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Tanzanian women’s savings and loan groups in flux during COVID-19 · Global Voices
Jessica Ott

A skills training for current and prospective members of vicoba in Dunga, Zanzibar. Photo by Jessica Ott, used with permission.
Editor’s note: Jessica Ott studied women’s civil society organizing in Tanzania. This article is informed by research and fieldwork for her dissertation, “Women's rights in repetition: Nation-building, solidarity and Islam in Zanzibar.”
Vicoba, which stands for “village community banks,” are ubiquitous microfinance savings and loan institutions across Tanzania.
The majority of members are women who rely on vicoba to provide access to credit for business and other living expenses. Women widely describe these groups as a way to reduce their economic dependence on men and enable social solidarity.
Vicoba provide members with credit access during times of financial hardship, but they are not structured to support members during a societal level crisis — such as a drought or a pandemic — when everyone needs to borrow at the same time.
When Tanzania issued a stay-at-home order in March 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 — essentially closing its economy for several months — most vicoba ceased to meet.
The World Bank issued a press release on June 8 that predicts a sharp slowdown of economic growth in 2020 due to COVID-19. Tourism operators forecasted revenue losses of 80 percent or more in 2020, and the crisis could push 500,000 more citizens below the poverty line.
Now, many women members are unable to contribute toward group savings or to pay back loans, which has raised concerns about how vicoba will cope with the long-term financial effects of the coronavirus.
As vicoba members struggle to pay back loans, a decline in group capital has limited the ability of members to borrow, according to a news report in The Citizen.
Women’s participation in vicoba has shifted gender norms and enabled women’s economic agency — to varying degrees — but as groups experience the financial strain of COVID-19, vicoba are in limbo.
Vicoba have operated in Tanzania since the early 2000s. They were inspired in part by a Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) model that was first implemented by the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE) in Niger in 1991.
Before vicoba, women participated in rotating credit associations and informal economic activities in Dar es Salaam at an unprecedented level in the late 1980s and early 90s, according to political scientist Aili Mari Tripp. At that time, Tanzania was transitioning from first President Julius Nyerere’s socialist project of Ujamaa (Swahili: “Familyhood”) and enacting structural reforms to liberalize its economy.
Established during a subsequent era of rapid global microfinance expansion, vicoba have been adapted to Tanzanian cultural contexts. They are usually self-initiated and self-sustaining, unlike borrower groups who acquire credit and accrue debt through formal microfinance banks. Women often establish vicoba with family members, neighbors, friends, and/or work colleagues.
In Zanzibar, the semi-autonomous archipelago off the coast of mainland Tanzania, where the majority are Muslim, many women give their savings groups names that allude to the socialist past or to Islam, like Umoja ni Maendeleo (Unity is Development) and Tunaomba Mungu (We Humbly Ask for God’s Support) groups — both on the island of Pemba.
Individual members buy into vicoba with shares, which enables them to take out loans to support their own business ventures or other living expenses, like health care costs or school fees.
Group members collaboratively determine the amount and terms of individual loans, such as the interest rate and length of repayment. When groups have excess funds, they instigate collaborative income-generating projects with earnings going back to the group.
Vicoba help women meet their own financial needs, but they also enable and strengthen the notion of umoja or “unity,” which embodies ideas of community and mutual support.
A recent Twitter poll highlights the ubiquity of vicoba in Tanzania. Twitter user habimana playfully asked her 18,300 followers:
Mpira – unawaleta wanaume pamoja
Cartoon – zinawaleta watoto pamoja
Nini kinawaleta wanawake pamoja??
— habimana (@uwimano) June 3, 2020
If football brings men together, and cartoons bring children together, then what brings women together?
Over 850 people — mostly men — responded to the poll. The most common, somewhat disparaging response was umbea (“gossip”), closely followed by vicoba and hair salons.
Twitter user Abdulraheem cheekily tweeted:
Wazamani umbea, wasasa vikoba na vikundi vya ushirika
— Abdulraheem (@ibn_sayid) June 3, 2020
For women in the past, it was gossip, but for women today, it's vicoba and other savings groups.
Twitter commentary about vicoba also sheds light on shifting gender norms and household economics in Tanzania.
Twitter user Myra complained to her more than 5,900 followers about the propensity of men to force their wives to wash laundry by hand rather than buying washing machines:
Sema watoto wa kiume mnapenda tu kuwatesa wake zenu na hizi issue za kufua. Washing machine hadi laki 5 zipo. Nasema mke coz kama hujaolewa ukajifanya we dobi utakuwa umeamua.
— ???? (@alwaysmyra) May 29, 2020
Hey, you young men just enjoy persecuting your wives with this issue of hand washing clothes. Even if you have the 500,000 [Tanzanian shillings or $250 United States dollars] for a washing machine. I say ‘wife’ because if you haven't gotten married yet and you do, you will have decided to become a laundry woman.
In response, Twitter user Mgwabi Mwambi challenged Myra for putting too much financial responsibility on men:
Hata watoto wa kike waliiolewa, wanapenda tu kujitesa kufua kwa mikono, washing machine hadi lako 5, wanaweza tu kujibana kwa pesa za VICOBA wakanunua na wala sio kusubiria mume anunue kila kitu.
— Mgwabi Mwambi (@JakaMgwabi) May 29, 2020
Even young women who are married, they enjoy persecuting themselves by hand washing clothes. If a washing machine is about 500,000 [$250 USD], which they can reach with their vicoba savings, then they can buy their own rather than waiting for their husbands to pay for everything.
The Twitter exchange highlights changing ideas and social norms related to the division of household labor and finances in Tanzania — and how vicoba play a role.
The situation in Tanzania points to the vulnerability of microfinance savings and loan groups worldwide when faced with large-scale crises.
During the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, restrictions on movement limited women’s economic activities, which drastically reduced the capital of savings and loan groups in Liberia and Guinea, according to a report by the United Nations Development Group.
Several humanitarian agencies have issued emergency measures and guidelines to mitigate the health and economic effects of the coronavirus on microfinance initiatives. CARE, with 357,000 VSLA groups in 51 countries, issued emergency guidelines for supporting savings and loan groups.
Some vicoba leaders on Tanzania’s mainland have considered emergency measures like extending loan repayment terms and reducing the interest rates on existing loans, according to The Citizen.
One possible emergency measure may be a government bailout. The Citizen reported that the Ministry of Finance and Planning was conducting a COVID-19 economic impact assessment and would provide recommendations for vicoba and other savings and loan groups. Its emphasis on recommendations, however, suggests that governmental financial assistance may not be forthcoming.
If women default on their loans, group members may decide to liquidate their assets to recoup group debts, which could potentially devastate vicoba and strain social relationships. Members may also decide to accept their COVID-19 related losses.
Vicoba — which provide community, mutual support and human connection — may help women mitigate the financial pangs of the coronavirus.

author: Jessica Ott


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War in Darfur: Wanted by the ICC, militia leader Ali Kushayb surrenders · Global Voices
Khattab Hamad

Screenshot of the pro-government militia known as Janjaweed in Darfur, March 6, 2013, via Voice of America/public domain.
The Darfur War in Sudan began in February 2003 when the Sudanese government, under the helm of then-leader Omar al-Bashir, began an ethnic cleansing campaign against non-Arabs people in the Darfur region.
The Sudan Liberation Movement and Army and Justice and Equality Movement formed as rebel groups to defend themselves from these attacks. In the years that followed, Sudanese government forces including the military, police and Janjaweed, or Rapid Support Forces, clashed with these two groups. The war has left 50,000 to 80,000 dead and an estimated 1.2 million to 2 million people displaced.
Janjaweed worked with the Sudanese government through a liaison known as Ali Muhammad Ali Abd–Al-Rahman or “Ali Kushayb.” Wanted for years by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for multiple crimes against humanity, Kushayb remained in hiding in Darfur, under the radar — but now he has surrendered.
On February 23, an activist group in South Darfur claims the former Janjaweed leader fled Sudan, apparently in fear of arrest by Sudan's transitional government, under its declaration on February 11, 2020, to hand over all wanted persons by the ICC.
On June 8, several Sudanese activists discussed Kushayb's arrest by the United Nations forces in the Central Africa Republic. The next day, the ICC released a statement confirming his arrest:
Ali Muhammad Ali Abd–Al-Rahman, ‘Ali Kushayb’ is in the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after surrendering himself voluntarily in the Central African Republic on account of an ICC arrest warrant issued on 27 April 2007.
Kushayb's photo circulated widely on Twitter:
Press Release : 9 June 2020 |
Situation in Darfur (Sudan): Ali Kushayb is in ICC custody
ICC-CPI-20200609-PR152
Today, 9 June 2020, Ali Muhammad Ali Abd–Al-Rahman (“Ali Kushayb”) is in the custody of the International Criminal Court (ICC) after surrendering himself voluntarily. pic.twitter.com/3SXeetUO5Q
— Mohammed Musa_ محمد موسى (@Mohammedmusaj) June 9, 2020
Kushayb is scheduled to appear in an ICC courtroom on June 15.
Ali Kushayb was known as Colonel of Colonels. He was commander of the Central Reserve Forces, one of Sudan's police departments.
He was a member of the Popular Defence Forces, as well as a commander of a government-backed militia in Darfur, from August 2003 until March 2004. In conjunction with his work as a liaison between the Sudanese government and Janjaweed, he fought in attacks against the armed rebel movements.
Authorities arrested Kushayb in November 2006 in relation to rapes and murders that occurred in South and West Darfur. However, Ali was released and continued to move freely under police protection.
On April 27, 2007, Luis Moreno Ocampo, a prosecutor with the International Criminal Court (ICC) at the time, declared an arrest warrant for Kushayb.
The ICC charged Kushayb with 504 assassinations, 20 rapes, and the forced displacement of 41,000 people during 2003 and 2004. Unfortunately, those numbers are low according to the United Nations. By their estimation, the death toll is about 300,000 people.
The ICC also demanded Sudan to hand him over but the Sudanese government at the time refused: They denied wrongdoing and insisted that any criminals arrested would be handled by Sudanese courts.
In August 2007, Amnesty International called for an end to impunity in Darfur, the arrest of Kushayb, and his surrender to the ICC. In May the following year, Human Rights Watch sent a letter to members of the UN Security Council demanding justice in Darfur.
In October 2008, authorities arrested Kushayb again to investigate the alleged crimes committed crimes in Darfur, likely to avoid handing him over to the ICC. The government eventually released him and he continued to move freely in Darfur. In July 2013, Kushayb was injured in an assassination attempt in Darfur.
Good at hiding, Kushayb wandered through Darfur amid a media blackout. No one really knew who he was and he never appeared much in mainstream media —even after the fall of Bashir in April 2019.
Bashir was also wanted by the ICC — the first president in history to be issued an arrest warrant.
International Criminal Court, The Hague, August 27, 2016. Photo by OSeveno via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0.
In response to Kushayb's voluntary handover, Secretary-General Khalid Omer of the Sudanese Congress Party tweeted:
قطع مسار ثورة شعبنا خطاوي مهمة اليوم، أولاهما باعتقال كوشيب كنصر للعدالة، وثانيهما قرارات لجنة التفكيك التي تواصل عملها لدك عرش الطغيان. الثورة تتعثر احياناً ولكنها بفضل شعبها لا تضل الطريق. ننتظر في مقبل الأيام تقدماً في ملف السلام ونعمل سوياً لاستكمال مهامها بالكامل دون استثناء
— Khalid Omer (@KhalidOmerYusif) June 9, 2020
The course of our people's revolution made important steps today, the first of which is the arrest of [Ali] Kushayb as a victory for justice, and the second is the decisions of the dismantling committee that continues its work to demolish tyranny. The revolution sometimes stumbles, but thanks to its people, it does not get lost. In the coming days, we await progress in the peace file and work together to complete its tasks in full, without exception.
But views social media seemed to split into two camps.
On the one hand, groups agree that Kushayb's arrest will attract Bashir and all other wanted criminals from the Bashir regime to turn themselves into the ICC. Bashir currently stays at the central jail in Khartoum, where Bashir may face the death penalty. He has nothing to lose by moving from Khartoum to The Hague, where life in the Netherlands is arguably more comfortable and void of the death penalty.
All Africa posted a photo showing the room where he will stay while he on trial. The room is luxurious compared to the conditions of most homes in Darfur, which led analyst Cameron Hudson to tweet this frustration:
Its beyond frustrating that even in detention Kushayb will live better than most Darfuris. https://t.co/LmfRzEgLUl
— Cameron Hudson (@_hudsonc) June 10, 2020
On the other hand, Kushayb's arrest could threaten the stability and continuity of the transitional period as there are some faces in the new regime who were suspected of participating in Darfur crimes — such as deputy president of the Transitional Sovereignty Council, Mohammed Hamdan Daglo, — popularly known as Hemedti.
Hemedti is the leader of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). According to a Human Rights Watch report from September 2015, RSF operated as a group of “men with no mercy‘ who killed indiscriminately and gang-raped women.
Recording these crimes at the ICC may create high pressure on Hemedti and his partners that could lead to thoughts about a military coup to protect themselves.
Meanwhile, several diplomatic voices including France and the Netherlands applauded the development. Steve Blok, a Dutch foreign ِِaffairs minister, tweeted:
The arrest of Ali Kushayb is a major step in getting justice for victims of crimes committed in Darfur and the @IntlCrimCourt investigation. Now that this suspect is in custody of the ICC the case can start. The Netherlands has always underlined the importance of accountability. https://t.co/BXKY9dDP1i
— Stef Blok (@ministerBlok) June 9, 2020
Some voices in Sudan are calling for community-based, government-led transitional justice processes to handle war criminals like Ali Kushayb, as opposed to regular justice processes through the courts, which could be time-consuming and costly.
In an interview with Radio Dabanga, Mohamed Abdelsalam, professor of international law at the University of Khartoum, describes the importance of transitional justice for Sudan:
It will make negotiations and a democratic transition in Sudan possible. Sudan needs institutional reform in the judiciary, the public prosecution, the army, the police and other institutions that provide public services.
If the criminal justice system, its institutions and its laws, will not be reformed, it will not be capable nor willing to prosecute the serious human rights violations and crimes that took place in the country. We need the establishment of institutions and courts that are in accordance with international standards.

