Africa

Phil Neville says Cameroon will pose a threat his England team "has not experienced" in their last-16 Women's World Cup game on Sunday.

Preview followed by live coverage of Saturday's Africa Cup of Nations game between Guinea and Madagascar.

Second half substitute Odion Ighalo scores as three-time winners Nigeria beat Burundi at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Uganda begin their Africa Cup of Nations campaign with a 2-0 victory over DR Congo to move level with hosts Egypt in Group A.

They are believed to have been fighters from the Somalia-based al-Shabab Islamist group, police say.

Nigeria forward Samuel Kalu is taken to hospital on the eve of his side's first Africa Cup of Nations match suffering from "severe dehydration".

Kofi Kingston, the first African-born WWE champion, talks about his Ghanaian heritage.

More than a million are set to vote for what could be Mauritania's first peaceful transfer of power.

Eagles, elephants and lions are among the most popular sporting beasts at this year's tournament.

Hosts Egypt began their 2019 Africa Cup of Nations campaign with victory over Zimbabwe, so what can we expect on day two?

Preview followed by live coverage of Saturday's Women's World Cup game between Germany and Nigeria.

The move comes after an official failed to pay $1.1m in damages to a woman trafficked into the US.

By Roberto Savio
ROME, Jun 21 2019 (IPS)

Social Democrats, who had been steadily disappearing following the crisis of 2008, have been making a small comeback in the last year. Now they are in power in Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Finland and, most recently, in Denmark.

But the statistics are daunting. The recent European elections gave members of the Socialist group 20% of the vote, against 25% in 2014, and the erosion from the 34% achieved in 1989 and 1994 is clear. The latest success, in Denmark, with 25.9% of the vote, was lower than in 2015. In Finland, they received 17.7% of the vote, just two-tenths more than the Alt-Right. And in Sweden, Stefan Löfven won his mandate with the lowest vote in decades. In countries like the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Italy, they are becoming irrelevant.

Roberto Savio

It is interesting to note that they did not lose votes to the more radical left. The two European groups that bring together Syriza (Greece), Podemos (Spain), La France Insoumise (France) and Die Linke (Germany) received just 5% of the vote, against 7% in 2014. The votes they lost went basically to the Alt-Right. Today, the Social Democrats have popular support only in Spain (PSOE, 33%) and Portugal (PS, 33.4%). From the Scandinavian cradle of Social Democrats, there has been a shift to the Iberian Peninsula. Today, Portugal is what Sweden was twenty years ago: a model of civic values, tolerance and inclusion.

There is now a debate about the Danish model. Mette Frederiksen, leader of the Social Democrats, has adopted a very radical approach against immigrants, practically identical to the vision of the Alt-Right: deportation of immigrants to a desert island (a la Australian); confiscation of jewels and other valuables they bring with them; the prohibition of burkas and niqabs in open spaces. In 2015, nearly 60,000 migrants reached the country, but only 21.000 were given asylum; in 2017, just one-quarter of those who applied received asylum. At the same time, Frederiksen promised, among others, to increase welfare, subsidies to the poorest part of the population and incentives for young people (whom she wants to stop smoking: she has promised to increase the cost of cigarettes radically).

The Danish model is based on a simple fact. Today Europeans are governed by fear. Fear about the future, the arrival of Artificial Intelligence and robots , which could lead to the disappearance of 10% of current jobs: just the automation of cars would leave millions of taxi drivers, bus drivers, truck drivers and so on jobless (something that immigrants could never be responsible for). The so-called New Economy openly declares that labour is a small component in industrial production. The excess of available workers means that the days of a fixed job are over. This, of course, contradicts the fact that the population is in steep decline. According to the International Labour Organisation, Europe will need at least 10 million more people to remain competitive in 2030.

When feelings, and not ideas, become the basis of politics, and it is the gut and not the brain that decides, we have entered the realm of mythologies and left reality out of the picture.

