Cameroon Prisoners Revolt Adds New Fervour In Anglophone Crisis

A prison warden poses in the Yaoundé central prison (illustration photo)REUTERS/Stringer

BY CHRISTINA OKELLO

YAOUNDE (RFI) -- Hundreds of inmates have staged a riot at Cameroon's central prison in Yaoundé to demand better conditions. The mutiny by the mainly Anglophone prisoners, captured on Facebook Live, showed buildings set on fire and shots fired as police stormed the prison.

The revolt has created new fervour amongst the Anglophone population in Cameroon, as the government continues to grapple with the Anglophone crisis in the north and south west regions.

Nearly 600 prisoners – mainly Anglophone political opponents and separatists – took over various wings of Kondengui prison in the Yaoundé capital on Monday morning to protest against their conditions.

Men portraying themselves as Ambazonian separatists are heard venting their anger at the lack of food and water on Facebook live and calling for an end to arbitrary trials and overcrowding.

"Some of them have been in jail for two years, have not been taken to court, and believe that their process was not fair and they want the government to release them," explains Agbor Nkongho, a human rights lawyer.

Witnesses said that other inmates joined the mutiny, including French-speaking Cameroonians, bringing the rioters to over 1,500, according to Reuters.

Police stormed the prison early on Monday evening and used tear gas to disperse the prisoners.

On Tuesday, reports indicated that the protests were still going on.

"Because the prison is congested, it is not very easy to manage 4,000 people in a space meant for 1,000 people. It just shows that the state cannot really handle the problem," Nkongho told RFI.

The Kondengui maximum prison is where the vast majority of Anglophone activists from Cameroon's three-year long crisis are being kept.

Feeling of injustice

Protests were driven by a range of everyday grievances from the inflexible school curriculum that privileged the French-speaking majority, to the legal system that makes justice harder to get for English speakers.

That same feeling of injustice underscores Monday's prison revolt reckons Joshua Osih, the vice president of the Social Democratic Front (SDF), the main opposition party.

"Prisoners who I've been in touch with, say they don’t understand why they are being deported to Yaoundé to be judged in the French language instead of in the north and south west," he told RFI.

The transfer of detainees from the Anglophone regions to Yaoundé's central prison has come under criticism from rights groups. In January 2018, the UNCHR slammed the arrest and deportation of 47 separatists who had filed asylum claims in Nigeria.

Among the claimants was separatist leader Julius Sisiku Ayuk Tabe, president of the self-declared "Republic of Ambazonia".

"The military tribunal refused to use the English language in the trial of Ayuk Tabe and the others. If it wasn't granted for the leaders of the Anglophone movement, I don’t see any chance of it being granted to these prisoners," Osih commented, saying it added to the "sense of injustice over this judicial system which is no longer working in this country."

The UN estimates 1.3m people are in need of humanitarian aid in northwest and southwest Cameroon.

Search for dialogue

The government of Paul Biya is under increasing pressure to engage in talks with separatists to bring an end to the crisis. In Europe, the Swiss government is leading mediation efforts.

Meanwhile on the ground, the Catholic Church has been the most vocal about ending the crisis, with Cardinal Christian Tumi calling for an Anglophone conference between the main leaders of the separatist movement and the government.

Parties like the Social Democratic Front have welcomed the initiative but say it is not enough.

"The problem is not in Bamenda, or in Buea, the problem is in Yaoundé," insists the SDF vice president Joshua Osih. The government, in his opinion, has shown little regard for Anglophone demands thus far.

President Paul Biya’s government has responded to nonviolent protests over perceived marginalisation by the French-speaking majority, with force. In late 2016, this resentment boiled over into an armed uprising.

For his part, Agbor Nkongho reckons a holistic solution is needed and for both sides to recognize their mistakes.

"The government cannot keep arresting people, where are they going to keep them? The detainees were shouting 'enough is enough' and that is a reflection of what people in Cameroon want,” he said.

The government held crisis talks all day on Monday. RFI reached out to officials for comment but received no response.

Golden Jubilee Of Bishops' Assembly Begins With Fanfare

Image via La Croix

BY LUCIE SARR

Archbishop Gabriel Mbilingi of Lubango, Angola - center with curia - and other bishops outside Sacred Heart Cathedral of Rubaga in Kampala, Uganda. SECAM

Songs to the sound of bands, dances, speeches by officials, parades of cardinals, bishops, priests and laity from all continents: the festivities marking the 18th Plenary Assembly and the closing of the Golden Jubilee of the Symposium of African and Madagascar Bishops' Conferences (SECAM) were launched on Sunday July 21 in Kampala.

SECAM is an entity that brings together all the regional Bishops' Conferences of Africa.

It was launched in 1969 on the occasion of Pope Paul VI's very first visit to Africa, from July 31 to August 2, in Uganda.

In fact the idea of creating an association uniting African bishops had already began to emerge after the Second Vatican Council, between 1962 and 1965. The Africans who took part felt the need to speak with one voice.

Sunday's celebration began with an opening Mass at the Sacred Heart Cathedral of Rubaga in the presence of Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments. Also on hand were Bishop Protase Rugambwa, Bishop Emeritus of Kigoma, Tanzania, and Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, and Gabriel Mbilingi, Bishop of Lubango, President of SECAM and Archbishop Cyprien Kisito Lwanga of Kampala.

Arriving very early, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni gave a long speech before the start of the Mass.

In front of 300 cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests and lay people from Africa, America and Asia, the Ugandan president praised Africa's strong spiritual growth but expressed frustration that it was not translating into material growth for its people.

"I am very happy that Africa is doing much better spiritually than other continents," he said. But he deplored the fact that the continent was still plunged in extreme poverty, saying this should concern political and religious leaders.

"The poverty of the population disadvantages both the government and the Church because it is difficult to preach to the poor. I have always observed that, even during the offerings at Mass, many have nothing to give," he said.

Archbishop Charles Palmer-Buckle of Cape Coast, Ghana, gave the homily at the liturgical celebration. He welcomed the great advances that had been made in African churches over the past 50 years.

