Scholarships For Virgins: "Abstaining From Sex Will Change My Future"

Women pass a wall mural promoting safe sex in Soweto. Image: Denis Farrell/AP

(AFP) -- THUBELIHLE DLODLO Would not have made it to university in South Africa this year as her family could not afford the fees, but virginity brought her a lifeline.

As long as she remains a virgin, her tuition and boarding fees will be paid by her hometown municipality until the completion of her bachelor’s degree in education at a Pretoria university.

The 18-year-old secured a bursary or grant that rewards “maidens” in an attempt to curb teenage pregnancies and the rampant spread of HIV/Aids in Uthukela district, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the coastal city of Durban.

“This bursary is so important because it will change my future. I can conquer the world,” said Dlodlo, wearing a green-and-yellow miniskirt and multi-coloured necklace beads.

The size of the grants varies, but can be worth several thousand dollars a year.

A fellow recipient, Bongiwe Sithole, would also have dropped out of university due to poverty, but now will continue her studies.

Even at 32, she has delayed having sex.

“There is no limit for us as maidens,” Sithole said.

Halfway through her four-year teaching diploma, she is the oldest of the 16 beneficiaries of the grants.

One of the conditions, however, is to undergo virginity tests, conducted by elderly women.

Rights activists are in an uproar over the idea of virginity tests, let alone the procedure itself, which they consider demeaning.

But the Uthukela authorities are unfazed.

“The main reason behind introducing the bursary is that… in our district we have got a very high rate of teenage pregnancies, and a lot of young people are infected by HIV and Aids,” mayor Dudu Mazibuko told AFP.

Up to half of the population between the ages of 15 and 49 in the district is infected with HIV and Aids, according to municipal statistics.

‘Looks very discriminatory’

The number of teenagers giving birth in South Africa is high – with around 25% of girls becoming pregnant by the age of 19, according to statistics cited by the fact-checking organisation Africa Check.

“To find young girls that are able to abstain – for us that is an encouragement and we saw it fit that we encourage them by giving bursaries,” said Mazibuko.

She said the idea was mooted by the “maidens” themselves, who complained that they were not recognised, while their peers who fall pregnant get “rewarded” by the government with child support grants.

But gender and women’s rights activists strongly oppose the scholarship scheme.

Bathabile Dlamin, the ruling African National Congress women’s league chairwoman and minister of social development, slammed virginity testing as a “patently harmful practice steeped in patriarchal practices that serve to oppress women”.

The Commission for Gender Equality’s chairman Mfanozelwe Shozi said the bursary scheme “looks very discriminatory” and violates the constitution because it comes with the “conditionality” that the girls must be virgins.

And there appears to be no evidence of its impact on the HIV health crisis.

“There is no qualitative and quantitative research that has actually proven that by inspecting girls, you are going to reduce HIV/Aids,” Shozi said.

Rights groups are also concerned that virginity screening is intrusive.

‘Bring back our culture’

But the maidens, the women who do the testing, and the local authorities disagree.

“Virginity testing does not invade my privacy. I love who I am and it gives me more dignity,” said Dlodlo.

She hopes to be a “role model” for other young women.

“There is no invasion of privacy because it’s done voluntarily, it’s not painful, there is no humiliation at all,” added Mazibuko, Uthukela’s female mayor.

Dudu Zwane, 58, is a former health worker who now carries out the tests.

She says she can determine virginity by a visual inspection of genitalia – a concept dismissed by medical experts.

“What I am doing is to bring back our culture. Our bayethe (traditional Zulu king) says keep your virginity,” she said, bemoaning the high HIV rate.

The mayor denied that the tests were sexist, saying that plans were under way to launch a similar scheme for boys, without explaining how they would be tested.

“We have started with the girls because they are more vulnerable, but… our long-term plan is ensuring that we reward young boys who stay virgins,” she said.

Mazibuko challenged those criticising the bursary scheme to “come up with better solutions”. not have made it to university in South Africa this year as her family could not afford the fees, but virginity brought her a lifeline.

As long as she remains a virgin, her tuition and boarding fees will be paid by her hometown municipality until the completion of her bachelor’s degree in education at a Pretoria university.

The 18-year-old secured a bursary or grant that rewards “maidens” in an attempt to curb teenage pregnancies and the rampant spread of HIV/Aids in Uthukela district, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) north of the coastal city of Durban.

“This bursary is so important because it will change my future. I can conquer the world,” said Dlodlo, wearing a green-and-yellow miniskirt and multi-coloured necklace beads.

The size of the grants varies, but can be worth several thousand dollars a year.

A fellow recipient, Bongiwe Sithole, would also have dropped out of university due to poverty, but now will continue her studies.

Even at 32, she has delayed having sex.

“There is no limit for us as maidens,” Sithole said.

Halfway through her four-year teaching diploma, she is the oldest of the 16 beneficiaries of the grants.

One of the conditions, however, is to undergo virginity tests, conducted by elderly women.

Rights activists are in an uproar over the idea of virginity tests, let alone the procedure itself, which they consider demeaning.

But the Uthukela authorities are unfazed.

“The main reason behind introducing the bursary is that… in our district we have got a very high rate of teenage pregnancies, and a lot of young people are infected by HIV and Aids,” mayor Dudu Mazibuko told AFP.

Up to half of the population between the ages of 15 and 49 in the district is infected with HIV and Aids, according to municipal statistics.

‘Looks very discriminatory’

The number of teenagers giving birth in South Africa is high – with around 25% of girls becoming pregnant by the age of 19, according to statistics cited by the fact-checking organisation Africa Check.

“To find young girls that are able to abstain – for us that is an encouragement and we saw it fit that we encourage them by giving bursaries,” said Mazibuko.

She said the idea was mooted by the “maidens” themselves, who complained that they were not recognised, while their peers who fall pregnant get “rewarded” by the government with child support grants.

But gender and women’s rights activists strongly oppose the scholarship scheme.

Bathabile Dlamin, the ruling African National Congress women’s league chairwoman and minister of social development, slammed virginity testing as a “patently harmful practice steeped in patriarchal practices that serve to oppress women”.

The Commission for Gender Equality’s chairman Mfanozelwe Shozi said the bursary scheme “looks very discriminatory” and violates the constitution because it comes with the “conditionality” that the girls must be virgins.

And there appears to be no evidence of its impact on the HIV health crisis.

“There is no qualitative and quantitative research that has actually proven that by inspecting girls, you are going to reduce HIV/Aids,” Shozi said.

Rights groups are also concerned that virginity screening is intrusive.

‘Bring back our culture’

But the maidens, the women who do the testing, and the local authorities disagree.

“Virginity testing does not invade my privacy. I love who I am and it gives me more dignity,” said Dlodlo.

