Day: July 20, 2022

The Media Alliance of Zimbabwe has condemned the Chinese embassy in Harare for threatening a weekly newspaper after it published articles on violations by Chinese mining companies.

The group says the embassy threatened to take unspecified “strong countermeasures” against The Standard newspaper, which the alliance called an attack on press freedom.

“Firstly, the Chinese embassy did not specify what counteractions they would take against the newspaper in question, and it is something of a concern — particularly coming from a global powerhouse in the mold of China,” said Nigel Nyamutumbu, head of the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe. “And this, in our view, such unspecified threats would amount to an attack on press freedom,” he said.

Officials at the Chinese embassy on Wednesday said they would not comment on the statement by the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe.

Nyamutumbu said, “The Chinese embassy did not also seek any redress with the professional mechanisms that exist, whether through the ombudsman of the Alpha Media Holdings, which houses the newspaper that they had issues with, or approaching the self-regulatory mechanism that is available to seek redress and to seek accountability, and to get areas they wanted threshed out to be handled.

“They could also have used the Zimbabwe Media Commission or the diplomatic channels so that their issues could have been handled amicably outside of issuing statements that have a chilling effect on press freedom,” he added.

Zimbabwean officials could not be reached Wednesday for comments. In an interview, former Harare Mayor Muchadeyi Ashton Masunda, a member of the Alpha Media Holdings editorial advisory board, said journalists would not relent, despite the threats by the Chinese embassy.

“The allegation that really stung me into action was the allegation by the Chinese embassy that the Alpha Media Holdings journalists were paid by foreign-linked nongovernment organizations as well as an embassy,” Masunda said. “Alpha Media Holdings is an independent media house, which is free from any political ties. It is an anathema for any Alpha Media Holdings journalists to receive any payment outside remuneration which he or she receives from [the] company.”

Masunda added that his organization would continue to report accurately and fairly in Zimbabwe.

Source: Voice of America

A new study shines a light on the health risks, challenges, and barriers faced daily by millions of refugees and migrants who suffer from poor health because they lack access to the health care available to others in their host countries.

The World Health Organization has just published its first world report on the health of refugees and migrants. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called it a landmark report and an alarm bell.

He said the report reveals the wide disparities between the health of refugees and migrants and the wider populations in their host countries.

“For example, many migrant workers are engaged in the so-called 3-D jobs—dirty, dangerous, and demanding—without adequate social and health protection or sufficient occupational health measures,” he said. “Refugees and migrants are virtually absent from global surveys and health data, making these vulnerable groups almost invisible in the design of health systems and services.”

Tedros noted that one billion people or one in every eight people on Earth is a refugee or migrant. He said the numbers were growing. Tedros added that more and more people will be on the move in response to burgeoning conflicts, climate change, rising inequality, and global emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the health needs of refugees and migrants often are neglected or unaddressed in the countries they pass through or settle in.

“They face multiple barriers, including out of pocket costs, discrimination and fear of detention and deportation,” Tedros said. “Many countries do have health policies that include health services for refugees and migrants. But too many are either ineffective or are yet to be implemented effectively.”

Waheed Arian, an Afghan refugee and a medical doctor in Britain, recalls the conditions under which he and his family lived in a refugee camp in Pakistan during the late 1980s. He said they were exposed to many diseases, including malaria and tuberculosis.

“The conditions that we see in refugee camps now in various parts of the world – they are not too dissimilar to the conditions that I experienced firsthand,” he said. “Although we were safe from bombs, we were not physically safe. We were not socially safe, and we were not mentally safe.”

WHO chief Tedros is calling on governments and organizations that work with refugees and migrants to come together to protect and promote the health of people on the move. He said the report sets forth strategies for achieving more equitable, inclusive health systems that prioritize the well-being of all people.

Source: Voice of America

Heavy fighting was reported Wednesday after al-Shabab militants attacked two Somali towns along the border with Ethiopia.

Regional officials who confirmed the attack with VOA Somali said militants clashed with Liyu police, members of Ethiopia’s controversial paramilitary forces that have long been present in Somalia’s southwestern Bakool region towns of Yeed and Aato.

Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) operating in Somalia as part of a bilateral security deal between Ethiopia and Somalia rely on Liyu police for border protection and supply route safety and logistics.

A security official who requested anonymity because he is not allowed to speak with media told VOA’s Somali Service that al-Shabab first attacked a Liyu police camp in Aato town; a local Bakool region official confirmed the al-Shabab then carried out a second attack on Yeed, where militants again entered a Liyu police encampment.

Militants later attacked Washaaqo village with mortars, possibly to disrupt Liyu police reinforcements from arriving on the scene. Yeed and Aato are within 80 kilometers of each other, while Washaaqo is slightly further inside Somalia.

Casualties are not yet known. Telephone networks in the area had been down most of Wednesday.

Al-Shabab spokesperson Abdulaziz Abu Mus’ab claimed the group’s fighters captured both Yeed and Aato.

All three Somali towns have hosted a large presence of Liyu police that hail from Ethiopia’s eastern Somali Region for many years.

ENDF has nearly 4,000 soldiers serving as part of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia. Ethiopia is also thought to have several thousand additional special police that operate in Somalia based on an agreement with the Somali government.

This latest al-Shabab attack comes as Somali Prime Minister Hamza Abdi Barre on Wednesday said the government is determined to launch a “forceful and comprehensive” fight to counter al-Shabab and Islamic State militants through “military and non-military means” in order to reopen the main supply routes for humanitarian efforts, commercial activities and free movement of people.

Barre did not give a timeline of the operations against al-Shabab. Somalia President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud, who assumed office in May, recently announced a new strategy to fight al-Shabab comprising military, ideological and economic components.

Ahmed Umar Abu Ubaidah, al-Shabab’s leader, vowed in a new audio recording to fight the new government, asserting the group will “never allow a government that is not founded upon Islam and an administration that doesn’t fully implement Sharia [law].”

Source: Voice of America