"Africa is the continent where the number of Catholics is growing faster," he noted. He also highlighted the Church's mediation role in maintaining or bringing peace to several regions of the continent.

Bishop Palmer-Buckle stressed the importance of the Golden Jubilee of SECAM by repeating to the prophetic call Pope Paul VI made n 1969 when he launched the assembly: "It is time for Africans to be their own missionaries."

Young Eritreans Who Flee Their Country Explains Why

An Eritrean migrant leaves a detention facility near Nitzana in the Negev Desert in Israel, near border with Egypt. Image: Jim Hollander/EPA-EFE

BY MILENA DELLONI

Isaias was 16 when he escaped from Sa’wa, the military training camp for final-year high school students in Eritrea. His parents came to know of his whereabouts only a few weeks after. From Sudan he tried to cross the Sinai to reach Israel. But he was kidnapped by bandits. His family paid a high ransom to save him.

Isaias returned to Addis Ababa, the capital of neighbouring Ethiopia, where I met him when he was 17. His family was supporting him financially and wanted him to remain there. But Isaias had different plans. A few months later he disappeared. As I was later to learn, he had successfully crossed from Libya into Europe.

This young man is part of a worrying statistic. Since around 2010, the flow of unaccompanied minors from Eritrea has significantly increased and has become the subject of international concern. In 2015, over 5000 unaccompanied minors from Eritrea sought asylum in Europe according to the Mixed Migration Centre. In 2018, the number was 3500.

Minors are only part of a wider exodus that involves mostly Eritreans in their twenties and thirties. The UN refugee agency calculates that at the end of 2018 there were over 500 000 Eritrean refugees worldwide – a high number for a country of around 5 million people.

Initially driven by a simmering border conflict with Ethiopia, this mass migration continues to be fuelled by a lack of political, religious and social freedom. In addition, there are little economic prospects in the country.

And generations of young people have been trapped in a indefinite mandatory national service. They serve in the army or in schools, hospitals and public offices, irrespective of their aspirations, with little remuneration. Even though Ethiopia and Eritrea have struck a deal to end their border conflict, there is no debate over the indefinite nature of the national service.

Brought up in a context where migration represents the main route out of generational and socio-economic immobility, most young Eritreans I met decided to leave. While unaccompanied minors are usually depicted as passively accepting their families’ decisions, my research illustrates their active role in choosing whether and when to migrate.

I explored the negotiations that take place between young migrants and their families as they consider departing and undertaking arduous journeys. But the crucial role of agency shouldn’t be equated to a lack of vulnerability. Vulnerability, in fact, defines their condition as young people in Eritrea and is likely to grow due to the hardships of the journey.

Context of protracted crisis
Young Eritreans often migrate without their family’s approval.

Families are aware that the country can’t offer their children a future. Nevertheless, parents are reticent about encouraging their children to take a risky path, a decision that can lead to death at sea or at the hand of bandits.

Young Eritreans keep their plans secret due to respect, or emotional care, towards their families. One 23-year-old woman who had crossed to Ethiopia a year before told me:

It is better not to make them worry for nothing: if you make it, then they can be happy for you; if you don’t make it, they will have time to be sad afterwards.

Adonay, another 26-year-old man, said:

If you tell them they might tell you not to do it, and then it would be harder to disobey. If they endorse your decision then they might feel responsible if something bad happens to you. It should be only your choice.
But that is not all. As a young woman told me,

The less they know the better it is in case the police come to the house asking questions about the flight.

Migration from Eritrea is mostly illegal and tightly controlled by the government, any connivance could be punished with fees or incarceration.

The journey

Eritrean border crossings are based on complicated power dynamics involving smugglers, smuggled refugees and their paying relatives, generally residing in Europe, US or the Middle East.

In this mix, smuggled refugees are far from being choice-less or the weak party.

Relatives are often scared of the dangers of border crossing through Libya to Europe. Moreover, some may not be able to mobilise the necessary funds. But young refugees have their ways to persuade them.

As payment to smugglers is typically made at the end in Libya and then after migrants have reached Italy, refugees embark on these journeys without telling their potential financial supporters in the diaspora. Once in Libya, they provide the smugglers with the telephone number of those who are expected to pay. This is an extremely risky gamble as migrants are betting on their relatives’ resources and willingness to help them.

Those who do not have close enough relatives abroad cannot gamble at all. Sometimes relatives struggle to raise the necessary amount and have to collect money from friends and larger community networks. Migrants then have to spend more time – and at times experience more violence and deprivation – in the warehouses where smugglers keep them in Libya. Migrants are held to hide them from authorities and ensure their fees are paid.

Even in these conditions, migrants don’t necessarily give up their agency. It has been arguedthat they,

temporarily surrender control at points during the journey, accepting momentary disempowerment to achieve larger strategic goals.

Moving beyond the common framing

Analysing the interactions between Eritrean families and their migrant children at different stages of their journeys can contribute to moving beyond the common framing of the “unaccompanied minor” characterised by an ambivalent depiction as either the victim or the bogus migrant.

These opposing and binary views of unaccompanied minors implicitly link deserving protection with ultimate victimhood devoid of choice. Instead, the stories of Eritreans show that vulnerability, at the outset and during the journey, does not exclude agency.

SOURCE OF ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Democracy In Africa: Success Stories That Have Defied All The Odds

Senegalese women cast their ballots in the presidential elections in February. Image: Nic Bothma/EPA-EFE

BY NIC CHEESEMAN

When I first said that I was going to write a book about the history of democracy in Africa, quite a few people responded with a joke. That will be one of the world’s shortest books, up there with the compendium of great English cooking, they would say.

But, it turned out that there was a lot to talk about: Africa’s past reveals more fragments of democracy than you would think. And, its present has a number of important things to teach the world about the conditions under which democracy can be built.

The poor quality of elections in many sub-Saharan African countries, combined with a tendency for the media to focus on controversy, means that Africa is often depicted as a bastion of authoritarianism. But, it actually has some of the most remarkable and important stories of democratic struggle.

Countries such as Benin, Botswana, Ghana, Namibia, Mauritius, Senegal and South Africa have not only become beacons of political rights and civil liberties, they have done so against the greatest of obstacles. These experiences teach us important lessons about where democracy can work, and why.

