SHIA WAR ON KURDISTAN

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Iran hijab protests: Young woman's death puts Tehran under pressure

Mass protests have broken out across the Islamic nation amid public rage over the death of a young woman who had been arrested by the "morality police."

Mahsa Amini's death triggered mass protests and discussions over the compulsory

 wearing of the Islamic headscarf in Iran

The recent death of a young woman who had been detained by Iran's "morality police" for violating the Islamic nation's conservative dress code has sparked mass protests across the country. 

Mahsa Amini, 22, died last week after she was arrested for allegedly not complying with strict rules on head coverings for women. 

Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi, who departed for New York on Monday to address the UN General Assembly, has ordered an investigation and vowed to pursue the case in a phone call with Amini's family. He also offered his condolences, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. "Your daughter was like my daughter," the president reportedly said.

Widespread anger and grief

The incident has caused outrage and grief in Iran and across the globe.

The hashtag #MahsaAmini has been trending on social media platforms such as Twitter and Instagram.

Mass protests flared up in Amini's home province of Kurdistan and other parts of the country. In the capital, Tehran, thousands of people took to the streets to express their anger and grief, chanting slogans such as "Death to the dictator."

Security forces tried to disperse the crowds using water cannon and batons. 

Some protesters were also arrested, Iran's Fars news agency reported.

Media outlets worldwide have reported extensively about it.

When Iran's president meets with journalists on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, as planned, the death of Mahsa Amini will dominate the press conference

The Iranian government has come under increasing pressure to carry out a proper and transparent investigation and bring the culprits to justice.

A spokesperson for EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called for those responsible for Amini's death to be held accountable and for the fundamental rights of all people in Iran to be protected — including those of prisoners.

Human Rights Watch demanded the abolition of the morality police and religiously based laws such as those on the proper wearing of headscarves.

A tragic end

The 22-year old from the small town of Saghes in the western province of Kurdistan had been on a visit to Tehran with her brother last week.

She was arrested by the authorities last Tuesday, for allegedly not covering her hair with the Islamic headscarf, known as hijab, which is mandatory for Iranian women.

Just a couple of hours after her arrest, she was hospitalized. 

Police said on Thursday that Amini was taken to a hospital after she allegedly had a heart attack while in custody.

They have denied the allegations that she was physically abused after her arrest, saying "there was no physical encounter" between officers and Amini.

On closed-circuit footage — also released by police — Amini can be seen falling over after getting up from her seat to speak to an official at a police station. She is then shown being carried away on a stretcher.

Her family says she had no history of heart trouble.

A photo that went viral on the internet shows the bedridden Amini with swollen black eyes and bleeding ears. Many Iranian women, both young and old, could relate to it as they face daily humiliation and abuse in the hands of authorities because of the mandatory hijab.

Amini was officially declared dead on Friday, three days after she was admitted to the hospital. The Kasra Hospital, where Amini was admitted, said in a statement on Instagram on Saturday that the patient had  been brain-dead on arrival. The statement was later deleted.

Opposing the compulsory hijab

The hijab has been compulsory for women in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and the morality police are charged with enforcing that and other restrictions. The force has been criticized in recent years, especially for its treatment of young women.

Millions of Iranian women oppose the rules. In recent years the protests have become increasingly louder and more visible.

Many women wear their headscarves loosely and let them fall onto their shoulders, accepting the risk of being arrested.

The government under Raisi and religious hard-liners in parliament have been trying for months to enforce Islamic laws more strictly.

Numerous videos are currently circulating on the internet, showing women being beaten and abused by the authorities during arrests. The videos often show violent blows to the head as the women are dragged into the police car by their hair.

Mass protests flared up not only in Amini's home province of Kurdistan 

but also in other parts of the country

Doubts over investigation

State media reported that authorities had opened an investigation to determine the cause of the death. The judiciary has launched a probe, and a parliamentary committee is also looking into the incident.

But many Iranians doubt that the probe will be carried out in an objective and transparent manner.

Amini's body, which was transported to her hometown of Saghes without an autopsy, was buried on Saturday morning.

Protests over the death began on the same day in her home province.

At the funeral, thousands demonstrated in front of the governor's office. According to the Fars news agency, clashes with security forces also occurred. Police used tear gas to disperse the crowds.

Security forces intervened during demonstrations in Sanandash, the capital of the Kurdistan province, on Sunday evening. Warning shots were fired, and several people were injured, reports from the province stated. A Kurdish human rights organization reported four deaths during the demonstrations.

In solidarity, businesses in Kurdistan announced that they would close their stores on Monday.

On Tuesday, the UN also decried Amini's death and called for the repeal of all discriminatory laws and regulations that impose mandatory hijab.

"Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif today expressed alarm at the death in custody of Mahsa Amini ... and the violent response by security forces to ensuing protests," the rights office said in a statement.

"The authorities must stop targeting, harassing and detaining women who do not abide by the hijab rules."

This article was originally published in German.

Concern mounts at ‘lethal’ Iran crackdown on protests

• AFP
•  September 20,22

The firecest clashes so far have been in Iran’s northern Kurdistan province

Paris – The United Nations and rights groups expressed concern Tuesday over what activists described as a lethal crackdown in Iran against protests over the death of a young woman after her arrest by Tehran’s notorious morality police.

