Flooding in northeast Nigeria could displace up to one million

Flooding in northeast Nigeria could displace up to one million
Residents leave flooded areas with their belongings during rescue operations in Maiduguri, northern Borno state, Nigeria. (Reuters)
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Updated 13 September 2024
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Flooding in northeast Nigeria could displace up to one million

Flooding in northeast Nigeria could displace up to one million

KANO, Nigeria: Fatima Yakubu woke up in the middle of the night to find her legs submerged as water rose in her home in northeastern Nigeria earlier this week.
She screamed and people helped her escape with her six children.
Flood waters have displaced more than one million people in and around Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, in one of the worst ever floods in Africa’s most populous country.
Thousands of homes were engulfed by rapidly rising waters after a dam burst following a weekend of torrential rain in northeastern Nigeria.
“I shouted for help in terror and some men outside heard my scream and came into the house which was already flooded and rescued us,” said Yakubu, 26, describing her survival as a “miracle.”
She and her children took shelter in one of the eight camps set up by authorities.
Barkindo Mohammed, the director general of Borno State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), told AFP that the number of people displaced by the flooding could reach one million people.
Mohammed Sheriff, 60, was not so lucky. He too awoke in the middle of the night to rising waters in his home.
Together with his two wives, they carried six of their children, thinking that the two eldest, aged 11 and 13, would be strong enough to fight the current. The two children are still missing.
“We haven’t seen them since and we fear the worst,” Sheriff told AFP.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said on Wednesday that at least 30 people have died in the floods — the worst in 30 years, according to the United Nations refugee agency in Nigeria.
NEMA’s director general Zubaida Umar said on X on Thursday she was relieved that the “flood level in Maiduguri is receding, and normalcy is beginning to return to the metropolis,” adding that rescue operations were ongoing in the city flooded up to 40 percent.
“Children and families are still trapped in their homes,” British charity Save The Children said in a statement on Friday.
“The immense damage to water and sanitation services is driving up the risk of cholera and other water- and vector-borne diseases,” the NGO said, pointing out that the city’s two main hospitals had also been flooded.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said the disaster would increase the risk of food insecurity, particularly in the vulnerable northeast.
At least 259 people have been killed by flooding in Nigeria since the beginning of the rainy season, according to Umar.


US, South Korea, Japan unveil new team to monitor North Korea sanctions

US, South Korea, Japan unveil new team to monitor North Korea sanctions
Updated 6 sec ago
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US, South Korea, Japan unveil new team to monitor North Korea sanctions

US, South Korea, Japan unveil new team to monitor North Korea sanctions
  • The team is meant to continue the UN panel’s work, including issuing regular reports on sanctions enforcement
  • It will involve the participation of eight other countries including Britain, France and Germany
SEOUL: The United States, South Korea and Japan on Wednesday announced the launch of a new multinational team to monitor the enforcement of sanctions against North Korea after Russia and China thwarted monitoring activities at the United Nations.
The mechanism, named the Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team, has been introduced after Russia in March rejected the annual renewal of a UN panel of experts that had over the past 15 years overseen the implementation of sanctions aimed at curbing North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. China abstained from the vote.
The team is meant to continue the UN panel’s work, including issuing regular reports on sanctions enforcement, and will involve the participation of eight other countries including Britain, France and Germany, a South Korean official said.
Its launch was unveiled at a joint press conference in Seoul by US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hong-kyun and Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister Masataka Okano, alongside ambassadors of the eight countries, ahead of their talks in Seoul.
“There have been many discussions about how to build an effective monitoring system that can replace the UN panel, but even during that process, cases of North Korea violating sanctions continued to occur, so we thought that we should not delay any longer and should quickly fill the gap,” Kim told the news conference.
While the allies will continue to seek ways to reinstate the UN scheme, the team is open to all countries that are willing to help ensure the implementation of sanctions, Kim added.
Campbell said Russia’s veto was likely influenced by the UN panel’s previous reporting on its illegal procurement of military equipment and munitions from North Korea for its war in Ukraine.
“The potential for this to be a major effort in tracking and holding to account steps that North Korea is taking across a range of provocative actions is real,” Campbell said. “So this is a big step in the right direction.”
Washington and Seoul say North Korea and Russia have made illicit military transactions. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied arms transfers but have vowed to boost military ties, clinching a mutual defense treaty at a summit in June.
The new initiative might lack the international legitimacy granted to a UN-backed operation, but could monitor North Korea more effectively, free from efforts by Moscow and Beijing to downplay Pyongyang’s suspected sanctions evasion at the world body, said Ethan Hee-seok Shin, a legal analyst at the Seoul-based Transitional Justice Working Group.
“Going forward, the like-minded governments should also consider utilising the sanctions to target the individuals and entities in North Korea and elsewhere that enable Pyongyang to commit grave human rights violations,” Shin said.

