Mass trial of Cambodian opposition members charged with treason

Yesterday 

Cambodian opposition party activists and former lawmakers have been put on trial for treason, the latest mass trial of opponents of the country’s long-ruling Prime Minister Hun Sen.


Prisoners arrive by police truck at the Phnom Penh Municipal Court, Cambodia, on September 15, 2022 

[File: Heng Sinith/AP Photo]

© Provided by Al Jazeera

A total of 37 defendants were summoned to the court in the capital, Phnom Penh, on Thursday, though only three were physically present as the majority were either in exile abroad or in hiding, defence lawyer Sam Sokong said.

The hearing was the third mass trial targeting members of the popular opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), which in 2013 came close to defeating Hun Sen’s party.

The Clooney Foundation for Justice, established by lawyer Amal Clooney and her actor husband George Clooney, said on Thursday that the conviction in an earlier mass trial that involved Cambodian-American lawyer Theary Seng was “a travesty of justice”.

“Theary Seng was convicted not because of what she did, but because she supported democratic change in Cambodia,” the foundation said in a statement.

“Expressing political views should not have been the basis for criminal charges, let alone a conviction and prison sentence. Cambodia must stop misusing its laws to criminalize dissent,” the foundation said.

The CNRP was banned just ahead of the 2018 general election by a court that ruled the opposition party had plotted to overthrow Hun Sen, whose authoritarian rule has kept him in power for 37 years.

Cambodian courts are widely understood to be under the influence of Hun Sen.

The disbanding of the opposition allowed his party to sweep all seats in the 2018 election, effectively turning Cambodia into a one-party state.

The allegations of treason mostly stem from an abortive attempt by a top CNRP leader, Mu Sochua, to return to Cambodia from self-exile abroad.

The defendants are accused of committing treason by helping organise the trip.

Among those charged is the party’s co-founder and longtime Hun Sen opponent, Sam Rainsy, who currently lives in France.

The trial, which started in 2020 but was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic, involved more than 100 defendants who were divided into three separate trial groups for manageability.

More than 80 people were convicted in the first two mass trials earlier this year, receiving sentences of up to 10 years.

In March, the court convicted 21 people and sentenced them to between five and 10 years in prison for treason and conspiracy to commit treason and incitement to commit a felony.

Those convicted included opposition leader Sam Rainsy, his wife Tioulong Saumura, six former lawmakers and other party supporters.

The same court in June convicted Cambodian-American lawyer, Theary Seng, and 60 opposition supporters of treason, handing down prison sentences ranging from five to eight years.

Photos show contraband smuggled into South Africa from Zimbabwe, not other way round

Tendai Dube, AFP South Africa - Yesterday 

Photos circulating on social media are being shared alongside claims that Zimbabweans were caught smuggling medication from South Africa back home. The pictures are genuine, taken by the South African army during recent busts. However, it was the other way round: the images show Zimbabweans caught trying to smuggle contraceptives and other goods into South Africa. The misleading claim piggybacks on rising jingoism targeting foreigners, especially Zimbabweans, in South Africa.

“Zimbabweans collecting medication from south African clinics pretending to be sick and smuggling it to zim (sic),” reads a Facebook post published on September 7, 2022.

The post includes three photographs: one of a carry bag filled with blister packs containing medication, and another two showing men and soldiers in the bushveld surrounded by large packages sealed in plastic.


Photos show contraband smuggled into South Africa from Zimbabwe, not other way round© Provided by AFP Fact CheckA screenshot of the misleading claim, taken on September 12, 2022

The same claim about the images was retweeted thousands of times on Twitter.

Some social media users believed the claim and expressed support for Phophi Ramathuba, the political head of health in South Africa’s Limpopo province who was filmed ranting at a Zimbabwean patient in a state medical facility, saying foreigners were placing additional pressure on the country’s public healthcare system.



Photos show contraband smuggled into South Africa from Zimbabwe, not other way round© Provided by AFP Fact CheckA screenshot of comments on the Facebook post, taken on August 13, 2022

The claim, however, is misleading.

Vice versa

A reverse image search of the picture with the tablets led to a statement posted on Facebook by the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) describing recent successes with various anti-smuggling operations, one of which included a seizure of pills ─ the same ones in the picture shared with the misleading claim.

According to the statement, the pills were being smuggled into South Africa ─ not out.

“At Echo 2 our soldiers confiscated what is called Control L Hormonal Contraceptives pills valued at R423 916.00 (approximately $24,000) which were being smuggled into South Africa from Zimbabwe,” reads the SANDF statement, published on September 5, 2022.

