Rwanda-DR Congo tensions: Kagame, Tshisekedi talk on phone

KIGALI, Rwanda

President of Rwanda, Paul Kagame and his Congolese counterpart Félix Tshisekedi have held phone conversations aimed at resolving the current impasse.

The encouraging development was revealed by the Chairperson of the Africa Union, Senegal President MackySall, on Monday, May 30, when he tweeted thanking both leaders for "our telephone conversations yesterday and today in the quest for a peaceful solution to the dispute" between the DR Congo and Rwanda.

Sall noted that he is encouraging Angolan President João Lourenço, who is the current Chairperson of the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) "to continue his mediation efforts in this direction."

A day earlier, on May 29, Sall called for dialogue between Kigali and Kinshasa as tensions escalated between the two neighbours following the resurgence of the M23 rebellion in the DR Congo’s restive east.

Increasing tension between the DR Congo army (FARDC) and M23 rebels near the common border is threatening to drag Rwanda into the conflict.

The AU Chairperson's plea for dialogue came after, among others, recent cross-border shelling on Rwandan territory. On May 23, rockets from the Congolese side of the border, injured several people in at least two sectors in Musanze district, in Rwanda. The Congolese army and the terrorist FDLR militia, according to Kigali, also kidnapped two Rwandan soldiers who were patrolling along the common border. Kigalirequested DR Congo authorities to release the two Rwandan soldiers.

Kigali has stressed that it has no intention of being drawn into an intra-Congolese matter, but Kinshasa claims that the M23 rebels are supported by Kigali. 

While in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, attending an extraordinary Summit on countering terrorism and unconstitutional change of government in Africa, Dr Vincent Biruta, Rwanda's Minister of Foreign Affairs, on Saturday, May 28, appealed to the DR Congo to observe good neighborliness, own up to her problems, and avoid apportioning blame where none exists.

While responding to the “baseless accusations” made by Kinshasa against Rwanda, Dr Biruta said there are several initiatives in place to address the existing problems, but without political will, “we will remain in a vicious cycle of undesirable and destructive conflicts.”

In Malabo, Dr Biruta stressed that for close to 30 years now, there has been consistent collaboration between the FARDC and the Rwandan FDLR armed group based in eastern DRCongo.

It is deplorable that the FDLR, “which harbors a long-term sinister plan to destabilize Rwanda,” has been tolerated and preserved by the DR Congo, he said.

“Over the years, they have sanitized this genocidal armed group, to the extent that the FDLR are currently co-located, and fighting alongside the FARDC,” Dr Biruta said.

“Rwanda wishes to reiterate that the FDLR and its various splinter groups pose a serious security threat, not only to Rwanda, but to the entire region.”

The FDLR comprises remnants of the perpetrators of the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. After killing more than one million people 28 years ago, they fled into eastern DR Congo.

On May 27, the ICGLR Secretariat expressed great concern about the attacks of the the ex-M23 rebels against the positions of the FARDC supported by MONUSCO in the territory of Rutshuru, North Kivu since the beginning of the week.

The bloc’s Secretariat strongly condemned the attacks and called on the ex-M23 rebels to comply with the Nairobi Declaration signed in December 2013 and to participate unconditionally in the political process initiated by the regional Conclave of Heads of State on the DR Congo in Nairobi, Kenya on April 21. 

While condemning the existence of all armed groups operating in the eastern DR Congo, the Conference Secretariat “awaits the conclusions of the report of the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism (EJVM) which deployed a Joint Verification Team (JVT) on the ground” since May 24, in order to refer the matter to the decision-making bodies of ICGLR. 

Over the past weekend, Rwanda’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Vincent Biruta, reiterated Rwanda’s commitment to the established regional initiatives, including the Expanded Joint Verification Mechanism of the ICGLR and the Nairobi process under the EAC. The Nairobi Summit gave clear guidelines on how the issue of armed groups in eastern DRCongo can be resolved.

The first Summit, or conclave, was held on April 8, after Tshisekedi signed the Treaty of accession by his country to the EAC. During the second conclave, Presidents Tshisekedi, Evariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi, Kenyatta and YoweriMuseveni of Uganda, and Dr Biruta, agreed to the deployment of a regional force to contain armed groups in DR Congo. 

Mid-way through the inter-Congolese dialogue, there were signs of optimism that the more than 30 Congolese armed groups participating were dedicated to finding a long-lasting solution. 

But Kinshasa on Saturday said it considered the M23 as a terrorist movement that must be treated as such and is therefore excluded from the Nairobi peace process.

