Month: June 2022

CAIRO – The Egyptian cabinet announced yesterday that, more than 70 percent of the structural works, in the first stage of the New Administrative Capital (NAC), have been completed.

According to the New Administrative Capital Company, the state-run company that oversees the construction of the new city, more than 70 percent of the NAC’s first phase, which spans an area of about 40,000 acres, was finalised.

Between 70 and 90 percent of the construction of 10 residential neighbourhoods in the city has been completed. Additionally, a number of giant projects have almost been completed, including the government district, the financial and business district, as well as, the Central Business District (CBD), the media centre of the Egyptian cabinet said in a statement.

Being built some 50 km east of the Egyptian capital, Cairo, the CBD, with its Iconic Tower, the most striking skyscraper in the district, is being constructed by the China State Construction Engineering Corporation.

Egypt’s new administrative capital is designed to relocate major government institutions, from the increasingly congested and overpopulated capital of Cairo, which is home to about one-fifth of the country’s 100 million population.

The Egyptian government also expects the new capital would create around two million jobs.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

SCHLOSS ELMAU (Germany)— Group of Seven leaders pledged to raise US$600 billion in private and public funds over five years to finance needed infrastructure in developing countries and counter China’s older, multitrillion-dollar Belt and Road project.

US President Joe Biden and other G7 leaders relaunched the newly renamed “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment” at their annual gathering being held this year at Schloss Elmau in southern Germany.

Biden said the United States would mobilise US$200 billion in grants, federal funds and private investment over five years to support projects in low- and middle-income countries that help tackle climate change as well as improve global health, gender equity and digital infrastructure.

“I want to be clear. This isn’t aid or charity. It’s an investment that will deliver returns for everyone,” Biden said, adding that it would allow countries to “see the concrete benefits of partnering with democracies”.

Biden said hundreds of billions of additional dollars could come from multilateral development banks, development finance institutions, sovereign wealth funds and others.

Europe will mobilise €300 billion for the initiative over the same period to build up a sustainable alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative scheme, which Chinese President Xi Jinping launched in 2013, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the gathering.

The leaders of Italy, Canada and Japan also spoke about their plans, some of which have already been announced separately. French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson were not present, but their countries are also participating.

China’s investment scheme involves development and programmes in over 100 countries aimed at creating a modern version of the ancient Silk Road trade route from Asia to Europe.

White House officials said the plan has provided little tangible benefit for many developing countries.

Biden highlighted several flagship projects, including a US$2 billion solar development project in Angola with support from the Commerce Department, the US Export-Import Bank, US firm AfricaGlobal Schaffer, and US project developer Sun Africa.

Together with G7 members and the EU, Washington will also provide US$3.3 million in technical assistance to Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal as it develops an industrial-scale flexible multi-vaccine manufacturing facility in that country that can eventually produce COVID-19 and other vaccines, a project that also involves the EU.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) will also commit up to US$50 million over five years to the World Bank’s global Childcare Incentive Fund.

Friederike Roder, vice president of the non-profit group Global Citizen, said the pledges of investment could be “a good start” toward greater engagement by G7 countries in developing nations and could underpin stronger global growth for all.

G7 countries on average provide only 0.32 per cent of their gross national income, less than half of the 0.7 per cent promised, in development assistance, she said.

“But without developing countries, there will be no sustainable recovery of the world economy,” she said.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

NADOR (Morocco)— A massive attempt by migrants to storm the barrier between Morocco and the Spanish enclave of Melilla resulted in “unprecedented violence” that killed at least 23 sub-Saharan Africans and has sparked fears of worse to come.

“It was like a war, we were holding rocks, little rocks, to fight the Moroccan military, who beat us by any means, with sticks,” said a 20-year-old Sudanese migrant at a detention centre inside Melilla.

“I climbed up the fence but a Moroccan guard hit my hands. I fell unconscious on the Spanish side, where I was beaten up by Spanish forces,” said another.

They were among 2,000 migrants who on Friday stormed the heavily fortified border between the Moroccan region of Nador and the enclave of Melilla.

At least 23 migrants died and 140 police officers were wounded, according to Moroccan authorities – the heaviest toll in years of such attempts.

Many of the migrants, often from war-torn zones such as Sudan’s Darfur region, have spent months or even years under precarious, dangerous conditions in the nearby forest of Gourougou, braving beatings and arrests in multiple attempts to reach better lives in Spain.

But observers said the latest attempt was unprecedented in the level of violence.

“It’s the first time that we see this level of violence by migrants themselves against security forces,” said Omar Naji from the Nador office of the AMDH rights group.

The violence has heightened fears among Moroccans in the area.