She hopes to be a “role model” for other young women.

“There is no invasion of privacy because it’s done voluntarily, it’s not painful, there is no humiliation at all,” added Mazibuko, Uthukela’s female mayor.

Dudu Zwane, 58, is a former health worker who now carries out the tests.

She says she can determine virginity by a visual inspection of genitalia – a concept dismissed by medical experts.

“What I am doing is to bring back our culture. Our bayethe (traditional Zulu king) says keep your virginity,” she said, bemoaning the high HIV rate.

The mayor denied that the tests were sexist, saying that plans were under way to launch a similar scheme for boys, without explaining how they would be tested.

“We have started with the girls because they are more vulnerable, but… our long-term plan is ensuring that we reward young boys who stay virgins,” she said.

Mazibuko challenged those criticising the bursary scheme to “come up with better solutions”.

No Justice For The 640 Men And Boys Slain By Military Following Giwa Barracks Attack Two Years Ago

Amnesty International/All Africa

March 13, 2016

Scene of Boko Harm attack on Giwa Barracks two years go. Image: Defence Headquarters/Premium Times

PRESS RELEASE

Two years after at least 640 recaptured detainees were slaughtered by soldiers of the Nigerian Army, the authorities have failed to conduct an effective, impartial and independent investigation into the killings, said Amnesty International.

The detainees - men and boys, many arbitrarily arrested in mass screening operations - were killed after they fled the barracks in Maiduguri, Borno state on 14 March 2014 following a Boko Haram attack. The majority were shot. The others had their throats cut. To mark the anniversary of this massacre, Amnesty International campaigners will be gathering outside Nigerian embassies around the world to call for independent investigations and prosecutions.

"It is shocking that two years after these horrific killings there has been no justice for the victims and their relatives," said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International's Research and Advocacy Director for Africa.

"The lack of an independent investigation has meant that no one has been held to account for the killings, strengthening an already pervasive culture of impunity within the military."

Amnesty International has extensively documented the events of 14 March 2014, interviewing dozens of witnesses, verifying video evidence of the killings and their aftermath and confirming the locations of mass graves through satellite imagery.

In June 2015 Amnesty International published extensive evidence of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity committed by the Nigerian military. The report found that the military extrajudicially executed at least 1,200 men and boys, and almost certainly many more, between 2012 and 2014. A further 7,000 detainees died in military detention as a result of starvation thirst, disease, torture and a lack of medical attention. Torture is routinely and systematically used by security forces in Nigeria, both during arrest and in detention. Soldiers arbitrarily arrested more than 20,000 suspects since 2011 and detained the overwhelming majority of them without access to their families or lawyers, without formal charges and without ever bringing them to court.

Amnesty International has repeatedly called on the Government of Nigeria to initiate independent and effective investigations into its evidence of crimes under international law and to implement critical safeguards against human rights violations.

Yet, despite repeated promises by President Buhari and his government that Amnesty International's report would be looked into, no concrete steps have been taken to begin independent investigations. Many safeguards remain absent, for example suspects continue to be held in military detention without access to their lawyers or families, without charge and without being brought before a judge.

After more than nine months in office, President Buhari must take urgent action to provide justice for the conflict's thousands of victims and prevent such violations occurring again.

"In the two years since the Giwa killings, the pattern of unjustified use of lethal force by the military has continued with no one held accountable," said Netsanet Belay.

"From Giwa to Zaria, from the north east to the south east, the time has come to break the cycle of impunity that has gripped Nigeria. This should start with justice for the Giwa 640."

Background

Amnesty International has consistently documented and condemned human rights abuses and violations by armed group Boko Haram and the Nigerian military, including publishing reports each year since 2012. In April 2015, Amnesty International published a report which found that Boko Haram has committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. It called on Boko Haram to end its campaign of violence against civilians and on the government to bring Boko Haram members to justice.

Amnesty International published evidence of the killing of recaptured detainees after the Giwa barracks attack in a report on 31 March 2014. The report was based on dozens of interviews with residents, lawyers, human rights defenders and hospital staff in various locations in and around Maiduguri. The report also included satellite imagery analysis that confirmed the existence of several mass graves that appeared in the area shortly after the executions.

On 5 August 2014, Amnesty International published analysis of a shocking video evidence of soldiers cutting the throats of re-arrested detainees outside Maiduguri after the Giwa barracks attack.

Amnesty International is calling on the government to launch a comprehensive independent, impartial and effective investigations into crimes under international law. Specifically, Amnesty International is calling for the establishment of an independent and effective investigative panel to examine evidence against individuals suspected of crimes under international law and to prepare cases for prosecution by an independent prosecutorial authority. Secondly, the government must ensure further reform of the military's operating procedures to ensure non-recurrence of such violations. Lastly, the government must work with the National Assembly to bring Nigeria's domestic laws into line with international human rights standards.

Iran Fires 2 Missiles Marked With 'Israel Must Be Wiped Out'

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MARCH 9, 2016

In this photo obtained from the Iranian Fars News Agency, a Qadr H long-range ballistic surface-to-surface missile is fired by Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, during a maneuver, in an undisclosed location in Iran, Wednesday, March 9, 2016. Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard test-fired two ballistic missiles Wednesday with the phrase "Israel must be wiped out" written on them, a show of deterrence power by the Islamic Republic as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.



TEHRAN, IRAN (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — Iran reportedly test-fired two ballistic missiles Wednesday with the phrase "Israel must be wiped out" written in Hebrew on them, a show of force by the Islamic Republic as U.S. Vice President Joe Biden visited Israel.

Such phrases have been emblazoned on Iranian missiles before, but this test comes shortly after the implementation of a nuclear deal with world powers, including the U.S., and follows similar drills in recent days.

Hard-liners in Iran's military have fired rockets and missiles despite U.S. objections since the deal, as well as shown underground missile bases on state television. There was no immediate reaction from Jerusalem, where Biden was meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who strongly opposed the nuclear deal.

Biden, speaking next to Netanyahu, did not acknowledge the missile launch directly but he issued a strong warning to the Iranians. "A nuclear-armed Iran is an absolutely unacceptable threat to Israel, to the region and the United States. And I want to reiterate which I know people still doubt here. If in fact they break the deal, we will act," he said.

The semiofficial Fars news agency offered pictures Wednesday it said were of the Qadr H missiles being fired. It said they were fired in Iran's eastern Alborz mountain range to hit a target some 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) away off Iran's coast into the Sea of Oman. The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which patrols that region, declined to comment on the test.

Soldiers often write slogans or messages on rockets and missiles. During Israel's 2006 war with Lebanon's Hezbollah militants, Israeli children were photographed writing messages on artillery shells in a community near the border. More recently, pictures emerged online of U.S. missiles bound for Islamic State group targets that had "From Paris with love" written on them, referring to last year's attacks.