source: news-globalvoices

license: Creative Commons - Attribution - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

author: Khattab Hamad


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Afghan migrants continue to die in the hands of Iranian authorities · Global Voices
Ezzatullah Mehrdad

Afghan artists paint George Floyd and a sign of “We cannot breath” with Iran Flag to demonstrate the brutality of Iran police toward Afghans. Photo credit Omaid Sharifi, via Twitter, used with permission.
While the world continues to protest over the death of George Floyd in the US, and to denounce racism and discrimination, Afghans are leading their own fight against a similar issue: the way Afghan migrants are mistreated in Iran as they attempt to reach Europe through that country.
In one recent episode of the many atrocities experienced by Afghan migrants, Iranian police opened fire in May on a civilian vehicle that was carrying 13 Afghan migrants in the Yazd province of central Iran. As a result of the shooting, three migrants were burned alive in the car, and four were severely wounded.The footage of the car in flames went viral on social media, causing outrage. As one Afghan twitter user wrote:
Such a disgrace and shame that even in 21 century barbarism still ruling in ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN, repeating ISLAMIC!#کمی_آب_بیار_که_سوختم https://t.co/SlkETMRAie
— Meelad Asi (@AsiMeelad) June 5, 2020
One migrant who was able to get out of the burning car was pleading “Bring me some water, I am burning.” The heartbreaking story caused a public outcry in Afghanistan and beyond.
Reuters News Agency reported that:
Police fired on the vehicle, suspected of carrying drugs and undocumented migrants, after it crashed through a checkpoint, Ahmad Tarahomi, deputy Yazd governor, told state media. After its tyres were hit, the vehicle continued to drive away on its wheel rims, igniting sparks which started the fire, Tarahomi said.
World-class Afghan novelist Khaled Hosseini, author of the acclaimed book “The Kite Runner”, said in a Facebook post:
I add my voice to the chorus of Afghans who have denounced the recent killing of Afghan refugees at the hands of Iranian police in Central Yazd province. It is shocking and unforgivable, and as an Afghan and refugee advocate, I am heartbroken. The image of that burning car and the screaming, half-burnt boy is searing.
Many Iranian officials have used the death of George Floyd as a propaganda tool against the U.S., but they have themselves failed to address the systematic mistreatment of Afghan refugees in Iran, as Afghan comedian Musa Zafar points in his tweet:
Hey @JZarif
George Floyd was seen burning inside this car.
Any comments? pic.twitter.com/RLkXFgryJb
— Musa Zafar (@realMusazafar) June 5, 2020
Following the outcry in Afghanistan, the Afghan ambassador to Iran visited a hospital in Iran where the Afghan migrant who escaped the burning car is treated. The ambassador greeted the man who is handcuff in the hospital bed.
This is so inhumane that words can’t describe:
Iranian police burned a vehicle carrying refugees—alive.
The one who survived was handcuffed at the hospital so that he can’t even wipe his tears.
The other day @JZarif was lecturing the US about racism.
#کمی_آب_بیار_که_سوختم pic.twitter.com/wW0qfy6SJw
— Saleem Javed, MD (@mSaleemJaved) June 7, 2020
Prior to this incident of the burning car, more than 50 Afghans were arrested while crossing Afghanistan’s western border to Iran in May 2020. The Iranian border police tortured them and forced them to jump into the river that flowed from Afghanistan to Iran. As many as 23 drowned, 15 went missing and only 21 of them survived.
Afghan activists on Sunday threw colors at the gates of the Iranian embassy in Kabul to protest against the shooting of a car carrying Afghan migrants in Yazd, #Iran, and the drowning of Afghan migrants in Harirud River.#کمی_آب_بیار_که_سوختم https://t.co/ol7FtEaPcA pic.twitter.com/uOnrPI2xm8
— SAMRI (@SAMRIReports) June 8, 2020
Iran denies that the border police tortured and had Afghan migrants drown. But the credibility of Iranian authorities deserves scrutiny: in January 2020, the Iran revolution guards shot down a passenger airline during a dispute with the U.S. in the region. Iran initially denied that they used a cruise missile for targeting an airline that killed as many as 176 people in the air, but eventually admitted doing so.
An investigation by the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission indeed confirmed that the Iran police border tortured and killed migrants at the border.
On May 14, the Afghan government and the Iran government set up a commission to investigate the drowning of Afghan migrants into the river. The commission has yet to release its findings, though Iran still denies any wrongdoing.
As one Afghan Twitter user laments:
2/x
The experience of refugees show that in most cases d Iranian public have gone far beyond helpless enablers & collaborators, making life a hell for #Afghans at schools, in d neighborhood, at d workplace.
Where is all that long brandished culture & civility? #کمی_آب_بیار_سوختم https://t.co/pd6py9tmO7
— Sayed Madadi (@MadadiSaeid) June 7, 2020
While millions of Afghans have found refuge in Iran since the war broke out in the 1980s, they are also mistreated by Iranian authorities, as the recent tragic incidents demonstrate. Often working as daily laborers, Afghans are denied education and other basic services.
When COVID-19 hit Iran in February 2020, the Iranian health authorities refused to treat Afghan migrants who work in Iran. As a result, hundreds of thousands of migrants had to pack their bags, and returned to Afghanistan, infecting their birthplace that has very weak health structures to fight the pandemic.

author: Ezzatullah Mehrdad


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COVID-19 diaries from Wuhan: When diaries become citizen reports · Global Voices
Winston Chiu