Biruta said the Kinshasa has shown lack of political will to abide by the Nairobi Summit resolutions holistically. Instead, he said, they have been engaging with these armed groups selectively and, have been quick to blame Rwanda, in order to ignore their obligations. – The New Times

"Fear of reprisals may be limiting Tanzania’s action in northern Mozambique" - Expert

MAPUTO, Mozambique

Security expert Rodrigues Lapucheque thinks that fear of reprisals may be preventing Tanzania taking more decisive action in combating the armed groups terrorising Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique.

“Tanzania began, at a later moment, to have certain reservations, certain fears that when it entered heavily [in the fight against the armed groups operating in Cabo Delgado], these radical Al-Shabab movements could create reprisals, which could be unpredictable,” Lapucheque, a university lecturer and colonel of Motorized Infantry in the Mozambique Armed Defense Forces (FADM), told Lusa news agency in an interview.

Rodrigues Lapucheque

The fact that international fighters who joined the insurgents in Cabo Delgado “regularly” cross Tanzania and operate in Mozambican districts close to that country may raise fears among leaders in Dar-es-Salam, Lapucheque explained.

“That’s why it was noted that Tanzania was the one that had a lot of reservations about intervening militarily in Mozambique, in Cabo Delgado,” under the Southern African Development Community (SADC) military mission.

But inaction is not a safe option either, because once chaos takes root in northern Mozambique, the armed groups will expand their action to Tanzania as well, Lapucheque says.

This reading and the SADC and Rwandan military intervention in Cabo Delgado, he continued, convinced Dar-es-Salam to send a military contingent in support of Mozambican government forces, albeit without the “weight” that Maputo might have expected, given the historical and political ties between the two countries.

“It is not the intervention that we would expect, we had hoped that it would be at the forefront,”stressed that academic and FADM officer.

Rodrigues Lapucheque warned that the apparent inertia of the Tanzanian authorities in stopping the flow of fighters to Cabo Delgado may also be a result of an operational and logistical inability to control the extensive border line between the two countries.

Lapucheque notes that expectations regarding a more active role for Tanzania in the fight against “radical Islamic jihadism” in northern Mozambique are fuelled by the fact that that country has militarily supported the Mozambique Liberation Front (Frelimo) in the fight against Portuguese colonialism, hosting the organisation’s headquarters and training camps.

Cabo Delgado province, in northern Mozambique, is rich in natural gas, but has been terrorized since 2017 by armed rebels, with some attacks claimed by the Islamic State extremist group.

According to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), about 784,000 persons have been internally displaced by the conflict, which has killed about 4,000, according to the ACLED conflict registry project.

Since July 2021, an offensive by government troops, with the support of Rwandan and later Southern African Development Community (SADC) troops, has recovered a number of areas from rebel control, but their flight has led to new attacks in districts through which they have passed or taken up temporary refuge. - Lusa

South Sudan slams Ghana’s decision to back arms embargo

JUBA, South Sudan

The South Sudanese government has described as “disappointing” Ghana’s decision to vote in favour of the recent renewal of arms embargo by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

The UN Security Council on Thursday last week adopted a resolution to renew for a year, till May 31, 2023, an arms embargo against South Sudan.

Security Council Resolution 2633 (2022) was adopted by a vote of 10 in favour (Albania, Brazil, France, Ghana, Ireland, Mexico, Norway, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States) to none against, with five abstentions (China, Gabon, India, Kenya and the Russian Federation).

South Sudan government, however, applauded China, India, Russia, Gabon and Kenya for not voting for the sanctions on Juba. The five countries abstained from the vote. The resolution to extend the ban through May 2023, drafted by the United States, was passed with 10 out of 15 votes.

The vote by Ghana in favour of the U.S-drafted resolution angered Juba.

“That our brotherly country, whom we look to as an anchor of Pan-Africanism, should vote against the African Union position disappoints us. We, nonetheless, have confidence that the Ghanaian Government will revisit its position,” South Sudan’s Foreign Affairs ministry said in a statement.

“That some countries would dismiss the African Union’s stance on this matter shows an old hubris with no value for a world shaken by wars, including in Africa and Europe. When the African Union rejected the US-sponsored sanctions and arms embargo on South Sudan, Ghana was its chair”, it added.

South Sudan Minister Information minister Michael Makuei said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had written a letter to the UNSC protesting the decision.

“The government of South Sudan is dissatisfied and disappointed with the resolution of the Security Council because this resolution in the opinion of the government doesn’t actually serve the interest of the people of South Sudan and doesn’t in any way serve the proper implementation of the agreement,” he told the state-owned South Sudan television (SSBC) Friday.

“We call on members of the UNSC not to listen to individual reports that are presented without being substantiated and by so doing they take such decisions at a time when they are not properly substantiated,” he added.

