Month: September 2023

The earthquake that has killed nearly 2500 thousand people in Morocco  has sparked an outpouring of solidarity around the world, with several countries and organizations offering Rabat their help.

Foreign leaders have expressed their condolences with many offering assistance, including Israel with which Morocco normalised relations in 2020.

Neighbour and regional rival Algeria announced it was suspending a two-year-old ban on all Moroccan flights through its airspace to enable aid deliveries and medical evacuations.

US President Joe Biden said he was “deeply saddened by the loss of life and devastation” and “stands ready to provide whatever assistance is necessary to the Moroccan people”, said the American president.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping expressed “deep grief for the victims” and hope that “the Moroccan government and people will be able to overcome the impact of this disaster”.

For his part, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was “extremely saddened by the loss of life”. “We are praying that all injured people are healthy soon. The entire world is with Morocco in this tough time and we are ready to give them all possible assistance.”

Pope Francis expressed “his profound solidarity with those who are touched in the flesh and heart by this tragedy”.

The 7.3-magnitude El Asnam earthquake in Algeria killed 2,500 people and left at least 300,000 homeless in 1980.

Europe –

French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “shocked after the terrible earthquake”. “France stands ready to help with first aid”, he added on X (ex-Twitter) during his flight to the G20 summit taking place this weekend in New Delhi.

And on Saturday evening, the leaders of the 27 member countries of the European Union co-signed a letter to Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, saying they were “in full solidarity” and “ready to help in any way you (the King, editor’s note) see fit”.

The head of the Italian government, Giorgia Meloni, regretted the “tragic toll of the earthquake” and reaffirmed Italy’s “willingness to support Morocco in this emergency situation”.

“All my solidarity and support to the people of Morocco after this terrible earthquake”, wrote the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, on X, while King Felipe VI said he was “devastated”. Spain’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albares, added that “Spain has offered Morocco both rescue teams and help with reconstruction”.

The United Kingdom is “ready to help” Morocco “in any way we can”, said British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly. While Switzerland has offered to provide temporary shelters.

Spain-

Spain on Sunday sent 56 rescuers and four search dogs to Morocco after receiving a formal request for help from Rabat.

An A400 military plane took off from a base in the northeastern city of Zaragoza with the team bound for Marrakesh to “help in the search and rescue of survivors of the devastating earthquake suffered in our neighbouring country,” the defence ministry said in a statement.

Spain is preparing to send a second plane with a rescue team run by the regional government of Madrid, Defence Minister Margarita Robles added during an interview with Spanish public television.

“We will send whatever is needed because everyone knows that these first hours are key, especially if there are people buried under rubble,” she added.

The rescue team which departed on Sunday belongs to Spain’s Military Emergencies Unit (UME), a body of the armed forces that was created to intervene quickly in emergency situations such as forest fires, floods and earthquakes.

They are equipped with tools to drill and cut reinforced concrete, as well as the means to detect toxic or explosive substances to ensure rescue teams work in safety, the defence ministry statement said.

UME teams have been deployed before to help in earthquake rescues in Ecuador, Haiti, Mexico, Nepal and most recently Turkey in February where they rescued six people, including a mother and two children.

The strongest-ever quake to hit Morocco has killed at least 2,500 people and injured over 2,000, many of them critically, according to the latest official figures.

Earlier on Sunday Spain’s Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Madrid would send aid to Morocco after receiving a formal request.

“It is a sign of Spanish solidarity and of the sense of friendship which unites the people of Spain with the people of Morocco,” he said during an interview with Catalunya Radio, adding he received a call from his Moroccan counterpart requesting the aid in the early hours of Sunday.

“It will be as much aid as Morocco needs, at first what we are setting in motion are search and rescue teams because it is urgent to try to find the greatest number of people alive to save them. When it is time for reconstruction, Spanish aid will also be present.”

Other countries, including the United States and France, have also pledged humanitarian aid but Morocco would first need to formally request assistance, a step required before foreign crews can deploy.

At least 27 people were reported dead Monday (Sep. 11) in eastern Libya after the Mediterranean storm Daniel caused devastating floods.

The storm struck the country on Sunday afternoon (Sep. 10), hitting coastal towns such as Benghazi where a curfew was enforced, and school closed.

The city of Derna which was the worst hit was declared a disaster zone. It has become inaccessible and local media reported that the situation there was catastrophic with no electricity or communications.

The provisional death toll was announced on Monday afternoon by the health minister of the east Libya government as he spoke to Saudi-owned satellite news channel Al-Arabiya.