The statement detailed other recent busts of illegal goods, including sneakers and firearms, and included the two photos of large, black packages.




This illicit trade of medication from Zimbabwe to South Africa is not new. An April 2021 report by non-profit news agency GroundUp said it was spurred by demand from Zimbabwean women in South Africa who preferred to use familiar brands rather than local options.

Traders also told GroundUp that women turned to this illegal market to avoid long queues at clinics.


Photos show contraband smuggled into South Africa from Zimbabwe, not other way round© Provided by AFP Fact CheckScreenshot from the GroundUp article published in April 2021

The article includes a photo of the packaging for Control contraceptive pills. The box carries the Zimbabwean health ministry’s logo in the bottom left corner.


Photos show contraband smuggled into South Africa from Zimbabwe, not other way round© Provided by AFP Fact CheckPhoto of the contraceptive pack published by GroundUp

The same pill is listed on the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council website as a contraceptive.



Photos show contraband smuggled into South Africa from Zimbabwe, not other way round© Provided by AFP Fact CheckA comparison of the pills distributed in Zimbabwe (L) and those seized in the bust

Mauritanians Protest Law Requiring Arabic Language Lessons

Joseph Hammond, Zenger News - Yesterday 

Opposition groups have vowed to keep protesting against a law they say will threaten the future of non-Arabic culture in Mauritania. The Mauritanian government says that the new law, passed this summer, is much-needed educational reform.

"[This will] put an end to the alarming deterioration of the national education system," the National Education Minister Mohamed Melainine Ould Eyih said earlier this year in a public appearance.

The law passed in July calls for primary-level classes to be taught in a local vernacular. It also requires the teaching of Arabic to non-Arabic speakers and of at least one national language to Arabic speakers.

Organization of the Officialization of National Languages (OLAN) was founded in March 2022 and claims to have hundreds of active members.

"The day after the publication by the government of the content of the bill, we found it so unfair and so clear about its desire to endorse the choice of the Arabic language as the absolute language of the country;" said Dieynaba Ndiom, awareness officer of OLAN. "The treatment that this bill reserved for other languages is so vague and minimalist that we immediately recognized the Arabization project that has always been supported by the state."

Four languages are recognized by the Mauritanian constitution: Arabic, Pulaar, Soninke, and Wolof. Only Arabic is official, and French is widely spoken. The OLAN movement protested the passage of the law with some of its members being arrested and others injured in a series of clashes with the police. It was unclear if any Mauritanian security forces were injured in the mostly peaceful protests. According to a video posted on social media, some protestors against the law made it into Mauritania's parliament during the consideration of the bill.

"The preservation of cultural and linguistic diversity is at stake. Each of us has the right to fully live our cultural identity, and the assimilation project hatched by the Mauritanian system is criminal and unacceptable," Ndiom said.


OLAN members confront Mauritanian security forces during a

 protest over the country's new language law on July 25, 2022,

 in Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania. 

OLAN via Zenger© OLAN via Zenger

Mauritania's cultural demographics make it a bridge between North Africa and West Africa. Five major ethnic groups make up the country. Since its independence in 1960 from France, the cohabitation of its ethnic components has often been a source of cultural tensions.

Mauritania's linguistic policies have always been seen as discriminatory by speakers of minority languages. Several linguists has also noted that in certain societies, a "prestige" language or dialect is often promoted at the expense of others.

In the 1980s, the government of Mauritania forcibly deported over 70,000 members of the Fulani, Toucouleur, Wolof, Soninke and Bambara ethnic groups.

Protestors against a new language law gather outside the parliament building in Nouakchott, Mauritania, on July 25, 2022. Speakers of minority languages worry that the law will lead to discrimination. 

OLAN via Zenger© OLAN via Zenger

"The linguistic and cultural diversity that we observe today in Mauritania is a heritage built over the last two millennia, under extremely powerful empires that have existed on this part of the continent," said Mouhamadou Sy, a Mauritanian affairs expert and professor at Johns Hopkins University.

Sy points out that Mauritanian identity should draw inspiration from more than the country's Arab cultural ties. For instance, the capital of the empire of Ghana, called Koumbi Saleh, was located in the southeast of present-day Mauritania. During its heyday, the Mali Empire was one of the wealthiest in the world. Other empires and states have also left their imprint on Mauritania's cultural heritage, he said.