Cherry blossoms. (Photo credit: Ai Xiaoming. Used with permission.)
The following post is the seventeenth and the last installment in a series of diaries written by independent filmmaker and feminist scholar Ai Xiaoming and feminist activist Guo Jing. Both are living in Wuhan, at the initial center of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the links to the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth and eleventh, twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth parts of the series.
Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19.
日记得以进入后世，我们看到，其中的一个标尺或者说重要的中介，是时间。对于后人，有些隐私不再重要，而其中不为人知的个人体验以及历史细节，呈现出非同寻常的意义。过去的日记作者在乎私密性，因为隐蔽才有自由，才能摆脱意识形态的监控、社会规范的压迫、他人的告发以及日记所涉人的围攻。而对于后世的读者，日记仿佛化蛹为蝶，超越了历史、社会和时间的限制。那些可能伤害到日记作者的故人旧事颓然而退，日记脱颖而出。
从经验的角度来说，当我们写日记时，我们享有的自由包括与社会、与他人以及与自我的一部分（借用弗洛伊德的概念，那个处在社会化过程中的自我）相抵触的自由（根据某种主流的价值判断，也许某些内容是反社会、反主流、反规训的）。
但在现实中，情况往往不一样。也就是说，当一个人通过日记不断地强化自己的自我意识，不断地锤炼出独特的思想个性时，这与社会规范、与统治者的意识形态，势必发生冲突。真实的日记，与思想专制注定是格格不入的。因此，在专制时代，日记写作无可避免地陷入危境。
言论管控越严厉，日记的私密性连同书写者的写作个性越难维持；写日记的行为本身就被看作离经叛道。
可以说，日记的一个迷人之处正是在于它的异议性。它在当时当世所需要维持的私密性是有道理的，越私密，越自由；越有利于作者维护个人的内心世界，无所顾忌地表达对生活的独特审视。
即使是生活化的日记叙事，那些令我们感动的书写，也来自它的异议性——与宏大叙事的距离。
以方方日记和郭晶日记为例，包括其他一些类似的文本；与其说是个人日记，不如说，是个人记录加公民报道的合成。
换言之，它是日记体，即采用了这种比较自由、从个人观察和经历出发的文体，但它诉诸的对象不限于作家自己，而更多的是社会公众。
由于它主要是对公众说话，它的战地报道的意义，大过它与自己内心对话的意义。
那日记怎么写成了公民报道的？我觉得，在估计这一时期任何人的日记成就时，不能忘记一个基本的事实，那就是言论管控的存在和报道者的牺牲。
我们如果不是故意遗忘或者无视自己的恐惧，就必须承认，在此次疫情最危险和艰难的时候，武汉的战地记者不是被封闭在小区的作者，而是敢于直接进入一线医院、殡仪馆和高风险感染社区的报道者，如陈秋实、李泽华、方斌、张展、张毅……等。记者中最有勇气的，非公民记者莫属；他们是地地道道的逆行者。
他们没有官方颁发的记者证，缺乏基本的采访保障；连生命安全也难以顾及。可正是从他们这里，我们听到了最脆弱者的声音；看到了最无助者的绝望。在社交媒体上，我们每天也看到来自城市各个角落的小视频，很多普通公民发出真实的呐喊。我们决不能忘记，有几位自媒体人被强制销声。时至今日，武汉已经解封，我们依然没有听到有关他们的任何消息。
日记体的兴起，就是在公民报道被封杀期间的退让。它得到读者的追捧，也是由于，人们看不到更多的、直接来自社会基层的战地报道。
When diaries are published, they are mediated by time — their meanings are interpreted differently at different periods of time. As time passes, privacy takes on less importance, and the personal experience and historical details contained in the diaries become more precious. In the past, diary writers would be very concerned about privacy, as only keeping their diaries secret allowed them to write with any freedom. Secrecy is a way of escaping government censorship and social repression, circumventing speech polices and attacks from people mentioned in the diaries. As time passes, diaries are like caterpillars transforming into butterflies. They surpass the restrictions imposed by place and time. Those able to punish the diary writers fade into history, but the diaries still exist and stand out.
When we write diaries, we revel in the freedom to go against society, others, and part of our “selfhood” — the “ego” that Freud refers to as central to the process of socialization. From the perspective of the mainstream, some of the contents of our diaries are anti-social, anti-mainstream, and anti-discipline.This is our reality. When writers strengthen their self-consciousness, building their independent thinking and personality in their diaries, society and the dominant ideology find faults between the lines and confront the writers. Any genuine diary will be at odds with ideological dictatorship. Hence, in the era of authoritarian rule, diary writing inevitably falls into dangerous territory.
As censorship keeps tightening, it is more difficult for writers to maintain their privacy and personal writing style. The act of writing a diary is considered unorthodox at any rate. Even if the diary is focused on banal, daily etiquette, what appeals is the dissent it contains, far removed from grand official narratives.
Take the diaries of Fang Fang and Guo Jing as well as other texts in the same genre as examples, they read more like a combination of personal records and citizen reports than personal diaries.
In other words, these texts are written in the form of diary — a genre that gives more freedom to personal observations and experiences. But the audience is now public rather than private.
As these “diaries” seek dialogue with the general public, they function more as reports from the front line than dialogues with the writers’ inner selves.
Why did these writers turn their diaries into citizen reports? When we estimate what these diaries have achieved, we should not forget the existence of censorship and the sacrifice of our reporters.
If we do not intentionally forget or ignore our fear, we must admit that at the time when the pandemic was most dangerous and difficult, front line reporters in Wuhan, who dared to enter hospitals, funeral homes, and high-risk infection communities — reporters like Chen Quishi, Li Zehua, Fang Bin, Zhang Zhan, Zhang Yi, etc — are the most courageous ones. They went against all the odds.
They do not hold official journalist licenses and have zero protection when compared to other journalists. Their lives and security were also at risk. Thanks to their reports, we heard the voices from the most fragile people and saw the despair of the most helpless. On social media, we saw videos taken from different corners of different cities and heard people pouring out feelings from their hearts. We should never forget that several reporters were forced to shut up. Even after Wuhan lifted its lockdown, we have not heard news of their whereabouts.
The rise of the diary genre is our concession to the citizen journalists who got shut down. The diaries are praised by readers because people lack access to reports coming from the front line and the grassroots.

author: Winston Chiu


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Malaysia’s new government probes journalists, critics despite free speech pledge · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Malaysian Minister of Communications and Multimedia Saifuddin Abdullah earlier pledged to review the implementation of the Communications and Multimedia Act which has been used to file charges against journalists, civil society leaders, and critics of the government. Source: Flickr / U.S. State Department Photo / Public Domain
Media and human rights groups are expressing alarm over the surge in cases filed against journalists, bloggers, civil society leaders and critics of Malaysia’s new government.
Most of the charges are under Section 233 (1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) which makes it an offence for any person “to use a network facility to knowingly make, create, solicit or initiate a communication which is obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive with the intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass another person.”
A guilty conviction based on this charge carries a penalty of up to RM50,000 (11,700 US dollars) or one-year imprisonment.
Various groups have been campaigning for the review and repeal of this provision which has been used by authorities to harass the media, intimidate opposition, and silence online critics.
The Pakatan Harapan opposition bloc that took power in 2018 has so far failed to overhaul draconian laws, despite its avowed commitment to free speech.
Moreover, the emergence in March of Muhyiddin Yassin as the country’s new prime minister following a realignment of the ruling coalition has sparked fears that it will lead to the revival of the dominance of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) party which was widely rejected by voters in 2018.
Muhyiddin has said his Bersatu political party is willing to work with UMNO — the main party of the Barisan Nasional coalition which ruled Malaysia for many decades until its defeat in 2018.
The UMNO-led government passed several laws, including CMA, which critics said were aimed at suppressing free speech.
In the past three months, the Muhyiddin government has been accused of intensifying its crackdown on dissenting voices, with the CMA in particular used to prosecute critics.
The latest case involved blogger Dian Abdullah who was charged for two blog posts that allegedly violated Section 233 (1)(a) of the CMA.
The blogger appeared at the Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court on June 9 and posted bail.
Her two blog posts published on March 21 and 23 criticized Muhyiddin's leadership and the inadequate assistance provided by the government to displaced workers and residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Blogger Dian Abdullah was charged in court today under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act after she voiced dissent against the State.
It's time we reject these actions that silence dissenting voices. Freedom of expression must flourish! @saifuddinabd pic.twitter.com/9SlOzMkWp0
— CIJ Malaysia (@CIJ_Malaysia) June 9, 2020
Authorities have also notified some members of the opposition and civil society that they are under investigation for publishing online statements that allegedly violated the law.
One of those facing a probe is the Center to Combat Corruption & Cronyism founder Cynthia Gabriel.
Gabriel's group published a statement in March denouncing the “unelected government” of Muhyiddin.
Our founding director Cynthia Gabriel has been called for questioning under section 4 of the Sedition Act and section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act. This investigation is in relation to the statement issued by C4 Center on 14 March titled (https://t.co/abVX0fXUC3)
— C4 Center (@C4Center) June 5, 2020
Journalist Tashny Sukumaran, meanwhile, a correspondent of Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, was summoned by police on May 3 for her report, which allegedly violates the CMA law.
The report in question was about the police crackdown on Rohingya refugees.
But Minister of Communications and Multimedia Saifuddin Abdullah clarified that his office has already instructed the police to stop the probe. He also pledged to review the controversial law.
The government’s continued aggressive use of CMA to chase online critics has prompted several groups to call out the decline of free speech under the new government.
The Centre for Independent Journalism reiterated its demand to repeal repressive media laws:
The government must stop charging and investigating individuals under regressive laws such as this section for voicing dissent against the State and public authorities.
Criminalising content that could potentially challenge and attempt to hold the State to account is grossly disproportionate to any legitimate aim of protecting public order. We need an enabling environment that promotes critical thinking and healthy debates that would uphold democracy and good governance.
Bernice Chauly of Pen Malaysia explained why Section 233 of CMA is a bad law:
Rule of law is vital, but rule of bad law is not welcome. Section 233 is ‘bad law’ because it is so broad that any Malaysian can make a police report because they are ‘annoyed’, regardless of whether they are the intended recipient or target of a communication.
Tashny Sukumaran, meanwhile, was defiant in the face of attempts to silence her reporting:
What I CAN tell you is that I promise all of you – those who like my reporting *and* those who hate it and call me racist slurs online – that I am not stopping. All of you deserve access to the truth. I am here to speak truth to power, without fear or favour.
— Tashny Sukumaran (@tashny) May 3, 2020

author: Mong Palatino


text:
Between Kolkata, Saint-Petersburg and Paris: An interview with novelist Shumona Sinha · Global Voices
Filip Noubel