The Libyan Red Crescent said it lost contact with one of its workers as he attempted to help a stuck family in Bayda. Dozens of others were reported missing and authorities fear they could have died in the floods that destroyed homes and other properties in several towns in eastern Libya, according to local media.

Libya has been divided for most of the past decade between rival administrations in the east and west. Each is backed by armed groups and militias. The UN backed government is in the western Tripoli.

Libya’s east is home to most of the country’s oil fields and terminals. The state-owned National Oil Corporation has declared a state of maximum alert and advised its affiliated oil companies to stop flights between fields where activity was drastically reduced.

The prime minister d’Abdelhamid Dbeibah, in the country’s west, announced Monday (Sep. 11) a three-day of mourning and ordered flags across the country to be lowered to half-mast.

Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General/Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator Georgette Gagnon has ‘tasked an emergency response team to prepare to support local authorities and partners in the region’.

Storm Danial is expected to arrive in parts of west Egypt on Monday, and the country’s meteorological authorities warned about possible rain and bad weather.

Libya, a country with over 6 million people, suffers from debilitating infrastructure after more than a decade of conflict.

The government announces two attacks, killing 64 people including 49 civilians and 15 soldiers, and declaring national mourning.

Sixty-four people, including 49 civilians and 15 soldiers, were killed on Thursday in two “terrorist” attacks targeting a passenger river transport boat and an army base in northern Mali, in an area that has been under heavy pressure from armed groups fighting the central government in recent weeks.

The two separate attacks targeted “the Timbuktu boat” on the Niger river and “the army position” in Bamba, in the Gao region (north), with “a provisional toll of 49 civilians and 15 soldiers killed”, according to a government statement, which did not specify how many people had died on the boat and in the military base respectively.

The Bamba attack was claimed on Thursday by the Groupe de soutien à l’islam et aux musulmans (GSIM or Jnim by its Arabic acronym), a jihadist alliance affiliated to al-Qaeda, on the al-Zallaqa propaganda platform, according to SITE, an American NGO specialising in monitoring radical groups.

The two attacks were “claimed” by GSIM, the government said in a statement, adding that the assault on the boat also caused “injuries and material damage”. The army’s response made it possible to “neutralise around fifty terrorists”, according to the same source.

In a separate statement, the government announced a three-day national mourning period starting on Friday.The boat, belonging to the state-owned Malian shipping company (Comanav), was attacked in the Gourma-Rharous sector, between Timbuktu and Gao, the Malian army had said earlier on social networks.The boat was hit by “at least three rockets fired at the engine”, Comanav told our source. Comanav, which operates a major service over several hundred kilometres from Koulikoro, near Bamako, to Gao, passing through the major towns on the river.

Several passengers jumped into the water as soon as the first shots were fired at the ship, a Comanav official told Africanewsguru.com.The Timbuktu can carry around 300 passengers, company officials said on condition of anonymity, without saying how many people were actually on board.

Soldiers were on board as an escort, given the security threat in the region, a military official said on condition of anonymity.

Rare images posted on social networks and supposed to reflect the situation in an area where access and communications are difficult, show a thick cloud of black smoke rising above a river landscape.

A boat had already been attacked by rockets on 1 September in the Mopti region, further south, killing a 12-year-old child and injuring two others. The river link was used by various users, traders and families, and seemed safer to many than the road, a Comanav agent told our source.

– Blockade –

This attack came a few weeks after the GSIM announced in early August that it was imposing a blockade on Timbuktu, coinciding with the ongoing security reconfiguration around the World Heritage city of 333 saints.

The UN mission (Minusma), pushed out of Mali by the ruling junta, has just left two camps close to Timbuktu, Ber and Goundam, transferred to the Malian authorities. This takeover by the Malian state has led to fighting with the jihadists, as well as clashes with the ex-Tuareg rebels.

Timbuktu, with its population of several tens of thousands on the edge of the Sahara, is one of the major towns in the north that fell into the hands of Tuareg rebels and then Salafists after the outbreak of the insurrection in 2012. French and Malian forces recaptured the town in 2013.

The predominantly Tuareg groups signed a peace agreement with the Malian state in 2015, while the jihadists continued hostilities. The violence spread to central Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, leaving thousands dead.Militaries have taken power by force in all three countries since 2020, citing a security crisis.

Recent tensions in northern Mali have raised fears about the survival of the 2015 agreement.

The Malian military have pushed out the French anti-jihadist force in 2022 and the UN mission in 2023, and have turned militarily and politically to Russia. They have made the restoration of sovereignty one of their mantras.But vast areas remain outside their control and various experts believe that the security situation has deteriorated further under their leadership.

