Zimbabwe sect leaders charged in court for using 251 children as cheap labor

Zimbabwe sect leaders charged in court for using 251 children as cheap labor
Ishmael Chokurongerwa, in blue flip flops, arrives for his court appearance accompanied by his aides in Norton, Zimbabwe, on March 14, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 15 March 2024
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Zimbabwe sect leaders charged in court for using 251 children as cheap labor

Zimbabwe sect leaders charged in court for using 251 children as cheap labor
  • The sect is believed to be one of Zimbabwe’s many Apostolic Christian groups, some of whom are reclusive, shun modern medicine, and practice polygamy
  • Police also discovered 16 unregistered graves, including those of seven infants, at the sect's farm

NORTON, Zimbabwe: A man calling himself a prophet was charged in a Zimbabwean court Thursday after police raided the compound where he led a religious sect and found more than 250 children being kept away from school and used as cheap labor.

Police also discovered 16 unregistered graves, including those of seven infants, at the farm about 34 kilometers (21 miles) northwest of the capital, Harare.

Ishmael Chokurongerwa and seven of his aides were charged with exploiting children and denying them access to education and health services. Police spokesman Paul Nyathi said investigations were still ongoing and authorities may press more charges.

The sect leaders are also accused of breaking laws that require deaths and burials to be registered. State media reported there were around 1,000 people living on the farm before the raid.

Chokurongerwa, 56, and his aides will remain in custody after a magistrate said at their court hearing that she would rule on their bail application next week. None of the men had legal representation at the hearing and it was unclear where they were being held.

The men pleaded with the magistrate to release them on bail, saying they were not violent people and had children to look after who would suffer if they were sent to prison.

Some of Chokurongerwa’s followers traveled to the court hearing in the nearby town of Norton to show support for him.

“Come rain, come thunder, we will follow our God,” said Tabeth Mupfana, a 34-year-old woman who said she was born into the sect when it was at another location and had not experienced any abuse. “We will never leave our religion. We are like an elephant, nothing can stop us. All those people fighting us are merchants of Satan.”

A man who lives near the farm said it was run like a factory, producing soap, cooking oil and furniture for sale, while the sect also grew crops and kept livestock.

Armed police officers with tear gas and dogs arrived on the farm Tuesday in trucks. They found 251 children who “were being used to perform various physical activities for the benefit of the sect’s leadership,” said Nyathi. He said 246 of the children had no birth certificates.

They “were subjected to abuse as cheap labor, doing manual work in the name of being taught life skills,” Nyathi said.

Police returned to the farm Wednesday with social workers and rounded up children and women, many of them with infants, and took them on buses to a shelter.

The sect is believed to be one of Zimbabwe’s many Apostolic Christian groups, whose followers are noticeable by their long white robes, with women and girls also wearing white headscarves. The Apostolic groups fuse traditional beliefs with a Pentecostal doctrine. Some are reclusive and shun modern medicine, keep children away from school and practice polygamy.

They sometimes seek healing for illnesses through prayer and the use of holy water and anointed stones.

Apostolic churches are highly popular in Zimbabwe, with the United Nations Children’s Fund estimating they are the country’s largest religious denomination with around 2.5 million followers in a country of 15 million.

At the farm on Thursday, mostly men remained, sitting in small groups and all wearing matching white T-shirts and khaki shorts. They declined to give their names.

One man said: “We are different, but we are not weird. We just have our own beliefs that come directly from God and not from scripture. Human rights are applied selectively in this country. Some of us don’t have any rights.”

Another criticized the police action.

“We are not a cult, we are here freely,” he said. “I have never seen such cruelty. Police dragged our wives and children into buses like criminals.” He said the group was made up of hard-working people who took care of themselves.

Other men carried on with their work in small buildings dotted around the farm, some of them welding steel and others milling corn.

Edmore Kwesa said he lived near the farm and learned a little about their ways by speaking with sect members who took the prophet’s cattle to graze on communal grasslands. He said the group was reclusive but “industrious.”

“It is like a mini-factory there,” he said. “They produce soap, cooking oil, furniture, crops and the livestock is so many. But no one gets paid. Instead, each member requests supplies from the prophet, who distributes according to need.”

The sect sold their products at a local business center, while people from outside could also purchase items directly from the farm, he said.

“When one of them dies, they just bury each other there without involvement from anyone outside their sect,” he said.