Mahsa Amini, 22, died on Friday three days after she was urgently hospitalised following her arrest by police responsible for enforcing Iran’s strict dress code for women.

Activists said she suffered a blow to the head in custody but this has not been confirmed by the Iranian authorities, who have opened an investigation.

There have been protests in Tehran but the fiercest clashes so far have been in Iran’s northern Kurdistan province where Amini was from, with rights groups saying up to four protesters have been killed so far and dozens more wounded and arrested.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said that witness accounts and videos circulating on social media “indicate that authorities are using teargas to disperse protesters and have apparently used lethal force in Kurdistan province.”

“Cracking down with teargas and lethal force against protesters demanding accountability for a woman’s death in police custody reinforces the systematic nature of government rights abuses and impunity,” said Tara Sepehri Far, HRW’s senior Iran researcher.

In Geneva, the UN said acting High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif expressed alarm at Amini’s death and the “the violent response by security forces to ensuing protests.”

She said there must be an independent investigation into “Mahsa Amini’s tragic death and allegations of torture and ill-treatment.”

– ‘Stop further state killings’ –

The Kurdish human rights group Hengaw, which is based in Norway, said it had confirmed a total of three deaths in Kurdistan province — one apiece in the towns of Divandareh, Saqqez and Dehglan.

It added that 221 people had been wounded and another 250 arrested in the Kurdistan region, where there had also been a general strike on Monday.

A 10-year-old girl — images of whose blood-spattered body have gone viral on social media — was wounded in the town of Bukan but was alive, it added.  

Images posted on social media have shown fierce clashes especially in the town of Divandareh between protesters and the security forces, with sounds of live fire. 

The Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group said that four people had been killed in protests where people shouted slogans including “Death to the dictator” and “Woman, life, freedom”.

“The international community shouldn’t be silent observers of the crimes the Islamic Republic commits against its own people,” said IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam.

“We call on countries with diplomatic relations with Iran, the EU in particular, to stop further state killings by supporting the people’s demands to realise their basic rights.”

IHR said security forces used batons, teargas, water cannons, rubber bullets and live ammunition in certain regions “to directly target protesters and crush the protests.”

The UN statement said at least two people have reportedly been killed and several injured.

– ‘Systemic persecution’ –

The death of Amini has caused international consternation, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken calling Monday “on the Iranian government to end its systemic persecution of women and to allow peaceful protest.”

The Islamic headscarf has been obligatory in public for all women in Iran since shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah.

The rules are enforced by a special unit of police known as the Gasht-e Ershad (guidance patrol), who have the power to arrest women deemed to have violated the dress code, although normally they are released with a warning.

In rare published criticism from within Iran, Jalal Rashidi Koochi, a member of parliament, told the ISNA news agency that “Gasht-e Ershad is wrong because it has had no result except loss and damage for the country,” adding that “the main problem is that some people resist accepting the truth.”

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi plans to travel to New York for the UN General Assembly this week where he is set to face intense scrutiny over Iran’s human rights record.

French President Emmanuel Macron is to hold a rare meeting with Raisi later Tuesday in a final attempt to agree a deal reviving the 2015 nuclear accord.

UN calls for probe into Iranian woman's death in morality police's custody

Issued on: 20/09/2022 - 

In this September 19, 2022 photo taken by a person not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, a police motorcycle is burning during a protest over the death of a young woman who had been detained for violating the country's Islamist dress code, in Tehran. AP

Text by:NEWS WIRES

A top United Nations official on Tuesday demanded an independent investigation into the death of an Iranian woman held by the country's morality police as authorities acknowledged making arrests at protests over the incident.

The woman's death has ignited demonstrations across the country, including the capital, Tehran, where demonstrators chanted against the government and clashed with police.

The U.N. Human Rights Office said Iran's morality police have expanded their patrols in recent months, targeting women for not properly wearing the Islamic headscarf, known as hijab. It said verified videos show women being slapped in the face, struck with batons and thrown into police vans for wearing the hijab too loosely.

A similar patrol detained 22-year-old Mahsa Amini last Tuesday, taking her to a police station where she collapsed. She died three days later. Iranian police have denied mistreating Amini and say she died of a heart attack. Authorities say they are investigating the incident.

“Mahsa Amini’s tragic death and allegations of torture and ill-treatment must be promptly, impartially and effectively investigated by an independent competent authority,” said Nada Al-Nashif, the acting U.N. high commissioner for human rights.

Iran's government did not immediately comment on the statement but has previously criticized the work of U.N. investigators examining rights issues in the country.

The police released closed-circuit video footage last week purportedly showing the moment Amini collapsed. But her family says she had no history of heart trouble.

Amjad Amini, her father, told an Iranian news website that witnesses saw her being shoved into a police car.

“I asked for access to (videos) from cameras inside the car as well as courtyard of the police station, but they gave no answer,” he said. He also accused the police of not transferring her to the hospital promptly enough, saying she could have been resuscitated.

He said that when he arrived at the hospital he was not allowed to view the body, but managed to get a glimpse of bruising on her foot.

Authorities then pressured him to bury her at night, apparently to reduce the likelihood of protests, but Amini said the family convinced them to let them bury her at 8 a.m. instead.

Amini, who was Kurdish, was buried Saturday in her home city of Saqez in western Iran. Protests erupted there after her funeral and police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators on Saturday and Sunday. Several protesters were arrested.

