Month: January 2020

The Israeli military said Friday that it launched “wide-scale” airstrikes on militant targets in the Gaza Strip shortly after Palestinian militants fired three rockets into Israel, two of which were intercepted.

There were no reports of casualties or major damage from the exchange of fire overnight, which came amid heightened tensions after President Donald Trump released his Mideast plan, a U.S. initiative aimed at ending the conflict that heavily favors Israel and was rejected by the Palestinians.

Palestinians have called for large protests after Friday prayers, including at a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem that is sacred to Muslims and Jews. 

Recent relative calm

Gaza has been relatively calm in recent months as Egyptian and U.N. mediators have worked to shore up an informal truce between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules the coastal territory.

Hamas has curbed rocket fire and rolled back weekly protests along the frontier that had often turned violent. In return, Israel has eased the blockade it imposed on Gaza after Hamas seized power from forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority in 2007.

Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have rejected the Trump plan, which would allow Israel to annex all of its Jewish settlements, along with the Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinians were offered limited self-rule in Gaza, parts of the West Bank and some sparsely populated areas of Israel in return for meeting a long list of conditions.

Hamas has vowed that “all options are open” in responding to the proposal, but is not believed to be seeking war with Israel. Palestinian militants have fought three devastating wars with Israel since the Hamas takeover.

Friday protest

Palestinians have held small, scattered protests in recent days condemning the Trump initiative, and larger demonstrations are expected after Friday prayers, including at the Jerusalem holy site known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.

It is the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, and is home to the iconic gold Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque. It was also the location of the First and Second Jewish Temples in antiquity. The Western Wall nearby, the only remnant of the Second Temple, is the holiest place where Jews can pray.

The hilltop shrine is managed by an Islamic trust under Jordanian stewardship, and day-to-day affairs are governed by informal understandings with Israel known as the “status quo.” Non-Muslims are allowed to visit during certain hours, but Jews cannot pray there.

In recent years, increasing numbers of religious and ultra-nationalist Jews have visited the site, stoking fears among the Palestinians that Israel intends to one day partition it, as it has done to a similar site in the West Bank town of Hebron that is sacred to both faiths.

The status quo

Israel has repeatedly said it has no intention of changing the status quo and accuses Islamist groups of spreading unfounded rumors to incite violence. The Trump plan, which heavily favors Israel, says the status quo should “continue uninterrupted.”

But the plan also says “people of every faith should be permitted to pray on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, in a manner that is fully respectful to their religion, taking into account the times of each religion’s prayers and holidays, as well as other religious factors.”

Palestinians view the sprawling esplanade as the last bit of territory that is fully theirs and the Dome of the Rock as a symbol of their national cause. Muslim worshippers have clashed with police there on numerous occasions in recent years in response to perceived infringements. A provocative visit to the site by Ariel Sharon, a right-wing politician who went on to become prime minister, ignited the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in 2000.

The site is part of the Old City in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured, along with the West Bank and Gaza, in the 1967 war. The Palestinians view east Jerusalem as their capital and want all three territories to form their future state.

Trump’s Mideast plan would create a disjointed Palestinian state with a capital on the outskirts of east Jerusalem, beyond the separation barrier built by Israel. The rest of Jerusalem, including the Old City, would remain Israel’s capital.

The plan would allow Israel to annex large parts of the West Bank almost immediately, while Palestinian statehood would be heavily restricted and subject to several preconditions that the Palestinians have always rejected.

…

Surrounded by the millions of monarch butterflies that Mexican environmental activist Homero Gomez Gonzalez fought to protect until his mysterious death, relatives and friends paid tribute to him Thursday.

Gomez Gonzalez’s sudden disappearance two weeks ago had sparked an outcry in Mexico, an increasingly violent country where activists are routinely threatened, harmed or killed as a result of their work.

Gomez Gonzalez, who worked passionately to protect a Mexican forest where monarch butterflies spend the winter, suffered head trauma as well as drowning, authorities announced Thursday night, potentially adding weight to the fears that he was murdered.

Even before the announcement, relatives of Gomez Gonzalez speculated his death wasn’t accidental.

“Something strange is happening, because they’re finishing off all the activists, the people who are doing something for society,” the dead man’s brother, Amado Gomez, said Thursday at the funeral.