Take Italy. The large majority of Italian workers now vote for Matteo Salvini, leader of the Northern League and deputy prime minister and Minister of the Interior. Salvini has made fear the central theme of his permanent electoral campaign. As Minister of the Interior, he has spent just 17 days in his ministerial office and the rest on the road. He has defined immigrants as the main threat to the security of Italians. He holds mass rallies, kissing the rosary or the Bible, and explaining that Italy is a slave of the European Union. He has introduced new security laws, which make it easier to possess a weapon. And he has launched an open campaign against the Pope and his calls for solidarity and inclusion. He suggests that the Pope could take all refuges into the Vatican, and he has made an alliance with the conservative wing of the Church, asking Pope Benedict to come back. He has doubled his votes, and he is on the way to becoming Italy’s next Prime Minister. He is now challenging the European Union with the declaration that he will not accept the 3% limit to the budget deficit and claims that he is acting on behalf of the Italian people, that Italians come first and Eurocrats seconds. This is a battle that he is going to lose. The European heads of governments, not the Commission, established the limit to the budget deficit. And his fellow sovereigntists, like Sebastian Kurz of Austria or Viktor Orban of Hungary, will never agree to making any sacrifice to allow Italy to run a budget deficit.

Italy is a good example for understanding how reality is no longer important and is not the basis for politics. Tito Boeri, an international economist and outgoing Director of the National Institute of Social Security (a well-respected institution), has just published an article entitled ‘The managers of fear’. Italians are now convinced that there is one immigrant for every four Italians: actually, there is one for every twelve. Polls show that Italians (and this is valid by and large for all Europeans) are convinced that there are four problems with immigrants: 1) they will take over their work: 2) Italians have to finance the welfare of immigrants that do not work out of their own pockets; 3) they make towns less secure; and 4) immigrants bring contagious diseases with them. Well, says Boeri, nearly 10% of immigrants have creates companies. Every immigrant who is an entrepreneur employs 8 workers, and the labour of immigrants is highly concentrated in activities that Italians have abandoned. They provide 90% of the workforce in rice fields, 85% in the garment sewing industry and account for 75% of fruit and vegetables pickers. Wages in these sectors have not increased in the last 20 years: they were low, and they remain low.

But the most important fact (and this is also true for all of Europe) is that today one Italian in four is over the age of 65, compared with one immigrant in 50. In Italy, there are 2 pensioners for 3 people who work. How could the pension system survive without immigrants? Yet the over 65s are now those who vote for the Alt-Right. This imbalance is destined to grow. To maintain the current system, 83% of a salary goes to the pension system. In the future, how much will it cost the falling number of workers to sustain those who have retired? Already 150,000 young people, most highly qualified, are leaving Italy every year.

What about crime? Statistics show that crime has been diminishing at the same time as the number of immigrants has been growing. And what about contagious diseases where we have statistics from the World Health Organisation: Turkey is the country that has received most immigrants (over four million) in a short period of time. No data exist that show an increase in contagious diseases. In Europe, Germany has been the nation that received most immigrants in a short period of time, yet there are no data showing any increase in contagious diseases.

Fear, according to historians, together with greed, is one engine of change of the course of history. When did fear start? With the economic crisis of 2008, brought about by irresponsible finance, the only global sector of the world without control. The crisis made clear that globalisation was a failure. Instead of lifting all boats as its propagandists proclaimed, it lifted few boats, and made those unprecedently rich: now 80 individuals possess the same wealth as 2.3 trillion people. In fact, greed preceded fear. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world embarked on an orgy of private over public. The State was considered the enemy of growth. All social costs were slashed, welfare and education in particular, because they were considered non-productive. Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil is still doing the same: he has cut the budget of universities and has announced that he wants to “discourage” philosophy and sociology, in favour of “practical studies” like business, engineering and medicine. Gain came to be considered a central virtue. Companies were allowed to seek maximum profit by delocalising in cheaper countries, large companies to put local shops out of business, salaries were reduced, and trade unions marginalised. On its neoliberal path, globalisation was considered unstoppable.

The tide was so strong that it was called pensée unique. At first, the left had no answer. But then British Prime Minister Tony Blair came up with an alternative proposal in 2003. Given that globalisation is unstoppable, let us ride it and let us try to tame it: the Third Way. That, in fact, meant accepting globalisation. The result was that the social democracy tamed very little, and the losers of globalisation no longer felt defended by the left. Globalisation made all that was remunerable mobile: finance, trade, transportation. The State was left only with responsibility for what was not movable: education, health, pensions and all social costs.

This was accompanied by a considerable reduction of national incomes, as globalisation was able (and is still able) to hide profits from national tax systems. According to some estimates, there are 80 trillion dollars in fiscal paradises, one of the main reasons for the decline of national incomes. There was much less money to distribute. The public debt started to pile up. As I write, it now stands at 58,987,551,309,132 dollars (see the Economist debt clock for today’s figure). That has increased the debt servicing to pay and reduced the amount available for current expenses. Nobody talks of this Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of countries and their citizens. No wonder the European Union introduced a measure to limit national deficits. Italy must already pay 30 billion euro every year for its deficit. To increase the deficit, as the government proposes, in order to gain votes is utterly irresponsible.