The protests spread to Tehran and other cities on Monday. A news website affiliated with state TV said 22 people were arrested at a protest in the northern city of Rasht, the first official confirmation of arrests related to the protests.

State TV showed footage of protests on Monday, including images of two police cars with their windows smashed. It said the protesters torched two motorbikes as well, and that they burned Iranian flags in Kurdish areas and Tehran.

The state-run broadcaster blamed the unrest on foreign countries and exiled opposition groups, accusing them of using Amini's death as a pretext for more economic sanctions.

Iran has seen waves of protests in recent years, mainly over a long-running economic crisis exacerbated by Western sanctions linked to the country's nuclear program. Authorities have managed to quash the protests by force.

(AP)

New Iran protests over woman's death after 'morality police' arrest

Iranians took to the streets of the capital on Monday to protest the death of a young woman who had been detained for violating the country’s conservative dress code. Negar Mortazavi is an Iranian-American journalist and commentator, she tells us more about how Iranian authorities have been responding to the protests.

Twilight of the Tigris: Iraq's mighty river drying up


Aymen HENNA
Mon, September 19, 2022 


It was the river that is said to have watered the biblical Garden of Eden and helped give birth to civilisation itself.

But today the Tigris is dying.

Human activity and climate change have choked its once mighty flow through Iraq, where -- with its twin river the Euphrates -- it made Mesopotamia a cradle of civilisation thousands of years ago.

Iraq may be oil-rich but the country is plagued by poverty after decades of war and by droughts and desertification.

Battered by one natural disaster after another, it is one of the five countries most exposed to climate change, according to the UN.

From April on, temperatures exceed 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) and intense sandstorms often turn the sky orange, covering the country in a film of dust.

Hellish summers see the mercury top a blistering 50 degrees Celsius -- near the limit of human endurance -- with frequent power cuts shutting down air-conditioning for millions.


The Tigris, the lifeline connecting the storied cities of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra, has been choked by dams, most of them upstream in Turkey, and falling rainfall.

An AFP video journalist travelled along the river's 1,500-kilometre (900-mile) course through Iraq, from the rugged Kurdish north to the Gulf in the south, to document the ecological disaster that is forcing people to change their ancient way of life.
- Kurdish north: 'Less water every day' -


The Tigris' journey through Iraq begins in the mountains of autonomous Kurdistan, near the borders of Turkey and Syria, where local people raise sheep and grow potatoes.

"Our life depends on the Tigris," said farmer Pibo Hassan Dolmassa, 41, wearing a dusty coat, in the town of Faysh Khabur. "All our work, our agriculture, depends on it.

"Before, the water was pouring in torrents," he said, but over the last two or three years "there is less water every day".

Iraq's government and Kurdish farmers accuse Turkey, where the Tigris has its source, of withholding water in its dams, dramatically reducing the flow into Iraq.

According to Iraqi official statistics, the level of the Tigris entering Iraq has dropped to just 35 percent of its average over the past century.

Baghdad regularly asks Ankara to release more water.

But Turkey's ambassador to Iraq, Ali Riza Guney, urged Iraq to "use the available water more efficiently", tweeting in July that "water is largely wasted in Iraq".

He may have a point, say experts. Iraqi farmers tend to flood their fields, as they have done since ancient Sumerian times, rather than irrigate them, resulting in huge water losses.

- Central plains: 'We sold everything' -

All that is left of the River Diyala, a tributary that meets the Tigris near the capital Baghdad in the central plains, are puddles of stagnant water dotting its parched bed.

Drought has dried up the watercourse that is crucial to the region's agriculture.

This year authorities have been forced to reduce Iraq's cultivated areas by half, meaning no crops will be grown in the badly-hit Diyala Governorate.

"We will be forced to give up farming and sell our animals," said Abu Mehdi, 42, who wears a white djellaba robe.

"We were displaced by the war" against Iran in the 1980s, he said, "and now we are going to be displaced because of water. Without water, we can't live in these areas at all."

The farmer went into debt to dig a 30-metre (100-foot) well to try to get water. "We sold everything," Abu Mehdi said, but "it was a failure".

The World Bank warned last year that much of Iraq is likely to face a similar fate.


"By 2050 a temperature increase of one degree Celsius and a precipitation decrease of 10 percent would cause a 20 percent reduction of available freshwater," it said.

"Under these circumstances, nearly one third of the irrigated land in Iraq will have no water."

Water scarcity hitting farming and food security are already among the "main drivers of rural-to-urban migration" in Iraq, the UN and several non-government groups said in June.

And the International Organization for Migration said last month that "climate factors" had displaced more than 3,300 families in Iraq's central and southern areas in the first three months of this year.

"Climate migration is already a reality in Iraq," the IOM said.
- Baghdad: sandbanks and pollution -

This summer in Baghdad, the level of the Tigris dropped so low that people played volleyball in the middle of the river, splashing barely waist-deep through its waters.

Iraq's Ministry of Water Resources blame silt because of the river's reduced flow, with sand and soil once washed downstream now settling to form sandbanks.


Until recently the Baghdad authorities used heavy machinery to dredge the silt, but with cash tight, work has slowed.

Years of war have destroyed much of Iraq's water infrastructure, with many cities, factories, farms and even hospitals left to dump their waste straight into the river.

As sewage and rubbish from Greater Baghdad pour into the shrinking Tigris, the pollution creates a concentrated toxic soup that threatens marine life and human health.