Pre-conditions for strong democracy
Political scientists like to talk about the conditions necessary for countries to build a strong and stable democracy. These lists are fiercely fought over, but there are a number of factors that most researchers would agree are probably important.

A cohesive national identity is likely to make it easier to maintain national unity, while wealth and economic success have been found to promote political stability. A strong national infrastructure, underpinned by respect for the rule of law, means that the government is likely to be effective without being abusive. And, a vibrant middle class and powerful civil society are usually seen as important to promote accountability and responsive government.

What is remarkable about the democratisation of African states is that most did not enjoy a single one of these “pre-conditions”.

With the exception of South Africa, all of Africa’s democracies entered multiparty politics with low GDP per capita and high levels of unemployment. This was compounded by weak and underdeveloped states that had been designed – both in the colonial era and during the authoritarian rule of the 1980s – to exploit resources rather than empower citizens. In states like Ghana, this was compounded by a history of military rule, which heightened the risk of further coups.

Almost all of these states also featured civil societies that were fragile and fragmented, despite the strength of religious organisations. At the same time, in the early 1990s, the middle class was small. More often than not, it was also economically dependent on the government. It was thus poorly placed to fight against corruption or democratic backsliding.

Challenges

These were not the only challenges that African states faced. With the exception of Botswana, they are all diverse multi-ethnic societies in which the question of national identity has been problematic. In Ghana and Mauritius for instance, ethnic identities have historically played a role in structuring political networks. This increased the tension around elections.

Worse still, under colonial rule and during apartheid, white regimes sought to entrench racial divisions and hostilities in Namibia and South Africa, creating a particularly difficult environment.

Against this backdrop, all of these states might have been expected to collapse into some form of authoritarian regime by now. Given this context, their success should be celebrated and studied for what it tells us about how democracy can be built even in the most challenging of contexts.

Bucking the trend

It is striking that, with the exception of Benin and possibly Senegal, these democracies have grown stronger during a period in which the world is supposed to be backsliding on democracy.

While Europe is convulsed by Brexit and the rise of right-wing populists, and Donald Trump is doing his best to undermine America’s reputation for political checks and balances, Africa’s most democratic states have proved to be remarkably resilient.

Ghana has experienced numerous transfers of power and, in 2016, the first ever defeat of a sitting president. Namibia has consolidated its position as a “free” political system with robust respect for civil liberties, according to Freedom House.

South Africa suffered politically and economically during the presidency of Jacob Zuma, but now has the chance to bounce back after the governing African National Congress (ANC) voted to pursue reform under President Cyril Ramaphosa.

For their part, Botswana and Mauritius – the continent’s oldest democracies – continue to combine respect for political rights with prudent economic policies.

Praising Africa’s democratic success stories does not, of course, mean that we should overlook its failures. A number of countries have taken steps backwards in recent years, including Tanzania and Uganda. Authoritarian leaders also remain entrenched in Cameroon, Chad, Eritrea , and many more. But it is important to recognise that there is much more to Africa than authoritarianism.

Explaining success
In the absence of the conventional building blocks of democracy, we need to look elsewhere to explain these success stories. Some might be tempted to think that the role of the global community has been critical in keeping governments on the straight and narrow. But in reality, democracy is built from within, as the fact that aid-dependent countries such as Uganda and Rwanda have remained firmly authoritarian shows only too well.

We should, therefore, give greater credit to the politicians and people of Africa’s democratic states. African presidents are often lambasted for being corrupt and self-serving. But, in a number of countries, they have shown considerable restraint, establishing institutions capable of checking their power.

In Ghana, cohesive relationships among the political elite have underpinned a growing consensus on the value of democracy. In South Africa, inclusive leadership played a critical role in overcoming racial divisions and building trust in the new post-apartheid political system since 1994. In Namibia, successive presidents have refused to use the electoral dominance of the governing party to remove the opposition.

The role played by African citizens also deserves greater recognition. It was their willingness to take to the streets that forced democratic openings in the late 1980s. The same has been true in recent years, with mass action challenging authoritarian regimes in Burkina Faso and Sudan.

Despite economic challenges and democratic difficulties, high levels of public support for democracy in Africa mean that leaders understand the costs of backsliding.

At a time when people are questioning the value of democracy in many Western states, many African populations who have lived under one-party, one-man, or military rule are prepared to fight to prevent their return. This should serve both as an important lesson and a source of inspiration.

SOURCE: THE CONVERSATION

Nigerian Secondary School Pupil Shot Dead In S’Africa

BY SAMSON FOLARIN

PUNCH NEWSPAPERS

A 17-year-old secondary school pupil, Chinonso Obiaju, has been killed in Johannesburg, South Africa, in a suspected xenophobic attack.

According to the President of the Nigerian union in South Africa, Adetola Olubajo, Chinonso was shot dead on Saturday.

Olubanjo, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria, said the deceased lived in Roodeprt with his guardian.

According to Olubanjo, his guardian, Mike Nsofor, said Chinonso was shot around 6.30pm.

Olubanjo said, “He went to buy something from a shop with his friend and someone opened fire on them, killing him (Chinonso).

“He was born here, I learnt the mother is in the US. I have spoken to Mike Nsofor to pass the Nigerian community’s condolences and call for justice to be served in this case as anybody who hunts down a young schoolboy couldn’t have any justifiable reasons.”

He said Chinonso would be buried in South Africa, saying the union’s leaders in Johannesburg would also contact him “on developments”.

He added that the union would be going to the police on Monday to finalise “on the registry and provision of his papers”.

He implored the Federal Government to urgently protect Nigerians in the diaspora.

Many Nigerians have lost their lives in South Africa.

On June 13, the Deputy Director-General of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, Obianuju Ndubuisi-Chukwu, was found dead in her hotel room in the Southern African nation.

Ndubuisi-Chukwu had been scheduled to return to Nigeria on June 12 after attending the African Insurance Organisation conference in Johannesburg.

However, her corpse was found in a room at Emperor Palace Hotel where she had lodged for the conference.