It is worth noting that before the crisis of 2008, there were no Alt-Right parties in Europe, except for that of Le Pen in France. However, it was just a matter of time before somebody started to ride fear in every country, that the decline of the traditional parties started and that there was no answer to the massive tide of neoliberal globalisation. Immigrants began to come in handy for stoking fear, and all the victims of globalisation switched to the new champions.

Now, it is a commonplace to say that right and left no longer exist. In fact, the fight is between sovereigntists – which means nationalists tinged with xenophobia and populism – and globalists, or those who still believe that international cooperation and trade are vital to growth and peace. This debate on the present ignores that the left is an historical process, that began with the first industrial revolution at the beginning of the 19th century, An incalculable number of people gave their lives in order to have social justice, curb the exploitation of workers and introduce the values of a modern and just society: equity, participatory and transparent democracy, human rights, and peace and development as values for international relations. These were the banners of the left. This historical treasure needs to be linked to present times.

The right- left dialectic has not disappeared. Just look at the growing environmental movement today which has gone into that divide. From Trump to Bolsonaro, climate change is a left-wing operation while, if you read ‘Laudato Si’, the encyclical of Pope Francis (which few do, unfortunately), you will see that the fight against climate change is above all a question of social justice and human dignity. In that sense, the Green parties are taking over part of the battles of the historical left.

And this brings us to a central issue: is solidarity an integral part of the legacy of the left?

I ask because Frederiksen obtained victory in Denmark, abandoning solidarity and using nationalism and xenophobia. Of course, she is giving her voters ample assurances that she will restore privileges for her citizens, and it is clear that this is now a winning formula, like the Third Way was for Tony Blair in the British elections in 1997. Except that it bows to globalisation, as the Third Way did. It bows to nationalism, populism and xenophobia, the new pensée unique for so many people in the world. Will it have a durable effect for those who call themselves left-wing?

Roberto Savio is publisher of OtherNews, Italian-Argentine Roberto Savio is an economist, journalist, communication expert, political commentator, activist for social and climate justice and advocate of an anti neoliberal global governance. Director for international relations of the European Center for Peace and Development.. He is co-founder of Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency and its President Emeritus.

The post From Tony Blair to Mette Frederiksen appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Caley Pigliucci
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 21 2019 (IPS)

A recently-released report by the Washington-based Center for Global Development (CGD) shows that generic drugs, like omeprazole (used to treat heartburn), can cost 20-30 times more in low and middle-income countries than in high-income countries.

Rachel Silverman, a researcher with CGD who worked on the report, told IPS that “There is a lack of competition at the country level, even for basic, off-patent generic medicines. One firm can sometimes control 85% or more of the market share for specific drugs or therapy classes in some countries.”

The report also points out that low- and middle-income countries purchase more expensive branded medicine. Often, these unbranded drugs are not as trusted to be real.

There are laws to regulate unbranded medicine and ensure its quality, but Janeen Madan-Keller, a researcher at CGD, alongside Silverman, told IPS that it’s more an issue of a lack in enforcement.

“There are typically laws on the book about the quality of medicines…but regulatory agencies in many countries are ill-equipped and under-resourced to effectively enforce quality standards,” said Madan-Keller.

Silverman points to the private sector and calls upon them to ensure quality control. “Pharmaceutical companies have an ethical responsibility to ensure that their products are safe and effective,” said Silverman.

But for Silverman, the problem is bigger than the private sector alone can handle.

“Health product markets are extremely susceptible to market failure—from asymmetric information, barriers to entry, and forms of anticompetitive behavior, among other issues,” Silverman said.

Silverman and Madan-Keller think the solution lies in a combination of an expansion of programs already in place and the introduction of resources from institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The Geneva-based World Health Organization (WHO) already aims to counteract some of the problems addressed in the report through the Collaborative Registration Procedure (CRP).

According to the WHO, the measure aims to accelerate the registration of finished pharmaceutical products (FPPs) thus “ensur[ing] that much-needed medicines reach patients more quickly.”

But the CGD report sees this program as only being a step in the right direction. The report explicitly calls for a “reform [of] WHO guidance and policy to support modern and agile procurement policy and practice.”

Silverman believes that an expansion of the CRP by the WHO would be “a global fix to the problem of burdensome country-by-country registration processes that impede market entry and competition.”

