Ukraine invasion: UK appeal to help people fleeing their homeland raises £55m in one day

 

It is feared up to four million people could flee Ukraine because of the Russian invasion

A UK appeal to help refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine has raised £55m in a single day in a huge humanitarian effort.

The Queen, the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge were among the flood of people contributing to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) appeal in the short time since its launch on Thursday.

It is feared that up to four million people could flee the country because of the Russian invasion, many in desperate need of food, water, medical assistance and protection.

The appeal was launched by a group of 15 UK charities as intense fighting rages in cities across Ukraine.

DEC chief executive Saleh Saeed said: ”We are extremely grateful for the huge generosity of everyone in the UK who has donated to the DEC Appeal.

“We are also very grateful for the generous support of the Royal Family.”

It comes after Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that every pound donated by the British public would be matched by the government – up to the value of £20m.

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International coalition files United Nations appeal over reports of racism at border of Ukraine

 An international coalition of activists and human rights attorneys on Wednesday announced they filed an appeal to the United Nations on behalf of African refugees facing racial discrimination in Ukraine and Poland.

The filing follows numerous reports from Black refugees who said they faced segregation, racism and abuse as they tried to flee for safety from war-torn Ukraine to Poland.

Coalition members said during a news conference Wednesday they have also heard reports of segregated lines for white and Black people at the Polish border and Black mothers and children have been thrown off trains. Videos shared on social media have shown groups of Black people stranded at the border not being allowed in and various threats against Black people who attempt to cross.

“They face one war waged by Russia, and they face a second war waged by racism because of the color of their skin. We are here today because Black Lives Matter in times of war, and in times of peace,” civil rights attorney Jasmine Rand said during the conference.

An African woman tries to find some clothes as refugees flee the conflict in Ukraine, on February 27, 2022.The appeal asks the United Nations to support the coalition’s call for the Ukrainian and Polish state and local governments to issue executive orders directing all governmental agencies to treat people of African descent — and other racial minorities — with equity and to stop using violent means. The coalition also wants Ukraine and Poland “to admit persons of African descent and racial minorities at rates equal to other persons.”

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said the coalition is asking for basic humanity.

“When you think about what we’re seeing in those videos and those images, it is heartbreaking because as Russia bombs the Ukraine, and it’s utter devastation, you think if there were a time for all of us to be together, it will be at this urgent moment,” Crump said during the conference. “However, not only are they fighting for freedom, they are fighting for common decency in humanity.”

International leaders like Yetunde Asika, a Nigeria-based international human rights attorney, and Rosalea Hamilton, the founding director of the Institute of Law and Economics in Jamaica, also shared stories regarding what they have been hearing from Black students trying to flee Ukraine.

Asika said there are about 5,000 Nigerians who live in Ukraine —most of whom are students. She shared the story of a medical student who had walked about 11 hours overnight to the border and was then told she couldn’t cross until the Ukrainians had been evacuated first.

“We as a nation are doing as much as possible as we can to evacuate our citizens, but it’s not enough. We need the EU [European Union]to pay attention to what is going on,” Asika said during the conference.

Refugees are seen fleeing the conflict in Ukraine, on February 27, 2022.The African Union said it is “disturbed” by the reports of racial discrimination against Africans in Ukraine, which they described as “shockingly racist,” according to a statement released on Monday.

“Reports that Africans are singled out for unacceptable dissimilar treatment would be shockingly racist and in breach of international law,” the statement said. It also urged countries to “show the same empathy and support to all people fleeing war notwithstanding their racial identity.”

Officials from several African countries including Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya and Gabon have also condemned the reports of racism.Coalition members believe the conduct they are seeing at the borders is consistent with war crimes. According to the United Nations, its definition of a war crime includes violations of international humanitarian law taking place during an armed conflict.During Wednesday’s news conference, coalition members also brought up the bias and stereotypes they are seeing in media coverage through comparisons of conflict.

Ronald Sullivan, of the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School, called it “offensive” and said the media is comparing pain and suffering of different communities.

“It is grotesquely a historical as well. Europe certainly cannot claim that it has been immune from the pillages of war,” Sullivan said Wednesday. “It cannot stand as it’s somehow superior in that regard to the Middle East and parts of Africa. So, they’re [the media] not only getting the history wrong, but they’re perpetrating a very ugly form of racial stereotyping.”