While Ndubuisi-Chukwu was initially believed to have died in her sleep, an autopsy report however showed that she died of “unnatural causes consistent with strangulation”.

Macron Says UN Refugee Agency Attacked, Decries Libya Camps

A migrants splashes water on his face as he disembarks with others from an Italian Guardia di Finanza finance police boat at the Sicilian port of Pozzallo, southern Italy, early Tuesday, July 9, 2019. According to reports 53 migrants were rescued in the Sicilian Channel by an Italian Coast Guard patrol vessel, but six of them were immediately transferred to Lampedusa due to medical conditions. (Ciccio Ruta/ANSA via AP)

BY ELAINE GANLEY

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron called on Libyan authorities Monday to stop holding transiting refugees in detention camps and said buildings of the United Nations’ refugee agency in Libya were attacked earlier in the day.

Macron did not elaborate on the attack he said was carried out on buildings of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. He said Libya should end the “confinement” of refugees and house in safe places those who reach the North African country.

Libya has become a major conduit for African migrants and refugees hoping to reach Europe by crossing the Mediterranean Sea. An airstrike on a detention center near the Libyan capital killed more than 50 migrants and wounded dozens of others earlier this month.

Macron met with U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi and the director general of the International Organization for Migration on Monday, after European ministers in Paris tried to find agreement on dealing with Europe-bound migrants who use Libya as a stepping stone.

The European Union has spent hundreds of millions of euros to equip and train Libya’s coast guard and to improve the conditions of the detention centers. Under a deal with the EU, Libyan vessels apprehend refugees and migrants setting out from the coast and take them back.

Macron announced that eight countries had formally signed on to a French-German initiative to cooperate in a burden-sharing mechanism and 14 assented to it. Southern European countries like Italy and Greece have complained for years that they shoulder a disproportionate responsibility for arriving migrants.

“Europe isn’t a la carte when it comes to solidarity,” Macron said, with countries saying they don’t want a Europe that shares burdens but are in favor of unity “when it’s about receiving structural funds.”

Absent from the closed-door meeting of EU interior and foreign ministers was Italy’s populist, anti-migrant interior minister, Matteo Salvini. He tweeted strong disagreement Sunday with letting France and Germany determine the bloc’s refugee policy while nations like Italy are on the front line.

“We intend to make ourselves respected,” Salvini declared in another tweet.

Without naming Italy, Macron regretted the absence of some countries from the table, saying that “we gain nothing by non-cooperation.”

However, he reiterated the law of the sea by which boats must be able to enter the surest and closest port, which for vessels coming from Libya typically is Italy.

Salvini has barred private aid ships that rescue migrants from entering Italy’s ports, forcing NGOs to find another country willing to allow their rescue boats to dock and bartering among nations to divide up the migrants onboard.

U.N. High Commissioner Grandi said he was encouraged by the progress in finding a method for sharing the work of housing asylum-seekers and processing their applications.

Last month, Grandi and International Organization for Migration Director General Antonio Vitorino lamented that the EU had no predictable strategy for providing rescue boats with safe harbor and sharing newly arrived migrants.

The number of migrant crossings on the central Mediterranean route that leads to Italy has diminished drastically since 2015 and 2016.

“We no longer are living an arrival crisis .... We live a crisis of deaths,” Vitorino said.

According to the IOM, up to June 19, there were 2,252 arrivals in Italy and 1,151 in Malta, while at least 343 people died at sea.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas voiced hope earlier in the day that a solution was on the horizon.

“The haggling about emergency rescue in the Mediterranean must finally end,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said after the ministerial meeting. “It is really necessary that we manage to put together a coalition of those who are prepared to help, and I think we came a step closer to that today.”

The UNHCR and IOM chiefs joined Macron in stressing the need for rescue help from NGOs, which Italy has denounced, claiming they help traffickers.

On Sunday, the SOS Mediterranee, a French charity, partnering with Doctors Without Borders, announced it has returned to the sea with a new boat to save migrants, seven months after the flag was pulled from its original ship, Aquarius. The Norwegian-flagged Ocean Viking is heading to the Mediterranean with a 31-member crew, the group said.

Salvini wasted no time in warning SOS Mediterranee that Italy was not about to bend on its policy of keeping rescue ships at bay, tweeting Monday, “if someone is thinking about helping smugglers or breaking laws, be careful because we won’t be standing still.”

The Aquarius, SOS Mediterranee’s original rescue ship, ended its operations last fall after Panama revoked its flag and Italian prosecutors ordered the vessel seized, accusing Doctors Without Borders of illegally disposing of tons of contaminated and medical waste. The organization says the Aquarius assisted 30,000 migrants since 2016.

Monday’s meeting follows a gathering of EU interior ministers on the issue of rescuing migrants last week in Helsinki, Finland. Salvini hailed progress there, saying other ministers shared Italy’s position of revamping Mediterranean search and rescue rules with the aim of preventing immigration abuse.

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This version has been corrected to show that Macron said Libya, not France, should provide security for vulnerable refugees.

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Frances D’Emilio in Rome and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.

Iran Says It Arrested 17 Iranians Allegedly Recruited By CIA

In this Sunday, July 21, 2019 photo, a speedboat of Iran's Revolutionary Guard trains a weapon toward the British-flagged oil tanker Stena Impero, which was seized in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday by the Guard, in the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. Global stock markets were subdued Monday while the price of oil climbed as tensions in the Persian Gulf escalated after Iran's seizure of a British oil tanker on Friday. (Morteza Akhoondi/Tasnim News Agency via AP)

BY AYA BATRAWY, NASSER KARIMI

DUBAI, UUITED ARAB EMIRATES (AP) — Iran on Monday announced the arrest of 17 Iranians accused of spying on the country’s nuclear and military sites for the CIA and said some of them have been sentenced to death. President Donald Trump called it “another lie” from Iran.

The arrests happened over the past months, an Iranian intelligence official said at a news conference in Tehran. He said those taken into custody worked on “sensitive sites” in military and nuclear installations. The official did not say how many were given death sentences.

The announcement came amid weeks of rising tensions between Washington and Tehran over Trump’s decision to pull the United States out of Iran’s nuclear agreement with world powers last year and impose sweeping sanctions on the country.