"Many sub-Saharan languages reigned over this country long before the arrival of Arabic in the 15th century. All these languages, including Arabic, are a national heritage and a wealth for the present-day country. Contrary to the Arabization that the State has always wanted to promote at the expense of its diversity, we can well adopt a multilingual system like that of Switzerland, which corresponds most to our social and historical reality," Sy said.

OLAN activists have vowed to continue to raise awareness of the issue. The next protest is scheduled for late September.

Life Inside a Catholic-Run Residential School for Canadian Indigenous Children

A new edition of "The Education of Augie Merasty:

 A Residential School Memoir"

 is available from University of Regina Press.

© Provided by Time

Joseph ‘Augie’ Merasty - Yesterday - TIME

In late May of 2021, when spring was unfurling across the country, Canadians awakened to the discovery near Kamloops, British Columbia of 200 dead Indigenous children in unmarked graves. More grizzly discoveries would continue across the country tied to the nation’s history between 1881 and 1996 of forcing more than 150,000 Indigenous children to attend residential schools that were rife with abuse. The numbers of presumed corpses, mostly children, are now in the thousands. When the headlines emerged, announcing these unmarked gravesites one after another, it felt as though all of Canada had been summoned to a mass exhumation. Doubtless, the people most deeply traumatized by this nightmare were First Nations and Métis, but many of us in all walks of life have still not awakened from this nightmare. How could these schools, which were largely Catholic-run institutions, have operated for so long with such impunity? How could this have happened?

The late Joseph Auguste (Augie) Merasty, laborer, taxi driver, security guard, boxer, trapper, hunter, fisherman, town drunk, visual artist and memoirist has some answers to these questions. His memoir of life and abuse in these schools The Education of Augie Merasty: A Residential School Memoir was published in 2015. The excerpt below sheds light on the experiences Merasty had at St. Therese Residential School in Saskatchewan, Canada, which he attended from 1935-1944. — David Carpenter, editor of The Education of Augie Merasty

***

I was born in 1930 at Sturgeon Landing and baptized there by Father Aquinas Merton, who was also the principal at St. Therese Residential School from 1927, when the school was opened. Two of my sisters and my brother, Peter, were the first three to walk inside the school. Annie and Jeanette were the names of my two sisters. There were also six uncles and the same number of aunts who attended the school in its first year.

All those sisters and cousins, uncles, and many other unrelated people from other villages told me what had happened. Good and bad, positive or negative, were told to me and others when we got to school eight years later, and they all told basically the same stories. So one has to assume they were speaking the truth.

We used to enjoy going out miles away from the school, going on picnics, either to the beach or going fishing at the rapids north of the school. It felt so nice to get out of the enclosed playground. Most of the time, we were forced to stay within the yard, which was surrounded by a high barbed-wire fence. It felt like getting out of prison.

I really can’t recall just how many times I was made to pay for minor offences. I was once made to walk about twenty miles in –40°F weather with a fellow student, Abner Joseph, back to where we walked the day before, across the big lake with a strong wind blowing. I imagine the wind chill factor was about –60°F. Just because we lost one mitten each. We were very nervous and scared all the way, as we were only about eleven or twelve years old at the time. And we saw some fresh wolf tracks about six miles out on the lake and kept our eyes busy looking every which way, expecting to see some wolves following us.We came back without the lost mittens as the wind and snow had covered everything that could be lost. That was January 1941, and it was that meanest of all nuns, Sister St. Mercy, who had forced us to walk in that god-awful weather, only to come back empty-handed. We, of course, got the strap, twenty strokes on both hands.

Sometimes for punishment we were made to kneel on the cold cement floor from 8:30 p.m. until almost midnight, after everyone had gone to bed upstairs. We would fall asleep on the cold cement floor before Sister Mercy came or sent for her co-worker Sister Joy to tell us to go to bed upstairs. Then we were woken up early in the morning to go to church. We were usually awakened at 7:30 a.m., like it or not. All we used for toothpaste was salt, which the sister carried in a saucer. Salt, something we didn’t even get to use at mealtime. Yet the cows and horses were getting all they wanted in blocks in the fields.

They really enjoyed causing pain and other kinds of suffering as punishment for the smallest infractions. I think they were paranoid in the position they had, being masters of a lower race of creatures, Indians, as we were called.

“Indians from the bush, what can you expect?” was Sister Mercy’s favourite phrase.