“We’re terrorised by what happened,” said Issame Ouaaid, 24, from the border district of Barrio Chino.

“It’s the first time that we’ve seen migrants carrying iron rods to fight with the police.”

Naji linked the level of violence to a recent mending of ties between Spain and Morocco, leading to renewed cooperation against migrants and stricter enforcement.

Morocco, the only African country sharing a land border with the EU, is a key conduit for migrants fleeing war and poverty.

But the kingdom has also been accused – by Spain – of using migration flows as a tool to exert political pressure.

In May 2021, some 10,000 migrants surged across the border into Spain’s other enclave, Ceuta, as Moroccan border guards looked the other way, in what was widely seen as a punitive gesture by Rabat in a political row over the disputed territory of Western Sahara.

The two countries’ resumption of ties earlier this year after a convergence on Western Sahara has led to “an intensification of pressures” against migrants living rough in the forested hills near the border, Naji said.

Recent months have seen a fall in the numbers of migrants reaching Spanish territory, according to Madrid.

“The Moroccan authorities treat migrants very harshly, raiding their camps,” Naji said.

“There’s no doubt that this pressure has generated the unprecedented violence we’re seeing.”

Before Friday’s incident, Spanish media reported several clashes between migrants and security forces, who had chased away residents of camps and transferred some away from the border region.

For Othmane Ba, president of an association for sub-Saharan African migrants in Morocco, “the difficult conditions these migrants are facing condition them psychologically for violence”.

A majority of migrants arriving in Morocco are originally from Sudan, particularly the Darfur region where a new spike in violence has left 125 people dead and 50,000 displaced.

On their way to Morocco, many pass through Libya, notorious for rights abuses by armed groups against migrants.

Once they arrive in Morocco, many are willing to risk their lives to reach Europe.

“There are people here who have been waiting for two or three years” to get across, Naji said.

Moroccan authorities said Sunday they had foiled a plot by migrants to cross the border into Ceuta, making 59 arrests.

But, Naji said, “Morocco can’t totally close its borders and play the role of police force for Europe. That policy can only lead to more violence.”

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

ADDIS ABABA— Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat, has condemned racist treatment of some Africans who were seeking to cross from Morocco into Spain.

“I express my deep shock and concern at the violent and degrading treatment of African migrants attempting to cross an international border from Morocco into Spain, with the ensuing violence leading to the deaths of at least 23 people and injuries to many more.”

Authorities said the individuals died on Friday as a result of a “stampede” after about 2,000 people tried to climb the iron fence that separates Morocco and Melilla, with some falling in the attempt.

The AU chief joined calls by rights groups for a probe into the matter.

“I call for an immediate investigation into the matter and remind all countries of their obligations under international law to treat all migrants with dignity and to prioritize their safety and human rights, while refraining from the use of excessive force,” he added.

The Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH), in a series of tweets on Saturday, called for a “comprehensive, quick and serious” investigation into Friday’s events and published videos of the aftermath of the attempted mass crossing.

The footage showed dozens of people lying by the border fence, some bleeding and many apparently lifeless as Moroccan security forces stood over them. In one of the clips, a Moroccan security officer appeared to use a baton to strike a person lying on the ground.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez meanwhile condemned the attempted mass crossing as a “violent assault” and an “attack on the territorial integrity” of Spain.

“If there is anyone responsible for everything that appears to have taken place at that border, it is the mafias that traffic in human beings,” he said.

A Spanish police source said the people who tried to cross the fence had used sticks, knives and acid against security forces and had changed tactics to try crossing at one perceived weak spot en masse, rather than in separate attempts along the fence.

Some 133 people made it across the border, while 176 Moroccan security officers and 49 Spanish border guards sustained injuries, authorities say.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

TUNIS— Tunisia arrested eight women for alleged link to a terror group in the town of Kram, north of the capital Tunis, the Tunisian Interior Ministry said.

After receiving the information on a violent conflict that broke out between two women, the security units arrived in one of the districts of Kram and arrested them, the ministry said in a statement.

During the operation, the security units found a secret room where six other women were hiding in, and all of the eight were under suspicion of belonging to a terrorist organization, according to the statement.

The arrest came about 24 hours after the security services detected information on plans which directly targeted the Tunisian President Kais Saied as well as the national security of the country.

Opposition to Saied has broadened over recent months as nearly all major political parties and the powerful labor union have come out against his plans, holding street rallies against him.

However, while critics of the president say his moves have raised concerns over rights and freedoms won in the 2011 revolution, there has been no widespread crackdown on the opposition.

