Author: Jideofor Elumogo

Authorities in Malawi have arrested more than 400 refugees and asylum-seekers on Thursday, including 100 children, in the capital, Lilongwe.

The crackdown came about two months after the government issued an ultimatum for people to return to Dzaleka, an overcrowded camp north of the city.

“This operation is specifically targeting refugees and asylum seekers and it’s also trying to flush out illegal immigrants. So, those foreigners that are here with valid documentation, with the proper authorization, they should not have any cause for worry”, promised Patrick Botha, Malawi Ministry of Homeland Security Spokesperson.

Malawi is home to almost 70,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, according to the UN’s refugee agency, the UNHCR.

Most live in Dzaleka, a refugee camp set up in 1994 to accommodate about 12,000 people but currently hosting more than 56,000 refugees.

“By close of business yesterday, we had around 400 that were picked. They are in transit because they have to be sieved because some might have proper documentation, some might have documents validating them as refugees or asylum seekers. But there could also be some that don’t have any documentation at all”, said the ministry spokesperson.

Most refugees and asylum-seekers in Malawi come from the conflict-torn Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as Rwanda and Burundi.

Ghanian officials said on Thursday that the $3 billion International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout approved for the West African nation will help reset the economy and ease the economic hardship on its citizens.

The long-awaited bailout approved by the IMF to aid the government’s economic growth recovery plan, though “far from a magic solution wand” is “a crucial first step on the necessary journey of strong reforms, inclusive growth and relentless pursuit of our growth agenda,” Ken Ofori-Atta, Ghana’s Finance Minister, told an online briefing on Thursday.

The bailout programme signed with the IMF and to be disbursed in at least six tranches over three years will cushion the economic toll on Ghanaians who have protested the spiralling increase in the prices of goods.

With the first tranche of $600 million expected soon, Ernest Addison, Bank of Ghana governor, urged various sectors to support the government’s economic agenda.

“This is now the time to begin the work. The programme’s approval is just the beginning of the real work of building Ghana better,” Addison said at the briefing.

The IMF said it will be monitoring the implementation of the economic programmes anchored on three principles: restoring macroeconomic stability, ensuring sustainable growth for the macroeconomy and laying the foundations for stronger and more inclusive growth.

“This programme, policies and reforms together with the debt restructuring will help overcome immediate economic challenges and pave the way for a brighter future for all Ghanaians,” said Stephane Roudet, the head of the IMF’s mission to Ghana.

While Ghana’s minister of finance, Ken Ofori-Atta, and members of the IMF made the announcement in Washington, people in Accra urged the government to find solutions to deal with their most basic needs.

“Sometimes, because of the economic crisis, I can’t buy normal food,” said Obed Amofa, resident of the city, who complained that while his salary remains the same, the prices of basic products keep increasing.

And when consumers don’t have money, the commerce suffers.

“This year, everybody is complaining [that they] don’t have money. When they come, they see your goods and go,” commented Seth Bonney, a market seller of clothing and accessories in central Accra.

“I think the government should do something about it because the economy is so bad, and everybody is complaining,” he added.

One of West Africa’s regional hubs, Ghana has been reeling from an economic crisis as a result of soaring inflation, a weakened currency and rising public debt that is gulping most of its dwindling revenue.

A large presidential amnesty saw the release of about a fifth of all prisoners in the Zimbabwe Thursday (May 18).

A total of 4270 inmates were let out, according to the country’s correctional service, which described the amnesty as a “noble gesture” by the president.

The move brings down overcrowding in the country which numbers over 50 detention centres, that have capacity for about 17 000 people but held more than 22 000 before the amnesty.

The amnesty was granted to various categories of prisoners including those who are terminally ill, those who have served at least three-quarters of their sentence, or one tenth if over the age of 60.

Violent criminals as well as those serving time for robbery, treason and public order and security offences were excluded.

The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service appealed the society at large to accept the inmates who’ve been released.

The former prisoners will be able to vote in presidential and legislative elections that are to be held in August, although no date has been announced yet.

The government has struggled to alleviate poverty, end chronic power cuts and rein in inflation.

Twenty civilians, including women and children, were killed between Monday and Wednesday in two attacks by suspected jihadists in central-eastern Burkina Faso, security and local sources told Africanewsguru.com on Friday.

On Wednesday, “armed groups carried out an incursion into Bilguimdouré”, a village in the commune of Sangha, in the province of Koulpélogo (center-east), bordering Ghana and Togo, “causing a dozen deaths”, indicated to Africanewsguru.com a local official.

Two days earlier, “another terrorist incursion into the neighboring village of Kaongo had caused the death of at least eleven people including women and children”, he continued.

During these two attacks, “houses and shops were set on fire by the attackers who also took away livestock”, according to the same source.

These attacks were confirmed by security sources, stating that “security operations are underway in the region”, without giving details on the results of the incursions.

Joined by Africanewsguru.com, nationals of the commune of Sangha also confirmed the two attacks, affirming that the “desperate populations are trying to flee their localities, fearing new attacks”.

According to these residents, armed groups summoned the population of Soudougui, another town in the province, “to empty several villages under penalty of reprisals in the following days”.

The province of Koulpélogo, where a curfew has been in effect for several months, is the target of recurring attacks despite anti-jihadist operations carried out by the army and its civilian auxiliaries.

In mid-April, at least 24 people, including 20 Volunteers for the Defense of the Homeland (VDP), civilian army auxiliaries, were killed in two attacks by suspected jihadists in the Center-East region, near the borders of Ghana and Togo.

Burkina, the scene of two military coups in 2022, has been caught since 2015 in a spiral of jihadist violence that appeared in Mali and Niger a few years earlier and which has spread beyond their borders.

The violence over the past seven years has killed more than 10,000 civilians and soldiers, according to NGOs, and more than two million internally displaced persons.

On Friday, the Australian government announced that one of its nationals, Kenneth Elliott , an 88-year-old doctor, had been released seven years after he was kidnapped by jihadists linked to al-Qaeda in Burkina Faso. He returned to Australia on Thursday evening.

A three-year old South African toddler reads better than 80 percent of the country’s schoolchildren who are more than three times her age.

Lethukuthula Bhengu became famous after after her clips on social network TikTok reached over one million followers.

Bhengu’s parents started teaching her how to read after she turned two, seeing that she could memorise and associate words and objects, especially when they went grocery shopping.

“I think when you send your child to preschool, I think it’s a stigma around like they the teachers need to do everything and then that’s why kids when they come back home they don’t actually cement the knowledge that they learnt at school. So parents need to take charge of that”, said the father of Lethu and CEO of Mini Braniacs, Phakiso Masooa.

South Africa ranked last out of 57 nations polled in a research released by the US-based Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).

Experts agree that there is much work to be done to improve the current situation.

“We have a significant number of learners in grade one, two and three that are not learning to read effectively. It’s a problem of teachers pedagogy, it’s a problem of curriculum. So we have to address it systematically, we have to recognise that many of the practices that teachers are using aren’t working”, admits Brahm Fleisch, Professor of Education Policy in the Division of Education Leadership, Policy and Skills at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Public schools are poorly resourced, particularly in rural areas.

South Africa’s educational problems are also rooted in the apartheid regime, under which most black children were taught very little in segregated schools.