Shumona Sinha. Photo by Francesca Mantovani/Gallimard, used with permission
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union and India enjoyed a particularly friendly relationship as they shared ideological common ground. Tsarist Russia had long supported anti-British movements, having its own colonial ambitions in the region. After 1917, the Soviet Union increased its presence in India through Communist ideology, and according to one interpretation, the Communist Party of India (CPI) was actually established in Tashkent in 1920.
Cover of a 1953 edition of the iconic children story Moydodyr by Korney Chukovsky, which was first published by Lev Klyachko in the 1920s in his Raduga publishing house. Photo by Filip Noubel, used with permission.
Up until its demise in 1991, the Soviet Union supported the translation, and distribution of Russian and Soviet literature that influenced generations of Indian children and intellectuals.
This Russia-India relationship is the central plot of Shumona Sinha latest book, “Le Testament Russe” (The Russian Will).
Like many of her peers, Sinha grew up in Kolkata reading those same novels. She eventually moved to France, and became an acclaimed exophonic writer — or a writer that produces work in their non-native language.
“Le Testament Russe” centers around Tania, a young Bengali girl living in 1980s Kolkata. The heroine escapes her social and family background by joining the local Communist student movement, and eventually studying Russian. But her real inspiration is Lev Klyachko, the Jewish-Russian journalist who decided to become a publisher in the 20s, launched the politically independent publishing house Raduga, worked with the luminaries of Russian literature and art such as Korney Chukovsky, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin but was eventually censored and died in 1933.
GV author Filip Noubel interviewed Shumona Sinha to find out more about how Soviet children books shaped her own journey through languages, cultures and identities. The interview was edited for brevity.
Filip Noubel (FN): In your latest novel, you explore the ties – some of them going back to the 18th century –  that have linked Russia and the Soviet Union to Bengal through ideology and children books in translation. Could you tell us more about this heritage? Was it also your experience when you grew up in Kolkata?
Shumona Sinha (SS) L’héritage de la littérature russe au Bengale occidental crée le cadre de mon roman, oui. Beaucoup de Bengalis qui possèdent une collection de livres chez eux, ont un rayon russe. Les livres russes et soviétiques ont joué un rôle important et pourtant délicat, ont influencé les pensées de tant de Bengalis, façonné leur regard sur la vie. Non seulement les classiques mais aussi les auteurs de la jeunesse comme Nicolaï Ostrovski, Arkadi Gaïdar, Dmitri Mamine Sibiriak, Boris Polevoï… C’était pareil chez moi. D’autant que mon père était économiste, professeur d’économie à l’institut équivalent de Science-Po, marxiste et leader communiste des années 1970. Il a failli être assassiné par les hommes de main d’Indira Gandhi. C’est d’ailleurs le sujet de mon troisième roman Calcutta. J’ai grandi avec les livres russes. Mes premiers contes de fées étaient russes, et non bengalis. C’est pourquoi j’ai été éprise de Kliatchko ! En fouillant dans les archives on trouve sa trace, mais rien n’a été écrit sur lui depuis sa mort, personne n’a contacté sa famille. Trouver leur trace et raconter cette histoire était une noyade voluptueuse pour moi.
(SS) Indeed the frame of my book is created by the heritage of Russian literature in West Bengal. Many Bengalis who own books have a shelf of Russian books. Russian and Soviet books played a key and delicate role, and have influenced the thinking of so many Bengalis, shaped their take on life. Not just the classics, but also authors of children literature, such as Nikolay Ostrovsky, Arkady Gaydar, Dmitri Mamin-Sibiryak, Boris Polevoy…It was the same in my home. Besides, my father was an economist, teaching that subject, and a Marxist as well as a Communist leader in the 1970s. He almost got killed by Indira Gandhi's henchmen. This is actually the topic of my third novel called “Calcutta”. I grew up with Russian books. My first fairy tales were Russian, and not Bengali. This is why I fell in love with Klyachko! By digging in archives, one can find his trail, but nothing has been written about him since his death, no one contacted his family. To find them and to tell that story gave me a voluptuous feeling of drowning.
SS: La scène d’autodafé de mon roman est imaginaire. La vente libre de Mein Kampf, le fait qu’il soit un best-seller en Inde, surtout parmi les jeunes, m’ont révoltée. Depuis la montée au pouvoir national de Modi alias son parti suprémaciste hindouiste BJP, depuis les déclarations massives et éhontées pro-Hitler, islamophobes de ses électeurs, j’ai voulu en parler dans mon roman. Le pouvoir des livres et de la littérature est majeur. Mais les livres aussi mentent, ce n’est pas mentir-vrai comme a dit Aragon, mais plus compliqué. On propage les idées suprémacistes, sectaires, religieuses, en guise d’une quête personnelle spirituelle. Doit-on bannir ces livres-là ? C’est le piège de la démocratie. Le capitalisme est un totalitarisme à ciel ouvert. On me considère comme un écrivain engagé, mais dans mes livres je cherche à explorer les complexités de la vie, j’ai horreur des discours binaires, dogmatiques. La littérature n’a pas la prétention de changer le monde, mais elle peut dévoiler la condition humaine, elle peut semer les germes d’espoir, de rêve pour un monde meilleur, accompagner le lecteur esseulé et lui donner un élan renouvelé.
SS: I imagined the scene in my novel where books are burnt. The fact that “Mein Kampf” is readily available, that it is a best-seller particularly among young people in India revolted me. Since Modi gained power together with his Hindu supremacy party the BJP, massive and shameless statements have been made by his voters in favor of Hitler and against Muslims. I wanted to talk about this in my novel. The power of books and literature is huge. But books also lie. French poet Aragon once created a neologism: “mentir-vrai” meaning that books lie to say the truth, but it is in fact more complicated than that. People spread ideas of supremacy, sects, religion pretending this is all a personal spiritual quest. Should such books be banned? This is the trap of democracy. Capitalism is an open air form of totalitarianism. People describe me as a writer who is “engagé” – who is politically and socially involved, but in my books, I try to explore the complexities of life. I hate binary and dogmatic discourse. Literature does not pretend it can change the world, but it can unveil the human condition, plant seeds of hope, of dreams of a better world, provide company to the lonely reader and give them a new impulse.
FN: Your novel spans across India and Russia – you also traveled many places, including the US to research the novel and the history of Klyachko. Do you accept the label of global novel for “Le Testament Russe”? Is all literature global in the 21st century?
SS: Bien sûr, je le prends comme un compliment. C’est même l’aspiration du Testament russe.Même si tous les romans du XXIème siècle ne le sont pas. Il y a des romans français qui s’inscrivent dans le contexte historico-social franco-français. Ce n’est ni une qualité de plus, ni un défaut évidemment.
SS: Of course, I take that word as a compliment. This is what my novel aspires to. But not all novels of the 21st century are global, certain French novels remain grounded in a typically French historical and social context, which is not to say this is a quality or a fault, obviously.
FN: You are a global and exophonic writer. You have transitioned across cultures and languages – what has this process brought you? How have you negotiated your multiple identities? What are the challenges and advantages of writing in a non-native language?
SS: Je suis venue à la littérature non seulement pour franchir les frontières mais pour les voir effacées. Je n’ai jamais eu de solidarité ethnique ou communautaire. Je me considère comme une métisse culturelle, une nomade et heureuse de l’être. Ce n'est pas l’Inde ou la France qui sont ma patrie, mais la langue française.
Quant à écrire en français, on ne choisit pas la langue, c’est la langue qui nous choisit. Alors on n’a plus le choix. Ça se passe dans le corps. On est habité par la langue. Le français m’était d’abord une langue étrangère, ensuite une langue autre, puis la langue, ma langue. Toutes les autres langues natales de ma vie antérieure sont endormies, comme des rivières souterraines, elles ne sont pas manifestes, et le français est devenue ma langue vitale car je ne sais plus concevoir ma vie dans une autre langue que le français. Écrire en français est révolutionnaire pour moi qui ai écrit en bengali quand j’étais adolescente et jeune femme, et je n’ai jamais écrit en anglais. Contrairement au bengali qui est une langue limpide, le français est une langue rationnelle et analytique, ainsi écrire en français a façonné ma pensée. Les interrogations linguistiques et existentialistes sont devenues la matière de mes livres. Quand on est écrivain en situation d'exophonie, on vit toujours une intranquillité vis-à-vis de la langue autre. Cet état est excitant, propice à la création.
SS: I came to literature not only to cross boundaries, but to see them disappear. I never felt ethnic or communalist solidarity. I consider myself to be a person of mixed cultural origins, a happy nomad. My home country is not India or France, it is the French language.
Regarding the fact that I write in French, we don't get to choose the language, it is the language that chooses us. And then we no longer have a choice. This takes places inside the body. French was a foreign language for me, then it became another language, then the language, and finally my language. All the other mother tongues of my previous life have fallen asleep, like underground rivers, they are not visible, and French became a vital language because I can only conceive my life in that language. To write in French is revolutionary for me, as a person who used to write in Bengali when I was a teenager and a young woman. I never wrote in English. Unlike Bengali, that is a limpid language, French is rational and analytical, thus writing in French shaped my thinking. Linguistic and existentialist questions have become the inspiration for my books. When you are an exophonic writer, you are always in a relation of non-tranquility with the other language. This state of mind is exciting and conducive to creation.
FN: Your book is also a homage to translators, such as Nani Bhowmik. You have also worked as an interpreter for asylum seekers. How important are literary translators?
SS: Le travail des traducteurs littéraires est d’une valeur inestimable ! Ils jouent un rôle primordial pour construire les ponts et les passerelles entre les pays et les cultures. Nani Bhowmik est d’un talent rare. Il a écrit lui aussi des romans, primés par l’Académie indienne de la littérature. Son œuvre est marquée par son voyage entre deux langues, sa langue d’écriture est innovante, affranchie, fantasque et profonde. Pour ma part je me sens plus heureuse de mes anthologies de poésie française et bengalie contemporaines dont j’ai assuré la traduction. Les traducteurs qui ne sont pas eux-mêmes des écrivains, ils réécrivent les textes d’origine dans la langue d’arrivée. C’est à la fois une contribution linguistique, littéraire et socioculturelle. Les livres traduits qui franchissent les frontières sont les messagers d’espoir et de liberté.
SS: The work of literary translator has immense value! They play a key role to build bridges between countries and cultures. Nani Bhowmik was a man of rare talent. He also wrote novels awarded by the the Indian Academy of Literature. His writing is shaped by his journey between the two languages, Russian and Bengali, it is innovative, free, whimsical and deep. As for me, I am particularly happy with my anthologies of contemporary French and Bengali poetry which I translated. Translators who are not writers themselves rewrite texts produced in the source language in the target language. This represents a linguistic, literary and socio-cultural contribution. Translated books that cross borders are messengers of hope and freedom.

author: Filip Noubel


text:
COVID-19 is rapidly exhausting Bangladesh healthcare system amidst alarming rise of infected people · Global Voices
Samaya Anjum

