Tanzania main opposition party says several members arrested

 Police detain nine party members and raid offices in Musoma to block planned symposium on constitutional change, Chadema says.

Tanzanian police have arrested several members of the country’s main opposition Chadema party, the latest crackdown on a group pushing for constitutional reform in the country.

It followed the detention of Chadema leader Freeman Mbowe on “terrorism” charges that his party have branded a bid by President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s government to muzzle the opposition.

Police detained nine party members and raided its offices in the northern lakeside town of Musoma to block a planned symposium by the youth wing on constitutional change, Chadema said in a statement on Saturday.

“We strongly condemn this blatant violation of the constitution and rule of law, sowing the seeds of hatred, discrimination and discord within communities,” it added, protesting against the “suppression of democratic rights” by police and other security forces.

Freeman Mbowe arrives at the Kisutu Resident Magistrate’s Court in Dar es Salaam on August 6 [File: AFP]

Mbowe has been behind bars since July 21 when he was arrested along with a number of other senior Chadema officials hours before they were to hold a similar forum on calls for a new constitution.

The 59-year-old has been charged with terrorism financing and conspiracy in a case that the opposition says shows Hassan is continuing the oppressive rule of her late predecessor John Magufuli.

He is due to appear at the High Court again on Monday, although his trial has been held up by legal wrangling, with his defence team most recently challenging the legality of the charge sheet.

Referring to Saturday’s arrests, Longinus Tibishibwamu, police chief in the Mara region of which Musoma is the capital, said the force cannot allow such events to take place.

“The president has instructed that people should now focus on economic development … So such conferences will have to wait,” Tibishibwamu was quoted as saying by local media.

SOURCE: AFP

………………………………………………………………

Extended power outages push Louisiana residents to leave

 MARRERO, La. (AP) — Gwen Warren describes herself as a “strong woman.” But after days without electricity in a hot, sweaty Louisiana summer after Hurricane Ida wiped out the power to her home, she decided it was best to get on a bus and go to a shelter in northern Louisiana until the lights came back on.

“Any place the Lord blesses us to go out of this heat, where we’re able to get some food, get a hot bath and, you know, just some comfort, is fine,” she said. “This heat just got too much for me. I just couldn’t do it anymore.”

Hurricane Ida wiped out power to about a million people across southeastern Louisiana when it slammed ashore on Aug. 29 and cut a path north through the state. While electricity is starting to be restored in some places, the vast majority of customers are still in the dark.

The storm also hit during one of the hottest times of the year, and with air conditioning out and food in refrigerators quickly rotting, many residents who hunkered down for the hurricane are deciding now to leave town.

While many have simply packed up their cars and hit the road to places such as neighboring Mississippi or Texas, others don’t have a car or enough gas to make the trip on their own. In Jefferson Parish, the local government set up a bus service to shuttle people who want to leave to shelters in northern Louisiana. New Orleans officials Friday announced a similar program.

Wanzie Patterson was one of dozens of people gathered at a recreation center in Marrero — a suburb of New Orleans — to board a bus headed to northern Louisiana. She was with her two kids and two other families who all lived at the same apartment complex in Kenner.

Their apartment suffered roof damage during the hurricane and then the electricity went out. They had tried to stay but without a car, they were walking long distances to get to the food and water distribution points and food was running low.

They were sleeping out on the porch to catch any cool breeze that wafted through but bugs were eating them alive. She was preparing to go “wherever this bus takes us.”

“I’m just thankful that we’re all OK. We have the help now. And from here everything else should get better,” she said. She’s been trying to help her two boys — ages 11 and 18 — understand that their ordeal is almost over, and is also preparing for the possibility of celebrating her youngest son’s birthday on Sept. 8 in a shelter: “I’m trying to keep a smile on his face.”

C.J. Conrady was also there with his mother and brother. His mother, who was in a wheelchair, had just gotten out of the hospital before the hurricane hit. He said she has incisions all the way up her back, and a pic line in her arm that is supposed to deliver antibiotics into her system fell out on Thursday.

She’s also diabetic and her insulin must be kept cold but they didn’t have a generator to run the refrigerator. Conrady’s younger brother is autistic, and Conrady is trying to keep him calm — a challenge considering all of the changes and stress the family has been going through.

“It’s been crazy. It’s been one thing after another,” said Conrady, who’s a computer engineering student at the University of New Orleans.