Environmental policies have not been a high priority for Iraqi governments struggling with political, security and economic crises.

Ecological awareness also remains low among the general public, said activist Hajer Hadi of the Green Climate group, even if "every Iraqi feels climate change through rising temperatures, lower rainfall, falling water levels and dust storms," she said.
- South: salt water, dead palms -


"You see these palm trees? They are thirsty," said Molla al-Rached, a 65-year-old farmer, pointing to the brown skeletons of what was once a verdant palm grove.

"They need water! Should I try to irrigate them with a glass of water?" he asked bitterly. "Or with a bottle?"

"There is no fresh water, there is no more life," said the farmer, a beige keffiyeh scarf wrapped around his head.

He lives at Ras al-Bisha where the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates river, the Shatt al-Arab, empties into the Gulf, near the borders with Iran and Kuwait.

In nearby Basra -- once dubbed the Venice of the Middle East -- many of the depleted waterways are choked with rubbish.


To the north, much of the once famed Mesopotamian Marshes -- the vast wetland home to the "Marsh Arabs" and their unique culture -- have been reduced to desert since Saddam Hussein drained them in the 1980s to punish its population.

But another threat is impacting the Shatt al-Arab: salt water from the Gulf is pushing ever further upstream as the river flow declines.

The UN and local farmers say rising salination is already hitting farm yields, in a trend set to worsen as global warming raises sea levels.

Al-Rached said he has to buy water from tankers for his livestock, and wildlife is now encroaching into settled areas in search of water.

"My government doesn't provide me with water," he said. "I want water, I want to live. I want to plant, like my ancestors."

- River delta: a fisherman's plight -

Standing barefoot in his boat like a Venetian gondolier, fisherman Naim Haddad steers it home as the sun sets on the waters of the Shatt al-Arab.

"From father to son, we have dedicated our lives to fishing," said the 40-year-old holding up the day's catch.

In a country where grilled carp is the national dish, the father-of-eight is proud that he receives "no government salary, no allowances".

But salination is taking its toll as it pushes out the most prized freshwater species which are replaced by ocean fish.

"In the summer, we have salt water," said Haddad. "The sea water rises and comes here."

Last month local authorities reported that salt levels in the river north of Basra reached 6,800 parts per million -- nearly seven times that of fresh water.

Haddad can't switch to fishing at sea because his small boat is unsuitable for the choppier Gulf waters, where he would also risk run-ins with the Iranian and Kuwaiti coastguards.

And so the fisherman is left at the mercy of Iraq's shrinking rivers, his fate tied to theirs.

"If the water goes," he said, "the fishing goes. And so does our livelihood."

vid-tgg-gde/dp/fz/fg

Somalia's children face death by starvation as famine takes hold

MATT GUTMAN, ANGUS HINES, ROBERT ZEPEDA and MICHELA MOSCUFO

GMA
Tue, September 20, 2022 

At an encampment in Baidoa, Somalia, Garan Hassan tugged at a reporter’s sleeve. Her 18-month-old daughter Malaika was too sick to eat, too weak to cry.

Staff at a Save the Children pediatric nutrition center quickly determined that this toddler had severe acute malnutrition, like more than 500,000 other children in Somalia, according to the U.N. This diagnosis means they could die without immediate treatment.

MORE: Millions could die without 'urgent' funding as 'catastrophic famine' looms in East Africa, IRC says

Malaika’s arm was as thick as a man’s thumb, and she weighed little more than an infant. Her body was shutting down and if left untreated she would likely die.

Somalia, like Ethiopia and Kenya, is suffering a record drought which, coupled with soaring food prices and plummeting donor funding to humanitarian groups, has left more than 22 million people starving, according to the U.N.’s World Food Programme.

A 2011 famine in Somalia killed nearly 260,000 people, half of them children.

PHOTO: Drone footage of the aid encampment in Baidoa, Somalia. (ABC News)

More than half of the country’s children face acute malnutrition, Save the Children revealed in a report released on Monday.

The hunger has dislocated over a million Somalis, like Garan Hassan and her family, many of them seeking food and support in the once-small town of Baidoa. It is now a massive sprawl of thousands of tattered tents and home to 600,000 internally displaced people.

Many of them, like Hassan, had to travel through territory controlled by the Islamic fundamentalist group al-Shabab to get there.

Hassan told ABC News her husband died from starvation “at the beginning of the famine.” He was just 32. She is now the sole provider for little Malaika and her six siblings, which is why she told Save the Children staff she could not take Malaika to the hospital — she had to ensure that her other children were cared for.

MORE: Nutrition center providing help as famine looms in Somalia

“For me the declaration of famine is irrelevant. Look around you,” Ebrima Saidy, Chief Impact Officer at Save the Children, told ABC News at the nutrition center where over 200 women with acutely malnourished children hoped to get support, “what is this if this is not famine?”

A famine has not been officially declared in Somalia since 2011.

Aid groups say that after the 2011 famine they had built up the infrastructure to help, but now with donor attention on the war in Ukraine and the COVID-19 pandemic, they lacked the funds.

PHOTO: Ebrima Saidy, Chief Impact Officer at Save the Children, speaks with ABC News reporter Matt Gutman. (ABC News)

Famine prevention efforts by the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization go to a million Somalis, but the agency tells ABC News its projects here are only 24% funded.