On 28 May 2021, the UN Security Council renewed its arms embargo on the territory of South Sudan, which it first imposed in 2018, and identified the implementation of the 2021 action plan as one of five benchmarks against which renewal of the arms embargo would be reviewed in May 2022. - Africa

EU leaders agree to ban 90% of Russian oil by year-end

BRUSSELS, Belgium

European Union leaders agreed Monday to embargo most Russian oil imports into the bloc by year-end as part of new sanctions on Moscow worked out at a summit focused on helping Ukraine with a long-delayed package of new financial support.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is seen on a screen, left, as addresses from Kyiv during an extraordinary meeting of EU leaders to discuss Ukraine, energy and food security at the Europa building in Brussels, Monday, May 30, 2022. European Union leaders will gather Monday in a fresh show of solidarity with Ukraine but divisions over whether to target Russian oil in a new series of sanctions are exposing the limits of how far the bloc can go to help the war-torn country.

The embargo covers Russian oil brought in by sea, allowing a temporary exemption for imports delivered by pipeline, a move that was crucial to bring landlocked Hungary on board a decision that required consensus.

EU Council President Charles Michel said the agreement covers more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia. Ursula Von der Leyen, the head of the EU’s executive branch, said the punitive move will “effectively cut around 90% of oil imports from Russia to the EU by the end of the year.”

Michel said leaders also agreed to provide Ukraine with a 9 billion-euro ($9.7 billion) tranche of assistance to support the war-torn country’s economy. It was unclear whether the money would come in grants or loans.

Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna, responded to the EU’s decision on Twitter, saying: “As she rightly said yesterday, Russia will find other importers.”

The new package of sanctions will also include an asset freeze and travel ban on individuals, while Russia’s biggest bank, Sberbank, will be excluded from SWIFT, the major global system for financial transfers from which the EU previously banned several smaller Russian banks. Three big Russian state-owned broadcasters will be prevented from distributing their content in the EU.

“We want to stop Russia’s war machine,” Michel said, lauding what he called a “remarkable achievement.”

“More than ever it’s important to show that we are able to be strong, that we are able to be firm, that we are able to be tough,” he added.

Michel said the new sanctions, which needed the support of all 27 member countries, will be legally endorsed by Wednesday.

The EU had already imposed five previous rounds of sanctions on Russia over its war. It has targeted more than 1,000 people individually, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and top government officials as well as pro-Kremlin oligarchs, banks, the coal sector and more.

But the sixth package of measures announced May 4 had been held up by concerns over oil supplies.

The impasse embarrassed the bloc, which was forced to scale down its ambitions to break Hungary’s resistance. When European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed the package, the initial aim was to phase out imports of crude oil within six months and refined products by the end of the year.

Both Michel and von der Leyen said leaders will soon return to the issue, seeking to guarantee that Russia’s pipeline oil exports to the EU are banned at a later date.

Hungarian Prime minister Viktor Orban had made clear he could support the new sanctions only if his country’s oil supply security was guaranteed. Hungary gets more than 60% of its oil from Russia and depends on crude that comes through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline.

Von der Leyen had played down the chances of a breakthrough at the summit. But leaders reached a compromise after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged them to end “internal arguments that only prompt Russia to put more and more pressure on the whole of Europe.”

The EU gets about 40% of its natural gas and 25% of its oil from Russia, and divisions over the issue exposed the limits of the 27-nation trading bloc’s ambitions.

In his 10-minute video address, Zelenskyy told leaders to end “internal arguments that only prompt Russia to put more and more pressure on the whole of Europe.”

He said the sanctions package must “be agreed on, it needs to be effective, including (on) oil,” so that Moscow “feels the price for what it is doing against Ukraine” and the rest of Europe. Only then, Zelenskyy said, will Russia be forced to “start seeking peace.”

It was not the first time he had demanded that the EU target Russia’s lucrative energy sector and deprive Moscow of billions of dollars each day in supply payments.

But Hungary led a group of EU countries worried over the impact of the oil ban on their economy, including Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. Hungary relies heavily on Russia for energy and can’t afford to turn off the pumps. In addition to its need for Russian oil, Hungary gets 85% of its natural gas from Russia.

Orban had been adamant on arriving at the summit in Brussels that a deal was not in sight, stressing that Hungary needed its energy supply secured.

Von der Leyen and Michel said the commitment by Germany and Poland to phase out Russian oil by the end of the year and to forgo oil from the northern part of the Druzhba pipeline will help cut 90% of Russian oil imports.

The issue of food security will be on the table Tuesday, with the leaders set to encourage their governments to speed up work on “solidarity lanes” to help Ukraine export grain and other produce. - AP

 

UN report links Mali army to rise in rights abuses

BAMAKO, Mali

Civilian deaths and rights abuse attributable to the Malian armed forces and backed by “foreign military elements” have surged in the first quarter of 2022, a United Nations report has said, with the killings seeing a 324 percent rise during the previous quarter.