Fars quoted Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Revolutionary Guard's aerospace division, as saying the test was aimed at showing Israel that Iran could hit it. "The 2,000-kilometer (1,240-mile) range of our missiles is to confront the Zionist regime," Hajizadeh said. "Israel is surrounded by Islamic countries and it will not last long in a war. It will collapse even before being hit by these missiles."

Israel's Foreign Ministry declined to immediately comment. Iran has threatened to destroy Israel in the past. Israel, which is believed to have the only nuclear arsenal in the Mideast, repeatedly has threatened to take military action against Iran's nuclear facilities.

Hajizadeh stressed that Iran would not fire the missiles in anger or start a war with Israel. "We will not be the ones who start a war, but we will not be taken by surprise, so we put our facilities somewhere that our enemies cannot destroy them so that we could continue in a long war," he said.

The firing of the Qadr H missiles comes after a U.S. State Department spokesman on Tuesday criticized another missile launch, saying Washington planned to bring it before the United Nations Security Council.

A nuclear deal between Iran and world powers including the U.S. is now underway, negotiated by the administration of moderate President Hassan Rouhani. In the time since the deal, however, hard-liners in Iran's military have made several shows of strength.

In October, Iran successfully test-fired a new guided long-range ballistic surface-to-surface missile. It was the first such test since Iran and world powers reached the landmark deal last summer. U.N. experts said the launch used ballistic missile technology banned under a Security Council resolution. In January, the U.S. imposed new sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the ballistic missile program.

Iran also has fired rockets near U.S. warships and flown an unarmed drone over an American aircraft carrier in recent months. In January, Iran seized 10 U.S. sailors in the Gulf when their two riverine command boats headed from Kuwait to Bahrain ended up in Iranian territorial waters after the crews "misnavigated," the U.S. military said. The sailors were taken to a small port facility on Farsi Island, held for about 15 hours and released after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke several times with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Aron Heller and Daniel Estrin in Jerusalem, and Joseph Krauss in Cairo contributed to this report.

Switzerland, Nigeria Sign Agreement On $300 Million Confiscated From Abacha Family

REUTERS

MARCH 8, 2016

Nigeria and Switzerland have signed an agreement that paves the way for the return of more than $300 million confiscated from the family of the Nigeria's former military ruler, Sani Abacha, the office of Nigeria's vice president said on Tuesday.

Transparency International, a corruption watchdog, has accused Abacha of stealing up to $5 billion of public money during the five years he ran the oil-rich country, from 1993 until his death in 1998.

Laolu Akande, a spokesman for Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said Nigeria's attorney general signed a letter of intent, under the terms of which Switzerland will award Nigeria $321 million "acquired by the Abacha family," Akandesaid in an emailed statement.

Swiss authorities said the letter of intent was also signed by its head of the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, Didier Burkhalter, and "marks an important step toward the return of assets monitored by the World Bank".

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who took office last year, has made combating corruption a priority. He has asked Britain and the United States for help recovering money stolen by some of the country's elite over several years.

An economic crisis in Africa's biggest economy and oil producer, brought on by a plunge in crude prices, has made the need to recoup money lost to corruption more acute.

In 2014, Nigeria and the Abacha family reached an agreement for the West African country to get back the funds, which had been frozen, in return for dropping a complaint against the former military ruler's son, Abba Abacha.

He was charged by a Swiss court with money-laundering, fraud and forgery in April 2005, after being extradited from Germany, and later spent 561 days in custody. In 2006, Luxembourg ordered that funds held by the younger Abacha be frozen.


(Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram, Felix Onuah and Zurich newsroom, editing by Larry King)

The New 'Scramble For Africa'

BY MICHAEL RUBIN

AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE

MONDAY, MARCH 7, 2016

China’s President Xi Jinping with Zimbabwe’s President (R) Robert Mugabe while South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma looks on at a forum on China-Africa Cooperation in Johannesburg, December 4, 2015. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko.

As Africa emerges as one of the most dynamic economic success stories of the past decade, it increasingly seems a prize over which outside countries are willing to compete. China has sent hundreds of peacekeepers to southern Sudan, reopened its embassy in Somalia, inked a $12 billion deal to build arailroad in Nigeria, and moved to support and upgrade the African Union. Recently, it has moved to rebuild a port in the strategic (and oil-rich) island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe. Chinese are flooding into the continent, drawn by economic opportunity.

But China isn’t alone. Both Morocco and Turkey have made outreach to Africa pillars of their foreign policy, and the Islamic Republic of Iran has long cultivated diplomatic support on the continent, especially from African nations which produce uranium or those which serve on prominent international bodies like the United Nations Security Council and International Atomic Energy Agency.

Meanwhile, India is proving itself to be an economic force with which to be reckoned on the continent. I just returned from the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi which included, among other topics, a panel exploring Asian interest in Africa. The Observer Research Foundation — co-convener of the Dialogue alongside India’s Ministry of External Affairs — has published several reports and monographs detailing India’s rising influence and ambitions in Africa and, in 2015, New Delhi hosted the India-Africa Forum Summit. Any visitor to Africa in recent years will see just how serious India has become about the African side of the Indian Ocean.

The United States, meanwhile, appears asleep at the switch. US-Africa trade has dwindled under Obama and, aside from short bursts of attention ahead of rare presidential visits, remains largely ignored by the White House and the mainstream American press. Turn on any American cable network covering world affairs, and there will be any number of stories about Europe, the Middle East, East Asia, and perhaps Latin America, but little if anything about Africa.

In theory, AFRICOM should suggest a larger US commitment to the continent, but the command is based in Europe rather than Africa and, regardless, the military is only one component of what should be a far more comprehensive approach at which business and investment should be at the center. After more than a dozen debates in the United States, presidential contenders on both sides of the aisle have largely ignored the continent.

There’s a new “scramble for Africa” ongoing. As in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, it is economic, diplomatic, and strategic; fortunately, it is no longer imperial. There’s a new set of players, each of whom will benefit in proportion to their investment. The only loser at present seems to be the United States, simply because the White House has chosen to forfeit.

We Must Open Up Africa To Africans If We Really Want To Boost Growth

BY EVANS WADONGO

QUARTZ AFRICA, MARCH 7, 2016

Zimbabweans queue to apply for residence permits in Cape Town. Image: Mike Hutchings/Reuters

The African Development Bank just launched the Africa Visa Openness Report 2016, and it highlights a huge problem: as Africans, we cannot move easily between our countries.

