Day: August 25, 2021

Introduction

In order to gain a better understanding of mobility flows and trends through West and Central Africa, the International Organization for Migration (IOM)implements the Displacement Tracking Matrix’s Flow Monitoring (FM) tool at key transit points across the region.

Flow Monitoring activities are conducted in close cooperation with national and local authorities as well as local partners. The Flow Monitoring tool consists of two main components: the Flow Monitoring Registry (FMR), which captures key data on the magnitude, provenance, destination and mode of travel of mobility flows, and the Flow Monitoring Survey (FMS), individual surveys conducted with travellers to gather detailed information about the profiles, migration experience and intentions of migrants.

Through these activities, the Flow Monitoring tool collects data on migration flows and trends, traveller profiles, migration journeys, and intentions of migrants, so as to obtain a sharpened view of mobility in West and CentralAfrica.

In The Gambia, DTM conducts Flow Monitoring activities in several important transit locations. In Barra (FMPs are located at the ferry terminal and the main garage), Farafenni (FMPs are located at Farafenni main garage, Farafenni Ballan-Ghar garage, Farafenni McCarthy and Sanjally garage, Farafenni turntable garage and the truck garage), Basse (FMPs are situated at the main garage and the bus station in Basse Santa-Su) and Brikama (FMPs are located at the main garage and the Bus station) to monitor the movements of passenger within The Gambia, out of and towards The Gambia.

This report presents Flow Monitoring Registry data collected within 28 days in July 2021. It presents key data on flows, routes, provenance, destination and demographic profiles of travellers observed at the FMPs.

Additional information on Flow Monitoring methodology is available on the last page.

Source: International Organization for Migration

The former president of Chad, Hissène Habré, died on Tuesday at age 79, five years into a life sentence for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

His trial in Senegal marked the first time an African country tried a former leader of another African country for crimes committed in office. However, his conviction was less than perfect justice.

Hissène Habré oversaw the killing and torture of tens of thousands of people during his rule as Chad’s president from 1982 to 1990. He was also accused of rape and sexual slavery.

At the time, Habré received support from the United States and France to defend against Libya’s invasions of northern Chad.

He was found guilty of crimes against humanity in 2016 by a Senegalese court, and was still serving his life sentence when he died of COVID-19.

Allan Ngari is the organized crime observatory coordinator for West Africa with the Institute of Security Studies in Dakar.

“It was the first time for universal jurisdiction to be successful in Africa. It was the first time that a former head of state was found guilty for personally committing acts of rape. But it came almost 26 years later from when he was deposed of presidency in Chad,“ he said.

Habré’s victims and their supporters worked tirelessly over those years to bring the former dictator to justice.

Reed Brody is a member of the International Commission of Jurists and a human rights lawyer who has worked with Habré’s victims since 1999.

“That a band of torture victims never gave up and were able to turn the tables and bring a dictator to justice in Africa before an African court — these are enormous achievements that I feel proud of and that I know the victims feel proud of,“ he said.

One of those victims is Clément Abaifouta, the president of the Association of Victims of the Crimes of the Hissène Habré Regime.

Abaifouta endured four years of torture at the hands of Habré’s regime. During that time he not only witnessed the deaths of many of his co-detainees from torture, illness and sexual violence, but he was forced to dig their graves.

He says when Hissène Habré was convicted, all of Africa celebrated and jumped for joy because Africans proved they were capable of trying dictators on African soil. “The case of Hissène Habré is a lesson for all dictators: you cannot hide. Justice is like the sun. It will always catch you,” he said.

Habré and the Chadian government were ordered to pay Abaifouta and the other victims tens of millions of dollars, and the African Union was tasked with setting up a trust fund. The victims, however, have yet to see a penny and the fund was never established.

Abaifouta said he will continue to pressure the Senegalese authorities and the African Union to begin the process of reparations.

Habre is to be buried in Dakar on Thursday, his family told the Agence France-Presse.