The official said the 17 were recruited by the CIA and had “sophisticated training” but did not succeed in their sabotage missions. Their spying missions included collecting information at the facilities where they worked and installing monitoring devices, he said.

He said some were staff members at the targeted facilities, and the rest were working as consultant and contractors. The official said the CIA had promised them U.S. visas or jobs in America.

“That’s totally a false story. That’s another lie,” Trump said at the White House.

Trump also said Iran has “disrespected” the United States, adding: “If they want to make a deal, frankly it’s getting harder for me to want to make a deal with Iran because they’ve behaved very badly. They’re saying bad things.”

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a former CIA director, declined to address specifics of the arrests but said: “The Iranian regime has a long history of lying.”

“I think everyone should take with a grain of salt everything that the Islamic Republic of Iran asserts today,” he said.

With tensions rising recently, the U.S. has increased its military presence in the region and is sending at least 500 U.S. soldiers to Saudi Arabia, Iran’s rival.

Last month, U.S. officials said American military cyberforces struck Iranian Revolutionary Guard computers, disabling systems that controlled its rocket and missile launchers. The cyberattack came after Trump backed away from an airstrike in response to Iran’s downing of a U.S. surveillance drone.

The Iranian official did not give his name but was identified as the director of the counterespionage department of Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. It is rare in Iran for intelligence officials to appear before media, or for any official to give a news conference without identifying himself.

The official said some of the agents recruited by the CIA had turned and are now working with his department against the United States.

He also handed out a CD with video of what Iran said was a foreign female spy working for the CIA. The disc also included the names of several U.S. Embassy staff members in Turkey, India, Zimbabwe and Austria who Iran said were in touch with the recruited Iranian spies.

Iran occasionally announces the detention of people it says are spying for foreign countries, including the U.S. and Israel. In June, Iran said it executed a former Defense Ministry employee convicted of spying for the CIA. In April, it said it uncovered 290 CIA spies inside and outside the country over the past several years.

Karimi reported from Tehran, Iran. Associated Press writer Brendan Farrington in Tallahassee, Florida, contributed.

Racketeers Turning Nigerian Hospitals Into 'Market For Fake Documents'

Churning Naira in Nigerian hospitals. Image via RFI

BY WILLIAM NIBA
Nigeria's Premium Times says an illegal medical certificate business is thriving at medical institutions across the country.

According to the publication, the back-door racket has become so routine that members of the networks provide quick-time services at rates set depending on the pocket power of their clients and the urgency with which they needed the documents.

Big time business

A medical certificate of fitness, a key requirement of the National Youth Service Corps, costs 7,000 naira; a certificate of fitness for employment, N10,000 while a report certifying fitness for international travel could go as high as N20,000, writes Oladeinde Olawoyin, author of the Premium Times investigative report.

Olawoyin, who posed as an out service patient, gave this account of an exchange he had with a lady at Orile-Agege General Hospital, off the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway.

Racketeering networks

“Just pay the money, tell us your name and wait for some hours. You don’t need to do any test at all," he was told. "And the money is not much because we have to pay so many people whom your report will go through”, said the woman.

Fake medical records

Olawoyin told RFI that he ended up being delivered a clean bill of health, complete with an O Rh D Positive blood group, an AS genotype, details of stool analysis, urinalysis, and chest X-ray signed by a medical officer named Adeoye.

“These people are part of the institutions and understand the weaknesses," noted the Premium Times correspondent in a brief description of how the system operates.

Olawoyin says in his investigations he was able to confirm that fake medical certificates were being used to obtain health benefits, in insurance claims and other legal matters.

Nigerian Medical Association allegedly silent
“It’s something they do for a living and it goes unchecked, the various authorities in charge are probably aware but unwilling to do anything about it,” said Olawoyin, who said he tried, in vain, to get a reaction from the Nigerian Medical Association about the ethical failures which allowed the racket to thrive.

“The hospital back-door business is just a drop of water in the Nigerian ocean of corruption,” regrets Banwo Kolawole, an anti-corruption campaigner based in Abuja.

Nigerian paradox
“They are taking advantage of loopholes in public institutions and people's desperation to enrich themselves," argues Kolawole former programme manager with Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center, Nigeria’s chapter of Transparency International, Nigeria.

"We focus on grand corruption while little attention is paid to struggling Nigerians compelled to pay underhand funds every day to benefit from basic public services."

SOURCE: RFI (THE WORLD AND ALL ITS VOICES)

Immigration And The African Diaspora

Image via APLUSALA

BY HALIFU OSUMARE

OPINION – With the Trump administration’s hardline and heartless immigration policies — starting with the 2017 rescinding of DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) for young immigrants already in the U.S. and continuing with the 2018 family separation policy under his so-called “zero-tolerance” approach at the U.S.-Mexico border — the focus has been on brown people escaping poverty, gang violence, and state terror in Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador. But there are also tens of thousands of African, Caribbean, and African diasporans entering the country by plane that are also trapped in the morass of Trumpian hardline immigration policies.

I explored the more publicized Latino immigration issue in a previous blog “‘Blackifying’ the Immigration Issue: DACA and the Black Community.” (https://www.hosumare.com/blackifying-the-immigration-issue-daca-and-the-black-community). However, more attention needs to be paid to Black immigration and problems that African descendants face with the racist U.S. immigration policies.

Three organizations lead the charge to help Black immigrants in the fight against unfair U.S. immigration policies. The Undocublack Network (http://undocublack.org) was organized in 2016 to fight for immigrant rights and racial justice for Black undocumented individuals. Then there is BAJI (Black Alliance for Just Immigration) that exists to counteract the racial profiling that leads to disproportionate rates of immigration detention and deportation among Black people.

With offices in four major Black metropolitan areas — Atlanta, Los Angeles, Oakland, and Los Angeles — the BAJI website (https://baji.org) says, “Black immigrants have the highest unemployment rates and earn the lowest wages, even though they are among the most educated.”