Gomez Gonzalez’s body was discovered Wednesday in a holding pond near the mountain forest reserve that he had long protected. Michoacan state prosecutors said that an initial review indicated a drowning and found no signs of trauma, but their latest statement said more detailed autopsy results produced evidence of a head injury.

Authorities gave no other information on the injury and did not say how it might have been inflicted. They said an investigation continued.

Grinding poverty and gang violence fuel twin threats to the butterfly reserve — illegal logging and encroaching plantations of avocados. The latter is the only legal crop that provides a decent income in this region.

Gomez Gonzalez had spent a decade working as an activist, though he became best known for posting mesmerizing videos of the black and orange insects on social media, urging Mexicans to treasure the El Rosario reserve, a world heritage site.

His brother said Gomez Gonzalez, an engineer, was so compelled to do something after the number of butterflies dropped dramatically that he eventually gave up his job to work on projects aimed at protecting them.

“This was his passion,” his brother said. “He loved promoting the butterflies, filming them, researching them.”

He also worked to persuade about 260 fellow communal land owners that they should replant trees on land cleared for corn plots. By local accounts, he managed to reforest about 150 hectares (370 acres) of previously cleared land.

Like other places in the world, increasingly scarce water also plays a role in the conflict. Gomez Gonzalez and other communal land owners had asked the nearby town of Angangueo for payments in return for water they receive from clear mountain streams that survive only because the forests are protected.

“A lot of the communal landowners fear that with his death, the forests are finished,” Amado Gomez said.

“I would like to ask the authorities to do their job and do more to protect activists like my brother, because lately in Mexico a lot of activists have died,” he said. “With his death, not only my family lost a loved one; but the whole world, and the monarch butterfly and the forests lost, too.”

London-based Global Witness counted 15 killings of environmental activists in Mexico in 2017 and 14 in 2018. In an October 2019 report, Amnesty International said that 12 had been killed in the first nine months of that year.

Millions of monarchs come to the forests of Michoacan and other nearby areas after making the 3,400-mile (5,500-kilometer) migration from the United States and Canada. 
They need healthy tree cover to protect them from rain and cold weather.

Reuters contributed to this report.
 

…

The U.S. senators weighing the removal of President Donald Trump from office completed a final day of questioning Thursday. The Senate impeachment trial now enters an uncertain phase as Republicans appear to have enough votes to block Democrats’ request to hear testimony from key administration officials. As VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson reports, the final vote in the impeachment trial could quickly follow.
 

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The 100 senators weighing if U.S. President Donald Trump should be removed from office finally got the opportunity to ask their own questions Wednesday. In the first of two days of a new phase of the Senate impeachment trial, senators followed up with House impeachment managers and the president’s own defense on a range of legal issues relating to Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. VOA’s congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more from Capitol Hill.
 

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For the foreign students on lockdown in China where a deadly flulike coronavirus has emerged, days are marked by fear, frustration and boredom.

“I wear a mask all the time,” said Redwan Mohamed Nur, an accounting student who told VOA he is one of 14 Somalis at Wuhan University and among 5,000 Africans studying in China. 

“I [am] so scared that I didn’t dare to open the window because I’m afraid the wind would blow the virus in.”

Wuhan is home to dozens of universities and colleges. On Jan. 23, China closed off Wuhan, the center of a deadly outbreak of the coronavirus; 16 cities are locked down, more than 6,000 cases worldwide have been confirmed and at least 132 people are dead.

Stuck in his dorm, he said he has left only once, and that was to walk to where school authorities distribute food to foreign students every other day. Elsewhere in China, foreign students stay indoors, worried of exposure to the coronavirus.

Nur says the Somalis are a tight knit community. Abdulkadir Mohamed Abdi, one of four Somali students at China University of Geosciences, is studying petroleum engineering. 

“You can get infected without showing the symptoms,” he said. “Therefore you are safe to be indoors.” But he has run out of food and is planning to go out to find an open supermarket.

Yassin Abdi Said, a Somali student living in Wuhan, told VOA the Somalis were remaining calm, but “the situation in Wuhan is very, very dangerous. The city is on lockdown, most shops are closed. Authorities are not allowing anyone to go out or come in.”