On average, Africans need visas to travel to 55% of other African countries and can only get visas on arrival in 25% of other countries. This means they can only travel to 20% of the countries without a visa. Even though countries such as Seychelles, Mauritius, Rwanda, Ghanaand Kenya have tried to reduce visa restrictions, other countries are not reciprocating.

This revelation is in sharp contrast to the African Union’s goal tointroduce an African passport and abolish visa requirements for all African citizens in all African countries by 2018.

What is really appalling is that it is easier for Europeans or Americans to travel within Africa than for many Africans themselves. In 2015, holders of a United States of America passport, for example, could travel to 172 countries and territories visa-free or with visa on arrival, including at least 20 African countries.

Ultimately, the visa restrictions mean that African countries are losing out.

One of the benefits of free movement of people that visa restrictions inhibit is increased tourism. Tourism contributes to one in every 11 jobsand 9% of gross domestic product worldwide. With high youth unemployment, improved tourism could create thousands of jobs and help reduce inequality. More visitors mean more hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, and a growth in transport and entertainment sectors. The impact could be felt in both urban areas and rural areas.

Currently, according to the Africa Tourism Monitor report, while Africa accounts for about 15% of the world population, it receives only about 3% of world tourism receipts and 5% of tourist arrivals. The report further says that visa requirements imply missed economic opportunities for intra-regional trade, and the local service economy (such as cross-country medical services or education). Visa policies are among the most important governmental formalities negatively influencing international tourism.

This is not just about non-Africans visiting our continent. As the new generation of middle class is ushered into Africa, spending on holidays and shopping is increasing, but African countries may not fully benefit. Many of my friends opt to travel to Europe for holidays and shopping as opposed to other African countries. They cite as major reasons the ease of travelling in the Schengen area, which allows a visitor access to 26 countries within Europe, with one visa. Combined with the cost-effective and easy interconnectivity through rail, air and road transport, it is no surprise that Europe receives the highest number of tourists globally.

Businesses beyond tourism are affected, too. As an entrepreneur, when choosing a new country to venture into, I consider the openness and ease of doing business, with free movement of labor, goods and services as key indicators. I’m not alone. The ongoing integration in the East African community has seen many businesses that were initially based in one country expand into the others. For instance, a number of Kenyan based banks have expanded into Rwanda, Uganda and South Sudan because of the improved ease of doing business within the region.

According to the paper Economics and Emigration: Trillion-Dollar Bills on the Sidewalk? open borders could lead to a one-time boost in world gross domestic product by about 50-150%. Hence, African countries should strive to make the dreams of the founders of the then Organization of African unity (OAU) true by allowing Africans to move easily and encourage intra Africa trade and investments.

Easier movement could also help the unemployment rates. I have often found European or Chinese ‘expatriates’ doing jobs that could be done by highly skilled Africans, some of whom lack opportunities in their home countries, if only they could more easily move between countries for work. Movement of people can also be a driver of technological change and a fresh source of entrepreneurs. Much innovation comes from the work of teams of people who have different perspectives and experiences. This can also make countries within Africa to be more attractive to foreign direct investment.

While some have argued that strict travel regulations, including visa requirements, are necessary for security purposes, there has been no direct link showing how free movement of people has perpetuated terrorism. President Paul Kagame of Rwanda has been on the forefront saying that a few bad elements should not be used to restrict millions of good citizens who want to travel for leisure or business.

Political executive editor of the Telegraph James Kirkup recently arguedtoo that “Simply, all the border checks in the world will not keep us safe. Passport controls can’t stop the spread of ideas, and it is ideas, not people, that are the essence of the terrorism that has just killed so many in Paris and Beirut and Baghdad.”

I agree.

Ultimately, there are many more reasons to remove visa restrictions for Africans traveling in Africa than keeping them. I hope that by 2018, that truly is a reality.

AP Investigation: American Company Bungled Ebola Response

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MARCH 7, 2016

Healthcare workers load a man suspected of suffering from the Ebola virus onto an ambulance in Kenema, Sierra Leone. An Associated Press investigation found that Metabiota Inc., an American company given crucial disease-fighting responsibilities in the Ebola outbreak, was criticized for committing one blunder after another - misdiagnosing patients with the virus, feuding with other responders and offering rosy predictions about the course of the epidemic that proved wrong.



WASHINGTON (ASSOCIATED PRESS) — An American company that bills itself as a pioneer in tracking emerging epidemics made a series of costly mistakes during the 2014 Ebola outbreak that swept across West Africa — with employees feuding with fellow responders, contributing to misdiagnosed Ebola cases and repeatedly misreading the trajectory of the virus, an Associated Press investigation has found.

San Francisco-based Metabiota Inc. was tapped by the Sierra Leonean government and the World Health Organization to help monitor the spread of the virus and support the response after Ebola was discovered circulating in neighboring Guinea in March 2014. But emails obtained by AP and interviews with aid workers on the ground show that some of the company's actions made an already chaotic situation worse.

WHO outbreak expert Dr. Eric Bertherat wrote to colleagues in a July 17, 2014, email about misdiagnoses and "total confusion" at the Sierra Leone government lab Metabiota shared with Tulane University in the city of Kenema. He said there was "no tracking of the samples" and "absolutely no control on what is being done."

"This is a situation that WHO can no longer endorse," he wrote. Metabiota chief executive officer and founder Nathan Wolfe said there was no evidence his company was responsible for the lab blunders, that the reported squabbles were overblown and that any predictions made by his employees didn't reflect the company's position. He said Metabiota doesn't specialize in outbreak response and that his employees stepped in to help and performed admirably amid the carnage of the world's biggest-ever Ebola outbreak.

"Metabiota's team worked tirelessly, skillfully and at substantial potential danger to themselves to assist when most of the world was still ignoring the problem," he said in an email. "We are proud of our team efforts which went above and beyond the call of duty."

Wolfe said some of the problems flagged were misunderstandings — and that others were planted by commercial rivals. The complaints about Metabiota mirror the wider mismanagement that hamstrung the world's response to Ebola, a disease that has killed upward of 11,000 people. Previous AP reporting has shown that WHO resisted sounding the alarm over Ebola for two months on political, religious and economic grounds and failed to put together a decisive response even after the alert was issued. The turmoil that followed left health workers in Kenema bereft of protective equipment or even body bags and using expired chlorine, a crucial disinfectant.

WHO said Metabiota was well-placed to help when Ebola broke out in West Africa because of its expertise with Lassa, a related disease. The agency declined to give any detail about how it dealt with the complaints from senior staff about the firm or the status of their current relationship.