Lastly, there is African Communities Together (ACT) that focuses specifically on Continental African immigrants who are victims of U.S. Immigration laws. Their website (http://www.africans.us) reveals that Africans “are as diverse as the African continent from which they come,” and “are at the heart of this organization.” One of their programs focuses on protecting the status for holders of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) from Somalia, Sudan, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan.

The Undocublack Network is leading the 2019 efforts to keep Deferred Enforcement Departure (DED) status for Liberians, who were given Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in 1990 during the 14-year civil war in that country.

Most Liberians in the U.S. have been here since the initiation of TPS. Many came as young children, the same as many Mexican and Latino/a DREAMERS, and haven’t been home in 30 years.

The Trump administration’s hardline and bigoted immigration policy declared an end to DED for Liberians, leaving thousands of them facing deportation as of March 31, 2019. After the Liberian civil war and the devastating Ebola virus epidemic, Liberia as country is dealing with extreme poverty and a challenged health care system, with very limited employment opportunities. Therefore, there is not the infrastructure in Liberia to deal with thousands of Liberians being deported back to their country.

As a result, a massive online campaign was initiated to get the Trump administration to extend DED by some of the aforementioned Black immigration organizations. Even the American progressive public policy advocacy group MoveOn has joined the Black immigration advocacy groups with an online campaign to promote congressional Bill H.R.6 to ensure extension of the status of Liberians.

UndocuBlack Network and African Communities Together filed a lawsuit with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights against the Trump Administration for terminating DED. Yatta Kiazolu, a Liberian DED holder and a UCLA Ph.D. candidate, testified before the House Judiciary Committee, stating, “Considering the ways our lives have been tossed into upheaval, this lawsuit is a step toward restoring our humanity.”


David Korma, another Liberian DED holder, testified to the personal toll of ending DED: “I worry everyday about my life. What am I going to do? I have been in America 19 years. I joined this lawsuit for my six children; they are my family. Our dreams and hopes are here.” UndocuBlack Network summarizes the situation this way: “The lawsuit will demonstrate that the President’s termination of DED is racist, cruel and destructive to Liberians, their families, and communities.”

These online, legal, and congressional efforts paid off, because on April 1 DED was extended for one year. Liberians’ advocacy efforts, in the face of losing their protected status, received support from several U.S. law makers, including Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Hennepin County, Minnesota, home to Minneapolis, has the greatest number of Liberians — an estimated 8,285, with 35,000 Liberians living in the entire state.

Working in favor of Liberians living in the U.S., American international interests in Africa played an important part in the Trump administration’s decision to extend DED. The U.S. government’s official decision stated that, “The overall situation in West Africa remains concerning, the extension decision said, and Liberia is an important regional partner for the Unit4ed States. Reintegration of the DED beneficiaries into Liberian civil and political life will be a complex task. And an unsuccessful transition could strain U.S.-Liberian relations and undermine Liberia’s post-civil war strides toward democracy and political stability.”

In general, Black immigration organizations are becoming more politically savvy and reaching out to their constituency and connecting them to sympathetic congressional leaders.

On February 23, BAJI hosted a “story circle” in New York City where Black community members shared the realities of migration, rituals, tradition, and race, as part of the African diaspora living in that city, and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez joined the circle.

During the “story circle,” community members shared their personal narratives, and the resulting stories were documented and transcribed into zines that will be featured in a traveling newsstand.

The African diaspora community is utilizing all resources at their disposal to spread their immigration messages in the era of increased bigoted U.S. immigration policy.

Black Caribbean immigrants are also under fire in this immigration maelstrom. Philadelphia, as sanctuary city, is becoming home to immigrants trying to avoid deportation.

One story that has emerged in that city is that of Clive and Oneita Thompson and family, who fled Jamaica to escape threats from gangs after Oneita’s brother was killed.

They first moved to South New Jersey where they lived for 14 years. But in September 2018 their visas expired, and in January 2019 they had to flee to First United Methodist Church in Philadelphia’s Germantown.

Undocublack revealed that for years the entire Thompson family had frequently checked in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and filed a series of stays of removal. But those legal briefs ran out on August 31, 2018. The Thompsons then contacted the New Sanctuary Coalition in Pennsylvania, leaving their New Jersey home, their jobs, and their community to move to Philadelphia with their two U.S. citizen children, Christine and Timothy. They then started online advocacy with a petition of support and fundraising campaign.

Undocublack makes it clear that in the current immigration climate, it is much easier to enter a sanctuary for asylum than to exit one, and the Thompson family continues to hold up in Philadelphia’s United Method Church.

The immigration issue regarding the African diaspora can crop up in places where one would least expect it, and such was the case with ICE’s jailing of well-known Atlanta rapper 21 Savage.

Most people did not know that She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph, popularly known as 21 Savage, was actually born in London in 1992 to British born parents of Dominican and Haitian descent. After his mother and father divorced, he moved with his mother to Atlanta at age seven.

This is again a story of a young child being brought to the U.S. and growing up as an American. But, in this case the child became a celebrated rapper-songwriter-producer, with his second album “I Am > I Was” spending two weeks atop the Billboard Album chart.

But a week before he was scheduled to perform on the 61st Grammys Award he was arrested by ICE for being a citizen of the United Kingdom who entered the U.S. in 2005 and unlawfully overstayed his visa that had expired a year later.

According to music critic Jon Caramanica in a February 27 New York Times article, “His attorneys — Dina La Polt, his general counsel, and Charles Kuck, his immigration attorney — proposed that there might have been political motivations at play.” In fact, they say his arrest was based on lyrics denouncing the inhumane family separations at the Mexican border.

In his extended version of his 2018 track “A Lot” he raps, “Went through some things, but I couldn’t imagine my kids stuck at the border/Flint still need water, niggahs was innocent, couldn’t get lawyers.” And, what’s more he performed “A Lot” on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in late January, and on February 3 ICE arrested him. Hence, it becomes obvious as an artist his freedom of speech was violated, with his detainment politically motivated due to the Trump administration’s tendency to take revenge on anyone with a big platform who denounces his racist and inhumane immigration policies.

Although he was released on February 13 on a $100,000 bond, during his detention a significant number of activist organizations galvanized around the #Free21Savage coalition.