The next day Save the Children staff visited Garan Hassan and Malaika. They found that another of her siblings had severe acute malnutrition and both children, Malaika and her 3-year-old brother Nadifa, had multiple complications. They had suffered fevers, but were now disturbingly cold to the touch.

MORE: Millions of lives at risk as famine stalks Horn of Africa

The staff warned Hassan they could die if they didn’t get treatment. After a terrifying night, Hassan quickly agreed to go to the hospital.

The children were whisked through the camp to a van that took them along streets broken by neglect and war to the Save the Children stabilization center– basically a hospital for the acutely malnourished.

Hospital staff determined the children suffered from malaria, whooping cough and measles – a result of their immune systems cratering from malnutrition.

PHOTO: Garan Hassan smiles as her child Nadifa finally drinks at the hospital. (ABC News)

During the admission process, as the two children were weighed, and measured and prodded with needles, Nadifa whimpered that he was thirsty. A few minutes later he was propped up on a nurse’s knee and given nutritional formula.

Nadifa drank one cup, then two. A milk mustache formed on his face, and on his mother’s face, for the first time in a long time, a smile.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Center for International Disaster Information (USAID)

Save the Children

Somalia's children face death by starvation as famine takes hold originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

Too weak to cry: famine looms over Somalia's children


Mustafa HAJI ABDINUR
Mon, September 19, 2022 


As flies buzz over his tiny body, two-year-old Sadak Ibrahim barely whimpers, too weak to cry or shoo them away -- a heartbreaking glimpse of the hunger crisis gripping Somalia.

The Horn of Africa nation is on the brink of a second famine in just over a decade, enduring its worst drought in 40 years after failed rainy seasons since late 2020 wiped out crops and livestock.

With a fifth monsoon forecast to fail, the United Nations warned this month that time was running out to save lives as it urged donors to contribute more to the relief effort.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said the situation was worse than the 2011 famine when 260,000 people died in the country, more than half of them children under the age of six.

Aid is slowly making its way to Somalia following delays caused by the war in Ukraine, which also sent the cost of transport and emergency supplies soaring.


But many fear the help will arrive too late for the country's youngest victims like Sadak, with around 730 children already reported dead in nutrition centres between January and July this year, according to UNICEF.

At De Martino Hospital in the capital Mogadishu, Sadak's anxious mother Fadumo Daud sat vigil by the toddler's bedside, a feeding tube dangling from his face, as she prayed for a miracle.

"He is the only child I have, and he is very sick as you can see," the young woman told AFP, recounting the three-day journey that brought her to Mogadishu from Baidoa -- one of the epicentres of the crisis.
- 'Dramatic increase' -

In recent years, climate disasters have increasingly become the main driver of migration in Somalia, which is also grappling with a brutal 15-year Islamist insurgency.

Every day, dozens of people stream into camps set up for displaced families in Mogadishu.


The International Rescue Committee (IRC) non-profit runs seven health and nutrition centres in and around the capital, but their resources are sharply stretched with the crisis showing no signs of abating.

"The number of new arrivals has increased dramatically starting from June this year," IRC nutrition officer Faisa Ali told AFP.

Most of the children turn up malnourished, she said, with their numbers trebling from a maximum of 13 a day in May to 40 now.

A mother of 10, Nuunay Adan Durow fled her home and travelled 300 kilometres (200 miles) to find medical help for her three-year-old son Hassan Mohamed, his limbs swollen due to severe malnutrition.

"For the last three years, we have not harvested anything due to lack of rain," Durow told AFP, describing how she was forced to trek for two hours daily to find water for her family.

"We faced a terrible situation," the 35-year-old said, cradling Hassan in her arms as they awaited medical attention at an IRC centre on the outskirts of Mogadishu.
- 'The worst cases' -

The drought has also affected parts of Kenya and Ethiopia but the risks for Somalia are particularly grave, with 200,000 people in danger of starvation and around 1.5 million children facing acute malnutrition by next month, the UN says.


The crisis has not spared even traditionally fertile regions such as Lower Shabelle, where drought-stricken communities would seek refuge in the past, hoping to find sustenance there.

"We used to farm and get vegetables to feed our children before the drought affected us," Fadumo Ibrahim Hassan, 35, told AFP.

Now "we live on whatever God gives us", the widowed mother-of-six said.

A recent arrival in Mogadishu, her two-year-old daughter Yusro's condition had deteriorated to the point that the IRC staff could no longer care for her.

Weighing just 5.8 kilogrammes (12.8 pounds) -- half that of a healthy girl the same age -- Yusro was dangerously malnourished, according to the IRC medical team, who told AFP she urgently needed to be admitted to a hospital.

At De Martino Hospital, doctor Fahmo Ali told AFP that each day brought more sick, malnourished children into her care.

"The ones we are receiving here are the worst cases with complications," she said.

"Sometimes those we have treated come back.

Matteo and Giorgia: Italy's far-right rivals set for power

Matteo Salvini was once the poster boy of Italy's far-right but the popularity of Giorgia Meloni has reduced him to a junior -- and potentially disruptive -- partner in their election coalition.


Matteo Salvini's League party has put anti-immigrant rhetoric at the heart of its campaign for September 25 elections in Italy© Piero CRUCIATTI

Final opinion polls last week put Meloni's post-fascist Brothers of Italy at more than 24 percent ahead of Sunday's election, around twice that of Salvini's anti-immigration League.