They wanted to show who was superior, and no rule or order was to be broken or spoken against. They wanted to impress upon us that all this was for our own good and the will of God, and that the order of nuns, brothers, and fathers of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) were to some degree servants of God on Earth, and we must take any punishment without complaints. To be disobedient was a sin in the eyes of God.

Every morning at breakfast, we ate rotten porridge and dry bread that was hard as cardboard. We always watched an impeccably white-clothed cart eight feet long being wheeled to the Fathers’ and Brothers’ dining room. Right through the centre of the refectory for all us boys and girls to turn and watch, licking our chops, all the beautiful food going past us ten feet away. It happened almost on a daily basis. Our keepers, one on the girls’ side and one on the boys’ side, banged on their clappers, and we were told to get back to our porridge and don’t turn our heads again or it would be detention or another kind of penance.

I always wondered why our keepers and teachers talked about Jesus, Mary, and Joseph and all the love they had for mankind, and Jesus being born in poverty and we should try to emulate him and learn to take punishment for our wrongs to pay here on Earth and not later in hell or purgatory. Apparently they didn’t know it was suffering enough to see all that beautiful food being wheeled by and only getting a smell of it. I know they never practised what they preached, not one iota.

Whenever there were visits from the head Catholic cleric in the district or visits from chiefs or members of council from any Indian reserve, they used to make us dress in our best clothing, provide concerts, and they even served us some edible food, beef stew or something. And they treated those northern visitors with good food and everything nice, and of course that chief or counsellor would get up at the end of the concert and speak from the stage facing all 110 children, telling us how lucky we were to be looked after in such a school as St. Therese Residential, and we should be thankful to God and to the administration for such blessings.

Oh, God, I used to think, what hypocrisy. Somebody sure pulled the wool over their eyes, because that is how it was meant to look, and it happened time after time.

Lawmakers, activists seek answers over fate of fishermen forced back to N.Korea

By Josh Smith and Soo-hyang Choi - 

SEOUL, Sept 15 (Reuters) - Activists and South Korean lawmakers are pressing North Korea to confirm the fate of two fishermen who were forcibly sent back from the South in 2019 after being accused of murder.

The administration of former President Moon Jae-in deported the two men back to North Korea after it concluded that they were "dangerous criminals" who had killed 16 other colleagues, and subsequent unconfirmed reports have suggested they were executed shortly after being deported.

A United Nations investigator has said that the forcible repatriation violated human rights principles. Neither Moon, who has kept out of the public eye since leaving office, or North Korea has commented on the case.

New President Yoon Suk-yeol pushed to reinvestigate the case, accusing the previous government of trying to curry favour with Pyongyang amid denuclearisation negotiations and efforts at rapprochement. Senior former officials are under investigation, while Moon's party says the inquiries are politically motivated.

Some rights activists, South Korean lawmakers and defectors say it is still unclear what happened to the men, and are pushing to discover if they are still alive.

In a social media post on Wednesday, Ha Tae-keung, a member of Yoon's conservative party who formerly sat on the parliamentary intelligence committee, identified the two men as Woo Beom Sun and Kim Hyun Wook.

Both were shown in photos released by the Yoon administration earlier this year being dragged across the border by South Korean security officials, with Woo in particular resisting.

Ha's office said he was releasing their identities for the first time in an attempt to get more information from the defector community, and to pressure North Korea to break its silence about their fate.

"Whether they are alive is still not confirmed three years after their forced repatriation to the North," Ha and three other lawmakers wrote in a joint statement. "Only the international community's open and united voice can bring about change in the North Korean authorities' attitude."

An official with the Unification Ministry, which handles relations with the North, said they had no information to share regarding the fate of the repatriated fishermen.

In July, Yonhap news agency cited an unnamed South Korean government official who said that the two men had been executed just days after they were sent back.

Others have cast doubts on those reports.

One South Korean pastor, who has worked for decades helping North Koreans defect, told Reuters that based on his sources, he believes that the fishermen may still be alive in a political prison camp.

The pastor and a defector told Reuters that there are also questions over the crime the two men were accused of committing. Citing contacts in the North, they say there seems to be little public talk of 16 missing fishermen, who would have left behind families and friends.

Referring to the two fishermen, Lina Yoon, senior Korea researcher at the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, said: "Knowing their name and birthdate makes it much easier for other governments and international mechanisms to make official requests about their whereabouts and hold accountable the North Korean government for their fate."