Subsequently, there is a Stop the Deportation of the She’Yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph movement created by Black Lives Matter movement Co-Founder Patrisse Khan-Cullors. She stated in a memo to ICE Field Office Director Sean Gallagher, “The U.S.’s violent history of criminalizing Blackness intersects with its deadly legacy of detaining and deporting Black and Brown immigrants. This needs to stop today!” She also stated an important statistic: 4.2 million Black immigrants live in the U.S., with 619,000 undocumented.

The immigration case of a celebrity like 21 Savage helps to galvanize Black politicians, as well as the online activist community to take a stand on these unfair U.S. immigration policies and procedures.

The Congressional Black Caucus got involved in the 21 Savage case by writing a letter to the ICE director, while BAJI and its partners created a huge petition campaign. All of these efforts not only helped 21 Savage but created a tighter coalition between Black immigration organizations and Black politicians to oppose the racist, no-tolerance immigration policy of the Trump Administration.

Hopefully these coalitions will bring more attention to Black immigration in these times when past immigration gains, including legitimate asylum claims, are being reversed.

America is a nation of immigrants, and although Africans were the original “unwilling immigrants” through the slave trade, contemporary and African and African diaspora immigrants today are caught in a racist immigration morass in the era of Trump.

SOURCE: SACRAMENTO OBSERVER

New Standards Aim To Improve Surgery For The Oldest Patients

In this July 16, 2019 photo provided by the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System, George Barrett, 85, of Lakewood, Colo., is checked by nurse Renee Whitley as he recuperates from open-heart surgery at the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center in Aurora, Colo. The hospital helped the American College of Surgeons test new standards to improve surgical care for older adults. (Shawn Fury/VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System via AP)

BY LAURAN NEERGARRD

WASHINGTON (AP) — The 92-year-old had a painful tumor on his tongue, and major surgery was his best chance. Doctors called a timeout when he said he lived alone, in a rural farmhouse, and wanted to keep doing so.

“It was ultimately not clear we could get him back there” after such a big operation, said Dr. Tom Robinson, chief of surgery at the VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System.

The Denver hospital is trying something new: When their oldest patients need a major operation, what to do isn’t decided just with the surgeon but with a team of other specialists, to make sure seniors fully understand their options — and how those choices could affect the remainder of their lives.

It’s part of a move to improve surgical care for older Americans, who increasingly are undergoing complex operations despite facing higher risks than younger patients.

The American College of Surgeons launched a program Friday to encourage hospitals around the country to adopt 30 new standards to optimize surgery on patients who are 75 and older — information seniors and their families eventually will be able to use in choosing where to get care.

Seniors account for more than 40% of surgeries, which is expected to grow as the population ages. Certainly there are plenty of robust elders who can withstand major operations.

But as people get older, they don’t bounce back like they did even in middle age. Seniors rapidly lose muscle with even a short period in bed. They tend to have multiple illnesses that complicate recovery. And 15% of older adults who live at home — and a third of 80-somethings — face particular risks because they’re frail, meaning they’re weak, move slowly and get little physical activity.

The new standards stress team-based care and better communication about surgical risks and quality of life, to help patients choose their treatment. They must be evaluated for vulnerabilities such as frailty, being prone to falls or having dementia, and the hospital must have plans to handle them. After surgery, standards run the gamut from geriatric-friendly hospital rooms — with non-skid floors and windows to help stay oriented to day and night — to preventing post-surgery complications like delirium, a frightening state of confusion that can impair recovery and cause long-term memory and thinking problems.

Some of the steps have long been recommended, “but we realized guidelines are just that — they’re suggestions. The uptake of them in hospitals is pretty spotty,” said Dr. Ronnie Rosenthal of Yale University, who chaired the standards task force.

So the surgeons’ group, with funding from the John A. Hartford Foundation, created a geriatric surgery “verification program,” similar to programs credited with spurring trauma and pediatric surgery improvements. Hospital participation is voluntary, but those that join will be inspected and have to document how patients fare.

Eight hospitals including the Denver VA tested the standards. Robinson already sees a difference: 1 in 4 patients change their original surgical plan after a team review, and more go home rather than needing at least a temporary stay in a nursing home or other facility.

Consider that 92-year-old with a tumor on his tongue. After consultations with speech and swallowing experts, and an evaluation of his house, Robinson said the man ultimately chose a smaller operation. The tumor and only part of the tongue were removed to relieve pain rather than trying for a cure, and he returned home.

“These are difficult conversations,” Robinson said. But choosing to spend, say, their last year at home rather than two in a nursing home, “those are trade-offs people are making.”

After surgery, the standards also focus on seniors’ special needs such as maintaining mobility; prompt return of glasses and hearing aids to help keep patients oriented and able to follow care instructions; and steps to prevent delirium that include avoiding risky medications.

To implement them, Robinson’s hospital set up new nurse-led teams that check each older patient daily. For example, no more waiting for the surgeon to decide if physical and occupational therapy are needed; the nursing team puts that in place up front, explained geriatric nurse specialist Jennifer Franklin.

One of her team’s patients, George Barrett, 85, of Lakewood, Colorado, is recovering from successful open-heart surgery, and being prepped to go to a cardiac rehabilitation facility to regain his strength.

“They told me about all the risks and I wanted to go ahead with it anyway,” Barrett said of the surgery. “I want to hang around.”

Even before any hospitals go through the quality-improvement program, the standards can offer guidance to seniors and their families in making surgical decisions. For example, make sure the patient’s vulnerabilities are discussed up front: If dad already needs a walker, will being in the hospital make him worse? And what will the hospital do to help?

Especially make clear the patient’s goals: “It’s most important they ask, ‘What will my life look like after? What will I be able to do?’” said Yale’s Rosenthal.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

House Democrats Demand Hope Hicks Clarify Testimony After Cohen Document Dump

Former Trump aide Hope Hicks repeatedly denied during testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last month that she was ever present when Donald Trump and Michael Cohen discussed Stormy Daniels. Image: Alex Wong/Getty

BY DARREN SAMUELSOHN

WASHINGTON (POLITICO) -- The House Judiciary Committee on Thursday demanded Hope Hicks return for a second round of questioning within the next month to clarify what it described as "inconsistent" testimony she gave about Donald Trump's hush-money payments to an adult film actress.

