Day: March 30, 2022

Categories
General

Burundi Lifts Ban on BBC After Almost 3 Years

Burundi's media authority announced Wednesday that it would lift a nationwide ban on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), nearly three years after the broadcaster was forced to stop operating in the East African country.

The National Communication Council withdrew the license for the broadcasting giant in 2019, accusing it of breaching press laws and unprofessional conduct.

"We reached the decision to reopen BBC radio starting today," the regulator's president, Vestine Nahimana, said.

The broadcaster had met the conditions set by the government, Nahimana said, adding that President Evariste Ndayishimiye had initiated the easing of restrictions on sanctioned news outlets.

Voice of America was suspended alongside BBC Radio in May 2018. While BBC has met the government's conditions to broadcast, VOA has not.

The two broadcasters were suspended barely two weeks before a constitutional referendum intended to shore up the power of former President Pierre Nkurunziza and enable him to rule until 2034.

The government-controlled media regulator accused the BBC of damaging the reputation of Nkurunziza during a discussion program and said the broadcaster had ignored previous warnings.

The suspension followed a damning BBC investigation into alleged secret torture sites run by the government to silence dissent. The state denied the report, dismissing it as "fake news."

Nkurunziza died of heart failure in June 2020.

Following Ndayishimiye's election, Western nations including the United States and the European Union have eased sanctions on the country, crediting elections, a decrease in violence, and government reforms. But campaign groups insist human rights are still being widely abused.

Before the ban, the BBC and VOA used to broadcast daily in the national language Kirundi as well as in French and English, and drew large numbers of listeners, especially in rural areas.

Burundi is the poorest country in the world as measured by GDP per capita, at less than $240 (215 euros) in 2020, according to the World Bank.

It is ranked among the worst countries in the world for press freedom, with many local and international news outlets blacklisted and independent journalists forced into exile since a major political crisis in 2015.

Source: Voice of America

Categories
Government Politics

US Ambassador to Somalia Condemns Al-Shabab Attacks

U.S. Ambassador to Somalia Larry André has condemned a recent wave of attacks by al-Shabab militants across the country that killed more than 60 people.

Speaking to VOA Somali on Tuesday, André said the attacks in Mogadishu, Beledweyne and elsewhere were intended to prevent Somalia from moving toward stability.

"We condemn those who seek to murder and destroy," the ambassador said. "They are stopping the revival of Somalia and they're taking many lives in doing so. We support those who seek to build a secure, prosperous and peaceful Somalia. That is what our cooperation with the Somali authorities, with the Somali people, with Somali civil society is all aimed at."

A daring March 23 attack by al-Shabab on Mogadishu's heavily fortified airport killed at least seven people including five foreigners, according to Somali police spokesperson Major Abdifatah Aden Hassan.

On the same day, two deadlier explosions in Beledweyne claimed the lives of 48 more people including a female lawmaker, Amina Mohamed Abdi.

Al-Shabab attacks continued into this week as the militant group carried out a raid and roadside explosion in Puntland, killing five soldiers. Another attack on Tuesday night in the town of Wanlaweyn injured a security official and killed his teenage son.

André said stability in the Horn of Africa cannot be achieved without the revival of Somalia as a prosperous, democratic and peaceful country.

"And these acts of murder on a mass scale prevents achievement of that full revival," he said.

On the day of the attack on Mogadishu airport, al-Shabab fired mortars at the facility.

No casualties were reported, but Andre acknowledged that one of the mortars landed close to the U.S. Embassy.

"It also came close to the United Nations compound and landed in the United Nations compound, landed in the international compound and some landed at sea," he said.

Al-Shabab has increased attacks carried out by suicide bombers wearing vests, known as Person-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (PBIED), a tactic the group has used for more than a decade.

The attack in Beledweyne was al-Shabab's third PBIED attack this year, following 11 such attacks in 2020 and 13 last year.

Police say the increase in al-Shabab's PBIED attacks is because police operations, surveillance and checkpoints have reduced the effectiveness of Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device (VBIEDs).

Andre said al-Shabab's attacks are indiscriminate.

"They often just kill indiscriminately. That is what they do. They are murderers," he said.