Indonesian students — Yuliannova Lestari Chaniago, Patmawaty Taibe and Gerard Ertandy — sent VOA a message from Wuhan’s Central China Normal University, saying they asked their government to evacuate them immediately to their home country.

In Jakarta, the Indonesian Air Force has said they have three airplanes to help evacuate Indonesians from Wuhan, but are waiting for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make a decision. Wuhan is home to 102 Indonesians, most of them students.

“We — Yuli, Eva and Gerald — are asking to be evacuated immediately from the city of Wuhan as this city is no longer healthy for us,” said Yuliannova Lestari Chaniago, 26, an international relations student.

Chaniago said she’d received a week’s allowance from Indonesia’s embassy in Beijing, but added that shops and drugstores are closed. She and her friends are surviving on homemade chicken soup. 

“We understand that it’s hard for supplies to be sent in as the city is still in lockdown,” she said. “But we are puzzled as how to survive and protect ourselves from getting infected while at the same time being in the center of the outbreak, without enough food, water and medications.”

She said she and her friends are wearing two masks at once.

“There are masks handed out by the campus to survive, but they’re too thin,” she said. “It’s not the prescribed masks to prevent (the spread of) the virus.”

At the Hubei University of Technology in Wuhan, “They have closed the dormitory doors so that nobody can go out,” Yusuf Abdullah, a Bangladeshi student told VOA. “If you order the food in the canteen, they will cook it for you and then they’ll send. But you can’t go outside.”  

Abdullah said the Bangladeshi Embassy had opened a chat group on the Chinese WeChat platform to share information and concerns. On the group chat, Abdullah told VOA that participants asked the embassy to “evacuate us as soon as possible.”

Sithu Htun is one of 57 students, and three parents, living in isolation in the international students’ dormitory on the Wuhan University campus. All the students all are scholars under the educational and cultural exchange program between China and Myanmar.

The environmental engineering graduate student at the Wuhan University of Technology said everyone was in good health but worried about the supply of food and medicines. He told VOA that the Myanmar Embassy keeps in touch with them about possible evacuation.

He said it would be great if developed countries offered assistance to evacuate them, as Japan and U.S. sent aircraft to evacuate its citizens from Wuhan. He said Burmese students are helping each other avoid feeling depressed about negative comments on social media that reflect a widespread distrust of China among Burmese. 

“My parents are very worried about my safety because I am an only child, an only son,” said Keat Pocheang, 24, a Cambodian student at Wuhan University. “They video call me about 10 times a day.” He said he is “disappointed” that his government has not taken steps to evacuate its nationals.

Another Cambodian student, Tang Chivhour, 20, a native of Phnom Penh, is a student at Hubei University in Wuhan. He has lived in China for three years and speaks fluent Chinese. For the past week, Tang Chivhor said boredom has been the biggest challenge. 

“I have a few Korean friends who are stuck here. So, I hang out with them, chatting and reading together.”

Shipon Hussein, a Bangladeshi doctoral student studying at East China Normal University in Shanghai, said university authorities are not allowing outside people to enter foreign students’ residential quarters. 

“There has been talk about evacuation process,” he said. He added he knew some Bangladeshi students stranded in Wuhan “wanted to go back to Bangladesh.”

In China’s capital, Francisco Sithoi Jr., 22, a Mozambican student at the Beijing University of Technology, echoed what students trapped in Wuhan said, that it was becoming hard for him to get the food he needed, having to “go from supermarket to supermarket.”

Jannatun Nahar, a Bangla student at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, echoed that the university officials were “taking care of us” and offering free meals and basic items like sanitizer. And while she, too, feels isolated, she says, she doesn’t want to go home.

“I don’t want to go back … because in my country, the population density is huge,” she said. “If the virus is in my body … if I come back to my country, it might effect my family, my relatives, my country. In my personal opinion, I want to stay in China, I don’t want to spread the virus in my country.”

Reporters from VOA’s Bangla, Burmese, Indonesian, Khmer, Portuguese and Somali services contributed to this report, which was written in the Mandarin service.

…

The death of American basketball great Kobe Bryant and his 13-year-old daughter in a Calabasas, California, helicopter crash, Jan. 26, 2020, sent shockwaves throughout the world, especially in Africa where many looked up to him.  VOA spoke with fans in Kenya and a basketball official in Ivory Coast about the NBA star’s sudden death.  Salem Solomon has the story.