Hospital beds with oxygen support. Image by Silas Camargo Silão from Pixabay. Used under a Pixabay License.
Since Sunday, May 31, after a two-month long nationwide lockdown was lifted, Bangladesh has witnessed a record number of deaths due to COVID every single day. At present, official figures show that there are 87,520 confirmed cases and 1,171 deaths, though real figures are believed to be higher. As massive commotion and crises sweep through the country, public healthcare systems are failing largely, resulting in no signs of the COVID-19 contraction curve plateauing.
On June 8, when a virtual high court headed by Justice M Enayetur Rahim inquired about the healthcare facilities in the country, the Department of Health released the following information: there are only 1,000 intensive care unit (ICU) beds for a total population of 165 million, combining the capacity of the public and private sectors. According to reports, there are no ICU facilities in 47 districts out of 64 districts in Bangladesh. This huge shortage of intensive care units means that a lot of people in critical conditions have to delay treatment amidst the surge of Covid-19 -patients.
Journalist Shuprova Tasneem tweeted:
DGHS response to High Court order. There are only 733 ICU beds in government hospitals. This is what decades of underfunding the health sector, mismanagement and corruption does. Our health system is not equipped to deal with this health crisishttps://t.co/w2dm42Rd6u
— Shuprova Tasneem (@ShuprovaTasneem) June 10, 2020
On June 12, 2020, Maria Taha from Chittagong was seen pleading for her Covid-19 infected father on Facebook :
একটা icu কেউ manaz করে দিতে পারবেন
আমার আব্বুর জন্য
Can anyone help secure an ICU bed for my father?
A few hours later she updated her post announcing the death of her father:
লাগবে না ICU. আর
We won't require an ICU. Anymore.
Md. Atiqur Rahman reacted to Maria Taha's situation:
চট্টগ্রাম এ চিকিৎসা সংকট নিয়ে বেশ কয়েকদিন ধরেই নানান খবর পাচ্ছিলাম। দিন দিন তা যে আরও খারাপ/প্রকট হচ্ছে তার-ই নমুনা এই ঘটনাটি। না, এটি কোন বিচ্ছিন্ন ঘটনা নয়; এটাই স্বাভাবিক ও তিক্ত সত্য।
We were getting bits and pieces of news about the crisis in public health in Chittagong due to covid-19. It is becoming worse day-by-day and this incident is a testimony to that. This is not an isolated situation; this is the new normal and a bitter truth.
There is also a shortage of oxygen in hospital, because a number of affluent people are stockpiling oxygen cylinders in fear of Covid-19, thus failing the public health system. Since Bangladesh depends greatly on imports to sustain medical supplies, which have been temporarily stopped, the shortage of oxygen-providing equipment in public hospitals is a real challenge. Providing oxygen is one of the main methods of facilitating treatments for COVID-19 patients.
As netizen Masud Karim tweets:
#Oxygen price shoots up astronomically, traders manipulate cylinder rate, rent as demand rises during #Covid19 crisis, writes #KamrunNahar https://t.co/V05zrTE7IJ #Bangladesh #FE via @febdonline
— masudkarim মাসুদকরিম (@urumurum) June 7, 2020
The suffering isn't limited to coronavirus patients, however; non-COVID patients with respiratory diseases are also being denied treatment as fears of them being asymptomatic carriers of the virus lingers around.
Frontline doctors and medical professionals are similarly falling victim to the faltering state of the nation's current healthcare systems. As many as 1,169 doctors got infected till the second week of June, 2020 and 35 doctors died from COVID-19.
Insufficient supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in the country means more doctors and nurses are at risk. There are no available statistics as to how many medics are under treatment, observing home quarantine, or have been infected, but this is bound to become a colossal issue to handle.
“#Nurses & #midwives are #frontline healthcare workers resonding to #COVID19, and this means they must protect themselves. They must have proper #PPE. They should also have the proper training on how to use PPE effectively.” – Dr Dewan Emdadul Hoque, @UNFPA #Bangladesh pic.twitter.com/mEP0eKNEKm
— UNFPA Bangladesh (@UNFPABangladesh) June 6, 2020
Despite the surging number of Covid-19 cases, Bangladesh lifted its lockdown on May 31, 2020. Experts say that the infection numbers were on the rise because the several phases of lockdowns, which were termed general holidays, were not strictly followed.
On June 13, 2020, entrepreneur Nazmul Hossen Shwroz informed on Facebook that Bangladesh has surpassed China in the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases:
♦করোনা আক্রান্তের সংখ্যায় চীনকে ছাড়াল বাংলাদেশ..!
♦গত বছরের ডিসেম্বরের শেষ দিকে করোনাভাইরাস মহামারী শুরু হয়েছিল চীন থেকে। সেই দেশটি একে একে ১৮টি দেশের পেছনে পড়ে গেল। এবার আক্রান্তের সংখ্যায় তাদের পেছনে ফেলল বাংলাদেশও।
Bangladesh has surpassed China with the number of Covid-19 affected people (ranking 18th).
Covid-19 started in China last December. In 18 countries of the world, the number of infected is more than China now.
On June 10, Supreme Court Advocate Manzil Morshed filed a writ petition on behalf of lawyer Mahbubul Islam seeking a complete lockdown in Dhaka to curb the coronavirus transmission.
Since June 9, 2020, Bangladesh started testing a system of zone-wise lockdown marking regions in red, yellow and green depending on the severity of COVID-19 contraction by the locals, in order to limit the transmission of the virus. A region is marked as a red if 40 out of 100,000 people in the area tested positive for COVID-19. These red zones are put under strict lockdown whereby people are not be allowed to leave their homes, and gates are closed to outsiders.
The crowded Rohingya Refugee Camps in Cox's Bazar have also been put under close-guard as the number of corona-positive cases crossed 35, with approximately 5 officially-recorded deaths.
Filmmaker Shafiur Rahman tweeted:
Here is a list of the instructions being implemented in the #RedZone of Ukhiya. These affect the #Rohingya #refugee camps. https://t.co/UyYRoUaiqR#COVID19 #bangladesh
— Shafiur Rahman (@shafiur) June 8, 2020
However, the implementation of the zone-wise lockdown will be challenging as Dr Parvez Reza tweets:
? A resident attempts to escape the red zone in East Rajabazar, an area put on total lockdown to stem the spread of COVID-19. @dailystarnews #CoronaVirus #Bangladesh pic.twitter.com/qA0q2AliP0
— Dr. Parvez Reza (@DrParvezReza2) June 11, 2020
Translation of the notice: The department of health has designated East Rajabazar area as Red Zone and declared a lockdown to stop the spread of Covid-19 infection. GOING OUT IS FORBIDDEN!
The national advisory committee on COVID-19 has recently suggested that the lockdown should cover as much of the risky zone as possible to limit the spread of the coronavirus. The full implementation of the area-wise lockdowns in the country is scheduled to begin by mid-June.
Netizen Soykat Bin Rahman tweeted:
As coronavirus cases and fatalities continue to rise in Bangladesh, the government has taken all necessary preparations to bring hotspots (red zone) under lockdown and will declare closure in those areas to prevent entry and exit.
— ?? Soykat Bin Rahman ?? (@MdShaheenPervez) June 13, 2020
Dr. Ashikur Rahman thinks that Bangladesh needs a strict lockdown:
Bangladesh needs to impose a strict lockdown before this #Covid-19 wave turns into a Tsunami. Time is no longer a luxury as people are dying on the streets. I hope and pray a policy correction happens. #Bangladesh
— Ashikur Rahman (@Dr_Ashikur) June 13, 2020

author: Samaya Anjum


text:
French police arrest Félicien Kabuga, alleged financier of genocide in Rwanda · Global Voices
Abdoulaye Bah