Spiralling Sudan bloodshed sparks refugee surge into Chad

Spiralling Sudan bloodshed sparks refugee surge into Chad
Updated 22 min 51 sec ago
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Spiralling Sudan bloodshed sparks refugee surge into Chad

Spiralling Sudan bloodshed sparks refugee surge into Chad

GENEVA: Nearly three million people have fled Sudan after 18 months of war in a still-growing exodus, the UN warned, with 25,000 fleeing to neighboring Chad in the first week of October alone.
Mamadou Dian Balde, the UN’s Sudan regional refugee coordinator, told AFP that the three-million mark will likely be crossed in the next two to three weeks.
That the figure is approaching three million is a “disaster” directly linked to the increasing brutality of the conflict, he said in an interview on Tuesday during his visit to Geneva this week.
War has raged since April 2023 between the Sudanese army under the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Both sides have been accused of war crimes, including targeting civilians and blocking humanitarian aid.
The conflict has left tens of thousands dead and some 26 million people facing severe food insecurity, with famine declared in the Zamzam displacement camp in Sudan’s western Darfur region.
Some 11.3 million people have been forced to flee, including nearly 2.95 million who have fled across the country’s borders, according to the latest figures from UNHCR, the UN refugee agency.
In a sign of the worsening conflict in Darfur, some 25,000 people — 80 percent of whom were women and children — crossed into eastern Chad in the first week of October, a record number for a single week in 2024.
And more than 20,270 crossed into Chad in the whole of September.
Chad is host to 681,944 Sudanese refugees — more than any other country.
However, it is also one of the poorest countries on Earth and is lacking the basic services to accommodate such numbers, said Balde, while highlighting the generosity shown by Chadians toward their fleeing neighbors.
“When we see 25,000 arriving, it’s enormous,” he said.
He called for greater support from international donors.
A UN appeal for $1.51 billion to support Sudanese refugees and their hosts in the region through the end of the year remains just 27-percent funded.
“It’s not enough, because the number of refugees continues to grow,” said Balde, who also serves as the UNHCR’s East and Horn of Africa and Great Lakes regional director.
Balde said he expected “very unfortunately, in the coming weeks, to have many more refugees in Chad,” due to both the conflict intensifying in Darfur and the drop in water levels as the rainy season ends.

ACCESS TO AID
With the drier conditions, the UN hopes to be able to deliver more aid to Sudan — if the parties to the conflict allow it.
Several rounds of negotiation efforts have so far failed to end the fighting.
In late August, following talks outside Geneva convened by the United States, the two factions committed to ensuring safe and unhindered access for humanitarians along two key corridors.
“This has helped us save lives,” but “not all the commitments made have been respected” — and the flow of aid remains “limited,” said Balde, deploring the persistent “barriers at the administrative level.”
In Geneva for the UNHCR’s annual executive committee meeting, he chaired a discussion on Sudan, during which he asked for support to help Sudanese refugees get into the jobs market and thereby reducing their reliance on humanitarian assistance.
“We are asking development actors to mobilize to complement” such aid, he explained, while stressing the need for peace in Sudan.
Balde warned it would be “a big mistake” to think the flow of displaced people will be limited to Sudan and the wider region.
“There are more and more who are coming toward Italy, Europe and southern Africa,” and “there are some who will go toward the Gulf countries too,” he said.


Italian navy brings first migrants to Albania centre

Italian navy brings first migrants to Albania centre
Updated 43 min 48 sec ago
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Italian navy brings first migrants to Albania centre

Italian navy brings first migrants to Albania centre
  • The Italian navy vessel arrived after a 36-hour voyage carrying 16 men from Bangladesh and Egypt
  • Migrants will be settled in prefabricated housing while their asylum requests are processed

Shëngjin, Albania: A navy boat carrying migrants intercepted in Italian waters docked at Shengjin port in Albania Wednesday, AFP journalists saw, the first arrivals under a new deal between Rome and Tirana.
The Italian navy vessel arrived after a 36-hour voyage carrying 16 men from Bangladesh and Egypt.
They will be settled in prefabricated housing while their asylum requests are processed.
Italy’s two processing centers in Albania, surrounded by high walls and security cameras, are at Camp Gjader, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the port.
They will be operated under Italian law, with Italian security and staff, and judges hearing cases by video from Rome.
If an applicant’s asylum request is refused, cells have been set up on site.
Human rights groups have questioned whether there will be enough protection for asylum seekers. They have expressed doubts, too, as to whether it complies with international law.
But Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni brushed aside criticism in comments on Tuesday.
“It is a new, courageous, unprecedented path, but one that perfectly reflects the European spirit and has everything it takes to be followed also with other non-EU nations,” she said.
The arrangement between the two countries is a European first, which other leaders in the region are watching closely.
The project was agreed in a November 2023 deal between Italy and Albania. Set to last five years, it will cost Italy an estimated 160 million euros a year.
The centers will have a capacity of 1,000 initially growing to 3,000 in the long term.
Its critics say that given such numbers, the scheme cannot be justified.
“Over the last three years, more than 1,600 migrants have landed in Italy,” migration researcher Matteo Villa of Datalab Europe posted on X. “An Italian navy vessels is taking 16 to Albania.
“I don’t think I need to add anything else.”