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President Donald Trump unveiled his Middle East peace plan at the White House Tuesday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his side. The plan includes redrawing the map of the West Bank to favor Israel while offering Palestinians a conditional pathway to statehood. Palestinians have rejected the plan and called on Arab neighbors to boycott. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has the story.

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The coronavirus that started in Wuhan, China, last month has spread to more than 18 countries, as governments work to stop it. China has a mixed record on transparency during public crises, but President Xi Jinping, in a meeting with the director of WHO, said his country is ready to work with the organization and international community. This as Washington calls on Beijing to allow more public health experts into China to help halt the spread of the virus. More from VOA’s Mariama Diallo.

…

Members of the U.S. Senate will spend Wednesday asking their questions about the issues involved in the impeachment of President Donald Trump, after spending parts of six days listening to a group of lawmakers from the House of Representatives make a case for convicting the president and his lawyers arguing he did nothing wrong.

Senate Republicans and Democrats will alternate submitting their written questions to be read by Chief Justice John Roberts. The questions can be directed at either the House members serving as prosecutors or Trump’s legal team, and there is no set time limit for their responses.

The process will continue Thursday, before the chamber proceeds to considering whether they will vote to allow witnesses in the trial.

Calling witnesses

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told fellow Republicans Tuesday that he did not have enough support among the Republican majority to stop Democrats from calling witnesses.

McConnell and the president’s defense team oppose calling witnesses, including former national security adviser John Bolton who claims in an upcoming book that Trump directly told him that he was withholding military aid to Ukraine in exchange for a political favor.

Trump tweeted late Tuesday reiterating his objections.

No matter how many witnesses you give the Democrats, no matter how much information is given, like the quickly produced Transcripts, it will NEVER be enough for them. They will always scream UNFAIR. The Impeachment Hoax is just another political CON JOB!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2020

Fifty-one of the 100 senators hearing the impeachment case would have to vote in favor of witnesses, meaning four Republicans would have to side with the 47 Democrats and independents.

Several moderate Republicans, including Mitt Romney, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, have said they may be interested in hearing Bolton and others testify.

Bolton’s revelation in his soon-to-be-published book could blow up the White House’s major defense: that the president did nothing wrong in withholding $391 million in military aid to Ukraine.

Trump’s lawyers say he had the right to freeze the aid because he was concerned about Ukrainian corruption and wanted Europe to pitch in more to help Ukraine fight Russian-backed separatists.

Democrat impeachment managers say Trump abused his power and would not release the aid until Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy publicly committed to investigating Trump’s rival for the 2020 White House, Democrat Joe Biden, for alleged corruption.

WATCH: Trump Team Closes Impeachment Defense

Defense rests

The Trump defense team wrapped up its case Tuesday. Lawyer Jay Sekulow told the 100 senators acting as jurors, “We are clear in our position there was no quid pro quo” in Trump asking Zelenskiy to investigate Biden.

Sekulow said Trump had “a proper government interest” to investigate possible corruption in asking for the Ukraine investigations of Biden, his son Hunter’s work at a Ukrainian natural gas company, and a debunked theory that Ukraine meddled in the 2016 U.S. presidential election that Trump won. No evidence has emerged of wrongdoing by the Bidens.

“He knew what he was saying,” Sekulow said of Trump’s July conversation with Zelenskiy. “To say he’s not acting in the national interest is wrong.” 

Sekulow’s arguments came on the third and last day of the president’s defense that he should be acquitted of two articles of impeachment — abusing the power of the presidency and obstructing congressional efforts to investigate his Ukraine actions.

“These articles must be rejected,” Sekulow said. “The Constitution requires it. Justice demands it.”

White House counsel Pat Cipollone concluded, “This should end now, as quickly as possible.”

“Nothing in the Bolton revelations, even if true, would rise to the level of an abuse of power or an impeachable offense,” famed attorney Alan Dershowitz said late Monday.

Debate Friday

A four-hour debate is expected Friday on whether to subpoena Bolton, whom Trump dismissed in September, and other witnesses familiar with Trump’s Ukraine-related actions and documents held by the White House and government agencies.