“Malian Armed Forces, supported on certain occasions by foreign military elements, increased military operations to combat terrorism … some of which sometimes ended in serious allegations of violations of human rights,” the UN’s Malian mission, known as MINUSMA, said in the report released on Monday.

The report did not identify the “foreign military elements” supporting the army.

The total number of people killed in the first quarter of 2022 by all parties in the conflict – rebels, self-defence groups and security forces – quadrupled during the last three months of 2021, rising from 128 to 543.

A total of 248 civilian deaths were attributable to the defence and security forces, the report said.

MINUSMA documented 320 human rights violations by the Malian military in the January-March period, compared with 31 in the previous three months.

The report comes just as Mali cut ties with former colonial power France and as Wagner Group, a Russian private military contractor, was roped in to help the government fight an armed rebellion.

The most notable case was in the town of Moura, where witnesses and rights groups say the Malian army accompanied by white fighters killed dozens of civilians they suspected of being rebels.

“In addition to summary executions, security forces also allegedly raped, looted, arrested and arbitrarily detained many civilians during the military operation,” MINUSMA said.

MINUSMA is conducting an investigation but has been refused access to the town. MINUSMA said its request will only be considered once the government has conducted its own investigation.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said that Malian soldiers and white foreign soldiers executed 300 civilians in Moura, in the centre of the country, between March 27-31.

Mali’s military, which took power in a 2020 coup, says it “neutralised” 203 rebel fighters in Moura.

The bodies of men killed in a recent operation by the Malian military and suspected operatives of the Russian private military contractor group Wagner, in the central Malian town of Moura (Al Jazeera)

The Mali government did not respond to requests for comment by Reuters. Colonel Assimi Goita led coups in 2020 and 2021 before becoming president of the West African nation.

Wagner Group could not be reached by Reuters.

The landlocked Sahel country has been hit by violence since 2012 when armed groups took over the country’s north. France intervened to drive them away from the region, but by 2015 they had regrouped and unleashed a wave of attacks in the central part of the country.

They have since spread into Niger and Burkina Faso, raising concerns of regional instability.

The army has developed closer ties with Russia, bringing in personnel that it describes as military instructors, but which France and others say are operatives of Wagner, the controversial Kremlin-linked security firm.

Western powers strongly opposed Wagner’s intervention, warning that it could stoke violence in Mali and neighbouring countries where communities face growing levels of drought, malnutrition and poverty. - AFP

French journalist killed during Russian bombardment in Ukraine

PARIS, France

A French journalist has been killed during a Russian bombardment that struck a vehicle evacuating civilians from eastern Ukraine, French and Ukrainian officials said.

“Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff was in Ukraine to show the reality of war,” French President Emmanuel Macron wrote on Twitter on Monday.

“Onboard a humanitarian bus with civilians forced to flee to escape Russian bombings, he was mortally wounded.”

Leclerc-Imhoff was working for the BFM television news channel, which said he was 32 years old and on his second Ukraine reporting trip since the war began on February 24.

He was near Severodonetsk, a city in Ukraine’s east that has been pounded by advancing Russian troops in recent weeks, the French and Ukrainian foreign ministries said in separate statements.

Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, who visited Kyiv on Monday, wrote on Twitter that Leclerc-Imhoff had been killed “by a Russian bombardment of a humanitarian mission while he was carrying out his duty to inform.

“I have spoken with the government of Luhansk and asked President [Volodymyr] Zelensky for an inquiry, and they assured me of their help and support,” she wrote.

Frederic Leclerc-Imhoff

BFM said its journalist had been hit by shrapnel from the bombing, and his colleague Maxime Brandstaetter was wounded. Their local fixer Oksana Leuta was not hurt.

“This tragic event reminds us of the dangers faced by all journalists who have been risking their lives to describe this conflict for more than three months now,” BFM said in a statement.

Macron wrote, “I share the grief of his family, relatives and colleagues,” adding that “to those who ensure the difficult mission of reporting in combat zones, I want to reiterate France’s unconditional support.”

Reporters Without Borders, an international media advocacy group, said at least eight journalists have been killed while reporting on the Ukraine conflict.

Luhansk governor Serhiy Haidai said on Telegram that “our armoured evacuation vehicle was going to pick ten people up from the area and came under enemy fire.” – Al jazeera

Russians, Ukrainians fight block by block in eastern city

KRAMATORSK, Ukraine

Russian troops pushed deeper into a key eastern Ukrainian city Monday, fighting street by street with Kyiv’s forces in a battle that has left Sievierodonetsk in ruins. In a bid to pressure Moscow to end the war, the European Union agreed to embargo most Russian oil imports by the end of the year.