Asked for a comment, Fadela Chaib, of WHO told IPS, “We have not seen the report so we cannot comment at this stage.”

Financing of Health Products

The report also analyzed the different forms of funding for health products across countries. The three forms considered in the report are donor financing, the private sector, and government funding.

Donor financing takes first place in the level of funding for health products provided in low-income countries.

But donor financing contains both good and bad elements. It has been beneficial in providing a reduction in cases of HIV and malaria, but the large-scale politics behind donor financing has had some ill-effects.

“In countries like the US and UK, domestic politics drives a lot of uncertainty about the level of aid year-to-year,” says Silverman.

She worries that this uncertainty “trickles down to the recipients of donor-based medicine, limiting their capacity for accurate medium- to long-term planning.”

Silverman points to the concentration of purchasing power in only a few hands as another potential problem of donor financing.

It can lead to a lack in access to necessary supplies that can have detrimental effects, sometimes leading to deliver delays of life-saving medicines.

This is a potential shortcoming of a method called pooled purchasing, which combines several small buyers into one larger entity (giving it more power) which then purchases things, like medicines, on behalf of those small buyers.

But the researchers at Toulouse School of Economics and CGD think that, when done well, pooled purchasing can be beneficial because it drives down costs.

With small buyers making small purchases, Silverman says “This can introduce large transaction costs, that are typically passed down to the consumers; it also reduces purchaser negotiating power to secure better prices.”

The report argues that at a national level, pooled purchasing would be able to reduce drug prices by up to 50 – 75 percent because small buyers can have more purchasing power, which in turn drives down the prices of health products.

While in low-income countries, donor financing accounts for half of procured health products, in higher income countries, there is a stronger reliance on government procured products.

The transition between donor financing and government procured health products can be rocky, with middle-income countries often seeing limited financing from donors or the government.

Silverman says that in these countries, “Most families turn to the private sector where the quality of medicines can be unreliable and prices can be very high—and they often pay out of pocket.”

In low-middle-income countries, the private sector procures around 80% of all health products.

“This is sometimes called the “missing middle” problem; countries are “too wealthy” to receive substantial donor resources, but they have not yet built robust universal health coverage systems to provide health services and financial risk protection to their citizens,” Silverman says.

The transitions countries go through levels of funding that could be smoothed over if donor financing was not cut off as soon as a country has enough income. The researchers as CGD believe that there should be continued support for low-middle-income countries, even after government funding increases.

Finding this balance of funding during transition periods and the expansion of protections for those in need of life-saving medicines is now left open to the global health community, and to UN agencies like the WHO.

The post Low-Income Countries Pay Over 20 Times More for Generic Drugs appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Geneva Centre
VIENNA, Jun 21 2019 (IPS-Partners)

Societies must work together to build more tolerance, solidarity and peace within and between nations, said the Executive Director of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue, Ambassador Idriss Jazairy, during the 19 June international conference on “From Interfaith, Inter-Civilizational Cooperation to Human Solidarity.” He emphasized that all such societies are built on shared aspirations and not shared ethnicity.

This Geneva Centre was one of the organizers of this major event together with the Baku International Centre for Interreligious and Inter-Civilizational Cooperation and the KAICIID Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue Centre.

It gathered over 200 high-level experts from 30 countries and 10 international organizations. A special message of greeting was extended to the co-organizers of the conference and the participants by the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan HE llham Aliyev during the inaugural ceremony.

As the moderator of the opening and the first plenary sessions, Ambassador Jazairy stated that although the Berlin Wall was demolished in 1989, new physical and virtual walls were being erected which were breaking up societies and multilateralism.

“It is one of the greatest paradoxes of the contemporary world that major world faiths and creeds that all preach human fraternity are being perverted to justify hatred and exclusion. The threat to peoples is not diversity, but poverty. Terrorism has no religion, denomination or nationality. It is a social cancer that affects the whole world,” he said.

To overcome this situation, Ambassador Jazairy highlighted the importance of promoting awareness of both the commonality of values and the specificities of practices of diverse faiths as expressions of enrichment through pluralism. He emphasized that all faiths supported God-given dignity to human beings and the duty of all to uphold it in particular for women and girls and vulnerable groups. Likewise, he recalled that all such faiths equally advocate the love of one’s neighbor.

The Executive Director of the Geneva Centre praised the outcome of the 25 June 2018 World Conference on religions and equal citizenship rights, the World Tolerance Summit organized in November 2018 in Dubai, the historical meeting of 4 February 2019 between the Pope and the Grand Imam of Al Azhar held in Abu Dhabi, and the Fifth World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue held in-May 2019 in Azerbaijan.