Trump’s Republican defenders have balked at calling Bolton as a witness.

“I think, at this point, if you want to hear from John Bolton, you have to ask yourself, ‘Is he a disinterested party? Is he a neutral party? Or is he someone who’s very unhappy — disgruntled, fired employee who now has a motive, a multimillion-dollar motive, to inflame the situation?” Senator Rand Paul asked.

Trump’s lawyers sharply attacked Biden and his son’s lucrative work for a Ukrainian natural gas company. They accused Democrats of improperly using impeachment as a weapon to get rid of a president they simply don’t like, to overturn the 2016 election, and keep Trump off the ballot in November as he seeks a second term in the White House.

A two-thirds vote in the 100-member Senate is needed to convict Trump and remove him from office. But with Republicans holding a 53-47 majority and no Republican calling for his ouster, Trump is all but assured of being acquitted.

…

More than 60 Afghan students are among foreigners stranded in Wuhan, China. Their families in Afghanistan say these students are hurting psychologically since the city has been on lockdown. Food and supplies are running out, and they are losing hope of leaving the city. Today, the Afghan government asked China to keep the students in Wuhan and not send them back to Afghanistan. Their desperate families are asking the Afghan and Chinese governments to help these students. Sayed Hasib Mawdoodi in Kabul met with families, and students who returned from Wuhan 10 days ago.  

…

Nations around the world are evacuating their students and other citizens from coronavirus-stricken China, while other countries are choosing to leave their citizens in Wuhan, the university city where the virus reportedly started.

Around 500 Bangladeshi students are among the stranded in Wuhan. They have called for help on social media, while the Chinese and Bangladesh governments negotiate a strategy. 

“Through the social [media] site WeChat, students got informed of the mystery infectious virus that was spreading fast,” Mazharul Islam, a freshman in the School of Electrical Engineering at Wuhan University, told VOA. “However, we were told that there is nothing to get worried about and the virus is under control. Later through WeChat we were advised to use masks when stepping out of the dormitory.”

Islam said there were 30 Bangladeshi students on his campus. Through Chinese social media WeChat, he said, he and others learned there were 500 Bangladeshi students in Wuhan. He said the Bangladesh Embassy in Beijing “would notify us if there were any emergency evacuation taking place.” He said they have been provided with masks and preventive medicines from the university.

Masudur Rahman, the deputy chief of mission at the Bangladesh Embassy in Beijing, said of the 3,000 Bangladeshis in China, most are students and teachers. 

“We, from the Bangladesh Embassy in Beijing, are in contact with the Chinese authorities and are trying to find a possible solution in the present situation,” Rahman said. Evacuation would “have to take place through a bilateral arrangement.”    

Meanwhile, other countries are arranging flights out of China for their citizens. France – where three cases of the coronavirus have been reported — said it will operate several direct flights under the supervision of medical experts out of China midweek for French citizens who want to leave, AFP reported. The number could “range from a few dozen to a few hundred” of its 800 citizens in China, said Health Minister Agnes Buzyn.

Evacuees will “stay in a holding area for 14 days,” the duration it takes for the virus to incubate, when they land in France, AFP reported.

Morocco ordered the repatriation of 100 Moroccan nationals – mostly students – from the Wuhan area on Monday, according to Reuters. Other countries arranging to have their citizens and students flow out include Japan, Spain, Britain and Netherlands. Canada, which has about 167 nationals in the Wuhan area, has not planned evacuations but has not ruled them out, Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said Monday. Each consular request would be evaluated on a “case by case basis,” he told Reuters.

The epidemic, which originated in Wuhan city, has claimed 81 lives in China and infected more than 2,800 people globally, most of them in China.

📌 CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

DEATHS

🇨🇳 China 81

CONFIRMED CASES

🇨🇳 China 2700
🇺🇸 US 5
🇦🇺Australia 5
🇫🇷 France 3
🇳🇵Nepal 1
🇯🇵 Japan 4
🇸🇬 Singapore 4
🇰🇷 South Korea 4
🇹🇼 Taiwan 5
🇹🇭 Thailand 8
🇻🇳 Vietnam 2
🇲🇾Malaysia 4
🇰🇭 Cambodia 1

(Source: VOA/ AFP)

— The Voice of America (@VOANews) January 27, 2020

The Chinese government has locked down Wuhan and neighboring cities to keep the virus from spreading. Tens of millions of people, including foreigners and students, are among them. Many students left the Wuhan area for Lunar New Year’s holiday and winter break, but others stayed behind.