Monument commemorating the genocide in Rwanda. Photo from The Advocacy Project, used under license CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
After 26 years on the run, Rwandan genocide suspect, Félicien Kabuga, was arrested in a Parisian suburb on May 16. He was then transferred to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
At 84, Félicien Kabuga has long been one of the world's most wanted fugitives. The United States State Department offered a reward of $5 million for any information leading to his arrest. After playing hide-and-seek with police in several different countries to avoid his many charges, he was finally arrested on May 16, in Asnières-sur-Seine, a Paris suburb.
He wanted to be tried in France, but French courts decided to transfer him to Tanzania, to the International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals (IRMCT) on June 3. Kabuga is accused of being the financier of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, — a period of 100 days in which Hutu extremists killed nearly 1 million people, mostly Tutsi.
The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) charged Kabuga in 1997 on seven counts including genocide, complicity in genocide, direct and public incitement to commit genocide, as well as crimes committed in Rwanda between April 6 to July 17, 1994.
Journalist Moutiou Adjibi Nourou summarised the charges brought against Kabuga:
Il est accusé d’avoir créé les Interahamwe (“ceux qui combattent ensemble”), des milices hutu considérés par l’ONU comme les principaux bras armés du génocide de 1994 qui fit 800 000 morts.
Visé par un mandat d’arrêt international, Félicien Kabuga présidait la Radio-télévision libre des mille collines (RTLM), qui diffusa des appels aux meurtres des Tutsi après l’assassinat de l’ancien président Juvénal Habyarimana. Il dirigeait également le Fonds de défense nationale (FDN) qui collectait « des fonds » destinés à financer la logistique et les armes des miliciens et aurait « ordonné aux employés de sa société (…) d’importer un nombre impressionnant de machettes au Rwanda en 1993 », avant de les faire distribuer en avril 1994 aux Interahamwe.
He is accused of having created the Interahamwe (‘those who fight together’), which is the Hutu militia that is considered by the UN [United Nations] to have been the main perpetrator of the 1994 genocide that killed 800,000 people.
Wanted under an international arrest warrant, Félicien Kabuga presided over the Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines [RTLM], which broadcast calls for the murder of all Tutsis after the assassination of former President Juvenal Habyarimana. He also headed the National Defense Fund [FDN] which collected ‘funds’ to finance the logistics and the weapons of the militia and was said to have ‘ordered the employees of his company (…) to import a significant number of machetes to Rwanda in 1993,’ before having them distributed to the Interahamwe in April of 1994.
RTLM played a fundamental role in the genocide. Indeed, Sandra Ngoga, a junior analyst at the University of Sherbrooke, states:
Ensuite, durant les 100 jours qui suivirent, elle [RTLM] incitera quotidiennement la population hutu à faire son travail, terme qui faisait référence au massacre des Tutsis. Par ailleurs, les animateurs de cette Radio ont joué un grand rôle dans le déroulement du génocide, car ces derniers signalaient aux citoyens le nom et la localisation des victimes tutsi et incitaient la population à effectuer rapidement son travail.On estime que la RTLM a contribué à la mort d'un grand nombre de personnes.
Peu après le génocide, plusieurs journalistes qui travaillaient pour la Radio ont été accusés de complicité de génocide et de crimes contre l'humanité.
During the 100 days of genocide, every day, the RTLM would encourage the Hutu population to ‘do their job’, a term that referred to the massacre of Tutsis. Furthermore, the hosts of this radio station played a large role in the genocide, as they informed citizens of the names and locations of Tutsi victims and encouraged the population to carry out their work quickly. RTLM is believed to have contributed to the deaths of a huge number of people.
Shortly after the genocide, several journalists who worked for the radio station were accused of complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity.
Kabuga's time on the run came to an end during France's lockdown due to COVID-19 measures. Eric Emeraux, head of France's Central Office for Combating Crimes Against Humanity (OCLCH), is quoted here:
La traque a commencé depuis un an lors d’une réunion à La Haye sous l’égide du Mécanisme. Les membres de sa famille sont alors placés sous surveillance par les polices belge, britannique et française, selon les pays où ils résident. L’attention des services français se porte sur un appartement où se rendent souvent des membres de la famille de Kabuga. La surveillance électronique leur permet de constater que, sur 365 jours, il y a toujours un enfant de Kabuga (il en a eu onze) présent dans cet appartement. On avait de bonnes raisons et de gros faisceaux d’indices qui nous permettaient de penser qu’il était derrière, mais jusqu’à ce qu’on ait poussé la porte de sa chambre, on n’était pas sûr. On aurait eu des certitudes si on l’avait vu sortir. Il était très discret. Et il était confiné. Il vivait sous une fausse identité avec un passeport d’un pays africain… Il a eu 28 alias quand même, en 26 ans.
The hunt began a year ago during a meeting in The Hague under the auspices of the IRMCT [the courts]. Members of his family were then placed under surveillance by the Belgian, British and French police, depending on their country of residence. The French police focused their attention on an apartment often visited by members of Kabuga's family. Using electronic surveillance methods over the course of 365 days, they saw that one of Kabuga's children [he had 11 in total] was still living in the apartment. We had a large body of evidence and good reason to believe that he was inside, but until we pushed open the door of his bedroom, we were not completely sure. We would have been certain if we had seen him come out, but he was very discreet and was quarantined in his home. He was living under a false identity with a passport from an African country … He had 28 aliases in total — over 26 years.
Although many activists have celebrated Kabuga's arrest, some are wondering how he was able to escape justice for over a quarter of a century. Alain Gauthier, president of the Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda (CPCR) is dubious about possible complicity which could have availed Kabuga on French soil.
According to an Agence France-Presse dispatch, the Rwandan Community Association of France (CRF) has already appealed to the Nanterre [city on the outskirt of Paris] public prosecutor's office, demanding an investigation into who may have assisted Kabuga.
Many human rights activists and journalists have been asking the same questions on Twitter.
Ida Sawyer, deputy director for Africa at Human Rights Watch, stresses:
#Rwanda: Avec la mort confirmée du génocidaire présumé Augustin Bizimana, juste quelques jours après l’arrestation en #France de Félicien Kabuga, il faut redoubler d’efforts pour que Protais Mpiranya – le dernier fugitif majeur – soit traduit en justice https://t.co/ikh0535cZw pic.twitter.com/nc9WUKFIIT
— Ida Sawyer (@ida_sawyer) May 28, 2020
#Rwanda: With the confirmed death of the alleged genocidaire Augustin Bizimana, just a few days after the arrest in #France of Félicien Kabuga, we must redouble our efforts so that Protais Mpiranya, the last major fugitive, is brought to justice.
La cours d’appel de Paris ordonne le transfert de #FélicienKabuga au @unirmct. Nul doute qu'il va jouer la procédure et aller en cassation.
Ironie du sort, la cassation est l’autorité juridique & morale suprême et c’est précisément là que Kabuga va introduire son recours immoral
— Nadia Kabalira (@NadiaKabalira) June 3, 2020
The Paris Court of Appeal orders the transfer of #FélicienKabuga to @unirmct. No doubt he will play the procedure and go to appeal. Ironically, the court of appeal is the supreme legal and moral authority and it is precisely there that Kabuga will lodge his immoral appeal.
LUCHA, a civil society and human rights organization in Democratic Republic of Congo, laments:
Soupçonné et recherché pour genocide et crimes contre l’humanité, le rwandais Felicien Kabuga vivait en France avec un passeport Congolais ! https://t.co/Yamcpi1sMm
— LUCHA ?? (@luchaRDC) May 29, 2020
Suspected and wanted for genocide and crimes against humanity, the Rwandan Felicien Kabuga lived in France with a Congolese passport!
Un voisin du “financier du génocide rwandais” Félicien Kabuga à Asnières-sur-Seine : “C'est un truc de fou. Je n'arrive toujours pas à y croire. C'est comme si j'apprenais qu'Hitler ou Klaus Barbie était mon voisin.”.. @le_Parisien https://t.co/xx3ADFr26a
— Nicolas Berrod (@nicolasberrod) May 17, 2020
A neighbor of the ‘financier of the Rwandan genocide,’ Félicien Kabuga in Asnières-sur-Seine says: ‘It's crazy. I still can't believe it. It’s like I’m learning that Hitler or Klaus Barbie was my neighbor.’
Justice will be done, concludes Laurent Larcher, a journalist with the French paper La Croix, and author of the book “Rwanda, ils parlent – Témoignages pour l'histoire.” [Rwanda, they speak – Testimonies for history] who writes:
La justice suit son cours, le crime ne passe pas, il est toujours temps pour un homme de rendre des comptes quant à ses choix, ses actes et ses crimes. Et il le fera devant ses enfants https://t.co/rmzQMIjfMp
— Laurent Larcher (@LaurentLarcher) June 3, 2020
Justice is underway, crime will not escape. There is still time for a man to be held accountable for his choices, his acts and his crimes. And he will do it in front of his children

author: Abdoulaye Bah


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Surprise in Papua New Guinea as Prime Minister rejects the renewal of license for major gold mine · Global Voices
Mong Palatino

Porgera gold mine. Photo by Richard Farbelini from Wikipedia licensed under public domain.
In an unexpected move, Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Minister James Marape announced on April 24 that one of the largest gold mines of his country will not see its mining lease renewed. This decision has launched a intense debate about the future of the mining industry, a key pillar of the PNG economy.
Marape's decision has ignited an intense discussion PNG: the Porgera mine site which will see its license end is a major and international investment in the country. The site is is managed by Barrick Niugini Limited (BNL), a joint venture between Canada-based Barrick Gold, Chinese firm Zijin Mining, the Enga’s provincial government, and Porgera landowners.
The Porgera site started operating in 1990. It is an open-pit and underground mine which produces a million ounces of gold a year, and employs more than 5,000 people. The mining operation has boosted local revenues but it also drew local complaints about its negative impact on the environment. Human rights violations were also reported in communities surrounding the mine. Marape cited environment and resettlement issues to support his announcement to close the mine.
BNL’s lease expired on August 18, 2019. There were negotiations about extending the lease for another 20 years but in the end, Marape decided to reject the application, surprising key players in the mining industry. Yet Marape, who ran on a ‘Take Back PNG’ election campaign in 2019, had announced that if elected, he would seek to get a bigger revenue share from the operations of multinational companies in the extractive industry.
Marape wrote on Facebook on April 27 to assure his constituents that “the world will not end if Porgera closes.” He also asked Barrick Niugini Limited to work with his government in implementing a transition phase and exit plan:
Now that your lease has expired, the legal process is there for Barrick to comply so you can maintain your operation until an agreed exit time we both secure at negotiations when mutual obligations are retired.
My letter will ask Barrick to continue operating the mine when we go through this phase, but if you sabotage or close the mine, you leave me no choice but to invoke orders to take over the mine for the sake of land owners and provincial government who should be getting bigger equities, plus the employees and contractors who are presently working with the mine.
In a subsequent Facebook post on April 29, he reminded local stakeholders that the government has a plan for them:
To all staff at Porgera that is laid off at this time, we are working to restore you all back to work at the earliest. Hang in there!
Your loss of income will be compensated and none of you will lose your job and you will be back working when the mine is opened.
To all contractors of Porgera, you will still be required.
To all land owners of Porgera, this is your moment! You will sit on the table as greater free equity owners.
BNL described Marape’s decision as “tantamount to nationalisation without due process.” The company added that Marape’s government has failed to consult local landowners:
The Government has also ignored the wishes of the Porgera landowners, who overwhelmingly support the extension of BNL’s lease, and the Prime Minister has refused to consult them or even hear their views.
A group of landowners criticized the non-renewal of the lease and warned about its disastrous impact on the local economy:
The ill-conceived decision not to extend the Porgera Mining Lease, and the resulting economic chaos that has brought to our people is causing us much pain, but the Government has never come to us to ask our views or to explain why they are making these decisions that affect us so much.
We already suffer from an uncertain future as our peoples’ livelihoods are impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and the suspension of mining operations at Porgera after an ill-conceived decision by the government over the refusal of SML [Special Mining Lease] extension without consulting the landowners.
Landowners are challenging this decision too. They have already negotiated with Barrick and want them to stay They’re claiming #PNG gov not even listening to them? https://t.co/t2bHqm9dum pic.twitter.com/qN0xU1DEX3
— Susan Abel (@SusanAbel) April 26, 2020
The underlying issue for PNG is to what extend it can control its model of economic development. Public opinion, though, remains divided over the question: some landowners saw the wisdom of what Marape did and its potential to develop a better development model for the country. An editorial published by Post-Courier newspaper urged the government to manage the country’s resources well and pursue programs aimed at establishing a self-reliant economy.
But there are also other views: a writer cautioned Marape not to act like a dictator in a democracy where rule of law is supposed to be upheld. BNL has since filed a court petition questioning the action of the PNG government.
While a PNG journalist has appealed for dialogue to resolve the issues related to the lease, it is unclear if both sides are ready for negotiations: On May 29, BNL announced that it is ready to increase the stake of local landowners in the Porgera lease, yet on June 5, PNG’s Mineral Resources Authority accused BNL of attempting to illegally export gold to Australia, an act denied by the company. On the same week, BNL said it received a court notice that there will be a judicial review of the non-renewal of the lease scheduled on July 20.
Finally, on June 10, the country’s parliament has passed an amending law that would increase the government share in extracting the country’s oil, gas, and mining resources. Marape thanked the parliament for the law. He wrote a message addressed to investors on his Facebook page:
I can assure our investors that we know they must make money for their shareholders too so we will not be greedy but we just asking for a fair share, if they want to harvest our resources.
The Porgera mine lease issue has rekindled previous debates about what constitutes a fair deal in allowing companies to extract the country’s finite resources. This will remain a contentious issue but whatever action the government will carry out is going to have a lasting impact on the country’s economic future.