In his concluding remarks, the Geneva Centre’s Executive Director underlined that the promotion of equal citizenship rights is the silver-bullet to promote successful societies that manage diversity and stimulate empathy towards the other.

Ambassador Jazairy added: ‘Ethnicity, religious or political affiliations do not convey more rights on some groups than on others. As the US Congress affirmed already in 1782 ‘E pluribus unum.’ This diversity needs to become again the subject of cultural celebration and lay the foundation for social cohesion and the promotion of inclusive societies. There can be no sustainable pursuit of happiness in islands of prosperity surrounded by oceans of poverty.”

The Executive Director of the Geneva Centre concluded his statement by appealing to countries from the Global North and the Global South to jointly promote empathy between different cultures and civilizations and to “speak up together so that the conference message comes out loud and clear and is picked up by politicians who can make it become a reality.”

In the concluding session of the conference, the co-organizers endorsed an outcome declaration welcoming, inter alia, the adoption of the 25 June 2018 World Conference 10-Point Outcome Declaration on “Moving Towards Greater Spiritual Convergence Worldwide in Support of Equal Citizenship Rights” which was sponsored by the Geneva Centre and its partners last year.

The co-organizers likewise adopted a joint message to the President of Azerbaijan HE Ilham Aliyev and to the President of Austria HE Alexander Van der Bellen appealing to both countries to address obstacles to sustainable peace and development, promote inter-civilizational dialogue and to make this conference format replicable at regular intervals in the future.

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By Geneva Centre
VIENNA, Jun 21 2019 (IPS-Partners)

Following the 19 June international conference on “From the Interfaith and Inter-Civilizational Cooperation to Human Security” held in Vienna, the Executive Director of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue Ambassador Idriss Jazairy concluded his visit to Austria with a series of meetings with government officials and decision makers.

Ambassador Jazairy was firstly received by the Adviser to the President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on Judicial and Religious Affairs HE Ali Al Hashem. Ambassador Jazairy expressed his appreciation to HE Al Hashem for gracing the co-organizers of the conference with his presence and for his inspiring statement at the opening session that the Ambassador moderated. HE Al Hashem praised the conference as an outstanding example of enhancing interfaith and inter-civilizational dialogue. He likewise commended the endeavours of the Geneva Centre to promote mutual understanding and cooperative relations between peoples and societies.

Ambassador Jazairy was also received by Professor Etibar Najafov, Head of the Department of Interethnic Relations, Multiculturalism and Religious Issues of the Presidential Administration of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The Ambassador expressed his appreciation for the fruitful cooperation between Azerbaijani institutions and the Geneva Centre for this important conference. Ambassador Jazairy said that Azerbaijan has established itself as a country that practices multiculturalism and that is committed to promote tolerance, diversity and peace. He expressed his readiness to participate in the Second Summit of Religious Leaders to be held in November 2019 in Baku and to pursue joint avenues with the Government of Azerbaijan to explore alternative narratives on issues of relevance to human rights and in particular on the question of Enlightenment.

Ambassador Jazairy likewise met with the National Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Muslims of Kenya and former Ambassador of Kenya to the Unites States, Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands and Czechia HE Yusuf Nzibo. The parties discussed matters related to communal harmony and peace between Christians and Muslims in Eastern Africa. Ambassador Jazairy said he stands behind the efforts of the Supreme Council of the Muslims of Kenya to promote mutual understanding and tolerance between different social and religious segments in the country.

In the next meeting held at the HQ of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) in the presence of HE Al Hashem, Ambassador Jazairy and KAICIID’s Secretary General HE Faisal Bin Abdulrahman Bin Muaammar discussed the important role of civil society representatives to transform inter-religious dialogue into political awareness. Ambassador Jazairy stressed that there is an urgent need to facilitate an inclusive dialogue between all layers of society, steer clear of politicisation and to promote a value driven human rights system.

The Executive Director of the Geneva Centre also held meetings with Bishop Emeritus of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Jordan and the Holy Land His Eminence Munib A. Younan, the Secretary of the Commission for Religious Relations with Muslims at the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue of the Holy See Monsignor Khaled Akasheh, and the Metropolitan of Zimbabwe and Angola as well as Member of the World Council of Churches’ Executive Committee Archbishop Seraphim Kykkotis.