The coalition also submitted the appeal to the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and their Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent.

They also plan to circulate this appeal to embassies and other international organizations that have the power to put a stop to these forms of discrimination.

 

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Tanzania drops terrorism case against opposition leader Mbowe

 A Tanzanian court on Friday ordered the release of opposition leader Freeman Mbowe and three other defendants after the prosecution dropped terrorism charges against them.

“Because the (prosecution) has submitted an intention to drop the case and the defence side has accepted it, the case is now removed from the court and I order the suspects to be released unconditionally,” said judge Joachim Tiganga.

“They should be released from jail immediately.”

Mbowe, chairman of the Chadema party, was arrested in July along with a number of other senior party officials just hours before they were to hold a public forum to demand constitutional reforms in the East African country.

He and three others were charged with terrorism financing and conspiracy.

His supporters had branded the case as a politically motivated move to crush dissent, and Mbowe has accused police of torturing him during his nearly seven months in custody.

“We have no intention to continue with the case,” state prosecutor Robert Kidando told the court.

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Fire out at Ukraine’s key nuclear plant amid Russian attacks

 A fire at Europe’s biggest nuclear plant ignited by Russian shelling has been extinguished, Ukrainian authorities said Friday, and Russian forces have taken control of the site.

Ukraine’s state nuclear regulator said that no changes in radiation levels have been recorded so far. It said staff are studying the site to check for other damage to the compartment of reactor No. 1 at the Zaporizhzhia plant in the city of Enerhodar.

The regulator noted in a statement on Facebook the importance of maintaining the ability to cool nuclear fuel, saying the loss of such ability could lead to an accident even worse than 1986 Chernobyl accident, the world’s worst nuclear disaster, or the 2011 Fukushima meltdowns in Japan. It also noted that there is a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel at the site, though there was no sign that facility was hit by shelling.

The shelling of the plant came as the Russian military pressed their attack on a crucial energy-producing Ukrainian city and gained ground in their bid to cut off the country from the sea. As the invasion entered its second week, another round of talks between Russia and Ukraine yielded a tentative agreement to set up safe corridors to evacuate citizens and deliver humanitarian aid.

Leading nuclear authorities were worried — but not panicked — about the damage to the power station. The assault, however, led to phone calls between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Joe Biden and other world leaders. The U.S. Department of Energy activated its nuclear incident response team as a precaution.

Earlier, nuclear plant spokesman Andriy Tuz told Ukrainian television that shells fell directly on the facility and set fire to one of its six reactors. That reactor is under renovation and not operating, he said.

The Zaporizhzhia regional military administration said that measurements taken at 7 a.m. Friday (0500 GMT) showed radiation levels in the region “remain unchanged and do not endanger the lives and health of the population.”

The mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, announced on his Telegram channel Friday morning that “the fire at the (nuclear plant) has indeed been extinguished.” His office told The Associated Press that the information came from firefighters who were allowed onto the site overnight.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council in “coming hours” to raise the issue of Russia’s attack on the nuclear power plant, according to a statement from his office.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm tweeted that the Zaporizhzhia plant’s reactors were protected by robust containment structures and were being safely shut down.

In an emotional speech in the middle of the night, Zelenskyy said he feared an explosion that would be “the end for everyone. The end for Europe. The evacuation of Europe.”

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Singer Jemi Alade appointed Africa’s covid-19 Ambassador

 Nigeria’s singer-songwriter, composer and actress Yemi Alade has been appointed as Africa’s ambassador for covid 19.The multiple award-winning African star is tasked with the responsibility of encouraging Africans to get vaccinated against Covid-19, in a campaign called It’s Up to Us.

 

The campaign is spearheaded by the Africa Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and Mastercard. According to the Africa CDC, just 12.33% of the continent’s population is fully vaccinated, and just 0.91% have received their booster shot. In a tweet, Alade said she is excited to join the Africa CDC, Mastercard and thousands of Africans to stop the spread of coronavirus “one shot at a time”.

 

In 2020, Yemi was made Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

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Rival Libya government takes office as tensions grow

 Libya’s parliament swore in a rival cabinet on Thursday in a bid to oust the unity government, a move that has raised fears of another major schism in the war-scarred country.

The assembly, based in Libya’s east, had tasked former interior minister Fathi Bashagha last month with forming a government.