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has reported that since December 2021, more than 560 members of a rebel group linked to the Islamic State have been killed in Uganda’s operations.

This rebel group, known as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), is based in the jungles of the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. They have been launching attacks in both Congo and Uganda.

With the permission of the Congo government, Uganda’s military launched operations against the ADF to destroy their camps and capture or eliminate their fighters.

President Museveni recently stated that they have successfully killed 567 ADF fighters and captured 50 more. They also seized 167 pieces of equipment from the rebels, including submachine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Museveni emphasized that the ADF is in a desperate situation, and their only option now is to surrender. He urged businesses in Uganda, such as bus operators, markets, and hotels, to be vigilant and register all customers to prevent potential ADF attackers from using their facilities.

In recent developments, the Ugandan police have discovered at least six improvised explosive devices that the ADF planned to use, including one recovered from an individual just outside a church. This underscores the ongoing threat posed by the ADF.

The ADF has been responsible for several devastating attacks in Uganda, including suicide bombings outside a major police station and near the parliament building in 2021, which resulted in the deaths of seven people.

Additionally, in June of this year, a tragic incident occurred where 42 people, mostly students, were massacred at a school in Western Uganda.

The United States has begun “as a precaution” to reposition its troops in Niger, the scene of a coup d’état at the end of July, the Pentagon announced Thursday.

The Department of Defense “is repositioning part of its personnel and resources from air base 101 in Niamey (the capital, editor’s note) to air base 201 in Agadez”, further north, a door told the press. -speaker, Sabrina Singh.

“There is no immediate threat to our staff or violence on the ground,” she added, calling the decision a “precautionary measure. ” A “small group” will remain on the Niamey base after the transfer, which is in progress, she further clarified.

Ms. Singh also said that “some non-essential staff and contractors” had left the country several weeks ago.

The American army had already suspended joint exercises with the Nigerien army and American diplomacy had ordered the departure of its non-essential personnel from its embassy in Niamey in early August.

Military forces overthrew the President of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum, on July 26 and placed him and his family under house arrest in the presidential palace. The United States has some 1,100 soldiers stationed in Niger, who were operating against jihadist groups active in this region.

France, for its part, has around 1,500 soldiers in Niger also engaged in the anti-jihadist fight and who find themselves in a very delicate situation, the military authors of the coup having denounced the defense agreements linking them to Paris and ordered France to withdraw its soldiers.

Paris recognized that “exchanges” were taking place between the Nigerien and French armies on the withdrawal of “certain French military elements” in Niger. There is “no link” between the movement of American troops and “what the French army is doing at the moment”, however assured Ms. Singh.

Especially since the United States seems to be looking forward to the future and says it hopes “that diplomatic discussions will continue and that the situation in Niger will be resolved diplomatically,” she said.

President George Weah, who is standing for re-election, launched his campaign for the 10 October presidential election in Monrovia on Thursday in front of several thousand people, who will also be taking part in parliamentary elections, our journalist noted.

Wearing a blue boubou and cap, President Weah, 56, was cheered in a Monrovia stadium by his supporters dressed in T-shirts bearing his image and that of his running mate Jewel Howard-Taylor, ex-wife of former president and warlord Charles Taylor, sentenced to 50 years in prison for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed in neighboring Sierra Leone.

“I am extremely pleased that you have placed your trust in me to lead this country for the past six years. I owe my ascension to the presidency to the hard work and perseverance of my supporters,” said Mr Weah.

“During our first term, we laid the foundations for peace, freedom of expression, macro-economic stability and the restoration of confidence in the national education system. I can guarantee that the years 2024 and beyond will be better for all Liberians”, he said.

The supporters were also wearing red caps, the colour of the Coalition for Democratic Change (CDC), the party of Mr Weah, a former international football star who has turned to politics. He was elected president in 2017 and took office in 2018 for a six-year term.

In the crowd, Victoria Kpahn, 19, was preparing to vote for the first time: between two slogans shouted in praise of George Weah, she told our source that she was sure of a “victory in the first round”.The campaign officially opened on 5 August and is due to close at midnight on 8 October.

President Weah faces 19 rivals. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s former vice-president Joseph Boakai (2006-2018), businessman and party leader Alexander Cummings and human rights lawyer Taiwan Gongloe are among his main rivals.

The National Elections Commission has accredited 46 parties. More than 2.4 million voters are registered for the presidential and legislative elections to choose 73 members of parliament and 15 senators out of the country’s 30 senators.