Such a result on election day would allow her to claim the post of prime minister and decide the direction of their coalition, which also includes former premier Silvio Berlusconi's more moderate right-wing Forza Italia.

It would be a disappointing turnout for Salvini, who was propelled to power after winning 17 percent of the vote in 2018 general elections, and securing a stunning 34 percent in the vote for the European Parliament the following year.



A right-wing alliance including Matteo Salvini and Giorgia Meloni, alongside former premier Silvio Berlusconi, is tipped for victory© MIGUEL MEDINA

A key question will be whether the League leader can accept this diminished position or make trouble on issues -- notably the Ukraine war -- on which he disagrees with Meloni.

- Arrogance -

From his blunt criticism of the European Union, Muslims and Roma, his overt Catholicism -- brandishing a rosary on the campaign trail -- to his bare-chested partying by the sea, Salvini, 49, has cultivated an image as a man of the people.



Giorgia Meloni, leader of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy party, is leading opinion polls ahead of weekend elections© CLAUDIO PERI

He successfully led his once secessionist party -- previously known as the Northern League -- to become a national force, fuelled by anger against Brussels and the tens of thousands of migrants who wash up on Italy's shores each year.

Yet in recent years he has been eclipsed by Meloni, who shares his eurosceptic, "Italians First" platform but -- despite her party's neo-fascist roots -- styles herself as a straight-talking but unthreatening "Christian mother".

"Salvini has made some big mistakes, which tarnished his image," Lorenzo De Sio, professor of political science at Rome's Luiss University, told AFP.

Top of the list was the League leader's "arrogance" in trying to bring down his coalition government in 2019, hoping to force new elections after his big win in European polls, only to find himself in opposition.

A key factor in Meloni's rise was also her decision to stay out of Prime Minister Mario Draghi's grand coalition formed in February 2021 -- the only party not to join, granting her an outsider status that has attracted many disgruntled voters.

"Meloni was free to vote with the government when she wanted, for example on Ukraine, but at the same time attacking the government whenever she wanted to preserve her identity," De Sio said.

Is fascism back in Italy? | Focus on Europe

The "Fratelli d'Italia" political party has neo-fascist roots and its leader, Georgia Meloni, could become the country’s next prime minister.


- Trouble ahead? -

Meloni's party is eurosceptic, although it no longer advocates leaving the EU's single currency, but she has strongly backed the bloc's sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

By contrast Salvini -- a long-time supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin -- has criticised the sanctions, saying they have hurt Europe more than Russia, not least in sending energy prices soaring.

The League leader has called for more help for households and businesses to mitigate the impact of rising electricity and gas bills, even if it means adding to Italy's already mammoth debt.

Meloni disagrees, and has offered reassurances that she will pursue a responsible fiscal policy.

How they will manage these differences -- along with those they have with Berlusconi, a more pro-European, centrist-rightist force, who is polling at around eight percent -- will likely depend on the final balance of power.

"Salvini and Silvio Berlusconi will be difficult coalition partners, desperate to regain visibility after a (likely) beating down on ballot day by stressing policy differences," predicted Wolfango Piccoli of the Teneo consultancy.

However, De Sio notes that while Salvini had something to gain by bringing down the government in 2019, this was not the case now.

And he noted that the Italian right has in the past proved itself adept at overcoming differences to stay in power.

"A pragmatic approach prevails, in which everyone prefers to keep their government position, with all the advantages that come with it."

ar/cdw

French football to review players' image rights after Mbappé boycott

NEWS WIRES - 20/09/22


The French Football Federation said it will review its agreement on players' image rights following media reports that striker Kylian Mbappe had refused to take part in sponsor activities.


French football to review players' image rights after Mbappé boycott© Franck Fife, AFP

ESPN reported Mbappe refused to participate in a team photo and sponsor activities scheduled for Tuesday because he does not want to endorse some brands, including fast food chains and betting companies, that are under contract with the national team.

"I have decided to not take part in the photo shoot after the French federation's refusal to change the image rights agreement with the players," Mbappe said in a statement, according to ESPN.

The French federation said on Twitter on Monday that it held discussions with the team's executives, the president, the coach and a marketing manager.

"... The French Football Federation undertakes to review, as soon as possible, the image rights agreement between it and its selected players," the statement added.

"The FFF is looking forward to working on the outlines of a new agreement that will allow it to secure its interests while taking into account the legitimate concerns and convictions unanimously expressed by its players."

France host Austria in the Nations League on Thursday and play at Denmark three days later.

(REUTERS)

Uganda declares Ebola outbreak after man dies of virus

Uganda has confirmed its first death from Ebola virus since 2019, declaring an outbreak in the central Mubende district. The WHO has said six other deaths in the area being investigated.

Ebola is an often deadly viral haemorrhagic fever

Uganda declared an outbreak of Ebola virus disease, after one person died of the highly contagious virus, the country's health ministry said Tuesday. 

Health authorities reported that a man in the central Mubende district, who died on Monday, had tested positive for the virus.

"The confirmed case is a 24-year-old male [...] who presented with EVD symptoms and later succumbed," the health ministry said in a statement on Twitter on Tuesday, using an abbreviation for the disease.

The World Health Organization's (WHO) Africa office said in a statement that the case was of the relatively rare Sudan strain.