17 Chadian soldiers and 96 rebels killed in a Boko Haram attack, army says

Updated 10 sec ago
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17 Chadian soldiers and 96 rebels killed in a Boko Haram attack, army says

17 Chadian soldiers and 96 rebels killed in a Boko Haram attack, army says
  • The Lake Chad region has been plagued this year by frequent attacks from insurgents, including Boko Haram and Daesh in West Africa
N’DJAMENA: Boko Haram insurgents killed 17 Chadian soldiers in a weekend attack on a military post that also left 96 of the assailants dead in the country’s west, Chad’s army said.
The attack in the Lake Chad region happened on Saturday, army spokesperson Gen. Issakh Acheikh said on national television Sunday night. He did not provide details.
The Lake Chad region has been plagued this year by frequent attacks from insurgents, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa. It has revived fears of violence after a period of peace following a successful operation launched in 2020 by the Chadian army to destroy the extremist groups’ bases.
Last month, 40 soldiers were killed during an attack on a military base, prompting President Mahamat Deby Itno to launch an operation to dislodge Boko Haram militants from Lake Chad. In March, an attack the government blamed on Boko Haram killed seven soldiers.
Boko Haram, which launched an insurgency more than a decade ago against Western education, seeks to establish Islamic law in Nigeria’s northeast. The insurgency has spread to West African neighbors including Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
Chad, a country of nearly 18 million people, has been reeling from political turmoil before and after a controversial presidential election that resulted in Deby Itno’s victory. He had led the country as interim president during the period of military rule that followed the death of his father in 2021.

UN: Paris agreement climate goals ‘in great peril’

UN: Paris agreement climate goals ‘in great peril’
Updated 35 min 2 sec ago
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UN: Paris agreement climate goals ‘in great peril’

UN: Paris agreement climate goals ‘in great peril’
  • The period from 2015-2024 will also be the warmest decade ever recorded
  • Long-term global warming was currently likely to be around 1.3°C

GENEVA: The Paris climate agreement’s goals “are in great peril” and 2024 is on track to break new temperature records, the United Nations warned Monday as COP29 talks opened in Baku.
The period from 2015-2024 will also be the warmest decade ever recorded, the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in a new report based on six international datasets.
That is accelerating the shrinking of glaciers and sea-level rise, and unleashing extreme weather that has wrought havoc on communities and economies around the world.
“The ambitions of the Paris Agreement are in great peril,” WMO said as global leaders gathered for high-stakes climate talks in Azerbaijan.
Under the Paris agreement, nearly every nation on Earth committed to work to limit warming to “well below” two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and preferably below 1.5°C.
But the EU climate monitor Copernicus has already said that 2024 will exceed the 1.5°C.
This does not amount to an immediate breach of the Paris deal, which measures temperatures over decades, but it suggests the world is far off-track on its goals.
WMO, which relies on a broader dataset, also said 2024 would likely breach the 1.5°C limit, and break the record set just last year.
“Climate catastrophe is hammering health, widening inequalities, harming sustainable development, and rocking the foundations of peace. The vulnerable are hardest hit,” UN chief Antonio Guterres said in a statement.
Analysis by a team of international experts established by WMO found that long-term global warming was currently likely to be around 1.3°C, compared to the 1850-1900 baseline, the agency said.
“Every fraction of a degree of warming matters,” stressed WMO chief Celeste Saulo.
“Whether it is at a level below or above 1.5°C of warming, every additional increment of global warming increases climate extremes, impacts and risks.”
Monday’s report cautioned that greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, which lock in future temperature increases even if emissions fall, hit new highs in 2023 and appeared to have climbed further this year.
Ocean heat is also likely to be comparable to the record highs seen last year, it added.
Saulo warned that a string of devastating extreme weather events across the world this year “are unfortunately our new reality.”
They are, she said, “a foretaste of our future.”


Taiwan says exploding pagers in Lebanon were not made in Taiwan

Taiwan says exploding pagers in Lebanon were not made in Taiwan
Updated 11 November 2024
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Taiwan says exploding pagers in Lebanon were not made in Taiwan

Taiwan says exploding pagers in Lebanon were not made in Taiwan

TAIPEI: The investigation bureau of Taiwan's justice ministry said on Monday that there was no evidence that Taiwanese manufacturers were involved in the pagers which exploded in Lebanon in September in a deadly blow to Iran-backed Hezbollah.
Taiwanese company Gold Apollo has not in recent years produced the AR-924 pager model, but they were produced by a company called Frontier Group Entity outside of Taiwan, the bureau said in a statement.


UK universities face funding ‘crunch’ as foreign students go elsewhere

UK universities face funding ‘crunch’ as foreign students go elsewhere
Updated 11 November 2024
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UK universities face funding ‘crunch’ as foreign students go elsewhere

UK universities face funding ‘crunch’ as foreign students go elsewhere
  • From July to September student visa applications slumped 16 percent compared to same period last year
  • Decline major cause of concern for higher education institutions as foreign students pay far more than British students

