so far close to $3.5 billion -- one of the costliest natural catastrophes ever in the country.

Severe weather and hailstorms in France in the first six months of the year have so far caused an estimated four billion euros ($4.1 billion) of insured market losses.

The Swiss group also mentioned the summer heatwaves in Europe, which resulted in fires and drought-related damage, without providing estimates at this stage.

A warming climate is likely to exacerbate droughts and thereby the likelihood of wildfires, causing greater damage where urban sprawl grows into the countryside, Swiss Re said.

"Climate change is one of the biggest risks our society and the global economy is facing," said the group's chief economist Jerome Jean Haegeli.

"With 75 percent of all natural catastrophes still uninsured, we see large protection gaps globally exacerbated by today's cost-of-living crisis."

noo/rjm/lth