Source: Voice of America

Author: Stephen L. Esquith – Professor of political theory and global ethics, Michigan State University

Disclosure statement

Stephen L. Esquith does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Prior to the military coup in 2012, Mali was praised for its transition to democracy in West Africa. That is no longer the case.

Malians are caught between the stubborn legacies of a colonial past, a global political economy that has left them impoverished, a dysfunctional government, violent inter-ethnic conflicts, and attacks from terrorists and their own armed forces. It is considered the epicentre of violence in a violent region. It is, therefore, no wonder that the prognosis for peace and human security for Mali has become so dire.

In 2020 as jihadist and inter-ethnic violence escalated, support for Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita had plummeted. This was despite the fact that he had been elected by a large majority in 2013 and re-elected five years later. By August 2020, as elections were approaching, he resigned after being detained in a military-led coup.

Then, by May 2021, the country experienced its second coup in nine months, this time by some members of the transitional leadership itself on the grounds that the transitional government wasn’t following its own charter. Weeks earlier, a former rebel leader who had been part of the peace process was assassinated.

Violent groups, including those linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State, frequently unleash attacks in north, central and eastern Mali, and their presence is spreading into the country’s south and across borders.

It is against this background that Malian prime minister Choguel Kokalla Maïga announced a government action plan to the governing National Transitional Council to prepare for presidential and legislative elections in February and March 2022. The plan was approved quickly by the governing council.

The plan includes the contributions of 25 ministerial departments under the chairmanship of the prime minister, with the support of the United Nations Development Program.

The basic components of the plan fall into four categories — strengthening national security, driving institutional reforms, holding elections and promoting good governance. These are the key areas that must be addressed to increase trust in the peace process set in motion by the 2015 Algiers Peace Accords which brought a partial ceasefire to parts of the country.

In my view, it is unlikely that the plan will reduce armed conflict and reform political institutions enough to achieve its goals. It will not lead to a more sustainable peace unless it is more inclusive and can connect what a professor of conflict resolution, Pamina Firchow, describes as everyday peace at the local level with measures to ensure national security.

But that doesn’t mean the plan should be ignored or opposed. Rather, it means that more needs to be done to achieve its goals.

Strengthening national security

This is the central component of the plan. The prime minister praised the peacekeeping efforts of the Malian Armed Forces and emphasised the need to respond to terrorist attacks, especially in the northern and central regions of the country.

Nonetheless, the plan calls for better military training and equipment. At the same time, there is a commitment to demilitarise the country, to reorganise economic production away from military purposes, and to reintegrate former state and non-state armed combatants into the civilian economy by providing vocational training and job opportunities.

To carry out these security plans, the government promises to make the 2015 Algiers Peace Accords more inclusive.

One way to do this would be to integrate some of the non-state armed forces into the national army to better protect local communities from criminal violence and intransigent insurgents. This would create the kind of everyday peace in the markets, schools and neighbourhoods that is now lacking.

Yet the plan does not go this far.

Political and institutional reforms

There have been a number of meetings in recent years for this purpose. Based on the recommendations that have come out of these forums, the plan calls for a series of national meetings that will give voice, without censorship, to all citizens from the local to the national level.

The prime minister gave the assurance that the recommendations resulting from these meetings will be enforceable during the remaining six months of the transition period and afterwards.

According to the prime minister, there is an

…urgent need for reforms to renovate not only the political framework and adapt the fundamental texts of the Republic, but also endow our country with strong and legitimate institutions that will allow lasting political stability and social peace.

But this language alone is unconvincing coming from him. He has shown very little interest in democracy, local or national, throughout his career, beginning with his early association with the former authoritarian leader Moussa Traore.

A general election

The action plan calls for “transparent, credible and inclusive general elections” to lead Mali’s return to a “normal constitutional order”. It stresses, in particular, the inclusion of refugees and displaced people. To this end, a single election management body will be established to ensure free and fair elections.

While a highly desirable goal, the mechanisms for conducting such elections do not exist. And it is unrealistic to think they could be created in such a short time.