During these meetings, the parties expressed their readiness to engage in joint avenues with the Geneva Centre to promote interfaith and inter-civilizational dialogue as well as to address issues related to Islamophobia, Christianophobia and Anti-Semitism that prevail in societies worldwide.

In a final meeting, Ambassador Jazairy met with the Head of the Expert Council of the Baku Network Dr Elkhan Alasgarov. Options to initiate joint initiatives between both think-tanks to promote mutual understanding and cooperative relations between societies, in the framework of human rights, were explored. The parties expressed their interest in signing a partnership agreement to formalize their cooperation.

This is the last commitment of Ambassador Jazairy as Executive Director of the Geneva Centre. He is resigning from his position and he has been elected by Oxford University to become a visiting fellow of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.

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Africa Cup of Nations games should have four drinks breaks due to "extremely challenging" weather conditions, says players' union Fifpro.

Losing a part of oneself: The difficult economic situation in Eritrea means that the roads of the capital Asmara are shared by battered old cars and donkey-drawn carts. Eritreans who leave the country often explain that no matter how opposed they might be to the government, their departures are accompanied by feelings of having betrayed the ideals for which previous generations fought. Eritrea gained its independence in 1993 after a 30-year-long war—Africa’s longest—against Ethiopia. Relentless fighting caused hundreds of thousands of deaths on both sides—about 120,000 Eritreans were injured or killed (with a similar number of Ethiopians killed) meaning that virtually every family in this tiny country had someone directly impacted by the war—and led to a million Eritreans leaving.Credit: James Jeffrey/Milena Belloni/IPS

By James Jeffrey and Milena Belloni
ASMARA, Eritrea/ANTWERP, Belguim, Jun 21 2019 (IPS)

Most media narratives about Eritrea suggest an endless stream of young people fleeing the country, who couldn’t wait to escape. But the reality is far different and more nuanced—both when it comes to those who have left, and those who chose to remain.

Colossal cost: The nearly three decades since independence have not been much easier for Eritreans who remained, with continuing conflict—including a terrible two-year border war with Ethiopia from 1998 to 2000—deprivation and lack of freedom becoming part of everyday life, set against a crippled economy. “There is a limit to the sacrifice that we can make for the country,” a young Eritrean in Asmara tells IPS. “My parents’ generation has died for this country, those who have survived live in deprived conditions, young generations are still in national service unable to choose for their own lives. There is a limit to everything.” Credit: James Jeffrey/Milena Belloni/IPS

Wary diaspora: Previous years of strife mean that despite Asmara’s picturesque surroundings, when it comes to everyday practicalities, such as public transport, residents are left waiting for too few buses to service the city. Today, Eritrea’s population is about 5.2 million, while about 1.5 million or 1 in 5 Eritreans live around the globe, of whom about half a million live in refugee-like situations, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency. While last year’s peace agreement with Ethiopia—including the opening of the border for the first time in decades—has led to significant improvements in the region’s geopolitics, there has been no change in Eritrea’s political situation. Hence the diaspora continue to wait for President Isaias Afwerki to address internal affairs and the future of the country’s much-hated national service, which mandates that all citizens above 18 serve the state in different ministries or in the military for tiny salaries. Originally implemented in 1995, the conscription was meant to last 18 months. However, since the 1998 border conflict, national service became unlimited. Credit: James Jeffrey/Milena Belloni/IPS

Learning the hard way: Street-side huskers selling their wares on the streets of Asmara. Tanja Müller from the University of Manchester’s Global Development Institute explains that before the border war with Ethiopia, many qualified diaspora Eritreans from all walks of life and professions chose to return to the country. “Often they incurred financial or other losses and became disillusioned by the conduct of the war and its aftermath, turning from enthusiastic patriots to concerned citizens whose concerns were not in any way engaged with,” Müller says. It’s easier for older members of the diaspora to return—having left when Eritrea was still part of Ethiopia and therefore are not viewed as disloyal by the Eritrean government. But those who have left since the 1998 border war face more risks in doing so. Credit: James Jeffrey/Milena Belloni/IPS

Government assurances not enough: Young men often hang around Asmara’s streets with few opportunities to find meaningful work. “We accept the reality of migration, we understood how difficult it was for them to live in a country that was held in a limbo by foreign powers,” says a leading government representative who spoke on the condition of anonymity. But such statements often appear at odds with the evidence of a regime that often treats migration punitively. Hence most diaspora choose to remain abroad until a clearer tangible sign of change by the government, while those who have the resources to travel choose to reunite with families in the less risky environment of neighbouring Ethiopia. Credit: James Jeffrey/Milena Belloni/IPS

