The results of Bougainville’s independence referendum are set to be announced Wednesday — with the troubled Pacific islands expected to resoundingly back the creation of a new nation and a break with Papua New Guinea.

The South Pacific islands of Bougainville have overwhelmingly voted to be independent from Papua New Guinea, the referendum commission said on Wednesday, in a historic poll that will trigger separation negotiations between the two governments.

Almost 98% of the 181,067 votes cast backed independence in the non-binding poll that is part of a peace pact struck in the aftermath of a decade-long war between Bougainville’s rebel fighters and PNG forces, which ended in 1998.

The historic vote caps a decades-long peace process and a long recovery from a brutal civil war between Bougainville rebels, Papua New Guinea security forces and foreign mercenaries that ended in 1998 but not before killing up to 20,000 people — 10 percent of the population.

In stark contrast to that internecine bloodshed, voting began on November 23 with ecstatic residents — some festooned in grass garlands — forming makeshift choirs that stomped through the streets, waving independence flags, blowing bamboo pipes and chanting in chorus.

Bougainvilleans’ choice was between full independence or greater autonomy within Papua New Guinea, a fractious nation of eight million people off the northeast coast of Australia.

The vote officially ended on December 7 and according to the Bougainville Referendum Commission it passed off without major incident.

“Around 85 percent of the total people on the referendum roll have cast their vote in an environment that was conducive to a free, fair and credible process” said the commission’s chairman Bertie Ahern ahead of the result.

The former Irish prime minister was picked for the role having shepherded the Northern Ireland peace process.

“Voting has been in the spirit of the larger peace process, of which this referendum is just one part,” he said.

If voters do choose independence, the decision would require ratification by Papua New Guinea’s parliament.

There is anxiety among some in Port Moresby that Bougainville could set a precedent and spur other independence movements.

But rejection risks rekindling old feuds and skittling the peace process.

Since French explorer Louis de Bougainville arrived on this palm-fringed Melanesian archipelago more than two hundred years ago, control has passed from Germany to Australia to Japan to the United Nations to Papua New Guinea.

Many Bougainvilleans feel a closer cultural affinity to the nearby Solomon Islands, with a strong provincial identity that differs from the tribal factions of other regions of Papua New Guinea.

The 1988-1998 war had its roots in a struggle over revenues from the now-shuttered Panguna copper mine, which at one point accounted for more than 40 percent of Papua New Guinea’s exports.

The mine is estimated to still hold more than five million tonnes of copper and 19 million ounces of gold — worth billions of dollars at current market prices.

Independence would prompt a dash for influence among regional powers China, the United States and Australia.

Attuned to regional rivalry, senior figures in Bougainville’s independence movement have already tried to start a bidding war — warning the nascent nation would turn to Beijing if Western countries do not play their cards right and offer financial support.

(AFP)

Four mine workers were killed and one was seriously injured after a rock fall at a South African gold mine on Friday trapped five workers underground, the company and a mining union said on Sunday.

The collapse at the Village Main Reef’s Tau Lekoa gold mine in North West province followed at least one earth tremor.

The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was strongly critical of the mining company, saying in a statement that “there was no escape route in the working area where the four mineworkers were found dead”.

The union also said in the statement the mine’s proto team – a group of workers trained to perform underground rescues – did not act quickly enough to save the four miners and “deliberately stopped the team leaders and winch drivers from rescuing the four mineworkers.”

It did not give evidence for this but said it had been briefed by members working at the mine and present during the incident.

The mining firm, Village Main Reef, said it would not comment on the evacuation procedures until after an investigation was completed.

“There were two seismic events and then a rock fall occurred,” said James Duncan, a spokesman for the mine.

“Investigations on the causal factors are ongoing and we will be able to comment only once those are complete. We won’t be commenting at all on the accusations by NUM.”

NUM spokesman Livhuwani Mammburu said the rock collapse followed a “seismic event of 2.6 magnitude”.

The death toll in South Africa’s mines fell to 81 fatalities last year from 90 in 2017, the Mineral Resources Ministry said in March. This was a marked reduction from previous decades when the sector was marked by lax safety regulations and labor laws.

(Source: Reuters)

Kenyan police arrested the Nairobi County governor, known for his chunky gold jewellery and impromptu raps, on Friday on corruption charges, a high profile move in the government’s much trumpeted anti-graft push.

Chief public prosecutor Noordin Haji told a news conference the Governor Mike Mbuvi Sonko and his associates were accused of conspiracy to commit corruption, failure to comply with laws related to procurement, unlawful acquisition of public property and laundering the proceeds of crime.

Sonko and his assistants did not respond to calls seeking comment.

Citizens and international investors have long complained of corruption in Kenya, East Africa’s business hub and richest economy.

President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed Haji, a former deputy head of national intelligence, last year after years of taking little action to rein in widespread graft.

On Friday, Haji accused Sonko, who runs the Kenyan capital as Nairobi’s most senior regional politican, of “deploying intimidation tactics and using goons to threaten law enforcement officials” investigating the case.

Police used teargas to disperse hundreds of Sonko’s supporters when he was called into the anti-corruption office for questioning in November.

Sonko, a former senator, was elected in 2017 after years of news splashes featuring his flamboyant lifestyle and flashy fashion, complete with ubiquitous chunky gold jewellery and eye-catching hairstyles.

After Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto faced charges of crimes against humanity following the disputed 2007 elections and subsequent violence, Sonko showed up to the proceedings at the Hague-based International Criminal Court with “Uhuruto Not Guilty” dyed into his hair.