Following the hurricane, Glenn Spears couldn’t stay in his boiling hot apartment so the disabled army veteran and his brother drove from Terrytown, a suburb of New Orleans, to Kinder, Louisiana about 200 miles (320 kilometers) to the west — the closest available hotel room.

But when he realized that he might have to be out of his apartment for longer than anticipated, he called the parish’s information hotline to see what options he had and found out about the bus service. The downside was that he had to come back to catch the bus. So he and his brother left Kinder around 5 a.m. and made their way to the recreation center before heading north.

“I had to get out of there,” he said. “It was just sweating, sweating, sweating.”

……………………………………………………………

Guinea President Alpha Conde arrested in a coup d’etat

THIS JUST IN TO DNT – Guinean president Alpha Conde has been arrested after what appears to be a successful coup d’etat.

What started as a military mutiny in Guinea has degenerated into a coup d’etat with the arrest of President Alpha Conde, whose dubious third term created nationwide protest that his military successfully quelled.

This morning what DNT correspondent on the ground as military skirmishes has evolved into a seeming overthrow of the Conde government.

Colonel Mamadou Doumbia

Colonel Mamadou Doumbia has declared himself the new president of the Republic of Guinea Conakry after the coup d’état, this Sunday September 05 2021.

     

More to come on this developing story in Guinea

DNT News

………………………………………………………………

Rescue groups: US tally misses hundreds left in Afghanistan

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Veteran-led rescue groups say the Biden administration’s estimate that no more than 200 U.S. citizens were left behind in Afghanistan is too low and also overlooks hundreds of other people they consider to be equally American: permanent legal residents with green cards.

Some groups say they continue to be contacted by American citizens in Afghanistan who did not register with the U.S. Embassy before it closed and by others not included in previous counts because they expressed misgivings about leaving loved ones behind.

As for green card holders, they have lived in the U.S. for years, paid taxes, become part of their communities and often have children who are U.S. citizens. Yet the administration says it does not have an estimate on the number of such permanent residents who are in Afghanistan and desperately trying to escape Taliban rule.

“The fear is that nobody is looking for them,” said Howard Shen, spokesman for the Cajon Valley Union School District in the San Diego area that is in contact with one such family who says they cannot get out.

“They are thousands of miles away under an oppressive regime and we’re leaving them behind,” he said. “That’s not right.”

In this Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021 file photo, Taliban special forces fighters stand guard outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport after the U.S. military’s withdrawal, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi)

Stung by the U.S. military’s chaotic and deadly retreat, President Biden has promised that evacuation efforts will continue for the 100 to 200 American citizens who want to leave, most of whom he said are dual citizens. And Secretary of State Antony Blinken has said that extends to green card holders and Afghans who supported the U.S. government during the 20-year war.

It’s unclear how that will work without an active U.S. military presence in the country and the Taliban-controlled Kabul airport, a major way out of the country, now closed. But an undersecretary of state said this past week that all American citizens and permanent residents who could not get evacuation flights or were otherwise stranded had been contacted and told to expect further details about routes out once those have been arranged.

Three school districts in California say they know of more than 30 children enrolled in their schools who have not been able to return. One family who has lived in Sacramento for years has been texting daily with their children’s elementary school principal while trying to escape.

The parents and three children — all legal U.S. residents — went to Afghanistan in April to care for their sick grandmother after being unable to do so for months because of COVID-19 restrictions. Caught by surprise by the quick Taliban takeover, the family members were unable to get through the crush of thousands of people at the airport in Kabul before the last U.S. plane left Aug. 31.

Now they fear they will be forgotten by the U.S. government, especially since they are not American citizens.

“I’m loosing the hope,” the mother, who is not being named to protect her safety, texted in broken English to Principal Nate McGill, who urged her to not give up.

McGill said California Democratic Rep. Doris Matsui, who has been working to free the family, tried to help them board a flight in Afghanistan. But they were pushed back. The family, whose three children are in first, third and fourth grade, fled amid tear gas and gunfire as U.S. forces and the Taliban tried to control the crowd.

“We run away from the gate. Situation is very scary. Kids are crying because of these firing,” the mother texted, later adding: “I totally lost my mind sir … today I saw my death.”

Mohammad Faizi, a green card holder from the San Diego suburb of El Cajon, said he and his wife and five children were stopped by the Taliban at a checkpoint on their way to the airport. His wife is a U.S. citizen.