She added: "The North Korean government should immediately disclose their whereabouts.” (Reporting by Josh Smith and Soo-hyang Choi, editing by Mark Heinrich)

Argentina’s pensioners suffer under weight of soaring inflation

Teresa Bo - Yesterday 11:21 AM

Buenos Aires, Argentina – Villa Lugano, a collection of large social housing complexes in Argentina’s capital, was founded in the 1900s by a Swiss man who dreamt of building a neighbourhood that would compare with his home in Lugano, Switzerland.


Pedestrians walk past people sleeping outside a bank, in Buenos Aires’ financial

 district, Argentina, July 2022 [File: Agustin Marcarian/Reuters]© Provided by Al Jazeera

Today, it has become a symbol of the country’s working class – and it’s where I recently met Stella Maris Acosta and Walmiran Aramburu, two pensioners living off the minimum monthly instalment of about $170 each.

In a country where the monthly inflation rate has hit approximately 7 percent, their income is not enough to survive on. Stella Maris and Walmiran live in a modest apartment and they are struggling to pay the bills.

“The only dream I had was owning a home and now look at us,” Stella Maris told me. “I am still paying for the mortgage, utility services, plus all the medicines we need – we cannot buy enough food.”

She then stood up and went to the refrigerator, proudly displaying some of the vegetables that she said she picks out of the rubbish, drops into vinegar and cleans up before eating. “People throw away food but it can be preserved and used,” said Stella Maris. “I can turn this tomato into sauce, bake it and other things.”

Argentina is an agricultural powerhouse that produces food for 400 million people – yet amid soaring inflation and the daily struggles of people like Stella Maris and Walmiran, many here say the country’s ruling class has failed them over and over again.

People are used to living with high inflation; it’s been a problem for decades. But with the rate expected to hit 100 percent by the end of 2022, Argentines are hoping for miracles.

Unions are strong and they are pushing for wages to keep up with inflation. This year, deals have been reached for 65-percent salary increases and that’s one of the reasons why the government is still in control. There is anger, yes, and the government has lost support. But they are still in power.


The problem is that pensioners – who number about 7 million, of which 86 percent are getting the minimum amount every month – can rarely take to the streets and demand a better income.

“Inflation, what it does is that you pay the new prices with an old salary. It happens to all workers,” Eugenio Semino, a public defender for the elderly in Buenos Aires, told Al Jazeera.

He explained that even though labour unions have agreed to salary increases, that jump is already outpaced by the projected inflation, which “will be close to 100 [percent]”.

Argentina’s government knows there is a big battle ahead over inflation. The problem is that until recently, President Alberto Fernandez and Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner could not agree on the antidote to fight it.

Alberto Fernandez had been trying to reach an agreement with the International Monetary Fund to cut down on subsidies and government spending, while Fernandez de Kirchner opposed many of his policies and insisted that inflation needed to be fought differently. But when she was president of Argentina until 2014, she, too, was unable to find a solution.

Now, Sergio Massa is the new minister of the economy – the third to take up the post in August alone after a string of government shakeups.

A seasoned politician with presidential ambitions, he has promised to jumpstart the troubled economy. Massa just came back from Washington, DC, where he made a desperate attempt to find investors and support for many of his policies. But whether his plan succeeds remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, Argentina’s pensioners continue to struggle under the weight of the crisis.

Stella Maris has been working since she was 15. She has worked as a maid and a nurse, but now suffers from diabetes. Walmiran, who came to Argentina from Uruguay in the 1970s, worked as a doorman all his life. He, too, has health problems now, including epilepsy.

Despite these challenges, Stella Maris and Walmiran still go out every day to try to make an extra living. They search rubbish bins for bronze, copper, aluminium, and food. If they are lucky, they can make an extra $80 every month by selling the recyclable materials.

They say Argentina’s political class has failed them. They are forced to take to the streets to survive as inflation continues to soar. But they are not humiliated by it. They say it’s a job and for now, it’s the only thing they can do to help them make it until the end of the month.

Argentina’s Kirchner Says Murder Attempt Broke Pact of Democracy

Silvia Martinez and Patrick Gillespie - Yesterday 

(Bloomberg) -- Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, making her first public appearance since suffering a failed assassination attempt two weeks ago, said the incident broke a social agreement reached when the country returned to democracy in 1983.


Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner waves to supporters as she leaves her residence in Buenos Aires following the failed attack.© Getty Images

“Recovering democracy wasn’t just being able to vote, it was also a return to life and rationality, to be able to discuss politics without violence,” she said at a small event with social religious organizations at the senate. “What happened the other day ruptured that, and we have to rebuild it urgently.”