As Moscow’s advance on Sievierodonetsk increased in intensity, Russian forces also shelled parts of Ukraine’s northeast, and a struggle continued for control of a southern region. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, said Russia has prevented the export of 22 million tons of Ukrainian grain, contributing to a growing global food crisis.

Military analysts described the fight for Sievierodonetsk as part of a race against time for the Kremlin. The city is important to Russian efforts to quickly complete the capture of the eastern industrial region of the Donbas before more Western arms arrive to bolster Ukraine’s defense. Moscow-backed separatists already held territory in the region and have been fighting Ukrainian troops for eight years.

“The Kremlin has reckoned that it can’t afford to waste time and should use the last chance to extend the separatist-controlled territory because the arrival of Western weapons in Ukraine could make it impossible,” Ukrainian military analyst Oleh Zhdanov said.

In a potential setback for Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden appeared to dismiss reports that the U.S. was considering sending long-range rocket systems to the country.

But the European Union approved additional sanctions on Russia. As part of a long-delayed financial support package to help Ukraine, EU leaders agreed Monday to embargo most Russian oil imports into the 27-nation bloc by year-end. The agreement came after Zelenskyy asked the EU to target Russian oil exports so Moscow “feels the price for what it is doing against Ukraine.”

The embargo covers Russian oil brought in by sea, allowing a temporary exemption for imports delivered by pipeline. EU Council President Charles Michel said the agreement covers more than two-thirds of oil imports from Russia. Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU’s executive branch, said the move will “effectively cut around 90% of oil imports from Russia to the EU by the end of the year.”

In an effort to punish and divide the West over its support for Ukraine, Russia has cut off natural gas to a handful of European countries. In its latest move, Russian state gas giant Gazrpom said it will halt gas supplies to Dutch gas trader GasTerra starting Tuesday.

Russia also ramped up its actions on the battlefield. In his nightly video address, Zelenskyy said the situation in the Donbas remains “extremely difficult” as Russia has put its army’s “maximum combat power” there.

The Ukrainian military said Russian forces reinforced their positions outside Sievierodonetsk, a city 145 kilometers (90 miles) south of the Russian border in an area that is the last pocket of Ukrainian government control in Luhansk.

Sievierodonetsk Mayor Oleksandr Striuk said the city has been “completely ruined.” Artillery fire has destroyed critical infrastructure and damaged 90% of the buildings, and power and communications have been largely cut to a city that was once home to 100,000 people, he said.

“The number of victims is rising every hour, but we are unable to count the dead and the wounded amid the street fighting,” Striuk told The Associated Press in a phone interview, adding that Moscow’s troops advanced a few more blocks toward the city center.

He said that only about 12,000 to 13,000 residents remain, sheltering in basements and bunkers to escape the Russian bombardment. The situation recalls the siege of Mariupol, which trapped residents and led to some of the worst suffering of the war. More than 20,000 are feared dead in Mariupol.

Striuk estimated that 1,500 civilians have died in Sievierodonetsk since the war began from Russian attacks and from dire conditions that include a lack of medicine and medical treatment.

A 32-year-old French journalist, Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff, died Monday near Sievierodonetsk when he was hit by shrapnel from shelling while covering Ukrainian evacuations, according to his employer, French broadcaster BFM TV.

Zelenskyy said Leclerc-Imhoff was the 32nd media worker to die in Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24.

Governors of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions — which make up the Donbas — said six civilians, including the journalist, were killed in shelling. Authorities in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, also reported one person died in shelling there.

Zelenskyy said Russian troops also shelled the Sumy region near the Russian border, and the struggle continued for the southern Kherson region, which has been largely controlled by Russian troops since the early days of the war. Russia-installed officials there said they would ask the Kremlin to annex it, while Kyiv, in turn, has vowed to liberate the region.

The Russian advance in Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk on either side of the strategically important Siverskiy Donetsk River is part of an all-out push, said Zhdanov, the Ukrainian military analyst. He said the intensity of the latest fighting and the influx of Russian troops have surprised Ukrainians, who are trying to hold out until more weapons arrive.

On Monday, Biden told reporters that there are no plans for the United States to send long-range rocket systems to Ukraine, amid reports that the move is being considered.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, called it a “reasonable” decision. He said that “otherwise, if our cities come under attack, the Russian armed forces would fulfill their threat and strike the centers where such criminal decisions are made.”

Medvedev added that “some of them aren’t in Kyiv.”

In the Kherson region, the Russia-installed deputy head of the regional administration, Kirill Stremousov, told Russia’s Tass state news agency that grain from last year’s harvest is being delivered to Russian buyers, adding that “obviously there is a lot of grain here.”