EU holds first summit with Gulf states

EU holds first summit with Gulf states
Updated 16 October 2024
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EU holds first summit with Gulf states

EU holds first summit with Gulf states
  • EU aims to make the relationship with six Gulf states more strategic
  • EU partnership with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE would cover trade and investment, renewable energy, regional security and citizen issues

BRUSSELS: The European Union holds its first summit with the Gulf states on Wednesday, part of an EU diplomatic push as it enlists international support to isolate Russia.
Since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the 27-member EU has reached out to other regional blocs, holding its first summit with ASEAN countries and its first for eight years with the CELAC community of Caribbean and Latin American countries.
Its aim in meeting the six Arab states in the Gulf Cooperation Council is to make the relationship more strategic, recognizing those countries’ influence particularly in conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East.
“The Gulf region is at the crossroads between Asia, Europe and Africa. It plays a very important role in many of the crisis of today,” a senior EU official said.
An EU partnership with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would cover trade and investment, renewable energy, regional security and citizen issues such as visas.
Though Brussels wants the GCC partners to agree strong language on Russia’s military assault on Ukraine, it is not expecting them to fully adopt its position in blaming Moscow. The two blocs are arguably closer on the Middle East, where the EU is calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and broader de-escalation.
Talks on an EU-GCC free trade agreement, which began 35 years ago, have been suspended since 2008, with disagreement over the openness of public tenders and on oil products. However, EU officials said there were other avenues for trade and investment cooperation.
One request from the Gulf side is visa liberalization. Currently, no EU visas are required for short stays for UAE citizens, while those of other Gulf nations need to secure a visa valid for five years.


Indonesia to check grocery shelves as deadline for halal labels nears

Indonesia to check grocery shelves as deadline for halal labels nears
Updated 16 October 2024
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Indonesia to check grocery shelves as deadline for halal labels nears

Indonesia to check grocery shelves as deadline for halal labels nears
  • World’s biggest Muslim-majority country adopted a measure in 2014 requiring the labeling for restaurants and food products
  • An October 17 deadline was set to ensure items are suitable for consumption under Islamic law

JAKARTA: Indonesian authorities plan to inspect grocery store shelves to check compliance with a law requiring halal labels on food items from Friday, officials said, although some importers and restaurants face hurdles in complying.
The world’s biggest Muslim-majority country adopted a measure in 2014 requiring the labeling for restaurants and food products, setting an Oct. 17 deadline to ensure items are suitable for consumption under Islamic law.
While most businesses in the nation of 280 million have complied, along with some major global food producers, others say they need more time.
“They (some members) want to be part of Indonesia’s strong market for halal products, but are still encountering complex supply chains and lack of clear guidelines,” said Lydia Ruddy, managing director of the American Chamber of Commerce.
“These potentially can lead to trade disruptions and higher costs,” she told Reuters, adding that AmCham was in talks with the government on the matter.
She called for more foreign certifiers to speed inspection of products and raw materials abroad so as to help the affected AmCham members.
The law requires products or restaurants without the certification to declare they do not comply with Islamic law, a step that could hit sales.
Islamic law prohibits consumption of pork or intoxicants such as alcohol, while meat can only be eaten if the animals were slaughtered by prescribed methods.
The halal certifying body BPJPH has asked the government for a two-year waiver on some raw materials used in the food and beverages industry, as well as products of small businesses, but the president has yet to sign off, its head, Aqil Irham, said.
With Indonesia’s President-designate Prabowo Subianto set to take over from the incumbent Joko Widodo next weekend, it was not clear if such a dispensation could be issued in time.
The presidential office did not immediately respond to request for comment.
The trade ministry deferred questions on the waiver to the BPJPH.
Authorities plan inspections on Friday to check compliance and issue a formal warning to producers of items that lack clear labels, said domestic trade official Moga Simatupang.
“We will take administrative action against non-compliance, so we urge importers to immediately register to get halal labels,” he added.
In the absence of compliance, such products will be removed from stores, he added, without setting a timeframe.
Most of the 400 members of the Indonesian Food and Beverage Industries Association have complied, but restaurants and hotels face difficulties because authorities need time to check menu offerings, said Adhi Lukman, the group’s chairman.
Conservative interpretations of Islam have gained ground in Indonesia in the past few years, ushering in major changes to the economy, across industries from entertainment to banking.