The failed Sept. 1 attack outside Kirchner’s apartment building in Buenos Aires stunned the nation. While politicians across the spectrum condemned the violence and wished Kirchner well, that night President Alberto Fernandez declared a national holiday, and lashed out at opposition leaders and the media in a televised address. Violence against political figures has been rare in Argentina since the return to a democratic system.

Read More: Argentina Vice President Survives Gunman’s Assassination Attempt

The attacker, a 35-year-old identified as Fernando Andres Sabag Montiel, pointed a gun at point blank range toward Kirchner’s face but it failed to fire and fell out of his hand. After the attack, her political rival, former President Mauricio Macri, also suffered threats. Fernandez condemned the threats against Macri, who left office in 2019.

In her address, Kirchner cited a conversation held with Pope Francis following the attack, in which he had told her that “acts of violence and hate are preceded by words and verbs of hate.” She stopped short of directly blaming any opposition groups or the media for the tensions.

“We need to deal with this through the institutions and with civic respect,” she said, praising her supporters for turning in the gunman to the police rather than attempting to take matters into their own hands.

The attack has added tension to a country already suffering through inflation expected to reach 100% by the end of this year. In her address, Kirchner said that the country’s inflation problem has to do with the lack of a reliable currency.

“That’s what I believe and what I’ve been saying, and that’s what we at a minimum need to agree on,” she said.

Read More: Why 70% Inflation Is Just One of Argentina’s Problems: QuickTake

Kirchner is in the middle of a corruption trial in which a federal prosecutor has called on a court to sentence her to 12 years in prison and a lifetime ban on public service. Kirchner denies any wrongdoing. As sitting vice president, Kirchner holds a high level of immunity and is unlikely to go to jail soon if the court agrees with the prosecutor.

No longer at ease: Pastoralist attack survivors unsettled in Nigeria

Yesterday 


Igangan, Nigeria – One sunny afternoon in April, Rahmata Adeagbo, was seated on a bed in her brother’s house where she now lives, staring blankly at the visitors.

Makeshift tents for housing are lined up at the camp for internally displaced people affected by the prolonged conflict between farmers and nomadic herders in Guma, Benue State in central Nigeria, January 6, 2022 [File: Chinedu Asadu/AP Photo]© Provided by Al Jazeera

“Ade-lo-wo … Ade-a-gbo,” the 50-year-old muttered after a long silence, painfully stringing the syllables of her late husband’s name.

On June 5, 2021, he had stepped out after receiving calls that nomadic herdsmen had laid siege to their town, Igangan, a town 176km [109 miles] away from Lagos. The next time she saw him, his body was ridden with bullets, one of 11 deaths during the attack.

Before that episode, Igangan and six neighbouring towns – all in Oyo state – had experienced a number of clashes stemming from disagreements between Indigenous Yoruba farmers and nomadic Fulani herdsmen.

At the root of the crisis is cattle grazing on farmlands across Nigeria but the battle for resources has been exacerbated by climate change across the Sahel, worsening economic conditions and in some cases, ethnicity and religion; the nomads are mostly Muslim and the farmers are predominantly Christians.

Entire villages have been displaced and schools closed for successive sessions. Interstate food supply chains are disrupted as cattle markets have been razed and farmers have been unable to tend to their crops or have seen them destroyed.

In central Nigeria, the hotspot, as many as 13 million people are at risk of hunger, the World Food Programme said earlier this year.

Between 2016 and 2018, there were 3,641 deaths nationwide due to the conflict, according to Amnesty International. The majority of the reported victims were Indigenes and herdsmen were reported as the aggressors, launching deadly raids frequently.

But even in the southwest, where interfaith households are common and religious tolerance is deemed the highest nationwide, these clashes have become rife. In recent years, it has morphed into more dangerous dimensions involving kidnappings, rape, highway robberies, and coordinated destruction of farmlands.

In 2019, an anti-open grazing law addressing what many experts have identified as the root cause of the disagreements – resource sharing – was passed into law in Oyo. But it has not yet been implemented.

Two years later, as attacks in Igangan continued without perpetrators being apprehended, non-state actors led by a Yoruba ethnic rights activist, Sunday Adeyemo Igboho, demolished property belonging to Fulani residents.

Residents told Al Jazeera that this eviction and the controversies that followed likely spurred the June 5 attack.