Democratic panel chairman Jerry Nadler in a five-page letter cited newly released court documents that raise questions about whether the former White House communications director and longtime Trump aide misled his panel about her role in the scheme during a closed-door interview last month.

"As I reminded you at the outset of your interview, anything other than complete candor can have very serious consequences," Nadler said in the letter to Hicks, which set an August 15 deadline for her to voluntarily return for additional questioning otherwise he'd issue a subpoena.

At issue is testimony Hicks gave in June before Nadler's panel about what she knew concerning the payments made to the actress, Stormy Daniels, in a bid to silence her story before Election Day 2016.

Hicks told the committee she had no direct knowledge of the payments and that she didn't have any contact during the presidential campaign with several of the key participants, including Keith Davidson, a lawyer for Daniels, and executives at American Media, Inc., the parent organization of the National Enquirer that was planning to buy the actress's story to bury it.

She also told the House panel that she was never present for discussions about the issue involving Trump and Michael Cohen, the Trump attorney who is now serving a three-year prison sentence in part for his role in violating campaign finance laws tied to the payments to Daniels.

In his letter to Hicks, Nadler said her testimony on each of her statements dealing with the issue "appears to be inconsistent with the evidence" released earlier Thursday in newly unsealed portions of the FBI's search warrants on Cohen.

One example Nadler cited from the search warrant involves an early October 2016 phone call between Hicks, Trump and Cohen as the presidential candidate and his attorney were beginning negotiations on a deal to try and keep Daniels from going public with the allegations about an affair with Trump.

According to the document, Hicks called Cohen on Oct. 8, 2016. Sixteen seconds later, Trump himself was dialed into the call, which continued for over four minutes. The FBI agent said it was the first call Cohen had received or made to Hicks in at least multiple weeks, and Cohen and Trump had spoken only about once a month prior to that.

Cohen and Hicks then spoke again for about two minutes after the call with Trump ended.

Several other examples of Hicks' involvement are also in the court records released Thursday, including testimony from an FBI agent who said she was part of a series of calls, text messages and emails about the payments to Daniels with Trump, Cohen, Davidson and the American Media executives, David Pecker and Dylan Howard.

Chronological accounts from the FBI agents also describe Hicks communicating with the same group of people about the Daniels payments, as well as their anticipation of a separate Wall Street Journal story that was about to publish that detailed another alleged Trump affair with Karen McDougal, a Playboy model that the National Enquirer had also paid $150,000 to bury her story.

Hicks’ participation in all of those moments, coming as Trump’s campaign was scrambling to bury the women's stories in the final weeks of a tumultuous 2016 presidential race, puts her in an awkward spot to explain her closed-door congressional testimony last month.

In that private interview, Hicks gave a categorical denial to Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) when she asked whether Hicks was ever present when Trump and Cohen had discussed Daniels.

“No, ma’am,” Hicks replied.

“You were never present when they discussed Stormy Daniels?” Jackson Lee asked again, according to a transcript released by the panel.

“No,” Hicks answered.

Jackson Lee then pressed a third time. “I’m going to say it again. Were you ever present when Trump and Mr. Cohen discussed Stormy Daniels, since it was all over the news that that occurred?” the lawmaker asked.

After a White House attorney, Patrick Philbin, interjected to ensure the question to Hicks was focused only on her time on the Trump campaign, Hicks again replied, “So, no is my answer.”

Also in the interview, Tennessee Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen asked Hicks directly if she had "no knowledge - any information about hush money payments to Ms. Stormy Daniels. How about to Ms. - was it - McDougal, Miss August?"

Hicks replied, "I wasn't aware of anything. I wasn't aware of a hush payment agreement."

She also testified that she didn't have "any direct knowledge" about the payments made to Daniels during the campaign.

Asked when she learned about the payments to the actress, Hicks replied in questioning from the committee's lawyers that she did not recall speaking to Cohen about the Daniels episode "other than to relay what the reporter said to me, that she would be mentioned in [a] story, but there was no additional context."

"I know the president had conversations with Michael separate from me, so it's possible it was part of those. I don't recall being part of those conversations," Hicks added.

Hicks’ responses to the House committee also appears to conflict with what an FBI special agent wrote in support of the bureau’s request for search warrants of Cohen’s home, office and hotel room. In a footnote about the Trump-Cohen-Hicks call, the agent described a conversation with another official from the bureau who had interviewed Hicks.

“I have learned that Hicks stated, in substance, that to the best of her recollection, she did not learn about the allegations made by [Daniels] until early November 2016,” the agent wrote. “Hicks was not specifically asked about this three-way call.”

A lawyer for Hicks could not immediately be reached for comment.

The new questions about Hicks’ testimony come as some in Trump’s orbit are starting to breathe a little easier. Audrey Strauss, lead U.S. attorney in New York handling Cohen’s case, sent a letter to a federal judge earlier this week that the government’s probe had concluded into who else might be criminally liable for the campaign finance violations to which Cohen pleaded guilty.

Strauss also said the Manhattan-based investigation into whether anyone else gave false statements or obstructed justice is over.

While the New York-based federal prosecutor made no mention about additional charges, several legal experts told POLITICO on Wednesday that the government’s confirmation that it has closed its investigation suggests no one else from the Trump Organization faces legal liability.

“Case closed,” Trump personal attorney Jay Sekulow said in a text message to POLITICO on Thursday.

But others aren’t so sure Hicks is in the clear.

"Looks like Hope Hicks lied during Congressional investigation when we at @HouseJudiciary interviewed her," tweeted Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who sits on the judiciary panel. "That's two felonies: Perjury & Obstruction of Justice. Hicks consulted with lawyers throughout her interview. Did @TheJusticeDept or @WhiteHouse lawyers know she was lying?"

Added Bradley Moss, a Washington-based national security attorney, “I’m going to be surprised if there isn’t a 1001 violation referral for Hope Hicks by the end of tomorrow. It appears rather clear she lied to Congress about the Stormy Daniels saga.” He was referring to the federal statute prohibiting material false statements.