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Students from Wuhan Traveling Globally for Holidays

Hundreds of students recently left for countries around the world for winter break

More than 60 Afghan students are among foreigners stranded in Wuhan. The Afghan government has asked China to keep the students in Wuhan and not send them back to Afghanistan, much to the disappointment of their families in Afghanistan.

“Universities are locked-down, and students are stranded at their rooms and are not allowed to leave their campuses,” said Ahmad Jawed Beheshti, an Afghan student at Sichuan University in China. “Just yesterday, they closed off our university.”

Javed Ahmad Qaem, Afghan ambassador to China, told VOA the students have not been forgotten.

“They are nervous, but Chinese authorities are acting responsibly,” he said. “They have a focal point for each embassy. If and when relocation is allowed inside China or outside China, we will also be at the forefront. So far relocation is not allowed. They are isolated and we are monitoring the situation closely.”

The president of the Indonesian Student Association (PPI) of Chinape, Nur Musyafak, in Wuhan said Indonesian citizens — including students — want to get out of the city. Foreign Ministry data show there are 428 Indonesian citizens studying in Wuhan. Most of those students returned to Indonesia for winter break.

But those remaining in China need a recommendation letter from the Indonesian Republic Embassy if they want to leave.

“We’re gathering all the passport numbers of these 98” Indonesians who remain in Wuhan. “Once we have the data, we will request a letter from the Indonesian Embassy,” Nur told VOA.

The dorm is 20 kilometers from the Huanan Seafood Market, where the coronavirus is suspected of emanating. Campuses in Wuhan have distributed masks, liquid soap, and free thermometers to students, Nur said. The universities have instructed students not to leave their room too often.

Authorities in Myanmar said they had cancelled a planned evacuation of 60 students from Mandalay who were studying in Wuhan. Kyaw Yin Myint, a spokesman for the Mandalay municipal government, told Reuters that a “final decision” had been made to send them back after 14 days, once the virus’ incubation period had passed.

In Russia, direct flights from Wuhan to Moscow were suspended last week. At least 140 Russians, 75 of them students, are known to be in Wuhan and Hubei, the Russian embassy in China said on Monday, Reuters reported from the TASS news agency.

The United States said it would evacuate personnel and citizens in China, several news outlets reported. The U.S. State Department said it will evacuate personnel from its Wuhan consulate to the United States and offer a limited number of seats to private U.S. citizens on a flight. Some private citizens will be able to board the “single flight” leaving Wuhan on Jan. 28 for San Francisco, it said.

Sayed Hasib Mawdoodi of VOA’s Afghan Service in Kabul, Sanjana Feroz and KabirUddin Sarkar of the Bangla Service in Washington, and Rio Tuasikal of the Indonesian Service in Bandung, Indonesia, contributed to this report.

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Last year was the deadliest in recent history for extremist violence in the Sahel region of Africa. The trend appears to be continuing in 2020 and experts warn more must be done to avoid a crisis in the region.

Last week, suspected Islamic extremists carried out attacks on two villages in Burkina Faso, killing at least 32 civilians.

In neighboring Niger, terror attacks claimed by extremist fighters killed 89 people this month and 71 soldiers in December.

In both countries and elsewhere in the Sahel region, insurgent and Islamist groups with links to al-Qaida and the Islamic State (IS) terror groups in recent months have increased their attacks against civilian and military targets.

Rise in casualties

U.N. officials say the number of casualties in the region has increased five times since 2016 with more than 4,000 victims in 2019.“

The region has experienced a devastating surge in terrorist attacks against civilian and military targets,” Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the U.N. Special Representative and Head of the U.N. Office for West Africa and the Sahel, told the U.N. Security Council earlier this month.

“Most significantly, the geographic focus of terrorist attacks has shifted eastwards from Mali to Burkina Faso and is increasingly threatening West African coastal states,” he added.

