Severe hunger threatens 13m in Horn of Africa – UN

 The United Nations’ World Food Programme (WFP) says 13 million people across the Horn of Africa face severe hunger because of continued drought.

Failed harvests and food shortages are forcing families from their homes, the WFP says, and immediate assistance is needed to prevent a humanitarian crisis.

The rainy season has failed three years in a row – and the drought continues.

Crops are ruined, livestock are dying, and 13 million people in Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya are going hungry.

Food prices are rising, and with little to harvest, demand for agricultural labour is falling, increasing the pressure on families trying to feed themselves.

Without immediate assistance, the WFP says, a humanitarian crisis is unavoidable.

The WFP is appealing for $327m (£242m) to respond to the drought – in the short term to provide food and cash grants, and in the long term to build resilience among farming communities where less rain and more drought could, with climate change, become the norm.

……………………………………………………………

Ukraine crisis: Macron says crucial days ahead after Putin summit

 French President Emmanuel Macron has said the coming days will be crucial to de-escalating the Ukraine standoff, after a meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

Mr Putin hinted that progress had been made during his first Moscow summit with a Western leader since Russian troops massed on Ukraine’s borders.

Moscow has denied any plans to invade.

However, Western powers have become increasingly concerned by the possibility of a conflict.

US officials said on Sunday that Russia has assembled 70% of military forces needed for a full-scale invasion.

On Monday, President Joe Biden met German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Washington and threatened to shut down a key Russian gas pipeline to Germany if Moscow invaded Ukraine.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has also indicated his support for sanctions. Writing in The Times newspaper on Tuesday, he added that the UK was considering deploying Royal Air Force fighters and Royal Navy warships “to protect south-eastern Europe”.

Western countries have already rejected a number of Moscow’s demands, including that the Nato defence alliance rule out Ukraine becoming a member, and that it reduce its military presence in eastern Europe.

They have instead suggested other areas of negotiation, for example talks on cutting back nuclear weaponry.

Mr. Macron, who spoke with Mr Putin over a five-hour dinner which included reindeer with sweet potatoes and blackberries, told reporters the coming days would be “decisive” and “require intensive discussions which we will pursue together”.

The Russian president said that some of Mr Macron’s proposals “could form the basis of further joint steps”, stating that they were “probably still too early to talk about”.

The pair are due to speak again after the French president meets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday. Mr. Putin said after the French leader’s talks in Kyiv, “we shall determine our own further steps”.

President Macron will then travel to Berlin for talks with the German chancellor and Polish President Andrzej Duda.

During a tense news conference in Moscow, Mr Putin repeated earlier warnings that should Ukraine join the Western military alliance Nato and attempt to take back Crimea – which Russia annexed eight years ago – Europe could get sucked into a major conflict.

“Do you want France to fight with Russia?” he asked French reporters. “That’s what will happen. And there will be no winners.”

………………………………………………………………

Fresh strike plans threaten Nigeria’s public universities

 A Nigerian university teachers’ union has said it is preparing for indefinite industrial action, which would hit the country’s already troubled tertiary sector.

If it goes ahead it would be the second strike in two years.

The last stoppage lasted for nine months, between March and December 2020.

It led to the loss of nearly one full academic session for the students.

The lecturers have accused the government of failing to implement agreements reached by the two parties over a year ago, concerning pay and conditions.

The president of the lecturers union, Prof Emmanuel Osadeke, told the BBC that the body was meeting next week to decide on industrial action.

Incessant strikes by teachers in public universities have forced many parents who can afford it, to send their children abroad or to private universities for studies.

Students at public universities are meanwhile left frustrated.

……………………………………………………………

Ugandan court refuses to release novelist’s passport

A Ugandan court has declined to release the passport of a novelist and critic of President Yoweri Museveni to allow him to seek treatment abroad after being allegedly tortured in detention.

Kakwenza Rukirabashaija was arrested in December and charged with offensive communication for reportedly calling Mr Museveni’s son – the army General Muhoozi Kainerugaba – “obese”.

A chief magistrate said a medical report showed for Rukirabashaija there were local options for the writer’s treatment.

The European Union condemned the alleged torture and other rights abuses by the country’s security agencies.

“The arbitrary arrest of people by security services, holding them in ungazetted places of detention for prolonged periods of time, torturing them, not bringing them before a court within the mandatory time limits, are violations of Uganda’s national legislation, regional and international commitments as well as specific presidential guidelines,” the EU said in a statement.

It followed similar concerns raised by the US government over “recurring” rights abuses in Uganda.

The Ugandan government has faced many previous accusations of arrest and torture of individuals who are opposed to, or critical of, the administration.

President Museveni has in the past called for the denial of bail to suspects of capital offences – a move critics say was intended to stifle dissent and target critics for prolonged detention.

…………………………………………………………

Dakar “explodes” with Senegal’s first ever AFCON title

The moment Sadio Mane’s fifth penalty kick touched the back of the net in the finals of the 2022 Afcon, the entire city of Dakar “exploded” with an instant uproar of joyous shouts.

Geeby Diallo, DNT’s Dakar correspondent could barely find his voice over the phone as he relayed the jubilation to DNT. He could only manage “do you hear the voice?”

     

Like every finals game of any worthwhile tournament, one city jubilates while another cries. In Cairo, it was a different story.

Tears flowed, on the field, in the red section of the stands in Younde’s Olembe Stadium, and on the field where players had difficulty controlling their emotions.