One might even ask whether the president and prime minister are simply setting things up for an extension of the 18-month charter for the transitional government and their own leadership roles within it.

Good governance and a stability pact

To root out corruption, the plan calls for a “social conference” that will produce a new “social stability pact”. This will be the basis for a new social contract between citizens and the government that will “improve the living conditions of the populations and ensure a fair distribution of national wealth”.

Through negotiations and compromise, the conference will address the root causes of violence and inequality, not merely their symptoms. Ample funds will be provided for “basic social services” such as health and education, and bring civil service salaries into “harmony”.

This too, albeit vague, is a laudable goal. But it ignores the way in which heavy reliance on foreign aid can short circuit the relationship between citizens and the state, replacing political loyalty with clientelism.

Another telling silence is the absence of any mention of the work of the Malian Commission for Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation, which has been interviewing refugees and displaced people for the last five years to prepare the ground for reparations.

I have been involved in the peacebuilding process, working with Malian teachers, artists and activists since 2004 to develop university-level peace-building courses and community programmes in the country. Since 2016 our team has worked with the commission to disseminate information on the causes and effects of armed violence in Mali, and creating materials to prepare citizens for local peace-building dialogues.

At a minimum, the plan should have referenced the work of the commission, especially its involvement with refugees and internally displaced persons.

Conclusion

Even though confidence in the 2015 peace agreement and in the 2020 provisional government has faltered, many Malians still prefer democracy over one-party and military rule. This is an encouraging sign.

There is much that needs to be done before a new government can be elected, however. The action plan’s generalities may buy the president and prime minister a prolongation of the transition, but that may be all. New elections under the current circumstances might only heighten political frustration, and lead to more inter-ethnic violence and an increased terrorist presence in the region, with Mali as its epicentre.

Source: The Conversation

Mass vaccination could restart the economy and lead to increase in employment, says Minister Nxesi

It was important for all eligible people in South Africa to vaccinate at the earliest chance so as to allow the economy to fully open so that it can start to arrest the runaway train of unemployment.

This is the view of the Minister of Employment and Labour, Thulas Nxesi in response to the latest Stats SA Q2 Quarterly Labour Force Survey which shows a continued trend of jobs-shedding with figures showing that the official unemployment rate increased by 1.8 percentage points to 34.4% in the second quarter of 2021 compared with the first quarter of 2021 at 32.6%.

“The increase in the official unemployment rate was relatively expected because of the slow economic growth observed in the first quarter of 2021 and the decline in investment rate in the country.

“It should also be noted that the economy is has also been severely affected by the necessary lockdown restrictions that have mostly affected non-essentials activities because of the pandemic. It is for this reason that we urge all the people in South Africa to make themselves available for vaccination so that the lockdown could be lifted once we reach the necessary herd immunity. We believe that this is one of the ways that this country can arrest the shedding of jobs.

“However, the country stands on “solid ground” with various national infrastructure projects and the Presidential Employment stimulus packages. All these forms part of the Economic Reconstruction Plan that is currently in place. It will also require all social partners to work together and preserve the country economic development prospects that will reduce inequalities and poverty in the long-run,” said Minister Nxesi.

According to Statistics South Africa, an additional 587 000 individuals have reported to be unemployed between quarter one and two of 2021. However, the increase was more than 3.5 million individuals when compared to a year ago (April 2020).

This increase signifies the most vulnerable in our society the young people (15-34 years) and African women with insufficient skills could not easily be absorbed into sustainable decent employment. For example, out of 7 826 000 unemployed in June 2021, the youth (15-34) constituted almost 60% or 4 677 000 of the unemployed individuals. The unemployment rate among black African women was 41% during this period compared to 8.2% among white women, 22.4% among Indian/Asian women and 29.9% among coloured women.

“The recent figures of vaccination show that the youth is coming out in big numbers to be inoculated. The youth is again leading from the front in securing their future with this commitment because ultimately, this will be a difference to whether the economy kickstarts or not. We appreciate their commitment and resolve,” said Minister Nxesi.