"This is the first time in more than a decade that Uganda is recording the Ebola Sudan strain," WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti said.

The case was confirmed after six suspicious deaths that have occurred in the district this month were investigated by the National Rapid Response team, the WHO said.

"There are currently eight suspected cases who are receiving care in a health facility," it added.

The global health body said that it was helping Uganda's health authorities with their probe and deploying staff to the affected area.

Ebola is easily spread on surfaces — this 2021 image of an outbreak in the 

Ivory Coast shows health workers disinfecting a hospital

What is Ebola?

Ebola is an often deadly viral haemorrhagic fever.  The virus was first identified in Central Africa in 1976.

It spreads by contact with bodily fluids of an infected person or contaminated materials. Symptoms of the disease include fever, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle pain and sometimes internal and external bleeding.

Uganda has witnessed multiple outbreaks of the Ebola virus with the most recent one in 2019 that left at least five people dead.

The country also shares a porous border with the Democratic Republic of Congo, which recorded a new Ebola case last month less than six weeks after an epidemic in its northwest was declared over.

dvv/wmr (AFP, AP, Reuters)

DW RECOMMENDS

Uganda declares Ebola outbreak after finding rare Sudan strain

20/09/22

NEWS WIRES - An outbreak of Ebola has been declared in Uganda after health authorities confirmed a case of the relatively rare Sudan strain, the health ministry and World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.


Uganda declares Ebola outbreak after finding rare Sudan strain© Isaac Kasamani, AFP

A 24-year-old man in Uganda's central Mubende district showed symptoms and later died.

"We want to inform the country that we have an outbreak of Ebola which we confirmed yesterday," Diana Atwine, the health ministry's permanent secretary, told a news conference.

She said the patient with the confirmed case had high fever, diarrhoea and abdominal pains and was vomiting blood. He had initially been treated for malaria.

There are currently eight suspected cases receiving care in a health facility, WHO's Africa office said in a statement, adding that it was helping Uganda's health authorities with their investigation and deploying staff to the affected area.

"Uganda is no stranger to effective Ebola control. Thanks to its expertise, action has been taken to quickly to detect the virus and we can bank on this knowledge to halt the spread of infections," Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Africa's regional director, said.

The WHO said there had been seven previous outbreaks of the Ebola Sudan strain, four in Uganda and three in Sudan.

It said Uganda last reported an outbreak of Ebola Sudan strain in 2012 and an outbreak of the Ebola Zaire strain in 2019.

The WHO said ring vaccination of high-risk people with the Ervebo vaccine had been highly effective in controlling the spread of Ebola in recent outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and elsewhere but that this vaccine had only been approved to protect against the Zaire strain.

Another vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson may be effective but has yet to be specifically tested against the Sudan strain, it added.

(REUTERS)

Khmer Rouge war crimes court winds up with survivors still hurting

Suy Se with Lisa Martin in Bangkok
Tue, September 20, 2022 


Cambodia's UN-backed court set up to try Khmer Rouge leaders finishes its work this week, ending a 16-year process that has helped national reconciliation but brought only limited solace to survivors of the genocidal regime.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) will on Thursday give its judgment in the appeal by 91-year-old former head of state Khieu Samphan against his 2018 conviction for genocide and crimes against humanity.

It will be the last verdict given by the tribunal, which has cost more than $330 million and been dogged by complaints about the slowness of its work as well as allegations of interference by Cambodia's ruling party.

For Chum Mey, one of only a handful of survivors of the notorious S-21 torture prison, nothing will erase the trauma of the Khmer Rouge butchering his wife and four children.

"Only when I die, then I can forget everything," Chum Mey told AFP inside S-21, once a school and now a museum chronicling the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge.

Under leader Pol Pot, two million Cambodians died from starvation, torture, forced labour and mass execution -- nearly a quarter of the kingdom's population wiped out by the ultra-communist regime as it sought to create an agrarian utopia.

Khieu Samphan is one of only three top leaders convicted by the special court, along with "Brother Number Two" Nuon Chea -- considered the regime's chief ideologue -- and S-21 prison chief Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch.

Two previous appeals have been unsuccessful -- in fact, the court increased Duch's sentence on appeal.
- Difficult start -


The court had a difficult birth. In 1997 the Cambodian government asked for UN help in judging Khmer Rouge leaders.

But it rejected the idea of another International Criminal Tribunal along the lines of those created for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, insisting on a sovereign court run by Cambodian and international judges.

Eventually an agreement was reached in 2003, but the first hearing -- in the case against Duch -- was not held until 2009.

In total, five senior Khmer Rouge cadres, all elderly, faced trial at the court, but two died during proceedings and two others -- Duch and Nuon Chea -- died after conviction.

Regime leader Pol Pot died in 1998 before the court was established, while three other figures charged with genocide and crimes against humanity will not face trial due to disagreements between Cambodian and international judges.

S-21 survivor Chum Mey, who gave evidence in 2009, said the court had given only "about 70 percent of justice" but its work was still valuable.

"The most important point is that the court prosecuting the Khmer Rouge leaders makes people know nationwide... about the killings by Pol Pot, so they won’t let this happen again," the 91-year-old said.


Another source of controversy was the court's limited remit, which allowed it to prosecute only senior Khmer Rouge leaders.