Droughts

The increased al-Shabab attacks come as Somalia tries to cope with a droughts that has killed tens of thousands of livestock and displaced tens of thousands of pastoral residents.

Somalia has declared a state of humanitarian emergency because of the drought. Aid workers are saying the situation is "catastrophic."

"Right now, there are 4.5 million people in Somalia who are being affected by the drought," said Tom Solomon, a senior humanitarian and development official with the U.S. Agency for International Development. "That includes 1.4 million children under the age of six, who are malnourished. And it includes 700,000 people who have left their homes in search of water and pasture for the animals."

Although the drought has affected the entire country, the central and southern regions are among the hardest hit, with the agro-pastoralists losing their livestock because of lack of water and lack of pasture, Solomon said.

"What has happened as a result is that people don't have enough food to eat; it's a real crisis because the price of food has gone way up [and] the value of animals that people sell has gone down," he said.

"We are concerned that there could be a fourth consecutive below average rainy season in Somalia with the upcoming rains. That would be unprecedented," Solomon added.

Solomon said the United States remains a major humanitarian donor to Somalia. He said last year the U.S. provided $210 million to assist Somalia.

Source: Voice of America

Categories
Government

Blinken Urges Algeria to Rethink Stands on Russia, Western Sahara

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up a three-nation tour of the Middle East and North Africa on Wednesday with appeals for Algeria to limit ties with Russia and look to improve relations with neighboring Morocco.

"The countries of North Africa and the Middle East have experienced themselves the consequences of Russia's military campaigns before," Blinken said, noting Russian interventions in Syria and Libya and the impact on energy and food security that the Ukraine conflict is having.

"The international community must increase the pressure on Russia to end this unprovoked and unjustified war," he said.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has in the past referred to Russia as a "brotherly country," and has maintained pressure on Morocco over its claim to the disputed territory of the Western Sahara, where Algeria backs independence fighters.

'Stand with the victim'

After meeting with Tebboune, Blinken said the Ukraine conflict should cause all countries to re-evaluate relations with Russia and express their support for the territorial integrity of other states.

"I know that that's something Algerians feel strongly about," he said.

"There are times when one issue emerges that is so clearly black and white," he said. "It's important to stand with the victim and to stand with the principles that have also been violated."

Algeria has had close ties with Russia since its independence from France in 1962 and is a major purchaser of Russian weaponry.

It is also locked in a bitter dispute with Morocco over the status of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara. Algiers opposes a plan by Rabat to retain control of the territory while granting it semi-autonomous status.

Algerian officials provided no immediate readout of Tebboune's meeting with Blinken.

Blinken and other U.S. officials have praised the Moroccan plan as "serious, realistic and credible" but have not explicitly endorsed it as the path to a resolution. Earlier this month, Algeria angrily recalled its ambassador to Spain after the Spanish government offered the same assessment — an enormous departure from its earlier stance of considering Morocco's grip on Western Sahara an occupation.

Blinken did not repeat the phrase at his news conference in Algiers and instead said only that the U.S. fully supports U.N. efforts to resolve the situation.

"We're very focused on diplomacy," he said.

Blinken came to Algeria a day after meeting senior Moroccan officials in Rabat, where he praised Morocco's improvements in ties with Israel.

And on Monday, Blinken had been in Israel's Negev Desert where he and the Israeli foreign minister participated in a historic gathering with their counterparts from Arab nations, including Morocco, that have normalized relations with Israel.

'Abraham Accords'

Morocco, along with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, was one of the countries to fully normalize relations with Israel during the Trump administration's push to negotiate the so-called "Abraham Accords," in which the U.S. pledged significant support in exchange for such recognition.

For its part, Morocco won U.S. recognition for its claim to Western Sahara in return for its agreement with Israel.

In a rare endorsement of a Trump foreign policy initiative, the Biden administration has signaled its full backing for the Abraham Accords and pledged to try to expand and strengthen them.

But, while the administration has not revoked Trump's decision on Western Sahara, it has taken few steps to advance it, and plans to build a U.S. consulate there have not advanced since Trump announced them in 2020.

That has led to questions about whether Washington is fully on board with Moroccan sovereignty over the former Spanish colony.

Source: Voice of America