In Sierra Leone, Sylvia Blyden, who served as special executive assistant to the country's president in the early days of the outbreak, said Metabiota's response was a disaster. "They messed up the entire region," she said. She called Metabiota's attempt to claim credit for its Ebola work "an insult for the memories of thousands of Africans who have died."
"THE VIRAL STORM"

Wolfe, a swashbuckling scientist sometimes described as the Indiana Jones of virology, has focused his company's work on disease hotspots like West Africa in a bid to sniff out the next big threat. In his book, "The Viral Storm," Wolfe writes that his work is aimed at hunting down "the first moments at the birth of a new pandemic" to prevent its global spread.

With a doctorate in immunology and infectious diseases from Harvard, Wolfe, 45, has found some serious backers. Metabiota and its nonprofit sister company Global Viral have received millions in funding from USAID, Google and the Skoll Foundation, among others. The Department of Defense alone has granted more than $18 million worth of contracts to the firm, federal records show.

In the early months of the outbreak, with WHO and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thin on the ground, Metabiota said it stepped in to help at the request of the Sierra Leonean government.

An account posted to its website says Metabiota provided "critical support" in the earliest days of the outbreak, organizing training, jointly running Sierra Leone's Ebola laboratory, assisting with outbreak logistics and producing daily reports for the government.

Messages saved to ProMed, a mailing list for outbreak watchers, are upbeat, describing Metabiota's tests and how it was teaching Sierra Leoneans how to set up Ebola isolation wards. On May 12, senior Metabiota scientist Dr. Jean-Paul Gonzalez said preparedness work had "ultimately protected, or at least uniquely prepared, Sierra Leone."

But there were already reports of suspected infections in the country and, within weeks, the virus tore through Sierra Leone, overwhelming the hospital in Kenema where Metabiota shared the 700-square-foot (65-square-meter) lab with Tulane.

To some at Tulane, which had a long-established research project at the lab, Metabiota's missteps were predictable. The two groups worked side-by-side in an uneasy relationship that observers said sometimes tipped into open conflict.

Tulane microbiology professor Bob Garry questioned whether Gonzalez was the right person to teach Sierra Leoneans how to protect themselves from Ebola. In 1994, the French researcher was at the center of a safety scare at Yale University after he accidentally infected himself with the rare Sabia virus and didn't notify officials there for more than a week. The university put more than 100 people under surveillance and ordered Gonzalez to take a remedial safety course. Garry said that should have raised a red flag.

"Do you really want the person who infected himself with hemorrhagic fever going around explaining to people how to be safe?" he asked.

Gonzalez referred questions to a Metabiota press representative, who said in an email that the incident happened more than 20 years ago and that Gonzalez has extensive lab safety experience.

But Garry also faced questions; the WHO emails obtained by AP complaining about the Kenema lab are as critical of Tulane as they are of Metabiota.

Garry acknowledged mistakes but said they were understandable given the chaotic circumstances.

"We didn't have the personnel and the infrastructure that was needed to handle the onslaught of cases that were coming," he said. "We were doing the best we had with what we had there."
"THEY WERE AT WAR"

As the death toll mounted in July, scientists from WHO, the United States and Canada were voicing concerns about what Metabiota and its Tulane colleagues were doing at the Kenema lab, according to the emails obtained by AP and interviews with those on the ground at the time.

When Gary Kobinger, head of special pathogens at the Public Health Agency of Canada, double-checked some of the facility's work in mid-July, he found worrying discrepancies in four of eight tests and identified up to five people wrongly diagnosed with Ebola, among them a worker with the medical charity Doctors Without Borders.

Kobinger told AP in a telephone interview that the misdiagnoses he caught suggested many more had gone unnoticed.

"If you detect two, three, four, five, how many are out there?" he said.

The mistakes were doubly dangerous in a country where many mistrusted international workers, who were suspected of spreading Ebola deliberately, said Bertherat, the WHO outbreak expert. Attempts to reassure a jittery public could be "totally ruined if the population does not trust anymore in the diagnostic of the medical teams," he wrote in an email.

Bertherat proposed two fixes for the problematic lab: WHO could either train Metabiota and Tulane staffers, or close down the facility and transfer all testing to another lab. He told his boss on July 18, 2014, that shutting down the shared lab was the "more prudent" option.

Five days later, Geneva-based WHO staffer Pat Drury emailed the agency's chief, Dr. Margaret Chan, with criticism of both Tulane and Metabiota, referring to their shared facility as two labs.

"Both labs do not meet international standards for Biosecurity," he said, adding that "several patients have been wrongly tested positive."

Metabiota founder Wolfe said "we did wonderful lab work as far as I'm concerned." Errors in the shared facility stopped once "other groups" were pulled from the testing and, in any case, he noted that Metabiota tested over 1,800 samples. Even if any mistakes were made, he said the error rates were well within ranges seen elsewhere.

Wolfe did not name the "other groups," but documents and interviews show Metabiota and Tulane blamed each other.

"On the surface, they were collaborating," Kobinger said. But in reality, "they were at war."

U.S. health official Austin Demby, who was sent to evaluate the lab's work at the request of the CDC and Sierra Leone, said initial diagnostic tests carried out by Metabiota and Tulane clashed as often as 30 percent of the time. Errors raised the risk that the virus could be spread further by sending infected patients home or confining otherwise healthy people to infectious Ebola wards.

In a July 21 email to CDC and State Department officials, Demby put the blame at Tulane's door, saying Metabiota's tests were always closer to the mark and that Tulane's "add no real value to the diagnosis." But Tulane's Garry said Metabiota's staff stirred confusion by not following protocol.

Wolfe said that was "simply false."

The lab's set-up also was worrisome. Used needles littered the place, according to a worker who spoke on condition of anonymity because the worker was not authorized to speak to the media. Demby said in his email that the lab lacked an ultraviolet light for decontamination and didn't have enough space to process blood samples safely.

"The cross contamination potential is huge and quite frankly unacceptable," he wrote.

Tulane pulled the plug on its tests soon thereafter and the lab's results improved. Kobinger credited Metabiota researcher Nadia Wauquier — "the hero of that whole gang" — with tightening procedures, but eventually the company was relieved of its testing duties and the CDC took over. Both Tulane and Metabiota say they stepped aside voluntarily.
"THEY ARE SENDING WRONG MESSAGES"

Outside the lab, the training touted by Metabiota unnerved some fellow responders.

Anja Wolz, an emergency coordinator with Doctors Without Borders, told AP in an interview that she saw Metabiota workers enter the homes of suspected Ebola patients without protective gear and without decontaminating themselves before leaving high-risk areas.

"They didn't even have chlorine with them to wash their hands," she said, adding that Metabiota project coordinator James Bangura told her they didn't need the critical disinfectant.

"I didn't go inside the Metabiota lab," she said. "I refused to go because I had already seen enough."

In a telephone interview, Bangura denied flouting safety measures.

Aid workers also complained that Metabiota employees including Bangura and a Ugandan consultant hijacked the outbreak response in Kenema, which was supposed to be directed by WHO.