Exiled opposition leader Sam Rainsy says this decision effectively shielded Prime Minister Hun Sen -- a former Khmer Rouge commander who has ruled the country since 1985.

The strongman premier has repeatedly warned against broadening the scope of the trials, saying it could threaten national stability.
- 'Mixed legacy' -

"The court has a decidedly mixed legacy, a mix of solid accomplishments and disappointing failures," said Craig Etcheson, author of several books on Cambodia including one on the special court.

However, the tribunal helped "super-charge the process of national reconciliation," Etcheson said.

"Parents feel more free to talk to their children about what happened to them... schools have incorporated new materials about the Pol Pot time into their curricula, neighbours began to talk to neighbours about their experiences," he said.

Nearly a quarter of a million people attended the hearings, which took evidence from more than 300 witnesses, civil parties and experts.

Etcheson argues the court was "a relative bargain" compared with other international tribunals, and donors were "far too stingy", causing delays in the proceedings.

Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which conducts research on the Khmer Rouge regime, believes it is a mistake to focus on the court's financial issues.

"It confirms that we can live after genocide -- that we can move on, that we can rebuild, we can put back what has been lost," he said.

Back at S-21, the sombre black-and-white photos of over 18,000 murdered detainees are displayed in the exhibition halls.

Survivor Bou Meng, 85, still bearing the physical and mental scars from his time here, calls for handcuffs and chains to encircle the graves of dead Khmer Rouge leaders.

"I will remember everything for my whole life," he said. "They beat me up, they tortured me, I can never forget these things, it's still fresh and vivid."

ss-lpm/pdw/dhc

QUISLINGS & COMPRADORS

Palestinian Authority arrest raid sparks West Bank clashes


AFP , Tuesday 20 Sep 2022

A rare operation by the Palestinian Authority security forces to arrest a Hamas member sparked clashes in the West Bank city of Nablus on Tuesday, multiple sources said.


Palestinian protesters clash with Palestinian security forces in Nablus in the occupied West Bank on September 20, 2022, following the arrest of two members of the Islamist group Hamas. AFP


There were reports that a bystander, 53-year-old Firas Yaish, was killed in the crossfire but the Palestinian health ministry had not yet confirmed the death. A tweet, purportedly from Yaish's cousin Kawther, said it was "mourning" Firas's death.

Unrest persisted through the morning, with hundreds of youths hurling rocks at PA armoured vehicles and the sound of gunfire ringing out across the city centre, AFP correspondents reported.

The northern West Bank has suffered near daily violence in recent months.

On the other side, Israel has conducted dozens of night-time raids in the area, particularly in Jenin, pursuing wanted individuals.

Dozens of Palestinians, including fighters, have been killed in the raids that began after a series of deadly attacks against Israeli targets in March.

Israel has put mounting pressure on the PA to crack down on alleged militants in the West Bank, threatening to intervene where the PA does not maintain order.

Furious Texas Sheriff Announces Criminal Investigation Into Martha’s Vineyard Migrant Flights

Matt Young
Mon, September 19, 2022 

Facebook

Authorities have confirmed they are opening a criminal investigation into the individuals who “lured” approximately 50 migrants from the migrant resource center in San Antonio to be flown to Martha’s Vineyard at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ request.

Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar confirmed the investigation during a press conference Monday “to clear the air for everyone,” alleging that 48 migrants were “lured under false pretenses” to stay at a hotel for a couple of days, shuttled to a plane, flown to Florida, and eventually transported to Martha’s Vineyard, where they had been promised work and solutions to other problems.

A number of migrants have claimed to have been approached and paid $200 cash by a mysterious woman called “Perla” to recruit people to board a plane to Martha’s Vineyard on Wednesday. By Friday the migrants were being transported from the island’s lone shelter to temporary housing at Joint Base Cape Cod in Buzzards Bay—off Martha’s Vineyard entirely.

Salazar did not mention any specific suspects but said he had “the names of some suspects involved who we believe are persons of interest at this point.” He said he won’t part with the names but that “everybody on this call knows who those names are already.”

DeSantis claimed responsibility for the two flights that ferried the migrants to the upscale Massachusetts island as part of what the Republican governor’s office called part of efforts to “transport illegal immigrants to sanctuary destinations.”

Salazar, who is a Democrat, said he felt bothered by the news and is working with nongovernmental organizations, media, and advocacy groups to help the migrants with representation.

He said he has spoken to one attorney who is representing a number of migrants as part of the investigation to discover if this was “a strictly predatory measure,” noting somebody “hunted them down, preyed upon them... for the sake of political theater. I believe people need to be held accountable for it.”

“What infuriates me the most about this case is that here we have 48 people who are already on hard times, they are here legally in our country at this point, they have every right to be where they are, and I believe they were preyed upon,” Salazar said, alleging the migrants were “exploited and hoodwinked” for nothing more than “political posturing.”

Salazar said he was unable to definitely provide a statute or criminal activity that was broken “but what I can tell you what was done to these folks is wrong.” He said he wanted to find out “sooner rather than later” what charges, if any, will apply and to whom.

He labeled the allegations he has heard as “absolutely distasteful, disgusting, and an abuse of human rights.” He said he was enraged by the news and said he believed criminal activity was “involved,” though had not yet spoken with any migrants yet.

Salazar said there may be parallel laws broken on the federal side and welcomed the White House to “give me a call.”