The Sahel is a semi-arid region that stretches from Sudan in the east to the Atlantic Ocean in the west. It includes countries such as Niger, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania. These nations are known as the G5 Sahel countries.

Economic grievances

Experts say porous borders, poor governance and unstable economies in these countries have allowed Islamist militants to thrive in the impoverished region.“

It is generally presumed that militant groups in the Sahel region benefit from the black market and trafficking economies that rely on illicit trade transiting the Sahara,” said Alice Hunt Friend, an Africa expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington.

“But given the weakness of regional states and their security services, militant coffers are not as important to the balance of power as their boldness and organization,” she told VOA.

Increased cooperation with France

The surge of violence carried out by terror groups in the Sahel region has forced West African nations to reconsider their strategy and build new security partnerships.

Last week, leaders of the G5 Sahel countries convened in France, where they agreed to put aside their differences with France in order to combat terrorism more effectively in the region.

France, a former colonial power in the Sahel region, has agreed to deploy an additional 220 troops to the Sahel in an attempt to prevent the rise in terrorist violence in the region.

France already has about 4,500 troops stationed in Sahel, who have been instrumental in fighting an Islamist insurgency in Mali since 2013.

But with recent terror threats throughout the region, France says its forces would extend military assistance to other countries in the region.“

French troops are in the Sahel to enable West African leaders to fully assume their sovereignty,” French President Emmanuel Macron told G5 Sahel leaders during last week’s summit.

“The priority is Islamic State in the Greater Sahara,” Macron added.

The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, an IS affiliate, is active in the Sahel region. Other extremist groups including Ansar al-Islam in Burkina Faso and the Macina Liberation Front in Mali and other IS and al-Qaida-linked groups also have carried out terrorist attacks in the region in recent years.

Niagale Bagayoko, African Security Sector Network Chair, said although the focus may be on one group, the range of threats in the region is extremely complex.“

“It is becoming evident that the issue at stake is much more complicated. Because you have a very complex mix of different actors. You have rebel groups that mainly want to have autonomy or if not independence. You have also criminal groups. You have also local self-defense militias. And also, of course, you have jihadist groups. But even all those jihadist groups are very different,” she told VOA.

US involvement

Last month, The New York Times reported that the United States was considering a reduction or even a full withdrawal of U.S. troops from West Africa.

The U.S. has between 6,000 and 7,000 troops in Africa, mainly stationed in West Africa.

The possible reduction of U.S. troops in Africa is reportedly part of a worldwide review by U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who is looking for ways to tighten the focus on China and Russia.

While some experts fear that any such withdrawal would end U.S. support for French military efforts in African countries such as Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso in their war against jihadist fighters, others believe ongoing efforts have not been enough to tackle the issue of extremism in the Sahel.

“The U.S. presence likely limits terrorist activity in the Sahel but has not eliminated it, and neither France nor other Europeans nor governments in the region will standstill in the face of U.S. withdrawal,” analyst Friend of CSIS said.

“The question of whether the French can sustain operations without U.S. support is an open one, although France likely could choose to do so but that would require more resources and domestic political capital,” she added.

On Monday, French Defense Minister Florence Parly visited the Pentagon and met with her U.S. counterpart Defense Secretary Mark Esper. She urged the U.S. to continue supporting the security efforts in the region.

But U.S. officials have expressed concerns about the deteriorating situation in the Sahel region.

“I think [the Sahel] is the most difficult and challenging situation we have now in the continent,” Tibor Nagy, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, said in November  during a press briefing.

“The threat of terrorism and violent extremism is expanding. It’s not anymore in north Mali only. It is going down to Burkina Faso and countries like Ghana, Togo, Benin are all on alert,” he said.

…

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang visited the city of Wuhan on Monday to meet with health officials and examine the response to the outbreak of a coronavirus that has killed 80 people.

Wuhan is the center of the outbreak and people there and in several other cities face strict restrictions on movement as the government tries to prevent the virus from spreading.

Officials took an extra step Sunday to extend the Lunar New Year holiday three extra days to cut down on group gatherings.

The latest figures reported by Chinese health officials include more than 2,700 cases of people being sickened by the virus.

Cases have also been reported in Australia, Canada, France, Hong Kong, Japan, Macao, Malaysia, Nepal, Portugal, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.  The World Health Organization says most of those are people who had a travel history in Wuhan, with several others having contact with someone who traveled there.