Metabiota staffers "are systematically obstructing any attempt to improve the existing surveillance system and there are a lot of improvement(s) needed," WHO Ebola coordinator Philippe Barboza said in an August 8, 2014, email. The next day, he argued that WHO should pull its outbreak staff from Kenema so they wouldn't be tarred with Metabiota's failures, writing he was "very concerned of the potential reputational risk for WHO."

British disease expert Chris Lane echoed Barboza's concerns. In a message to Barboza, he lamented that "much good work was achieved prior to the arrival of the Metabiota field staff."

Barboza and Lane declined comment on the arguments. Metabiota officials acknowledged the dispute but downplayed it.

"It is inaccurate to suggest a major conflict between WHO and Metabiota," Wolfe said, noting that Bangura was awarded a Sierra Leonean presidential silver medal for his Ebola efforts.

Nevertheless, the disagreement was serious enough that Metabiota said it fired the consultant and pulled Bangura from Kenema.

The consequences went beyond office politics. In one email, Barboza said 1 million euros in funding proposed by the International Rescue Committee was being held up because the donors wanted "a clear WHO leadership."

Some responders said one of the most disturbing mistakes Metabiota employees made was misreading the epidemic.

Wolz, of Doctors Without Borders, said she recalled a meeting in the early summer as cases began multiplying "when I said that the outbreak was completely out of control." She said Metabiota responded, 'No, we know where we are, everything is OK.'"

Kobinger, the Canadian scientist, said Bangura would interpret temporary dips in the number of cases to mean that the outbreak was dissipating. He said he couldn't fathom that reasoning given the number of Ebola-positive samples pouring into his own lab in nearby Kailahun.

Though Bangura said he did not personally make any estimates, Kobinger said Bangura told him in July that the outbreak would be over in "two or three weeks."

Any suggestion Metabiota wrongly forecast the Ebola epidemic is rejected by Wolfe, who once wrote that his career is focused on creating systems "that can accurately detect pandemics early, determine their likely importance, and, with any luck, crush those that have the potential to devastate us."

Wolfe told AP that his company couldn't be held responsible for the predictions of employees seconded to Sierra Leone's Health Ministry.

"We didn't make forecasts. We loaned individuals to the ministry," Wolfe said. "So the notion that somehow it's a Metabiota forecast is simply completely inaccurate."

Fellow responders may not have grasped the distinction. On Aug. 11 — just three days after WHO had declared the crisis a global emergency — Metabiota employees presented a slideshow to an Ebola task force. Next to a bar chart showing a slowdown in cases were the words: "The outbreak is stabilizing."

WHO data specialist Mikiko Senga wasn't persuaded.

"This is the kind of report we get from Metabiota epidemiologists," she emailed colleagues from the presentation. "They are sending wrong messages. The outbreak is clearly not stabilizing."

It was only in the second half of August that Kenema numbers began falling and, even then, the virus was merely moving to more populated areas.

Nearly two years after the virus was first discovered circulating near its border, Sierra Leone still is not officially Ebola-free.
"THEY MESSED UP ON EBOLA"

Despite doubts about Metabiota's performance, Wolfe's firm has largely been congratulated on its work in West Africa. In December 2014, it won a European Union grant to help validate new tests and treatments for the disease, something a company official said was in recognition of "the critical contributions our team has made in supporting the current outbreak."

In 2015, the company raised some $30 million in investment from four U.S. investment firms intended to "support Metabiota's efforts to further develop and deliver epidemic risk management worldwide," according to a press release.

Even WHO has publicly credited Metabiota for its work during the outbreak. Months after Senga, one of its employees, complained privately about Metabiota's optimistic predictions in Kenema, she wrote a sunnier account on WHO's website.

"The fact that they were already there helped a lot," she wrote in a post called "Ebola Diaries." Tulane and Metabiota employees already being established in Kenema "made our case investigations and contact tracing work a lot easier," she wrote.

Senga declined comment when reached by AP.

Guillaume Lachenal, a medical historian at Paris Diderot University who has followed Metabiota's work in Africa, said it was indecent of the company to claim Ebola as a success story.

"They messed up on Ebola. That can happen," he said. "To make a success story out of their Ebola response, that's quite something."


Satter and Cheng also reported from London. Krista Larson contributed to this report from Kenema, Sierra Leone. Lisa Leff contributed from San Francisco.

Online:

Metabiota: http://metabiota.com

Satter can be reached at: http://raphae.li

How Can Africa Deliver On Its Ambitious Vision For Habitat III?

The continent’s regional meeting resulted in an urbanization strategy that is conceptually strong but lacking in concrete targets, timelines and commitments to change.

BY ALYSSA FISCHER

CITISCOPE, MARCH 6, 2016

ABUJA, NIGERIA — This past week, African ministers and stakeholder representatives from numerous civil society organizations gathered in Abuja to discuss African priorities for Habitat III, the U. N.’s 20-year urbanization conference that takes place in October.

At the end of three days of deliberation, they affirmed the Abuja Declaration, which will inform the final outcome document of the Habitat III process, the New Urban Agenda, with a united voice for the continent.

The declaration made important points, especially regarding access to basic services for the underserved, improving inclusive governance systems, inclusion of and equity for women, and strengthening the capacity of cities to implement environmentally sustainable and contextually sensitive solutions.

Yet the document is lacking in concrete targets, timelines and commitments to change. Conceptually, then, the outcome of the meeting was strong. But the challenge remains: How do cities access the financing and secure the political will needed to implement the solutions necessary to achieve the ambitious goals set out in the Abuja Declaration?

One key avenue to implementation of the priorities set out in the declaration is linking the goals to other processes that already have political and financial momentum driving them forward, such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Paris Agreement on climate and Agenda 2063 — the latter, a development plan developed in 2013 by the African Union.

Two of these frameworks, the SDGs and Agenda 2063, garnered significant attention during the discussions in Abuja. However, specific focus on the Paris Agreement and African cities’ roles in achieving its 1.5 degree scenario warranted a more prominent conversation.

Adopted by global players in September, the SDGs set the stage for sustainable development over the coming 15 years. Agenda 2063 established a development agenda for African countries for the next half-century. While not directly linked, these two have a common direction and are seen as mutually supportive. The SDGs more broadly aim to set the aims for global sustainable development; while its aims align with those of the SDGs, Agenda 2063 pointedly reflects African challenges and sets more specific targets for development.

Unlike in many of the conversations in the West, African urban players see Habitat III as a logical and foregone follow-up to the implementation of the SDGs and Agenda 2063. Sustainable Development Goal 11 — the landmark cities-focused “urban SDG” — and other relevant targets and indicators can be achieved by creating meaningful commitments and targets in the New Urban Agenda that align with the targets and indicators set forth in the SDGs.