Growing distrust

According to a report [PDF] by the International Crisis Group, factors that have allowed Nigeria’s pastoralist crisis to fester range from impunity and eroding confidence in the country’s security forces to the government’s poor response to early warnings.

For years, the national security architecture has been overstretched by armed groups running riot in northeast, northwest and central Nigeria.

In January 2020, as cases of insecurity spiked in southwest Nigeria, the six state governors in the region agreed to create a regional security network. It was codenamed Amotekun (Yoruba for leopard). The federal government kicked against the move citing constitutional concerns so the governors redesigned it into a state-based security vigilante to support the police, which is controlled by Abuja.

In Oyo State, the outfit launched in November 2020.

Even though the June 2021 attack remains the last full-scale one coordinated by herdsmen on residents of any of the seven neighbouring towns, residents told Al Jazeera that neither the recent reduction in attacks nor the government’s efforts had eased their fears.

Matthew Page, an associate fellow at the UK-based think-tank Chatham House, says their decision not to trust the authorities’ promise of safety is justified, explaining that “security agencies are ineffective because authorities have tolerated endemic corruption and turned a blind eye to their operational failures”.

Idayat Hassan, director of Abuja-based CDD, agreed, saying it is difficult for residents to trust the state because it has lost the monopoly of violence.

“The inability of the state to respond even when furnished with information ahead of attacks also makes citizens believe they are either complicit or abetting,” she said. “This further eroded the thin trust existing between citizens and governments.”

Peace and unease

Before her husband’s death, Adeagbo was a housewife who occasionally engaged in farmwork but her mental health has begun to suffer since and she can no longer work.

“When her husband died, she suffered a serious emotional issue,” her brother, Akeem Rasheed, told Al Jazeera. “Her husband’s death and the unavailability of resources to cater for her kids pushed her to the brink.”

Initially, he took her to the closest neuropsychiatric hospital, 77km [48 miles] from the town, for treatment. After two months, he had to take her back home because he could no longer afford her hospital bills.

“They allowed me to take her away only because I promised to keep bringing her for regular check-ups, something I have not done because I don’t have money again,” Rasheed said.

As her mental state declines, her family is clinging to the hope that she will get better and that the town will not be attacked again.

But despite no attacks in recent months, residents of other communities in the region are choosing pragmatism over hope.

Across villages in Ogun state, next door to Lagos, residents are relocating to the neighbouring Benin Republic. One of them is Clement Oyebanjo, a teacher in Agbon village who moved there briefly last February after an attack in his village killed four people.

“We are not at ease and sleep with our eyes half open because we know as long as open-grazing is not banned, these Fulani herders will come back,” says Oyebanjo who is prepared to return to Benin if another attack happens.

‘Violence entrepreneurs’

After Igangan was attacked in June, its residents created a new vigilante group. One of its members was Emmanuel Oguntoyinbo whose younger brother was shot dead on his motorcycle by the attackers while returning from a party.

“We, the youths of the town, that decided that we needed to do that because initially, the community employed some vigilantes from outside, but when the government refused to pay, they left,” the 35-year-old told Al Jazeera.

Every night, armed with Dane guns and charms, they take positions across the town while others patrol strategic places in groups. The community’s youth leader, Olayiwola Olusegun, told Al Jazeera that every household contributes money every month to provide ammunition.

In Agbon, the local vigilante group continues to recruit new members. In neighbouring Ibeku, residents are now wary of visitors and report unknown faces immediately to the town’s traditional ruler.

In Ondo State, dozens of elder residents of communities like Okeluse and Molege, have fled too, while youths who stayed behind have picked up arms to protect themselves.

Meanwhile, Wasiu Olatunbosun, Oyo State commissioner for information, told Al Jazeera the government had put in place the machinery to secure towns like Igangan. He insisted that residents who claim to stay up at night because of their fear of another attack must be opposition members.

For experts like Page, the outcome of these dynamics could be an “expansion of violence entrepreneurs” and more instability even if residents embracing self-defence is justified.

The only difference, he said, between “a vigilante, political thug, insurgent, or bandit is for whom or what cause he fights”.

World Bank earmarks $30 billion to help offset food shortages worsened by war in Ukraine

By Daria Sito-Sucic - Yesterday

World Bank Managing Director of Operations Axel van Trotsenburg speaks during interview with Reuters© Reuters/DADO RUVIC

SARAJEVO (Reuters) - The World Bank is willing to provide up to $30 billion to combat global food shortages aggravated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine and has so far disbursed almost $10 billion in financial aid pledged to Kyiv, a senior bank official said on Thursday.