Remittances and resentment: While the diaspora maintains a strong link with families back home, especially through remittances—some estimate that about 30 percent of Eritrea’s gross domestic product is derived from money sent back to the country—stories of resentment towards family members in the diaspora are common in Eritrea. Some families remain in debt after paying for the journeys of those who left, while those abroad are seldom able to send enough money to satisfy their relatives’ desire for a substantial lifestyle change. But the fact remains that everyday survival for most Eritreans depends on remittances because of low public salaries and the high cost of living, especially over the last decade. Credit: James Jeffrey/Milena Belloni/IPS

Negative view of migration: State propaganda has been portraying migration negatively. The post-border war situation with Ethiopia meant Eritrea remained on a war footing, meaning emigration, especially that of young people, was not allowed. At the same time, much public discourse defined emigration as unpatriotic behaviour, and as selfish and destructive conduct, with no positive effect on the country and its people. But the lack of change and progress seen in Eritrea is causing some of those who have stayed to doubt their previous beliefs. Credit: James Jeffrey/Milena Belloni/IPS

Relentless passage of time: “I would have never believed if someone 10 years ago told me that I was still going to be here,” 26-year-old Jordanos* tells IPS, while sitting together in front of Adi Kaye Higher College, where she works as a university assistant. “You know how it goes, they give you something to do, they send you here and there and you don’t realise that time is passing by and that you have obtained nothing.” She explained she felt stuck with little educational and professional prospects. She is hoping to gain a legal way out of the country because having a passport can make life much easier abroad. Also, she did not want all her years of service for the country to be wasted—she wanted to leave as a patriotic citizen, she says, not as someone who escaped her duty. Credit: James Jeffrey/Milena Belloni/IPS

Eritrea will always be home: Even if migration remains a common desire for many young Eritreans, explaining they want to see the world and pursue further education to make money to help their families, at the same time most discuss it as a temporary solution. They emphasise that Eritrea is their home and they want to return eventually. “I cannot see myself living abroad forever,” says Jordanos. “I will build a house in my father’s land. By then the village will be a city with schools, and good services.” Credit: James Jeffrey/Milena Belloni/IPS

Diaspora potential lost:About 80 percent of Eritrea’s population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods, with many scarping through as subsistence farmers. Most commentators on Eritrea argue that by maintaining a punitive approach to those who escaped in the last 20 years, the Eritrean government is wasting an opportunity to harness the huge size of the diaspora and its potential to direct important human and economic capital back to the country. Eritrea, the experts say, has much to gain from embracing a more liberal emigration policy and promoting circular migration. They also note that while the past strict emigration policy has had little effect on the outflow of young people from the country, it has impacted on their chances to go back for regular visits and to reinvest back home, leading, as a result, to more impoverishment and hence more emigration. Credit: James Jeffrey/Milena Belloni/IPS

Deep rooted problems must be addressed: Old boats and decrepit buildings at the port city of Massawa that many hope could be revitalised by new trade with Ethiopia. But the hope and jubilation that accompanied the opening of the Eritrea-Ethiopia border last year is already receding. Recently all the reopened border crossing points between Ethiopia and Eritrea were closed without official explanation. While most observers say this is likely a temporary measure while the two governments sort out trade and visa regulations, many also express serious doubts about what can be achieved while the Eritrean government maintains the same authoritarian stance. “Diaspora investment is also not the Holy Grail it is often made out to be,” Müller says. “[The problem] is about much more than emigration policy, it is the capture of the economy by the Eritrean government that hinders diaspora contributions, but also fear.” Credit: James Jeffrey/Milena Belloni/IPS

*Eritrean names have been changed at the request of those interviewed to protect identities—hence no photos have been taken of those interviewed—due to concerns about government reprisals against individuals or family members who remain in Eritrea.

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The post Patriotism versus Hope: Eritreans Wrestle with Leaving Home or Remaining appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The African Union - United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur, Sudan, referred to by its acronym UNAMID, was established on 31 July 2007 with the adoption of Security Council resolution 1769. UNAMID has the protection of civilians as its core mandate, but is also tasked with contributing to security for humanitarian assistance, monitoring and verifying implementation of agreements, assisting an inclusive political process, contributing to the promotion of human rights and the rule of law, and monitoring and reporting on the situation along the borders with Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR).

By Daniel Yang
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 21 2019 (IPS)

Sudanese civilians risk their lives everyday protesting and campaigning for democracy but they face several obstacles, including street closures and no Internet access.