Figures show that there were about 10.2 million of youth (15-24 years) in quarter two of 2021, of which 33% were not in employment, education or training (NEET). In this category, more females than males were counted over the years.

The country lost 54 000 jobs on quarter-to-quarter changes and gained 793 000 year-to-year changes. The quarterly variation in employment lost was mostly observed in the Finance and the community industries with 278 000 and 166 000 respectively. However, the construction (156 000), the community (156 000) and the Private households industries (189 000) were the engines of job creation.

“Given the fact that the economy has taken a hit over the last few years and has not recovered to be able to absorb young people in employment, our hope lies on the public employment and our infrastructure build program to provide employment opportunities and to keep the young people engaged. As government, we are working closer with our social partners to ensure that the economy reconstruction and recovery plan is being implemented as a matter of urgency. As government, we are optimistic that we will arrest this challenge of unemployment,” said Minister Nxesi.

Source: Government of South Africa

Cameroon has turned public buildings on its northern border with Nigeria into temporary housing for former Boko Haram militants. Hundreds of Boko Haram members have been defecting from the Islamist group, including more than two hundred on Sunday.

Cameroon says its center for Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration, or DDR, in Meri, a northern town on the border with Nigeria, is now home to about 1,500 former Boko Haram militants. Three weeks ago, the center had about 750 former militants.

DDR officials in Meri said Tuesday most of the 237 former jihadist members who arrived this week included women and children. One hundred are former Boko Haram fighters, all looking tired, unkempt and hungry, officials said.

Alidou Faizar, 33, says he defected from a Boko Haram camp in the Sambisa Forest located on the Cameroon/Nigeria border.

He says he is tired of killing and looting and that Boko Haram promised to improve his living conditions when he joined the jihadist group three years ago, but he is now poorer, and he has a guilty conscience about crimes he committed. He adds that peace is priceless.

Faizar said his wish is to return to Abadam, a town in Nigeria’s Borno state. Cameroon says close to 900 of the 1,500 former jihadists in Meri are Nigerians.

Oumar Bichair, director of the DDR center at Meri, says the center is already at full capacity.

He says Cameroon’s government has turned public buildings, including a Women’s Empowerment Center at Mora, another northern town, into temporary residences for former Boko Haram members. He says the governor of Cameroon’s Far North region has suggested that his colleagues in Nigeria’s Borno state, considered an epicenter of the jihadist group, should make arrangements for the former militants to voluntarily return to Nigeria.

Francis Fai Yengo, the DDR country director, says Cameroonian President Paul Biya has allocated funds for the construction of a DDR center that can host 1,500 former militants in Meme, a town located in north along the border with Nigeria. He says Cameroon is grateful that many militants are escaping from Boko Haram camps.

“We have to thank ex-fighters for laying down their arms. I am sure that they looked at the bigger picture which is to have peace,” he said. “Everyday elites, mayors, people are going to help these ex-fighters. They [civilians] don’t only give them [former militants] material things, they [civilians] counsel them [ex-fighters]. You see how very young, vibrant and dynamic ex-fighters are struggling everyday with us to appeal to the others [fighters] in the bush to come [surrender] to have peace.”

Yengo said Cameroon’s president has asked that all fighters who dropped their weapons to be pardoned and reintegrated back into society. He said Nigerians who want to return to their country will be handed to Nigerian government authorities but did not say when.

The Multinational Joint Task Force of the Lake Chad Basin, or MNJTF, that is fighting the jihadist group says Nigeria has been informed that many ex-fighters have surrendered in Cameroon and want to return to Nigeria. The task force is made up of troops from Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria. Nigeria is yet to issue a statement on the possibility of the former militants returning to the west African state.

Cameroon’s military said the militants surrendered to MNJTF troops stationed at the border around Sambisa Forest. The task force said many militants have been defecting in Cameroon, Nigeria and Chad following the death of Boko Haram leader, Abubakar Shekau. The jihadist group leader was declared killed in May.

Source: Voice of America