LONDON: UK universities are among the most prestigious in the world, but visa restrictions mean they are now attracting fewer international students — taking a heavy toll on their finances.
The restrictions are compounding problems caused by the UK’s departure from the European Union four years’ ago.
Almost 760,000 foreign students were enrolled in British universities in 2022, making Britain the second most popular destination after the US, in a highly competitive market.
Most come from India, then China and Nigeria.
But last year, the number of student visas fell by 5 percent. Between July and September, student visa applications slumped 16 percent compared to the same period last year.
The decline is a major cause of concern for higher education institutions since foreign students pay far more in fees than British students.
Leo Xui, 20 years old and from China, began studying population and health sciences at University College London in September.
“It’s good for my career,” he said of enrolling abroad. Thinking ahead to when he will return to China, he added: “I will be able to apply for a foreign company.”
His fees for the academic year are £31,000 (37,200 euros). British students attending universities in England have paid a maximum of £9,250 since 2017.
The Labour government, elected in the summer, announced last week that the cap would rise to £9,535 from next year, a move welcomed by universities who have been calling for an increase for years.
Universities UK (UUK), which represents 141 British higher education institutions, warned at its conference in September that funding per student is at its lowest level since 2004.
It estimates that the £9,250 fee is worth less than £6,000 because of inflation, leading to deficits in teaching and research.
“We are all feeling the crunch,” UUK president Sally Mapstone told the conference.
Universities have welcomed more foreign students in a bid to fill budget gaps, to the point where many are financially dependent on them.
According to a parliamentary report, foreign students make up more than half the student body at London’s University of the Arts and Cranfield University, a science and engineering institute just north of the British capital.
The Financial Times reported earlier this year that some universities, including York, have lowered their admission criteria to attract more students from abroad.
But the previous Conservative government, ousted from power in July, complicated the universities’ task by imposing restrictions on student visas as it sought to reduce record levels of regular migration.
It forbade foreign students from bringing family members with them, with a few exceptions, and prevented them from switching to work visas while studying.
In the first four months of 2024, there were 30,000 fewer applications from overseas than in the same period in 2023, according to official statistics.
“These hard numbers confirm our fear that the previous government’s changes have made the UK a less attractive study destination,” said Nick Hillman, director of the Higher Education Policy Institute think-tank.
Provost Ian Dunn of Coventry University, where more than a third of the 30,000 students are from overseas said the Tories’ “narrative was very destructive.”
The university had already been impacted by Brexit.
“We had 4,400 students from the European Union. Now we’re probably at 10 percent of that,” he said, adding that the situation was “difficult.”
A lecturer at another English university told AFP that teaching positions as well as courses had been cut.
“The drop in international students has dramatically worsened the crisis for us,” she said on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to talk to the media.
“Some have preferred to go to Canada, Australia or the Netherlands, where courses are taught in English,” she added.
Coventry University may have found the answer by partnering with institutions overseas to open campuses in several countries, including Egypt, Morocco, India and China.
At the end of their studies, students may not have set foot in the UK but they still “obtain a degree from Coventry University,” said Dunn.


Pakistan suspends Quetta train services after deadly station bombing

Pakistan suspends Quetta train services after deadly station bombing
Updated 11 November 2024
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Pakistan suspends Quetta train services after deadly station bombing

Pakistan suspends Quetta train services after deadly station bombing
  • At least 26 people were killed and 64 others injured in the suicide bombing
  • The Baloch Liberation Army has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack

KARACHI: Pakistan Railways has suspended train operations from the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta to other parts of the country for four days, it said on Sunday, a day after a deadly bombing at Quetta Railway Station killed more than two dozen people.

At least 26 people were killed and 64 others injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the crowded railway station early on Saturday morning in Pakistan’s restive Balochistan province, according to officials.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the most prominent of separatist groups in Balochistan, claimed responsibility for the attack, the deadliest since a string of coordinated assaults on Aug. 25-26 in which more than 50 people, civilians and security officials, were killed in the region.

On Sunday, Aamir Ali Baloch, chief executive officer of Pakistan Railways, announced the suspension of train operations in view of security concerns and in the interest of passenger safety.

“Operations will resume as soon as clearance is granted,” Pakistan Railways said in a statement on Sunday night.

Train service from Quetta to other cities remained suspended for more than a month after separatist militants blew up a key bridge in the southwestern Balochistan province on August 26.

Built in 1887, the five-span bridge was the second such link constructed by the British Army at the Bolan Pass after reaching an agreement with the then Khan of Kalat, Meer Khuda-e-Dad Khan, to extend the railway network to Quetta and Chaman near the Afghan border.

Baloch said Pakistan Railways had successfully restored Quetta’s connection with the rest of the country and such incidents would not weaken their resolve. He said compensation would be provided to the families of the deceased and to the injured according to the railways insurance policy.

“Fifty injured individuals are currently being treated in trauma centers, where Pakistan Railways’ medical teams are present to provide care,” he said, commending the Quetta division team of railways for the immediate relief operations.

Balochistan is Pakistan’s most impoverished province where separatist militants have been fighting what they see as the unfair exploitation of the province’s mineral and gas wealth by the federation at the center. The province is home to major China-led investment projects such as a strategic port and a gold and copper mine.

The Pakistani government and military deny they are exploiting Balochistan and have long maintained that neighbors such as India, Afghanistan and Iran foment trouble in the remote province and support and fund the insurgency there to impede its development potential.

This article also appears on Arab News Pakistan