In the African context, these statements and commitments should also align with the goals of Agenda 2063. The Abuja Declaration acknowledges these linkages, as well as links with the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, but it does not operationalize these connections.

National policies Moving forward, how can the New Urban Agenda incorporate the Abuja Declaration and make an ambitious, actionable statement for the future? The agenda will need not only to include conceptual statements but also to set forth commitments and targets that inspire actions from urban, regional, national, private sector and civil-society actors.

There are many avenues for actions that can contribute to achieving the goals set out by the Abuja Declaration and those that an ambitious New Urban Agenda would establish. Two of the primary opportunities to operationalize the New Urban Agenda and the Abuja Declaration are national policies and leveraging financing.

One of the more understated but important articles in the Abuja Declaration reads: “Enhance people-centered urban and human settlements through … Adopting integrated National Urbanization Policies in the context of national development planning to facilitate multi-sectoral coordination and collaboration and avoid sectoral silos.”

Placing priority on national urban policies is a significant step. Such policies can enable countries to bring solutions to scale and ensure that responsibility for achieving both national and international goals (for instance, those laid out in the SDGs and Agenda 2063) is distributed across cities. In addition, there is an opportunity for national policies not only to establish goals for overall urban policy but to allocate federal funding to aid cities in implementing sustainable solutions across multiple sectors — energy, housing, transport, and water and sanitation.

However, it is essential that national policies are put in place that allow cities to implement solutions in contextually appropriate manners. For example, the solutions to Lagos’s transport challenges will be inherently different from those of Abuja, but a national urban policy on transport would still need to provide equal funding and support for both cities to achieve the goals.

Cities also will need access to increased, targeted financing in order to implement the solutions necessary to build the cities of the future.

Cities of the future

Fortunately, there are a number of ways global and local actors can come together to create the capacity needed for action on the ground. International financing institutions can pledge increased proportions of annual grants to projects aligning with the Habitat III goals. Federal governments can reallocate capital to projects that solve their most pressing urban challenges from projects that would otherwise be detrimental to sustainable, equitable urban development.

As part of the effort to rethink land-ownership regulations and development practices, cities can establish taxes that will route funding toward sustainable urban solutions and accessible services. Cities and regions can also explore more innovative funding mechanisms, such as partnerships with the private sector through public-private partnerships and other similar arrangements.

There is a wealth of solutions available to countries and cities that are committed to developing the sustainable, accessible cities of the future as described in the Abuja Declaration. The challenge rests on generating the political will and securing funding commitments from players at all levels.

The discourse in Abuja and the resulting declaration show that the shared vision of sustainable, resilient and equitable African cities is within reach. Now the task remains to create strong commitments to progress throughout the Habitat III process and to operationalize those commitments to create real change on the ground.

Boko Haram Falls Victim To A Food Crisis It Created

By Dionne Searcey

New York Times, March 4, 2016

The number of refugees from Nigeria at the Minawao camp in the Far North region of Cameroon has reached 54,800, triple what the camp was designed to hold.CreditTyler Hicks/The New York Times

MORA, Cameroon — At first, the attack had all the hallmarks of a typical Boko Haram assault. Armed fighters stormed a town on the border with Nigeria, shooting every man they saw.

But this time, instead of burning homes and abductinghostages, the fighters gathered cows, goats and any kind of food they could round up, then fled with it all.

Boko Haram, the Islamist extremist group terrorizing this part of the world, is on the hunt — for food.

After rampaging across the region for years, forcing more than two million people to flee their homes and farms, Boko Haram appears to be falling victim to a major food crisis of its own creation.

Farmers have fled, leaving behind fallow fields. Herdsmen have rerouted cattle drives to avoid the violence. Throughout the region, entire villages have emptied, leaving a string of ghost towns with few people for Boko Haram to dominate — and little for the group to plunder.

“They need food. They need to eat,” Midjiyawa Bakari, the governor of the Far North region of Cameroon, said of Boko Haram. “They’re stealing everything.”

Across parts of northeastern Nigeria and border regions like the Far North, trade has come to a halt and tens of thousands of people are on the brink of famine, United Nations officials say. Markets have shut down because vendors have nothing to sell, and even if they did, many buyers have been scared off by the suicide bombers Boko Haram sends into crowds.

The hunt for food appears to be part of what is pushing Boko Haram deeper into Cameroon, according to an American State Department review of attacks in the first few weeks of this year.

“They started shooting, shooting, shooting,” said Matte Bama, recounting the night Boko Haram raided her town, Amchide. Now she shares a house with 23 others, wondering when she can return home. “They took our livestock,” she said. “They took everything and they left.”

Such attacks are becoming increasingly common in the areas bordering Boko Haram’s base in northeastern Nigeria. A military campaign by Nigeria and its neighbors has chased fighters from villages they once controlled. Now, officials contend, the militants are left to scrounge for food in the sparse Sambisa Forest during the dry season, or go out raiding for whatever they can find.

“Their supply routes are blocked,” said Brig. Gen. Rabe Abubakar, a Nigerian military spokesman. “They’re hungry.”

This week, dozens of emaciated Boko Haram fighters, along with captive women and children, surrendered to military officials in Nigeria, a situation the authorities expect to repeat itself in coming weeks.

“They have nowhere to go,” General Abubakar said.

By early February, Boko Haram was estimated to have stolen at least 4,200 head of cattle in Cameroon. In one attack in early January, the militants descended on a town in Cameroon and took dozens of bicycles, wheelbarrows, and 150 small animals like sheep and goats — and then kidnapped six people to help lead the animals back into Nigeria, according to the State Department review.

Boko Haram has also taken hostages and forced them to raid cattle from other villages, it said.

But while some elements of Boko Haram may be battered, fighters still manage to carry out devastating attacks, the results of which are on full display at the hospital in Maroua, the capital of the Far North. Shrapnel and burn victims from recent attacks across various towns recuperate together. One young woman lay in a coma, her hair arranged in perfect skinny braids.

Until last summer, when the suicide attacks in Cameroon’s Far North began, the most common ailments at the hospital were stomach trouble and motorbike mishaps. It did not even have a surgeon. Doctors Without Borders arrived to set up a large triage tent, and in January, a team from the health ministry flew in to train workers in treating war wounds. Now the hospital has been converted into a conflict zone clinic, with a full-time surgeon and more to come.

Recent joint operations by the Cameroonian and Nigerian militaries have captured and killed numerous fighters and seized suicide belts, weapons and equipment for making mines. Officials hope to squeeze the fighters from both sides of the border so they have nowhere left to run.