However, the prospect for democracy remains uncertain with regional autocracies aiding the military government, ceaseless violent clashes and the UN on retreat.

A Sudanese protester, Abdelfatah Arman, told IPS that the situation on the ground is characterized by continued violence.

“We started to see military personnel in uniforms, along with the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS),” Arman said, recalling a protest he participated in Al Souq Al Arabi, the largest open market in the capital Khartoum.

“They were heavily armed and blocked, with their open back pick-up trucks, all the roads leading to the Souq or the Presidential Palace. They used batons, teargas, and had snipers in some buildings,” he said, in an interview with IPS.

“We started to run in every direction to get out of there,” said Arman, who is currently a doctoral student at Penn State University’s education school.

He is also a journalist and a member of the Forces of Freedom and Change (FCC), a protest organization group.

Since December 2018, protesters led by the FFC and the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) have taken to the streets in half a dozen cities, demanding the resignation of Sudan’s ruler of thirty years, Omar al-Bashir.

Although al-Bashir was ousted in April, a military government headed by the Transitional Military Council (TMC) has since taken over, rejected the civilian demand for democratic elections and killed more than 100 peaceful sit-in protesters in a brutal crackdown on June 3 that drew international outrage.

Nearly 40 bodies were later reported to be thrown into the Nile River, among them men, women and children. Medical staff were wounded, along with doctors and volunteers at clinics.

Al-Bashir was indicted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2009 on charges of war crimes in the western region of Darfur. The charges are pending and he never appeared before the ICC in the Hague.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch has condemned the June massacre, calling for a UN inquiry into the TMC’s violence.

“The decision to unleash violence against peaceful protesters is absolutely unjustified and unlawful, and a slap in the face for those who have been pursuing dialogue to achieve a handover to civilian government,” the organization said.

The crackdown continued with a government Internet shutdown aimed to discourage protests, which rely on platforms like Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp, to communicate.

The Internet shutdown has worsened civilian safety, said journalist Zeinab Mohammed Salih, in a letter to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

“Those forced to walk have been seen carrying knives and sticks, especially in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, to protect themselves,” Salih said.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan, Gwi-Yeop Son, has noted the “deteriorating” humanitarian situation in Sudan, voicing deep concern that half a million people are at risk of disease infection without access to proper medical supplies.

Despite mounting obstacles, the SPA has reasserted its conviction for a civilian government, called for an international panel to investigate the “barbaric” June 3 massacre in Khartoum and continued to call for civil disobedience.

However, regional autocracies like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are working towards a different end.

In April, the two Gulf countries reportedly sent Sudan’s military leaders three billion dollars in aid to strengthen the TMC’s counter-revolution efforts.

UAE’s Crown Prince Mohamed bin Zayed promised to “preserve Sudan’s security and stability” in fear that Sudan’s democratic energy could jeopardize his own tightly-controlled nation.

Security intelligence thinktank The Soufan Group warns that the on-going confrontation could risk spiraling into a full-scale civil war.

“There are clear parallels to some of the Arab Spring protests that eventually progressed to full-blown insurgencies, including Syria, where indiscriminate shelling of civilians by the military initially galvanized protest movements that helped launch a broader uprising,” the organization said.

However, a potential civil war could end up in another military government, repeating Egypt’s path following the Arab Spring.

The United Nations has urged for both sides to resume peaceful negotiations and search for a political solution to the conflict.

At the Security Council meeting on June 14, member states stressed that the worsening humanitarian situation demands continued UN support, but Sudan should take control of its own political future.

“A peaceful and orderly transition aiming to achieve the transfer of political power to a civilian, democratic and representative government is the only lasting way to resolve the current crisis,” said Belgium’s representative Marc Pecsteen de Buytswerve.

The UN withdrew its civilian staff in Khartoum after the June 3 massacre but resumed the rest of its operations.

Arman said that the FFC would not hold negotiations with the military government until the sit-in massacre is investigated. However, despite the present tension with the TMC, Arman remains optimistic for a democratic transition.

“We’re hopeful that if we were able to topple dictator Bashir and his successor Gen. Ahmed Award Ibn Auf, we would be able to topple Gen. Al-Burhan and the military junta.”

“We’ll continue our protest and civil disobedience until they’re out,” said Arman. “We will not accept anything less than a civilian-led government.”

The post Sudan’s Fragile Hope for Democracy appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Conservationists say the killing of more than 500 birds is one of the largest slaughters documented.