In a display of superb sportsmanship, victor Sadio Mane was seen comforting his vanquished Liverpool team mate Mohamed Salah.

 

Back in Dakar, the jubilation had even began to record injuries with one young man falling off a table at a bar. The sentimental favorites did it.

With Egypt having won seven AFCON titles – the most by any country – virtually the entire continent with the exception of Egypt was rooting for Senegal, the one recent football super power which has yet to win its first.

Report and pictures from Geeby Dialo – DNT Dakar Correspondent.

 

………………………………………………………………

Liberia president’s biographer moves to US after row

A biographer of Liberia’s President George Weah, who had unsuccessfully attempted to leave the country last week amid controversy over the book, is now in the US.

Isaac Vah Tukpah flew out of the country after the president said he was a free man to stay or live in the country.

The co-author, who holds both Liberian and US passports, says he is now uncertain about returning home soon because of “family fears”.

The controversy followed the publishing of the unauthorised biography, which includes some “indecent” descriptions about the first lady.

The book, George Weah: The Dream, The Legend, The Rise to Power, published last month quotes the president as speaking about the sexual habits of his wife.

Mr Tukpah has rejected public condemnation of the publication, insisting the person to blame for the controversy is “obviously, the president who said those things to confidantes and is known to say even worse things about women he was intimate with”.

He told the BBC that he and his co-writer had tried in vain to reach President Weah for his authorisation before the book was published.

The author, who is a former ally of the Liberian president, however said that he felt sorry for the use of some sexually graphic expressions attributed to the president.

He urged people to read the biography and “I am sure after reading it, they will find that the president was actually praising his wife”.

There is still widespread condemnation of the book, which is reportedly selling fast on Amazon since the start of the controversy.

The Liberia Council of Churches is among the latest to condemn it and has asked the authors to apologise to the first lady.

The information ministry says the book contains “obscene and defaming materials against the first family” and has expressed possibility of legal action against Mr Tukpah.

……………………………………………………………

Macron heads to Moscow to try to ease Ukraine tensions

French President Emmanuel Macron is set to hold talks in Moscow Monday in a bid to to help de-escalate the tense situation around Ukraine.

The concentration of an estimated 100,000 Russian troops near Ukraine has fueled Western worries that it heralds a possible offensive, with White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan warning Sunday that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day,” triggering a conflict that would come at an “enormous human cost.”

Russia has denied any plans to attack its neighbor, but is urging the U.S. and its allies to bar Ukraine and other ex-Soviet nations from joining NATO, halt weapons deployments there and roll back NATO forces from Eastern Europe. Washington and NATO have rejected the demands.

Macron, who is set to meet in the Kremlin with Russian President Vladimir Putin before visiting Ukraine Tuesday, said last week that his priority is “dialogue with Russia and de-escalation.”Before heading to Moscow, Macron had a call Sunday with U.S. President Joe Biden. They discussed “ongoing diplomatic and deterrence efforts in response to Russia’s continued military build-up on Ukraine’s borders, and affirmed their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the White House said in a statement.

The French presidency said Macron sought to ensure “good coordination” with Biden in the call.

In an interview with French newspaper Journal du Dimanche published on Sunday, Macron said that “we won’t get unilateral gestures but it is indispensable to prevent a degradation of the situation before building confidence gestures and mechanisms.”

“The geopolitical objective of Russia today is clearly not Ukraine, but to clarify the rules of cohabitation with NATO and the EU,” Macron said. “The security and sovereignty of Ukraine or any other European state cannot be a subject for compromise, while it is also legitimate for Russia to pose the question of its own security.”

Continuing the high-level diplomacy, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is set to meet with Biden Monday for talks expected to focus on the Ukrainian standoff. Scholz is set to travel to Kyiv and Moscow on Feb. 14-15.

In 2015, France and Germany helped broker a peace deal for eastern Ukraine in a bid to end the hostilities between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists that erupted the previous year following the Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

The agreement signed in the Belarusian capital, Minsk, helped stop large-scale fighting, but efforts at a political settlement have stalled and frequent skirmishes have continued along the tense line of contact in Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland called Donbas.

The leaders of Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany last met in Paris in December 2019 in the so-called Normandy format summit, but they failed to resolve main conflicting issues.

Amid the tensions over the Russian military buildup, presidential advisers from the four countries held talks in Paris on Jan. 26, but they didn’t make any visible progress and agreed to meet again in Berlin in two weeks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has pushed for another four-way Normandy summit, but the Kremlin said a meeting of leaders would only make sense if the parties agree on the next steps to give a special status to the rebel east.

Putin and his officials have urged France, Germany and other Western allies to encourage Ukraine to fulfill its obligations under the 2015 agreement, which envisaged a broad autonomy for the rebel east and a sweeping amnesty for the separatists. The agreement stipulated that only after those conditions are met would Ukraine be able to restore control of its border with Russia in rebel regions.

The Minsk deal was seen as a betrayal of national interests by many in Ukraine and its implementation has stalled. Amid the latest tensions, Ukrainian authorities have strongly warned the West against pressuring Ukraine to implement the agreement.

Last week, Oleksiy Danilov, the secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, told The Associated Press that an attempt by Ukraine to fulfil the Minsk deal could trigger internal unrest that would play into Moscow’s hand.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba noted that Moscow wants the rebel regions reintegrated into Ukraine in order to use them to effectively block the country’s pro-Western aspirations, vowing that “this is not going to happen.”

…………………………………………………………