Faizi, whose family got out just before the last U.S. flight left, said he was asked at the checkpoint why he was trying to leave Afghanistan. “I told him, ‘That’s our country. That’s my nation. We’re living there. So we have to get out of here.’″

Palwasha Faizi, 10, above left, stands behind her sister, Parwana Faizi, 7, and alongside her father, Mohammad Faizi, during a news conference Thursday, Sept. 2, 2021, in El Cajon, Calif. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

The Taliban, which are in need of foreign aid, have said they will allow people with valid travel papers to leave, and the international community says it will be monitoring to see if they keep their word.

Mike Jason, who runs an ad-hoc rescue operation called Allied Airlift 21, said his volunteer group has been in contact with 78 green card holders trapped in the country, but that the figure does not capture the scale of the problem. Add their spouses and children to the tally, he said, and the number rises to nearly 400.

Jason and others say they also believe the number of U.S. citizens is much higher than 200 people and is misleading because it does not include their family members who may be green card holders. Allied Airlift has identified 45 U.S. citizens in the country but has documents on more than 250 family members stuck there with them.

Such volunteers say they are also skeptical of the government’s estimate because it only includes American citizens who registered with the U.S. Embassy before it was shuttered in Kabul, a process that was entirely voluntary.

Alex Plitsas, an Iraq War veteran who is part of an informal rescue network called Digital Dunkirk, said he received calls from six U.S. citizens stuck in Afghanistan in just one day earlier this week — and none had registered with the U.S. Embassy.

He suspects the true number of U.S. citizens left behind could be off by hundreds.

“Those names are starting to trickle out now,” said Plitsas, a former civilian intelligence officer in Afghanistan. “I expect that number to rise significantly.”

Plitsas said he’s also handled pleas from more than 100 U.S. green card holders trying to leave over the past two weeks and says they should get just as much attention as U.S. citizens.

“They live here,” he said. “They’re our folks.”

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa’s office said he is working to evacuate an 80-year-old couple who are both U.S. citizens and live in San Diego County, along with two other families from his congressional district that covers El Cajon.

The administration says 6,000 U.S. citizens made it out, most on U.S. military flights.

Issa said he believes the number of U.S. citizens still there and wanting to leave is closer to 500. That includes roughly the number the State Department says made clear they want to leave and additional U.S. citizens who were not counted because they expressed concern about “leaving behind family members to die.”

An Air Force aircrew, prepares to receive soldiers to board a U.S. Air Force C-17 aircraft in support of the final noncombatant evacuation operation missions at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul Afghanistan.

If you include the family members of U.S. citizens, the number of people could be as high as 1,000, he added.

“Unless we continue and get the rest of our American citizens, and all those otherwise eligible out, we won’t have done our job,” Issa said.

Republican Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska, a former Air Force officer receiving calls for help in the rescue effort, said the Biden administration needs to give a full accounting of those left behind and stop limiting its official tally to U.S. citizens.

“The problem is, it doesn’t include families,” he said. “They’re lowballing the numbers.”

Rescue coordinator Chuck Nadd, an Afghanistan veteran, said the numbers being reported back to him by 180 Digital Dunkirk volunteers suggest there are hundreds of green card holders desperate to get out.

Among them are the three Sacramento schoolchildren whose mother recently texted their principal a photo of them with forlorn faces and handmade signs reading, “Take us out of Afghanistan, please” and “I am SO scared here.”

…………………………………………………

Kenyan men join battle to end FGM

Warning: Some readers may find parts of this article upsetting

John can barely remember a time when having sex with his wife did not end with her in tears.

It was just too painful because she had undergone female genital mutilation (FGM).

“Anytime I go to Martha, she recoils, curling like a child. She cries, begging me to leave her alone. She doesn’t want to have sex any more,” the 40-year-old says.

John and Martha come from Kenya’s Marakwet community in western Kenya.

Although FGM is illegal in Kenya, girls in their community often undergo FGM between the ages of 12 and 17, as a rite of passage in preparation for marriage.

Martha was cut when she was 15.

Sex as an endurance test

“It is painful when we have sex. I wish this practice would end,” she says, adding that it had also made childbirth very difficult for her.

Recounting their first sexual experience, the couple describe it as traumatising.

Martha says she felt a lot of pain and it is not how she had imagined sex would be. She had to ask her husband to stop.

“I didn’t realise a part of her [vulva] had been stitched, leaving only the urethra and a tiny vaginal opening,” John tells the BBC.

“I try to be very compassionate with my wife. I don’t want her to feel like I don’t respect her, yet we are a couple.”

They lived in agony with little hope that things would ever change – not just for them, but they feared for their young daughter as well.