Russia has pressed the West to lift sanctions against it as it seeks to shift the blame for the growing food crisis, which has led to skyrocketing prices in Africa.

Zelenskyy accused Moscow of “deliberately creating this problem” and said Russia’s claim that sanctions are to blame is a lie. He said sanctions haven’t blocked Russian food, and he accused Russia of stealing at least a half million tons of Ukrainian grain. - AP

Italy opens Sicilian port to nearly 300 rescued migrants

ROME, Italy

The Ocean Viking rescue ship brought 294 migrants rescued over the last 10 days in the central Mediterranean to a port in Sicily on Monday, as the number of migrant arrivals surges by one-third over last year’s levels.

The SOS Mediterranee charity criticized Italy for the long wait for a port, noting that many of those rescued were showing signs of trauma from the perilous journey and were in need of immediate assistance.

“The wait of over a week for a port to disembark these people was senseless,” said Candida Lobes, communications officer on the Ocean Viking.

The migrants were rescued in several operations off the coast of Libya starting on May 19, including 49 children, some as young as 3 years old.

Italy has seen a surge in migrant arrivals in recent weeks with warmer weather. The Interior Ministry said 18,841 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this year, up by 31% over last year.

Authorities are increasingly concerned that a growing food crisis exacerbated by the blockade of grain stores in Ukraine could provoke a fresh migrant crisis out of North Africa.

Italian Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese will host counterparts from five European countries this week in Venice to discuss the migrant situation.

“The problem hits our countries at first, but is a question facing the whole continent,” she added.

Twitter fined $150m in US for selling users’ data

WASHINGTON, USA

Twitter in the US must pay a $150m (£119m) fine after law enforcement officials accused it of illegally using users’ data to help sell targeted ads.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice say Twitter violated an agreement it had with regulators, court documents showed.

Twitter had vowed to not give personal information like phone numbers and email addresses to advertisers.

Federal investigators say the social media company broke those rules.

Twitter was fined £400,000 in December 2020 for breaking Europe’s GDPR data privacy rules.

The FTC is an independent agency of the US government whose mission is the enforcement of anti-trust law and the promotion of consumer protection.

It accuses Twitter of breaching a 2011 FTC order that explicitly prohibited the company from misrepresenting its privacy and security practices.

Twitter generates most of its revenue from advertising on its platform, which allows users ranging from consumers to celebrities to corporations to post 280-character messages, or tweets.

According to a complaint filed by the Department of Justice on behalf of the FTC, Twitter in 2013 began asking users to provide either a phone number or email address to improve account security.

"As the complaint notes, Twitter obtained data from users on the pretext of harnessing it for security purposes, but then ended up also using the data to target users with ads,” said Lina Khan, who chairs the FTC.

This practice affected more than 140 million Twitter users, while boosting Twitter’s primary source of revenue.”

Ian Reynolds, managing director of computer security firm Secure Team, told the BBC: “Once again, Twitter is violating the trust that their users have in their platform by using their private information to their own advantage and increasing their own revenue.”

He added: “Twitter led their customers into a false sense of security by acquiring their data through claiming it was for security purposes and protecting their account, but ultimately ended up using the data to target their users with ads.

"This reality shows the power that companies still have over your data and that there is a long way to go before users can be comfortable knowing that they have full control over their own digital footprint.”

In order to authenticate an account, Twitter requires people to provide a telephone number and email address.

That information also helps people reset their passwords and unlock their accounts if required, as well as for enabling two-factor authentication.

Two-factor authentication provides an extra layer of security by sending a code to either a phone number or email address to help users log into Twitter along with a username and password.

But, according to the FTC, until at least September 2019, Twitter was also using that information to boost its advertising business.

Around 100 dead in clashes between Chad gold miners

N'DJAMENA, Chad

Around 100 people have died in clashes between gold miners in northern Chad, Defence Minister General Daïoud Yaya Brahim said on Monday.

Violence broke out on May 23 at Kouri Bougoudi near the Libyan border, sparked by a “mundane dispute between two people which degenerated,” he said, adding that the toll was “around 100 dead and at least 40 wounded.”

The clashes occurred in the rugged Tibesti Mountains in the central Sahara, some 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) from the Chadian capital N’Djamena.

The discovery of gold there has sparked a rush of miners from across Chad and neighbouring countries, and tensions often run high.

The clashes were between Mauritanians and Libyans, the minister said.

He spoke to AFP by phone from the area, where he said he was with a large military contingent sent to help restore order.

"This isn’t the first time that there’s been violence among gold miners in the region, and we have decided to suspend all gold mining at Kouri until further notice,” he said, adding that “the great majority (of mines in the area) are illegal.”