The election of Mr Weah in 2017 raised huge hopes in a country ravaged by civil wars between 1989 and 2003, and ravaged by the Ebola epidemic of 2014-2016. The country of around five million people was only just recovering when it was hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and then by the consequences of the war in Ukraine.

Around half of Liberians live on less than $1.90 a day, according to the World Bank.

Mr Weah came to the presidency promising to create jobs and invest in education. His critics accuse him of failing to keep his promises.

An appeals court in Nigeria rejected two out of the three petitions Wednesday challenging the legitimacy of President Bola Tinubu’s victory in the February election, with the last petition still under deliberation in a case that has put Africa’s most populous country on edge.

Three opposing parties challenged the election results which they said was illegally announced and argued that Tinubu was not qualified to run for president because he was a citizen of Guinea and allegedly did not have the required academic credentials. The opposition has hinted at possible protests if the court rules in his favor.

In the Court of Appeal in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, a five-member justice panel ruled that the third-place finisher Peter Obi and his Labour Party were not able to prove his claims that the Nigerian election commission did not follow due process in announcing the results of the vote nor that the voting was marred by irregularities and that he — not Tinubu — won the election with a majority of votes.

The court also rejected witness statements called by Obi, saying they were “incompetent” and ruled that he failed to prove his claim that Tinubu was once indicted on drug charges in the United States, thereby disqualifying him from running for president.

“It is clearly evident that the petitioners have failed to discharge the burden of proof placed on them by law,” said Haruna Tsammani, head of the panel. “They have not been able to leave any cogent, credible and acceptable evidence.”

It also rejected a petition by the Allied Peoples Movement which sought to nullify Tinubu’s victory on the ground that his running mate — Vice President Kashim Shettima— was not legally nominated to contest. It said Shettima met the minimum constitutional provisions allowing him to run.

“Where the constitution has qualified a candidate to contest an election, no other law except the constitution can disqualify him,” Tsammani said.

Tinubu, who is currently attending the G20 summit in India, has denied all the allegations.

Amid tight security in Abuja, various support groups chanted songs near the court premises to show solidarity with their political parties and to urge the judiciary to “do the right thing.”

A Protester, James Mike, said they stood by the court to let the judiciary know “the last hope of the common man depends on” them.

The tribunal is empowered to either uphold Tinubu’s election win, declare someone else the winner, annul the vote, or to order a new election. Whatever decision they make can be appealed at Nigeria’s Supreme Court within 60 days.

If the judges uphold the last petition and annul the presidential election, it would be a first in Nigeria’s history.

A presidential election can be annulled only on the basis of evidence that the Independent National Electoral Commission did not follow the law and acted in ways that might have affected an election’s outcome.

Since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, all presidential elections but one have been contested in court. None were overturned.

Police in Abuja issued a statement Tuesday warning citizens “to be cautious in their actions and statements,” saying security forces would not “condone activities capable of inciting violence or causing a descent into anarchy.”

The 71-year-old Tinubu won the election with less than 50% of the vote, also a first in Nigeria’s history.

The opposing candidates filed separate petitions arguing that Tinubu was not qualified to become president and claiming the electoral commission did not follow due process in announcing the winner. The delays in uploading and announcing election results could have given room for ballot tampering, critics say.

The opposition has also alleged that Tinubu was indicted for drug trafficking in the United States, that he is a citizen of Guinea which disqualifies him to run in presidential elections in Nigeria, and that his academic qualifications were forged.

Since taking office, he introduced measures that he said would reform the country’s ailing economy but which have further squeezed millions of poor and hungry Nigerians during his first 100 days in office. Most of the Nigerian leader’s reforms, though well-intentioned, have been poorly implemented, critics have said.

On Tuesday, Nigeria Labor Congress workers launched a two-day “warning strike” to protest the growing cost of living due to the removal of gas subsidies, threatening to “shut down” Africa’s largest economy if their demands for improved welfare are not met. It was their second strike in over a month.

The Nigerian government urged citizens to be patient with Tinubu. Mohammed Idris, Nigeria’s minister of information, said though steps taken by the government “to save the country from hitting the rocks brought momentary discomfort to Nigerians,” the president has “never failed in his appeal to Nigerians to see the current inconveniences as a price we must all pay to save our country from disappearing.”

Two former executives at a Swedish oil company go on trial in Stockholm on Tuesday accused of complicity in war crimes committed by Sudan’s regime between 1999 and 2003.

Swede Ian Lundin and Swiss national Alex Schneiter are accused of asking Sudan’s government to make its military responsible for security at the site of one of Lundin Oil’s exploration fields, which later led to aerial bombings, killing of civilians and burning of entire villages, according to the prosecution.