That was until John heard of an anti-FGM campaign meeting in his village, targeting men.

He says it awakened him to the dangers the practice posed to women. It changed his attitude and he learned that as a man, he could help stop it.

“After all, it’s men who have a say about children and if I say my child will not be cut, then she won’t be.”

It is a transformation Moses and his wife Josephine, also members of the Marakwet community, have embraced.

The couple, married for close to 25 years, have also had a difficult sex life because of FGM.

Josephine was cut at a young age and describes their sex life as an endurance test.

“It is always painful but I have learnt to persevere through it.”

Josephine says the couple thought they were alone in their struggle until they met other couples who were struggling with similar challenges.

‘Shame and ridicule’

Discussing sex and related topics such as FGM is still taboo in many Kenyan communities, especially among men.

“No-one told me anything about having sex, especially with an FGM survivor. Even now, it is considered a private matter,” John says, laughing at the suggestion that sex could be discussed openly in his community.

Moreover, men who speak against FGM can be seen as traitors, attacking a long-standing cultural practice.

In 2014, it was estimated that four million Kenyan women, around a fifth of the female population, had undergone some type of FGM. In most practising communities, it is considered a prerequisite for marriage.

“In the olden days if one refused to undergo FGM, they would never find a husband,” Josephine says, “and if they did, they would never be fully accepted in that homestead. They would be returned to their family, bringing shame and ridicule to their people.”

Dr Tamarry Esho, who researches FGM and campaigns against it, says that of Kenya’s 42 recognised communities, only four have not historically practised FGM.

And some still do.

“This is a deep-rooted cultural practice. A lot of people still feel like it’s their right,” says Dr Esho.

‘Men are the decision-makers’

But attitudes in many communities have changed and Kenya is seen as being among the more progressive countries in Africa on the issue. Just over one in 10 adolescent girls aged between 15 and 19 are now estimated to have undergone FGM, down from almost 50% in 1974.

Tony Mwebia, founder of the Men End FGM foundation, which trains community champions to tackle FGM, says that men can make a difference.

“In FGM-practising communities in Kenya, while it is women who cut fellow women, men are the decision-makers. However, they have no idea what is cut, how it’s done and what damage is caused to women.

“Once [the men] understand the message, then it’s a big change. They have the platforms, they have the audience, they have the influence,” he says.

After attending the anti-FGM meeting, John decided that his daughter would not be cut.

He was also able to articulate something he says many men are not willing to admit.

“FGM affects men too. Many are in [emotional] pain but simply persevere. Some cultures say FGM reduces women’s alleged promiscuity. FGM only reduces the love between a man and his wife.”

For women like Josephine, having male allies makes all the difference, especially in a patriarchal society.

“We once felt powerless, not any more. As a survivor, when my husband says he doesn’t want FGM for our daughters, I’m happy. Our neighbours have also followed suit. They say their daughter won’t be cut.”

*The names of the couples interviewed for this article have been changed to protect their identities.

……………………………………………………

South Africa’s top court dismisses bid to postpone local election

Judgement is a blow to the ruling ANC, which supported a postponement and has struggled to register candidates.

South Africa’s top court has dismissed an application by the Electoral Commission to postpone local elections due on October 27, court documents showed on Friday.

The judgement is a blow to the ruling African National Congress (ANC), which supported a postponement and has struggled to register thousands of councillors expected to contest the municipal elections.

In 2016, the party was hammered in local government elections, losing cities such as Johannesburg to rival opposition parties in the ANC’s worst faring since sweeping to power in South Africa’s first democratic vote in 1994.

This time the polls will test support for the ANC following the coronavirus pandemic and South Africa’s worst civil unrest in years in July, triggered by the jailing of former President Jacob Zuma after he failed to appear before an anti-corruption inquiry.

ANC spokesman Pule Mabe told broadcaster SABC that the party welcomed the judgement and would study it properly before commenting further.

The Electoral Commission said in a statement it would meet over the weekend to chart a way forward, and would make an announcement about the electoral programme on Monday.

In August, the Electoral Commission applied to have the elections postponed after an inquiry recommended a delay because of the pandemic.

In its ruling, the court set aside the government’s decision to have elections on October 27, saying instead the polls must go ahead between that date and November 1.

The commission must, within three days of the court order, determine if it was “practically possible” to hold a voter registration weekend ahead of people casting their ballot, it ordered.

SOURCE: REUTERS

……………………………………………………