Saied says his moves are legal and were needed to save Tunisia from years of political paralysis, economic stagnation and the malign influence of Islamist groups.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

NADOR (Morocco)— The death toll from a bid by African migrants to force their way into the Spanish enclave of Melilla, northern Morocco, has risen to 23, Moroccan officials said.

Officials initially said that five people had died in the rush when around 2,000 mostly sub-Saharan African migrants approached the Moroccan border with the tiny territory at dawn on Friday, but the toll rose to 18 on Friday and

five more have since also died of their injuries.

Earlier in the day, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called the Melilla migrant rush as an attack on Spain’s “territorial integrity”.

Meanwhile, human activists demanded an investigation into the matter. As per Melilla authorities, at least 500 people managed to enter the border control area after cutting a fence.

Sanchez told reporters that the mafias that traffic in human beings were responsible for the incident. Images of injured migrants lying on the pavement in Melilla surfaced online.

It was the first such incident since Spain and Morocco ended a year-long diplomatic crisis in April this year after the Spanish Prime Minister’s visit to Rabat. Spain backed Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara region.

The dispute erupted between the two countries when Spain allowed leader of Western Sahara’s pro-independence Polisario Front Brahim Ghali to get treated for COVID-19 in a Spanish hospital in April last year.

Almost a month later, around 10,000 migrants surged across the Moroccan border into Spain’s Ceuta enclave. Madrid considered it a punitive gesture by Rabat.

Notably, Spain’s two tiny North African enclaves, Melilla and Ceuta, have the EU’s only land borders with Africa.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

ACCRA— The Ghanaian government has repatriated 1,320 Nigeriens who beg in the streets to their home country, said a statement issued by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection.

The repatriation, through the collaboration of the Ghana Immigration Service and the Embassy of Niger in Ghana, included 300 adult males, 400 adult females, and 620 children.

“The returnees were found under bridges, traffic lights intersections, street pavements, and other places begging for alms or loitering on the streets of Accra,” the statement said.

The exercise, according to the government, is part of measures being taken to deal with the menace of streetism in the West African country.

“Streetism is a social menace that has wreaked havoc on the nation’s social and economic life. The country’s ‘street children’ prevalence is extremely worrying. This literally put their lives at risk so long as they remain on the street,” the statement said.

The government further urged the general populace to support efforts underway to reduce child begging and streetism.

The Ghanaian government also deported 202 African nationals who had been arrested for entering the country unlawfully through its eastern border with Togo last year.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

While highlighting various ways to build inclusive societies and prevent atrocities, speakers stressed that the international community has failed to translate the responsibility to protect into reality, as the General Assembly concluded its first annual debate on the principle. (For background information, see Press Release GA/12429.)

Myanmar’s representative said that, since the 2021 military coup, his country has faced unprecedented levels of violence, with widespread and systematic serious atrocities against the civilian population, including children. The people of Myanmar are crying out for the application of the responsibility to protect, he stressed, asking: “How many more innocent lives have to be sacrificed to have such decisive collective action from the Security Council?”

Iraq’s representative said that, despite the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, atrocities continue. The international community has failed to translate the goals of prevention into reality. Therefore, legislative and legal methods must be adopted to implement that document. Commending the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da’esh/ISIL (UNITAD) — which is collecting evidence for future prosecutions in national courts — he emphasized, however, that the responsibility to protect falls upon States, including countering all efforts to incite such crimes.

To that point, the representative of Ghana underscored the important role of media, noting that, ahead of his country’s 2020 presidential and parliamentary elections, over 600 youth journalists were trained in conflict sensitivities, including hate speech and inflammatory language — a measure that enabled the peaceful transition of power there.

The representative of the United States, in a similar vein, affirmed the need for education as a preventive measure. Unlawful attacks on schools rob children of their education and hope for a better future, he said, adding that 100,000 children were killed or maimed in armed conflict since 2005. He urged Member States to leverage education for the prevention of atrocities, highlighting the critical role of teachers in building societies that are inclusive and respectful of diversity

Uruguay’s representative said her country’s National Peace Operations Training Institute will include the issue of protection of children, positioning the country as a regional centre for training and capacity-building for States engaging in peacekeeping missions. Echoing other delegations, she voiced support for the declaration by France and Mexico that Member States should voluntarily refrain from using the veto in cases of atrocities.

Nonetheless, the Permanent Observer of the Sovereign Order of Malta stressed that the current geopolitical landscape is proof that insufficient steps have been made to mitigate crimes against girls, boys and adults. Mechanisms at the United Nations are faulty, as well. “Surely we can begin to try and make amends by acting swiftly in protecting and supporting the next generation in the fight against indiscriminate acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing and war crimes such as sexual violence,” he said.

Source: United Nations