There have been no reported deaths linked to the virus outside of China.

The head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention respiratory disease office, Nancy Messonnier, said Sunday there were five confirmed cases in the United States, and that all five people had direct contact with others in Wuhan.

The patients are isolated in hospitals as doctors and health officials try to find out more about the virus. The CDC says it is investigating about 100 suspected cases in 26 states.

Chinese National Health Commission Minister Ma Xiaowei said Sunday little is known about the virus. But doctors do know it has an incubation period that can range from one to 14 days. Ma said the virus is infectious during the incubation period, when no signs or symptoms of the disease are present..

President Xi Jinping said China is facing a “grave situation” and experts and other resources would be concentrated at specific hospitals to treat severe cases of the illness.

The virus is believed to have emerged late last year in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, at a seafood market illegally selling wildlife. Chinese authorities have imposed a temporary ban on the selling of wildlife.  

The virus hit China just as it was beginning the celebrations of the Lunar New Year, resulting in the canceling or the scaling back of festivities for tens of millions of Chinese. 

Tourist destinations are closed and school closings have been extended, in an effort to stop the spread of the virus.  Public transportation has been severely restricted.

The WHO recommends several steps to help protect people against acute respiratory infections. They include avoiding close contact with those already infected, frequent hand-washing and avoiding unprotected contact with farm animals and wild animals.

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Controversy and sadness were part of this year’s Grammys show before it even began Sunday.

“Here we are together on music’s biggest night celebrating the artists that do it best, but to be honest with you we are all feeling crazy sadness right now,” host Alicia Keys said at the top of the show, in a reference to the deaths of basketball legend Kobe Bryant  and his 13-year-old daughter who were among nine people killed in a helicopter crash Sunday morning.

The recording industry’s awards show was broadcast live from the Staples Center where Bryant showcased his basketball prowess for years as a guard with the Los Angeles Lakers.  

“We’re literally standing here heartbroken in the house that Kobe Bryant built,” Keys said.

The controversy was the suspension of Deborah Dugan, the Recording Academy’s CEO.  

Dugan, hired for the post earlier this year and the the first woman to head up the Academy, was suspended less than two weeks ago on misconduct charges. She has since filed a complaint with the Equal Opportunity Commission.

But the sadness and the controversy did not stop the artists from producing a stunning song fest.

Lizzo, the zaftig twerking singer and flautist, kicked off the beginning of the night’s many songs with “Truth Hurts” and “Cuz I Love You.”  Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts” won the best pop solo performance Grammy.

The big winners of the night, however,  were 18-year-old Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas who made an album, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”  in their Los Angeles home.  

Billie, who took home the best new artist prize, also won best album, and her song Bad Guy won best song and best record.

Finneas won producer of the year (non-classical) and best engineered album  (non-classical).

Together the sister and brother won best pop vocal album.

Here is a list of winners in key categories at the 62nd annual Grammy Awards, which took place Sunday in Los Angeles.

Teenage goth-pop iconoclast Billie Eilish was the big winner with a total of five golden statuettes, including a clean sweep of the “big four” prizes.

Lizzo, the top nomination getter, won three prizes — best pop solo performance, best urban contemporary album and best traditional R&B performance.

Album of the Year: Billie Eilish, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”

Record of the Year: Billie Eilish, “Bad Guy”

Song of the Year (recognizing songwriting): Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell, “Bad Guy”

Best New Artist: Billie Eilish

Best Music Video: Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus, “Old Town Road”

Best Rap Album: Tyler, The Creator, “Igor”

Best Rock Album: Cage The Elephant, “Social Cues”

Best Pop Vocal Album: Billie Eilish, “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?”

Best Pop Solo Performance: Lizzo, “Truth Hurts”

Best Pop/Duo Performance: Lil Nas X featuring Billy Ray Cyrus, “Old Town Road”

Best Urban Contemporary Album: Lizzo, “Cuz I Love You (Deluxe)”

Best Country Album: Tanya Tucker, “While I’m Livin'”

Best Alternative Music Album: Vampire Weekend, “Father of the Bride”

Best World Music Album: Angelique Kidjo, “Celia”

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