That raised the prospect of a show-down with the western, Tripoli-based administration of Abdulhamid Dbeibah, who has refused to cede power to anything but an elected government.

And in a sign of ratcheting tensions, Bashagha accused Dbeibah’s government of shutting down the country’s airspace and said an “armed group” had detained three ministers-in-waiting to block them from reaching Thursday’s ceremony.

“I condemn the unjustified escalation by some parties who have prevented some ministers from being sworn in,” Bashagha told the assembly.

Insisting that his administration “seeks peace by words and actions”, he urged the group to release the ministers — Hafed Gaddur, Saleha al-Toumi and Faraj Khalil, respectively Bashagha’s nominees for the foreign affairs, culture and technical education posts.

Libya, which had plunged into violence following the 2011 revolt that toppled dictator Moamer Kadhafi, has seen a year and a half of relative peace since a landmark 2020 ceasefire ending a major battle between eastern and western factions.

Dbeibah was appointed a year ago as part of United Nations-led peace efforts and had been given a mandate to lead the country to December 2020 elections.

But the polls were postponed indefinitely amid sharp divisions over their legal basis and the presence of contentious candidates including eastern military chief Khalifa Haftar.

Last month, the assembly appointed Bashagha — who like Dbeibah hails from the powerful city of Misrata — to lead a new government.

The 59-year-old former fighter pilot said in his inaugural speech on Thursday that “some sides want to drag us into war and fighting — but we won’t let them, and we won’t spill a single drop of blood”.

But he insisted that he would govern from Tripoli “by force of the law”.

On Tuesday, the parliament had given its backing to Bashagha’s proposed cabinet, in a confidence vote Dbeibah condemned as “blatantly” fraudulent, lacking quorum and with some MPs counted as voting in favour even though they were absent.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres’ office said Wednesady he was “concerned over reports that (the vote) fell short of the expected standards of transparency and procedures and included acts of intimidation prior to the session”.

And hours before being sworn in on Thursday, Bashagha’s choice for economy and trade minister Jamal Salem Shaaban quit, criticising the vote as lacking transparency and bypassing parliamentary procedures.

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More than 400 Nigerians return home from Ukraine

 A first batch of more than 400 Nigerians who fled Ukraine following the Russian invasion were flown home on Friday.

The group, most of whom were students, arrived shortly after 0630 GMT on a chartered flight from Romania’s capital Bucharest, one of the hubs from where African governments are scrambling to extract stranded citizens.

Nigerian foreign ministry official Gabriel Aduda tweeted pictures of the group inside an aircraft late on Thursday, saying “415 Nigerians mostly students fleeing the Ukraine-Russian war from Bucharest.”

Many looked tired but relieved that their journey was over.

“I’m very happy to be back home, thank you, Nigeria!” one young woman said as she walked off the tarmac and into the terminal in Abuja.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Geoffrey Onyeama said there were about 5,600 Nigerian students in Ukraine and an estimated 8,000 Nigerian citizens in the country before the war.

On Monday he said an estimated 1,000 citizens were ready for pickup from Romania, 200 others in Slovakia, and 250 both in Hungary and Poland.

A million refugees have fled Ukraine so far, the UN said Thursday, warning that unless the onslaught ended immediately, millions more were likely to flee.

Ghana on Tuesday became the first African country to return its citizens, flying home 17 out of 500 stranded students.

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Shane Warne: Legendary Australian cricketer dies aged 52 after suspected heart attack

 Legendary Australian cricketer Shane Warne has died at the age of 52.

Warne died of a suspected heart attack while in Koh Samui, Thailand.

In a statement, his management team said: “Shane was found unresponsive in his villa and despite the best efforts of medical staff, he could not be revived.”

“The family requests privacy at this time and will provide further details in due course.” Warn retired from international cricket in 2007, after a stellar career where he took 708 Test wickets in 145 matches.

He won the 1999 50-over World Cup and claimed 293 dismissals in 194 one-day internationals between 1993 and 2004.

Warne retired from international cricket in 2007 and he continued to play franchise Twenty20 cricket until 2013.

After retiring, the spinner worked as a cricket commentator.

Tributes poured in for Warne from the cricketing world.

Virender Sehwag, the former Indian batsman, said Warne was “one of the greatest spinners, the man who made spin cool”.

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