The incident was first announced on Wednesday, when Communications Minister Abderaman Koulamallah said in a statement there had been “loss of human life and several wounded,” but gave no further details.

At least 14 dead in Nepal plane crash, rescue operations continue

KATHMANDU, Nepal

Nepali rescuers pulled 14 bodies on Monday from the mangled wreckage of a passenger plane strewn across a mountainside that went missing in the Himalayas with 22 people on board.

22 people were on board the Nepali carrier Tara Air when it crashed on Sunday [Courtesy]

Air traffic control lost contact with the Twin Otter aircraft operated by Nepali carrier Tara Air shortly after taking off from Pokhara in western Nepal on Sunday morning headed for Jomsom, a popular trekking destination.

Helicopters operated by the military and private firms scoured the remote mountainous area all day Sunday, aided by teams on foot, but called off the search when night fell, as bad weather hampered the recovery operation at around 3,800-4,000 metres (12,500-13,000 feet) above sea level.

After the search resumed on Monday, the army shared on social media a photo of aircraft parts and other debris littering a sheer mountainside including a wing with the registration number 9N-AET clearly visible.

Four Indians were on board as well as two Germans, with the remainder Nepalis. There was no word on the cause of the crash.

The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed that the plane "met an accident" at 14,500 feet (4,420 metres) in the Sanosware area of Thasang rural municipality in Mustang district.

"Fourteen bodies have been recovered so far, search continues for the remaining. The weather is very bad but we were able to take a team to the crash site. No other flight has been possible," authority spokesman Deo Chandra Lal Karn told AFP.

Pokhara Airport spokesman Dev Raj Subedi told AFP the rescuers had followed GPS, mobile and satellite signals to narrow down the location.

Pradeep Gauchan, a local official, said that the wreckage was at a height of around 3,800-4,000 metres (12,500-13,000 feet) above sea level.

"It is very difficult to reach there by foot. One team has been dropped close to the area by a helicopter but it is cloudy right now so flights have not been possible," Gauchan told AFP earlier in the day.

"Helicopters are on standby waiting for the clouds to clear," he said.

According to the Aviation Safety Network website, the aircraft was made by Canada's de Havilland and made its first flight more than 40 years ago in 1979.

Tara Air is a subsidiary of Yeti Airlines, a privately owned domestic carrier that services many remote destinations across Nepal.

It suffered its last fatal accident in 2016 on the same route when a plane with 23 on board crashed into a mountainside in Myagdi district.

Nepal's air industry has boomed in recent years, carrying goods and people between hard-to-reach areas as well as foreign trekkers and climbers.

But it has long been plagued by poor safety due to insufficient training and maintenance.

The European Union has banned all Nepali airlines from its airspace over safety concerns.

The Himalayan country also has some of the world's most remote and tricky runways, flanked by snow-capped peaks with approaches that pose a challenge even for accomplished pilots.

The weather can also change quickly in the mountains, creating treacherous flying conditions.

In March 2018, a US-Bangla Airlines plane crash-landed near Kathmandu's notoriously difficult international airport, skidded into a football field and burst into flames.

Fifty-one people died and 20 miraculously escaped the burning wreckage but sustained serious injuries.

That accident was Nepal's deadliest since 1992, when all 167 people aboard a Pakistan International Airlines plane died when it crashed on approach to Kathmandu airport.

Just two months earlier a Thai Airways aircraft had crashed near the same airport, killing 113 people.

Barrick Gold commits to pump $70million on Tanzania community projects

By Osoro Nyawangah, MWANZA Tanzania

Barrick Gold Corporation announced yesterday, it has committed up to $70 million (0ver 160 billion shillings) for investment in value-adding national projects, including mining-related training, skills development and scientific facilities at Tanzanian universities, as well as road infrastructure.

The world gold giant elaborated that it would spend $6 for every ounce of gold sold by its two mines in the country on improving healthcare, education, infrastructure and access to potable water in the communities around them.  

This is in accordance with the conditions underlying Barrick’s framework agreement with the government, which included the establishment of their Twiga joint venture. 

Twiga oversees a 50/50 split of the economic benefits generated by the mines as well as their management.
 
Barrick President and CEO, Mark Bristow said the investment program was the latest evolution of the company’s very successful partnership with the government.
 
“Since we took over the Tanzanian mines from their previous operator in 2019, we have rebuilt relations with the state and renewed our social licence to operate here.  North Mara has been redesigned as an integrated underground/open pit mine and Bulyanhulu has been resuscitated as a long-life underground mine.  Together they are expected to produce more than 500,000 ounces¹ of gold per year at the lower end of the cost spectrum.” He said.
 