But the multinational military force — which includes Chad, Niger and the American military in an advisory role — sometimes has trouble securing territory once it is cleared.

In Cameroon, soldiers drove Boko Haram fighters from the border town of Kerawa in October, but it has since been assaulted at least six times, with militants beheading a young man in one attack. Early last month, a suicide bomber entered Kerawa and blew himself up behind a house, killing a tailor. According to a State Department report on the episode, the bomber had been looking for a large group of people to kill, but after all the attacks in the town, the streets were empty.

The mass displacement caused by Boko Haram — and by the sometimes indiscriminate military campaign to defeat it — has left 1.4 million people in the region without adequate food supplies, the United Nations says. In Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, where the situation is the most acute, humanitarian workers say that 50,000 people are one step away from famine. Along the Chadian border, farmers typically trade their pepper crops for imported cereals and grains. But the pepper fields have been abandoned and there is little left to trade.

“We’re looking at a large-scale crisis in very remote areas,” said Denise Brown, the West and Central Africa regional director for the World Food Programme. “This is not a today problem. This is a tomorrow problem and a next year problem unless it’s contained, and I don’t see it coming to a halt soon.”

In the Far North of Cameroon, this time of year is a moonscape of bone-dry river beds and clouds of dust so thick they look like misty fog. The region is moving into the so-called lean season, the in-between months when the fruits of the previous harvest are being depleted and next year’s crop is not yet ready.

Last year’s harvest was already smaller than usual because of low rainfall. Water tables are low, and worries are mounting about an adequate supply of drinking water, especially at the refugee camp here that has new arrivals daily.

About 55,000 refugees from Nigeria have taken shelter in the camp, while 158,000 Cameroonians have been scattered across villages, often crammed into tiny shacks with relatives and strangers until they can safely return home.

Mariam Yaya was in Kerawa when Boko Haram came for the livestock. Her uncle and his two children were killed. Her husband survived because he, like many other men who knew they might be targeted by militants, had retreated to the forest, where he slept in case of a Boko Haram attack. People in the small village of Mora, which has doubled in size in recent weeks with new arrivals, took pity on Ms. Yaya and her three children and built them a home from mud here.

Despite the influx of new people, officials closed the town’s market out of fear that it would be attacked. Boko Haram had struck a satellite village just days before. Residents now worry that the market will remain shut for weeks.

The food crisis is part of broader economic devastation in the area, adding to the burdens on Cameroon at a time when it is hosting thousands of refugees fleeing a religious war in nearby Central African Republic.

The flood of Nigerian refugees into Cameroon is creating hard feelings. Even a religious leader who attends births and marriages in the Minawao Refugee Camp said the refugees needed to go home.

The United Nations accused Cameroon of sending tens of thousands of refugees back to Nigeria at the end of last year. The government has since said it would involve the United Nations in any plans involving the refugees’ return.

“They have lost everything,” said Najat Rochdi, a United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Yaoundé, the capital. “We cannot throw them back to unsafety.”

Tourism has plummeted in Cameroon, which has such diverse ecosystems and a range of wildlife that it refers to itself as Little Africa. Guides who once led visitors to see lions and elephants in Waza National Park in the north now scrape by with occasional work building new homes in the Minawao Refugee Camp.

Even elephants are affected by the Boko Haram food crisis. Herdsmen driving cattle from Chad to northern Nigeria now detour south, across Bénoué National Park, where cows compete with a dwindling elephant population for food.

And with many herdsmen cut off from markets in the struggling Far North, wildlife workers fear they may discover a new, more lucrative trade: ivory poaching. Last week scientists flying over the Bénoué park spotted two elephant carcasses.

U.S. Presses UN To Confront Sex Abuse

ASSOCIATED PRESS
MARCH 5, 2015

The United States is pressing the UN Security Council for the first time to confront the escalating problem of sexual abuse and exploitation by UN peacekeepers, which has undermined the credibility of the United Nations.

The United States is the biggest financial contributor to the UN’s far-flung peacekeeping operations, and U.S. officials said Friday the Obama administration wants the council to send a strong signal that it will not tolerate sexual crimes by troops and police sent to protect vulnerable civilians, especially children.

The council resolution drafted by the U.S. is a response to a new report by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon detailing the 69 allegations in 2015 and for the first time naming the countries of alleged perpetrators.

“I am ashamed to call myself a peacekeeper when I think of some of these cases,” Undersecretary-General Atul Khare told reporters Friday. “Anyone serving under the UN flag and preying on the vulnerable is truly an abomination.”

Of the allegations in 2015, 23 allegations involved sexual activity with minors.

If approved by the UN’s most powerful body, the binding resolution likely would be the strongest pressure so far on countries contributing to peacekeeping missions to deal with sexual abuse and exploitation in their ranks. The UN has over 100,000 peacekeepers serving in some of the world’s most volatile and poverty-stricken areas.

Of last year’s allegations, 38 involved military personnel, 16 involved international police, and 15 involved UN staff or volunteers in peacekeeping missions. The report said 15 allegations involved rape of people over the age of 18. Paternity claims were associated with 15 allegations.

The report identified the peacekeepers accused of sexual exploitation and abuse as coming from Congo, South Africa, Morocco, Tanzania, Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Gabon, Benin, Burundi, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Solvakia, Niger, Moldova and Togo. Over half of the allegations were made in two of the UN’s 16 missions: 22 against peacekeepers in the Central African Republic and 16 in Congo.

The mission in the Central African Republic, or CAR, has made headlines for months with reports of peacekeepers in the impoverished country trading sex for money and sexually abusing minors.

The United Nations has been under pressure to act after an independent panel in December described the world body’s “gross institutional failure” in handling allegations against French and other peacekeepers in CAR. That report said the months-long delay in addressing children’s accounts of abuse had led to even more reported assaults.

The secretary-general’s new report, obtained Thursday by The Associated Press, outlines new measures such as launching immediate response teams to collect evidence, calling on countries to send investigators to probe allegations against their troops, and ensuring that victims are not frightened away from reporting alleged abuse.

The UN already has begun acting on its vow to repatriate troops over alleged abuses, recently sending home military units from Congo and the Republic of Congo from CAR.

Often no one is punished because peacekeepers come under the legal jurisdiction of their home countries. “We have no authority to prosecute,” Khare said.

The secretary-general called for on-site court-martials of alleged perpetrators and DNA testing to identify them. He urged the 193 U.N. member states to update their national laws to ensure they apply to sex crimes committed by their citizens serving in UN peace operations.

He also asked countries to transfer the money withheld from U.N. personnel whose allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation have been substantiated to a victims’ trust fund.

The proposed Security Council resolution would endorse the secretary-general’s decision to repatriate UN troops or police if there is a pattern of exploitation and abuse by their unit, U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations have been private.