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Going far together: The East African diaspora steps up to address COVID-19 in their home region · Global Voices
Azan Virji

Hanif Gilani of the NGO Towa Kitu Kidogo distributes donations in Kenya. Photo courtesy of Hanif Giliani.
As COVID-19 threatens the lives of millions around the world, the East African community has not been immune to this threat. The region has reported over 7,000 cases as of June 14.
When COVID-19 cases began to rise in my home country of Tanzania, I became very concerned for my family members, all of whom have severe health issues that make them vulnerable to the virus.
In the six years since I’ve been studying in the United States, I’ve only been able to travel home once a year to see my parents and grandfather, who still live in Mwanza, Tanzania. To help ensure that they and other Tanzanians stayed healthy and had access to information about the virus, I pulled together a team of people to translate essential information about the virus into Kiswahili, the most widely spoken language in Tanzania.
The information was published as a series of fact sheets as part of the COVID-19 Health Literacy project, and our efforts were recognized by Tanzanian news outlets such as VijanaFM, which published the fact sheets on their website.
Author Azan Virji with high school classmates in Tanzania (L), and (R) today in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he is a second-year student at Harvard Medical School. Photo courtesy of Azan Virji.
But I still felt like I wasn’t reaching enough people, especially those living in rural areas and those with limited access and literacy. So, on seeing the United Nations Global Talent Call to Creatives, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and pull together a team to create a song to raise more awareness about COVID-19.
Music is a big part of East African culture and has long been used in mediating conflict and strengthening community cohesion in rural areas. Radio also remains a very popular medium in East African countries, and I believed that a song about COVID-19 could capture audiences in Tanzania on a large scale.
In that way, after lots of rapid lyric-writing writing and late-night recording, “Corona Tutaishinda” (“We will Defeat Corona”) was created by Tanzanians scattered across the world.
For this endeavor, I recruited some Tanzanian friends living in other countries who, like me, decided to pursue higher education abroad. First, I contacted a friend in Dubai who has a passion for making music and asked him to create a short music track for two verses and a chorus. Next, I reached out to two Tanzanians living in Boston and asked them to come up with some powerful lyrics. I recruited a Tanzanian artist friend in Canada to create the album art.
Cover art for the song “Corona tutashinda” by Tanzanian artist Shamya Jaffer.
Recording the piece was by far the most challenging task. My only experience with singing was in theater in high school and in the Yale Russian Chorus in college. I had never rapped before nor even recorded myself singing. So I called in an expert—a classmate who has his own podcast. After a brief lesson on using Garageband and a professional microphone, I went for it. Even an outdated computer that kept crashing mid-way through recording couldn’t stop my zeal for making this song for my people.
“Corona Tutaishinda” not only educates listeners about COVID-19 but also provides a message of hope and solidarity. It has been playing on the radio station MegaFM in Arusha for close to two months now and is also available for download. All proceeds from online purchases go toward funding personal protective equipment (PPE) for Tanzanian frontline healthcare workers.
The United States is home to tens of thousands of Tanzanians who have emigrated from their home country and now call the US home. A group from the Tanzanian diaspora, myself included, have banded together to raise money to purchase PPE for frontline healthcare workers in Tanzania.
Our initial goal was $25,000, which we were able to easily surpass earlier this month, raising over $30,000.
The current plan is to purchase PPE in Tanzania, to support the local economy. To distribute the equipment, we plan to leverage regional medical officers of Dar es Salaam and Pwani regions, who have inside knowledge of which hospitals in their respective regions are in the most desperate need of PPE. Demonstrating and ensuring accountability is a top priority, so the group has recruited experts on the ground in Tanzania to confirm that the PPE is distributed to those who most need it.
Our slogan, umoja wetu, ndio nguvu yetu—“our unity is our strength”—speaks to our emotional connection to Tanzania. Even though we are physically separated from our homeland, our commitment to helping Tanzania fight COVID-19 is strong.
According to the World Bank, COVID-19 will push an estimated 60 million people into extreme poverty. This, combined with regional mass flooding, will likely render millions of already poor people food insecure.
Hanif Gilani, a native Kenyan who is currently an internal medicine resident at Griffin Hospital in Connecticut, was not prepared to wait for the severe food shortages to hit his country.
Gilani partnered with fellow Kenyan Ashiana Jivraj, a student at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, to start a nonprofit called, Towa Kitu Kidogo, or Give Something Small. This is a colloquial expression used in Kenya when asking for bribes, but Gilani and Jivraj decided to reclaim it to demonstrate how small donations in the right hands can create a large impact if given to those who need it the most.  To demonstrate accountability, they detail all donations and expenditure online on a public spreadsheet.
So far, the organization has raised over $15,000 and spent over $10,000 on initiatives such as feeding 150 first responders at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching & Referral Hospital in Kisumu, Kenya.
Most recently, the NGO partnered with the Sikh Community in Kisumu to feed over 2,000 people confined to their homes because of the lockdown, and in some cases in communities that had been affected by flooding. Food deliveries were made in some cases by driving through two feet of water into villages that were cut off by the floods.
Harnessing networks of friends, family, local organizations, and local partners have helped Towa Kitu Kidogo to identify diverse groups of people facing starvation and to address their needs.
As the African proverb goes: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”

author: Azan Virji


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Part I: Health care information access for women during COVID-19 in East Africa · Global Voices
Nelly Warega

A woman stands in front of a health care clinic advertising a variety of insurance options and services, March 19, 2018, Nairobi, Kenya. Photo by International Telecommunications Union via Flickr CC BY 2.0.
Editor's note: This story is part of a two-part series on women and health care during COVID-19 in East Africa. Read Part II here.
Maternal health is a crucial part of sexual and reproductive health and an indivisible component of health care rights. However, maternal mortality continues to threaten the health of women and girls globally — especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
In recent years, states have instituted priority measures to reduce unintended pregnancies and unsafe abortions, and enhance access to skilled health care providers — in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
But to ensure the effectiveness of these measures, guaranteed access to information for girls and women is key.
The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the critical obligation of states to ensure the accurate provision of information as a fundamental component of health care rights. This demands proactive communication by states in a timely and effective manner.
During the pandemic, some governments have struggled to ensure that women and girls have uninterrupted access to sexual and reproductive health-related information and education, on and offline.
In Kenya, the public has not always received regular, clear and accessible information regarding exemptions to curfew and lockdown restrictions. While exemptions unreservedly allow pregnant women facing obstetric emergencies to leave their homes to travel to health care facilities, a lack of clear information on these exemptions and how they are implemented can cause undue stress and confusion.
Kenyans were also not fully aware of the duty and roles of security agents and public transport providers to facilitate and ensure the safe passage of pregnant women and girls to health care facilities. Access to this information enables women and girls to vindicate their rights.
A new family visits a health clinic with their infant, March 19, 2018, Nairobi, Kenya. Photo by International Telecommunications Union via Flickr CC BY 2.0.
Primarily disseminating information online — especially through social media — is potentially dangerous because it excludes and discriminates against many women and girls who have limited or no access to smartphones, internet services, or digital literacy skills necessary to access this information. Some have limited or no economic means to meet internet data costs.
According to the World Wide Web Foundation, despite massive global growth in internet usage, there are still more men online than women due to existing gender disparities. In sub-Saharan Africa, only 28 percent of women have access to the internet. This means that sharing information online or requiring consumers to access the internet to gain access to health care services often excludes women.
In Kenya, 86 percent of women have access to mobile phones, but only 32 percent have access to and use internet services. Out of this latter group, it is unclear if they enjoy regular and uninterrupted access to internet services which requires the economic means to pay for internet bundles and electricity to charge smartphones.
The Ministry of Health in Kenya issued guidelines for continuity of reproductive, maternal, newborn and family planning care during the COVID-19 pandemic, including the use of telemedicine – an innovative model encouraged by numerous countries to ensure health service provision during COVID-19.
Telemedicine is critical to ensure access to health-related information, including how to access emergency services during labor, as well as to facilitate contact between health care providers and patients.
However, telemedicine guidelines are mainly disseminated online — which is not accessible to everyone. This means that many communities may not be aware of the telephone numbers to call to access these services.
Further, telemedicine is not accessible to women who do not have mobile phones, and for those with limited funds required to make phone calls, if hotlines are not toll-free.
States are bound by ratified human rights treaties and conventions. Consequently, human rights treaty monitoring bodies at the regional level and the global United Nations level have developed standards universally accepted by states to measure and facilitate the realization of health care rights — including maternal health.
The United Nations Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights and Committee on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women developed General Comment 14 and General Comment 22, and General Recommendation 24 respectively, outlining state obligations and standards toward realizing health rights.
At the regional level, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights developed in 2014 the General Comment 2 on the right to health, including reproductive health, provided for in Article 14 of the ground-breaking 2003 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa – popularly referred to as the Maputo Protocol.
Collectively, these human rights instruments outline African states’ obligations to ensure that high-quality health care is available, acceptable and accessible to all, including access to health-related information and education.
Information must be available to all people on an equal basis and without discrimination — especially to vulnerable and marginalized populations such as those living in poverty, in rural and remote areas, and persons with disabilities.
The use of diverse forms of information dissemination and communication ensures that all women — young and old, living in rural, peri-urban or urban areas, all income levels — have access to relevant health information.
Overall, states could do more to ensure the provision of accurate information to the public, including the use of conventional media such as TV, radio and newspapers and free mass texting through the Short Message Service (SMS) and USSD services.
Engagement with community leaders, activists, groups, community health workers and volunteers, also supports the open and transparent flow of information in communities with limited access to mobile phones, TVs,  radios, newspapers, et cetera.
Regular access to health-related information — especially for women and girls — will undoubtedly improve access to maternal health care services. This will likely mitigate a projected increase in maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity in Africa during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lydia Muthiani and Nelly Warega are human rights lawyers living and working in Kenya. They have specialized on the advancement of women’s and girls’ rights, and are part of Utu Wetu, a collective of human rights experts particularly working on women’s rights.

author: Nelly Warega


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Part II: Roadblocks to health care for women during COVID-19 in East Africa · Global Voices
Nelly Warega