Barrick has spent more than $1.9 billion in taxes, salaries and payments to local businesses over the past two years.  At least 73% of the mines’ goods and services are sourced locally and they give preference to the employment of Tanzanian nationals.
 
Barrick has to date also paid the government $140 million of the $300 million settlement included in the framework agreement.

Children among 31 killed at church fair stampede in Nigeria

ABUJA, Nigeria

A stampede Saturday at a church charity event in southern Nigeria left 31 people dead and seven injured, police told The Associated Press, a shocking development at a program that aimed to offer hope to the needy. One witness said the dead included a pregnant woman and many children.

A view of flip fops and sandals on the street, following a stampede in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, Saturday, May 28, 2022. Police say a stampede at a church charity event in southern Nigeria has left at least 31 people dead and seven injured. One witness said the dead included a pregnant woman and “many children.” Police said the stampede took place at an annual “Shop for Free” program organized by the Kings Assembly Pentecostal church in Rivers state. Such events are common in Nigeria, 

The stampede at the event organized by the Kings Assembly Pentecostal church in Rivers state involved people who came to the church’s annual “Shop for Free” charity program, according to Grace Iringe-Koko, a police spokeswoman.

Such events are common in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, where more than 80 million people live in poverty, according to government statistics.

Saturday’s charity program was supposed to begin at 9 a.m. but dozens arrived as early as 5 a.m. to secure their place in line, Iringe-Koko said. Somehow the locked gate was broken open, creating a stampede, she said.

Godwin Tepikor from Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency said first responders were able to evacuate the bodies of those trampled to death and bring them to the morgue. Security forces cordoned off the area.

Dozens of residents later thronged the scene, mourning the dead and offering any assistance they could to emergency workers. Doctors and emergency workers treated some of the injured as they lay in the open field. Videos from the scene showed the clothing, shoes and other items meant for the beneficiaries.

One witness who only identified himself as Daniel said “there were so many children” among the dead. Five of the dead children were from one mother, he told the AP, adding that a pregnant woman also lost her life.

Some church members were attacked and injured by relatives of the victims after the stampede, according to witness Christopher Eze. The church declined to comment on the situation.

The police spokeswoman said the seven injured were “responding to treatment.”

The “Shop for Free” event was suspended while authorities investigated how the stampede occurred.

Nigeria has seen similar stampedes in the past.

Twenty-four people died at an overcrowded church gathering in the southeastern state of Anambra in 2013, while at least 16 people were killed in 2014 when a crowd got out of control during a screening for government jobs in the nation’s capital, Abuja.

 

AU chief 'gravely concerned' by Rwanda-DR Congo tension

DAKAR, Senegal

African Union chair Macky Sall on Sunday called for "calm and dialogue" between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda after both sides accused the other of supporting rebel groups operating along their shared border.

Courtesy 

"I am gravely concerned about the rise in tension between Rwanda and the DRC," tweeted Sall, the Senegalese president who currently chairs the AU.

Sall appealed to the two countries "for calm and dialogue for a peaceful resolution of the crisis with the support of regional mechanisms and the African Union."

On Saturday, Rwanda said two of its soldiers were being held captive by rebels and accused the DRC government of backing those responsible.

Kigali called for Congolese authorities to work for the release of the troops, who were abducted earlier this week after what it described as an attack along the border by DRC forces and rebels of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR).

Earlier on Saturday, the DRC accused Rwanda of backing another rebel group, M23, which last month resumed its campaign of violence in the volatile eastern Congo.

In retaliation, Kinshasa suspended flights to the DRC by Rwanda's flag carrier RwandAir and summoned Kigali's ambassador.

M23 is a primarily Congolese Tutsi group responsible for a separate uprising a decade ago. 

The militia briefly captured North Kivu's provincial capital Goma in late 2012, before the army quelled the rebellion a year later. 

Fighting between Congolese forces and M23 erupted on several fronts this week in North Kivu, which borders Rwanda.

M23 says the DRC government has failed to honor a 2009 agreement under which its fighters were to be incorporated into the army.

Kinshasa said on Saturday that in response to the surge in violence, it had designated M23 a terrorist group and would exclude it from peace talks being held in Kenya with other militia groups active in eastern DRC.

The United Nations said on Friday the fresh clashes had displaced 72,000 people, and warned that those on the run faced constant violence and the looting of their homes.

The DRC and Rwanda have had a tumultuous relationship since the mass arrival in the republic of Rwandan Hutus accused of slaughtering Tutsis during the 1994 Rwanda genocide.

Ties had thawed after DRC President Felix Tshisekedi took office in 2019 and last year, the neighbors signed three bilateral agreements to further enhance trade and diplomatic ties.

But Kinshasa has regularly accused Rwanda of carrying out incursions into its territory, and of backing armed groups there.