Lundin was chief executive of family firm Lundin Oil, now known as Orron Energy, from 1998-2002, and Schneiter was vice president at the time.

The pair have denied any wrongdoing.

The trial is set to be the biggest in Swedish history, following a 13-year probe, a more than 80,000-page investigation report, and with closing arguments scheduled for February 2026.

The two, who were formally named as suspects in 2016, face the formal charge of “complicity in grave war crimes” committed during the rule of Omar al-Bashir.

After Lundin Oil struck oil in 1999 in the “Block 5A” field in what is now South Sudan, the Sudanese military, together with an allied militia, “led offensive military operations to take control of the area and create the necessary preconditions for Lundin Oil’s oil exploration,” Sweden’s prosecution service said in a 2021 statement announcing the charges.

“In our view, the investigation shows that the military and its allied militia systematically attacked civilians or carried out indiscriminate attacks,” public prosecutor Henrik Attorps said.

– ‘Complicity’ –

This included “aerial bombardments from transport planes, shooting civilians from helicopter gunships, abducting and plundering civilians and burning entire villages and their crops.”

Prosecutors argue that the accused were complicit because Lundin Oil knew that asking Sudan’s government to make the military responsible for security meant it would take control of the area by “military force”.

“What constitutes complicity in a criminal sense is that they made these demands despite understanding, or in any case being indifferent to, the military and the militia carrying out the war in a way that was forbidden according to international humanitarian law,” chief public prosecutor Krister Petersson said.

If convicted, Lundin and Schneiter risk life sentences.

The prosecution has already requested that the two be banned from any business undertakings for 10 years.

It has also asked for the confiscation of 2.4 billion kronor ($218 million) from Orron Energy, equivalent to the profit the company made on the sale of its Sudan operations in 2003.

– ‘Waste of time’ –

The defence has argued that the prosecution’s case does not hold up.

“Our opinion is that these two years that will now be spent in the district court will be a huge waste of time and resources,” Torgny Wetterberg, a lawyer for Ian Lundin, told Africanewsguru.com on the eve of the trial.

Wetterberg said the defence disagreed with the prosecution’s descriptions of events, and that it had built its case on circumstantial claims with no concrete evidence.

“From our perspective it is a mystery that the prosecutor is moving forward with this case,” Wetterberg said, adding that he was confident the prosecution had no chance of getting a conviction.

Sweden can prosecute crimes committed abroad in its court system, though the government had to give its approval to indict a foreign national for crimes committed abroad.

When the charges were brought, Schneiter argued that the principle of universal jurisdiction did not apply to him as he was neither a resident nor a citizen.

His objection was eventually dismissed by Sweden’s Supreme Court, ruling in November 2022 that “some form of connection to Sweden” was necessary for an indictment and that Schneiter’s connection “in other regards” was “sufficient”.

Two leaders of Tunisia’s Islamo-conservative Ennahdha party, the bête noire of President Kais Saied, were arrested on Tuesday evening, nearly five months after the arrest of the movement’s historic leader Rached Ghannouchi, the party said.

The two arrested leaders are Mondher Ounissi, Ennahdha’s interim president since Mr. Ghannouchi’s imprisonment, and the head of its consultative council, Abdelkarim Harouni, the party said in statements posted on its Facebook page.

The authorities have not commented on the arrests.

Denouncing what it saw as an attempt by the authorities to “denigrate the movement and its leaders”, Ennahdha claimed that the arrests were aimed at diverting attention from the serious socio-economic crisis Tunisia is experiencing.

Another Ennahdha leader, Hamadi Jebali, was questioned by police on Tuesday in connection with administrative appointments he made while head of government, before being released.

Mr. Ghannouchi, 81, was arrested on April 17 and remanded in custody following statements in which he claimed that Tunisia would be threatened with “civil war” if left-wing parties, or those based on political Islam such as his, were eliminated.

On May 15, he was sentenced to a year’s imprisonment for “apologie du terrorisme” in another case.

Mr. Ghannouchi is the most prominent opposition figure to have been imprisoned since President Saied’s coup de force in July 2021.

He headed the Parliament, which was frozen and then dissolved by Mr. Saied.

The day after his arrest, the authorities closed his movement’s offices throughout the country.

Since the beginning of February, the authorities have imprisoned more than 20 opponents and prominent figures, including former ministers and businessmen.

President Saied, accused by the opposition of authoritarian tendencies, described those arrested as “terrorists”, claiming that they were involved in a “plot against state security”.

After his coup, Mr. Saied had the Constitution revised to establish an ultra-presidential system at the expense of Parliament.