Two women passengers ride on a boda-boda motorcycle taxi in Uganda, March 23, 2010. Photo by Daryona via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0.
Editor's note: This story is part of a two-part series on women and health care during COVID-19 in East Africa. Read Part I here.
Throughout East Africa, midwives and other skilled health care providers safely assist pregnant women during childbirth to reduce the risk of maternal and child mortality.
Yet, COVID-19 measures such as travel bans and nightly curfews have created potentially dangerous physical barriers between pregnant women and skilled health care providers during childbirth.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic presents a valid and ongoing threat to unencumbered access to comprehensive maternal health care.
During the pandemic, many pregnant women have been unable to access health care facilities on time — or at all — during childbirth. Under nightly curfews, transport providers have either been unable or unwilling to ferry pregnant women in labor to health facilities for fear of harassment by security agencies.
By mid-April 2020 in Kenya, about one month after COVID-19 measures were put in place, at least five women and three babies died during and immediately following childbirth.
Three pregnant women died in Makueni County due to challenges in access to public health facilities during curfew hours. One of the three women was turned away in the middle of the night by two local midwives, and a boda-boda (“motorcycle”) rider who refused to transport her and her husband to the hospital for fear of an altercation with police for breaking curfew.
The mother of six in Makueni died the following day at the hospital while awaiting a blood transfusion. Fear of harassment by police among boda-boda riders partially stems from recent incidents of violence against transport service providers.
In February 2020 in Kenya, a boda-boda rider was shot dead by a police officer after rushing a child to the hospital who had almost drowned. In March 2020, a boda-boda rider was beaten to death by police officers while returning home after rushing a pregnant woman to the hospital.
Kenya Television Network reported infant mortality rates rose due to fears of “beating the curfew hours”:
Infant mortality high in Kisumu as mothers fear beating the curfew hours and COVID19 tests #KTNPrime pic.twitter.com/HzYBVMcV97
— KTN News Alerts (@KTNNewsKE) May 14, 2020
In Uganda, at least 11 pregnant women died owing to delays in accessing health care facilities during labor.
This followed a government-issued transport ban and curfew to restrict movement to only those with permits. While pregnant women were later exempted from this ban, the challenges in accessing health facilities persisted due to limitations in accessing ambulance services or any other form of public transportation during curfew hours.
Zimbabwe faced the same situation. Nurses reported a reduction in the number of pregnant women going to health facilities for delivery and other maternity services. Pregnant women also shared their challenges in accessing public transportation due to the ongoing national lockdown, and fears of facing brutality from police officers.
During COVID-19, governments must review, establish and implement measures to ensure that pregnant women and girls are able to access well-equipped and properly staffed health care facilities.
Under international human rights law instruments, including the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the Maputo Protocol, ratified by 43 of the 55 African States protecting and promoting the rights of women in Africa, states must develop and implement measures to ensure physical access to health care facilities, goods and services.
These measures should essentially strive to reduce the number of steps taken by a person — in this case being pregnant women — to access health care. This includes an obligation to adopt special and particularized measures to guarantee physical accessibility for vulnerable and marginalized groups, such as persons with disabilities, populations stemming from low socio-economic backgrounds and those from rural and remote areas.
Special measures should also be in place to ensure physical access to health care during emergencies, such as conflict or a pandemic.
A woman passenger rides on a boda-boda motorcycle tax in Uganda, March 23, 2010. Photo by Daryona via Wikimedia Commons CC BY 2.0.
Access to ambulance services remains inadequate in many African states, but some authorities have undoubtedly taken measures to ensure access to transportation to health care facilities during the pandemic.
Wheels for Life, an initiative between the Government of Kenya’s Ministry of Health, AMREF, and Bolt, is a good example of a public-private partnership that ensures that women in labor can access free taxi transportation from their homes to health facilities by dialing 1196 — a toll-free number.
This taxi service operates during curfew hours between 9 p.m. and 4 a.m. daily in Kenya, amended on 6 June 2020 from 7 p.m. and 5 a.m.  However, this initiative only serves residents within Nairobi, the capital, excluding pregnant women living in all other areas of Kenya — especially those in rural areas. Also, these taxi drivers may only operate in affluent neighborhoods due to perceived fears of insecurity in lower-income areas.
To be more inclusive, authorities could partner with reputable taxi companies or individual taxi operators, including boda-boda taxis, to operate throughout Kenya, with a focus on rural areas where motor vehicles often struggle to access remote homesteads due to a lack of sufficient roads.
This also applies to numerous low-income settlements located in urban and peri-urban areas where larger vehicles cannot navigate narrow alleyways.
Trusted boda-boda operators, however, can easily navigate the narrow or bush-ridden paths located in hard-to-reach locations to rescue people in need.
The transport providers selected to partner with governments should have a good knowledge of the areas where they will operate and must be well-known to community members, as well as local security structures, who can avail safe entry and exit out of the so-called “unsafe” locations.
Importantly, all transport measures adopted by governments, including any special measures, should always prioritize the safety and security of pregnant women during transit to health care facilities.
Maternal mortality rates are likely to rise during the ongoing pandemic, similar to the increase in maternal and new-born mortality noted during the 2014-2016 Ebola pandemic in West Africa.
Therefore, East African governments must take all measures to protect the lives of pregnant women before, during and after childbirth. These measures will also contribute to reducing child-mortality during and following childbirth.
Lydia Muthiani and Nelly Warega are human rights lawyers living and working in Kenya. They specialize in the advancement of women’s and girls’ rights, and are part of Utu Wetu, a collective of human rights experts particularly working on women’s rights.


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A new game plays with ideas about how disinformation works in East Africa · Global Voices
Amanda Lichtenstein

Aida, a character from the game “Choose Your Own Fake News,” views a video shared by her cousin on WhatsApp. Screenshot from “Choose Your Own Fake News” by Pollicy in Uganda.
Disinformation — intentionally “fake news” — is a chronic problem everywhere in the world, but the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated information overload. From fake coronavirus cures to misleading information about mandatory vaccinations that have stoked fears worldwide, it has become increasingly difficult to suss out the truth.
All it takes is the click of a “share” or “forward” button for disinformation to become misinformation that spreads like wildfire through personal networks on applications and platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook.
Across Africa, where internet penetration is still relatively low at about 40 percent on average, many users are coming online for the first time. And around the world, many internet users, whether experienced or not, lack the digital literacy tools necessary to distinguish trustworthy news from false news.
How can all internet users become more discerning online?
This is the main idea behind “Choose Your Own Fake News,” a web-based game exploring how disinformation spreads across East Africa, created by Neema Iyer, founder and director of Pollicy, an Uganda-based organization supporting civic technology across the continent.
Iyer explained the motivation behind her game in a Mozilla Foundation press release:
Online misinformation has real implications offline. It can threaten people’s lives, freedom of expression, and prosperity. This is especially true in parts of East Africa, where people are coming online for the first time and don’t yet have the proper context to distinguish what’s trustworthy from what’s not.
“Chose Your Own Fake News” teaches new internet users how to be more discerning about the information they receive and encounter in digital spaces.
Players select one of three characters in East Africa: Flora, a job-seeking student, Jo, a shopkeeper, or Aida, a 62-year-old retired grandmother. Players then scrutinize news headlines, videos and social media posts through the lens of each character.
Flora, a job-seeking student, Jo, a shopkeeper, and Aida, a retired grandmother, are characters in the game “Choose Your Own Fake News” that must make decisions about what to do when they encounter potentially false information online, Screenshot from the game produced by Pollicy.
“Players’ decisions make the difference between correctly debunking disinformation — or falling victim to fraud, hospitalizing a loved one, and even accidentally inciting a mob,” the Mozilla press release explained.
As players follow their character's various decisions, the game provides detailed information about how dis- and misinformation work, highlighting the role that individuals play in intercepting false or unverified information before they spread it.
For example, Aida receives a forwarded message from her cousin with a video of a child crying after receiving a measles vaccine. Should Aida share that video? Measles is vaccine-preventable but cases continue to soar due to false information.
“Platforms like YouTube and Facebook recommend and amplify content that keeps internet users clicking — even if it’s radical or flat-out wrong,” Mozilla Foundation said.
Neema Iyer created “Choose Your Own Fake News,” and is the founder of Pollicy in Uganda. Photo used with permission.
In Season 2, Episode 3 of “Terms and Conditions,” a new podcast exploring digital rights in Africa, Neema Iyer speaks with digital rights activist Berhane Taye, to look at the history of online disinformation in Africa and how it intersects with bots, trolls and beyond.
Iyer and Taye talk about the potentially dangerous consequences of a seemingly simple forward or share.
The internet is riddled with bots — a software application that runs automated tasks. Iyer estimates that up to half of all online activity is run by bots designed to influence and shape opinions online. Trolls — real-life people — also disrupt, attack and offend with intention. Deepfakes — radically altered videos — can often make fiction seem real.
This mixture of online agitators contributes to disinformation that ultimately causes chaos, discord and polarizes communities, said Iyer.
To complicate matters, many internet users are “unwitting agents” who amplify false information without realizing it, writes Kate Starbird in Nature.
Mobile phones and SMS text messaging have long been used as tools for organizing mob justice and destabilizing communities, but it wasn't until WhatsApp and other platforms emerged that false information could spread so rapidly and exponentially with the click of a button, Iyer continued.
Iyer cites the lynchings in India caused by WhatsApp rumors about child kidnappings and the sectarian violence in Nigeria that erupted after images circulated on WhatsApp showed accused Fulani Muslim people committing acts of violence against Christians.
In April 2020, at the height of the pandemic, WhatsApp finally took action to curb the spread of fake news by limiting the number of forwards from five to one. “The move is designed to reduce the speed with which information moves through WhatsApp, putting truth and fiction on a more even footing,” according to The Verge.
How to spot disinformation: A screenshot from “Choose Your Own Fake News,” an online game designed by Pollicy in Uganda.
People often turn to social media to fill gaps left by mainstream media. But with the democratization of social media, anyone can produce content — with very few guidelines for monitoring, vetting, or fact-checking.
In East Africa, governments have created a range of policies and laws designed to control “fake news” and hate speech — but they end up becoming the rationale for penalizing opposition or dissenting voices.
In March 2020, in South Africa, the government criminalized the sharing of COVID-19 information “intended to deceive citizens or the government’s response to the pandemic” under the 2002 Disaster Management Act — violators may receive fines, imprisonment, or both, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
CPJ warned, however, that “passing laws that emphasize criminalizing disinformation over educating the public and encouraging fact-checking present a slippery slope.”
In Nigeria, disinformation has sown distrust in institutions that “should ideally be the lighthouse during a pandemic” said ‘Gbenga Sesan, executive director of the Paradigm Initiative in Nigeria, who joined Iyer and Taye on “Terms and Conditions.”
“You have a lot of information that should not get into the hands of vulnerable people,” Sesan, referring to the deluge of videos, messages and memes shared to promote fake coronavirus cures.
But Nigeria's Protection from Internet Falsehood and Manipulation Bill — known as the “social media bill” — is woefully inadequate and dangerously vague to truly make a dent in the problem.
Research shows that it is very difficult to change a person's mind once an idea gets planted and let's face it — the typical internet user often glances headlines.
AI technology can attempt to intercept fake news or hate speech but this method is often inaccurate and does not capture nuance in terms of language and cultural context, Iyer explained.
For example, Facebook's 2020 Transparency report claimed to remove 9.6 million pieces of content that were hateful or deemed hateful in the first four months of 2020, Iyer said. But she cautioned the likelihood of false positives.
Content moderators have immense power to take down anything deemed false or hateful, but Facebook does not hire adequately to handle multiple languages and cultural contexts. Also, many users are unaware of their power to report content.
Fact-checkers also do not have the reach to sway opinion once fake news takes hold — in the United States alone, they are outspent by campaigns 100 to one. Fact-checking also varies greatly depending on a country's laws regarding transparency, data and freedom of information. In Tanzania, for example, the government has essentially prohibited fact-checking, insisting that its statistics are the absolute truth.
How do we discourage the spread of misinformation? Iyer insists on disrupting fake news before you spread it. Instead, make the truth go viral.

author: Amanda Lichtenstein