Axel van Trotsenburg, the bank's managing director of operations, cited "an absolute need for international solidarity with Ukraine" during an interview with Reuters while on a visit to the Bosnian capital Sarajevo.

"And that solidarity has to be sustained not only in the short term but in the long term," he said.

Van Trotsenburg said the World Bank began providing support to Ukraine soon after the Feb. 24 Russian invasion and had so far disbursed close to $10 billion of $13 billion in aid it had committed to Kyiv.

He said the bank had created a platform to combine its direct support and additional support from countries such as the United States, Britain and Japan, along with separate guarantees from European states, and also facilitate co-financing and parallel financing. It had also created a trust fund for donors.



World Bank Managing Director of Operations Axel van Trotsenburg speaks during an interview with Reuters© Reuters/DADO RUVIC

While various countries have channelled support through the trust fund, he said, the largest sums had come from the United States with an average of at least $1.5 billion out of nearly $5 billion in external financing needed by Kyiv each month.

"We set up (a) system through which we could help the continuation of the state functions of Ukraine - paying teacher salaries, pensions, helping the health system. That has worked very well and some of our partner countries wanted to use that mechanism because we can then also trace money," van Trotsenburg said.

He said the bank was also supporting Ukrainians hit by the war both at home and abroad, as well as neighbouring countries and developing nations outside Europe suffering from disruptions of Ukrainian grain exports due to the war.

"This is one of the reasons that the World Bank announced we are willing to provide financing of up to $30 billion to deal with food insecurity over the next 12 months."

A report released by the World Bank, European Commission and Ukrainian government on Friday said Russia's invasion had caused over $97 billion in direct damages through June 1, but it could cost nearly $350 billion to rebuild the country.

(Reporting by Daria Sito-Sucic; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

'No more food in my village': Aid needed to avert a famine in Somalia

The World - Yesterday 

At the Banadir Hospital in Mogadishu, a couple sat on a cot in the crowded malnutrition ward. Between them, their severely malnourished baby girl lied quietly, her ribs jutting out.

"The lack of food is why she became like this," said Abdel Khadar Ali, the girl's father.


Parents with their child who is malnourished, at Banadir Hospital, Mogadishu. The displaced family lost all their cattle due to drought and have struggled to find food and water. Halima Gikandi/The World© Halima Gikandi/The World

The family came to Mogadishu after the drought killed off their livestock, joining a million others who have been displaced by this crisis.

When they arrived at a camp for internally displaced people on the outskirts of the city, however, they were still unable to find food, water or medicine to help their daughter.

"Malnutrition is increasing since this year, almost doubling," said Dr. Awas Ollo, who runs the pediatric department.

"Drought and disease impact combined together increases the caseload of malnutrition," he said.

The United Nations has said more than 700 children have died of malnourishment centers in Somalia this year. But the number could be higher, especially in hard-to-reach areas.

A new UN report has said parts of the country could experience famine from October to December. This includes Baidoa, where 42-year-old Hawa Ibrahim Bare has come searching for assistance.

"I've been here for three months," said Bare from her makeshift shelter made of plastic, fabric, and sticks.

"There was no more food in my village."


Woman stands in a camp for internally displaced people in Baidoa, Somalia. 

Halima Gikandi/The World© Halima Gikandi/The World

Normally, Bare and her family survive as farmers, harvesting maize, sorghum, and beans. But the past four consecutive rainy seasons have failed, meaning they haven't been able to plant anything at all.

"We haven't received any help here, " Bare added.

Without humanitarian support, she's had to rely on the good will of others.

In a recent visit to Somalia, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General Martin Griffiths called for a dramatic increase in humanitarian aid and warned that famine was at Somalia's door.

"We will see mass deaths. We'll see it happening to people who haven't been reached if we're not effective and we will see a way of life vanishing before the eyes of the world," he said.

He noted how in recent years, the international community has successfully prevented a repeat of the 2011 famine, which led to the death of an estimated 250,000 people.

But he added that in the long run, Somalia needs solutions to break out of this cycle of drought and humanitarian emergency.

Back at the camp, Bare lamented the series of environmental crises she has experienced over her lifetime.

"This is my fourth drought," said Bare. "I'm tired."

She said if she gets help from the government or an nongovernmental organization, she will send her kids to school, so they don't have to live as farmers, subject to the whims of an unpredictable environment.

Related: Somalia’s first environment minister aims to alleviate suffering from climate disasters