He was recently photographed using a goldplated iPad and matching iPhone and has appeared in rap videos gyrating in public offices wearing gold-coloured trainers while insulting political opponents.

He invited a storm of public criticism this month after he shared photos online of his dining room, featuring a gold-plated lion statue, and a gold-tinted dining table and chairs.

He has recruited hundreds of people into his “Sonko Rescue Team” who sweep out streets or appear at fires wearing “Sonko” branded red boiler suits in Nairobi’s poorest neighbourhoods.

On Thursday, Sonko received an award sponsored by the Kenya Red Cross and United Nations Volunteers for encouraging volunteering.

Sonko has been photographed handing out cash for things like hospital bills but Nairobi has seen little improvement in public services under his watch.

Nairobi’s public schools and clinics are crumbling, roads are potholed and hundreds of thousands of people live in slums without access to electricity, sewage or services.

REUTERS

Scores of migrants who swam through rough Atlantic Ocean waters to safety from a capsized boat while 58 others drowned were receiving care Thursday in Mauritania after one of the deadliest disasters this year among people making the perilous journey to Europe.

The boat that left Gambia a week ago had been carrying at least 150 people, including women and children.

It was headed toward the Canary Islands when it tried to approach the Mauritanian coast to get fuel and food, Laura Lungarotti, chief of mission in the West African nation with the U.N. migration agency, told The Associated Press.

“Many drowned. The ones who survived swam up to the Mauritanian coast close to the city of Nouadhibou,” she said. “The Mauritanian authorities are very efficiently coordinating the response with the agencies currently present” in the northern city.

At least 83 people swam to shore, the agency said. An unknown number of injured were taken to the hospital in Nouadhibou. It was not immediately clear whether anyone remained missing. Survivors said the boat had left Gambia on Nov. 27.

There was no immediate statement from authorities in Gambia, where tens of thousands of people have set off in hopes of reaching Europe in recent years.

Despite the country’s small size, more than 35,000 Gambians arrived in Europe between 2014 and 2018, according to the U.N. migration agency.

A 22-year rule by former President Yahya Jammeh affected the country’s economy, especially for youth, and contributed greatly to the exodus.

Since Jammeh fled into exile in January 2017 after a surprise election loss, European countries have been pushing to return asylum seekers.

But Gambia’s economy still suffers. The coastal nation was shaken earlier this year by the collapse of British travel company Thomas Cook.

At the time, Gambia’s tourism minister said the government convened an emergency meeting on the collapse, while some Gambians said the shutdown could have a devastating impact on tourism, which contributes more than 30% of the country’s GDP.

AP

The wealth of Zimbabwe’s former longtime president Robert Mugabe was long a mystery. Now the first official list of assets to be made public says he left behind $10 million and several houses when he died in September.

Some in Zimbabwe view that estate as far too modest for Mugabe, who ruled for 37 years and was accused by critics of accumulating vast riches and presiding over grand corruption.

The report by the state-run Herald newspaper on Tuesday does not mention any overseas assets, though it is thought that Mugabe had properties in neighboring South Africa and in Asia.

The report says there appears to be no will, though lawyers are still looking for one. The report cites the lawyers as saying the law stipulates that Mugabe’s wife, Grace, and children will inherit the property in that case.

Mugabe also left behind a farm, 10 cars and 11 hectares (27 acres) of land that included an orchard at his rural home where he was buried. His daughter, Bona, registered the estate on behalf of the family, the report said.

More than a dozen farms are publicly known to have been seized from both black and white farmers by the deceased’s family.

Mugabe died of cancer in a Singapore hospital at age 95 nearly two years after he was forced by Zimbabwe’s military and ruling party to resign.

Many in the southern African nation say the country he left behind has fallen deeper into economic and political crisis, with a growing hunger problem that a United Nations expert last month called “shocking” for a state not at war.

Half of Zimbabwe’s population, or more than 7 million people, is experiencing severe hunger, the U.N. World Food Program said Tuesday, calling it a “vicious cycle of sky-rocketing malnutrition that’s hitting women and children hardest.”

It plans to more than double the number of people it helps to 4 million but said delivering aid will be complicated by “surging prices” for basic items and a regional drought that has hurt food supplies.

Critics blame the overall crisis on the administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has struggled to fulfil promises of prosperity since taking power in 2017.

AP

French President Emmanuel Macron told his country military leaders to consider all options as it seeks to review its operations against Islamist militants in West Africa.

Macron’s first public remarks since 13 French soldiers died during a combat mission in Mali included an earnest plea for his international allies to do more.

France, a former colonial power, is the only Western country with a significant military presence waging counter-insurgency operations in Mali and the wider Sahel region south of the Sahara desert.

What happened?

The 13 French soldiers were killed in Mali on Monday when two helicopters collided in the dark after being called in to provide air support during a combat mission to track down a band of Islamic State fighters.

Islamic State said on Thursday that its West African branch had caused the collision, but it did not provide any evidence for the claim.

The French government has faced criticism at home that its troops are bogged down, while critical voices in the region have increasingly scorned Paris for failing to restore stability and anti-French sentiment has grown.

Thirty eight French troops have been killed in the West African Sahel since France sent troops to Mali in 2013.

Macron’s reaction

Macron invited those seeking to understand the cost of France’s mission in the Sahel should witness a ceremony to honour the dead soldiers. The country will be mourning its heaviest single loss of troops for nearly four decades.

“France is acting in the Sahel on everyone’s behalf,” an emotional Macron told a news conference with NATO General-Secretary Jens Stoltenberg.

“Our mission there is important. Nevertheless, the situation we face compels me today to examine all our strategic options.”

France’s options

Macron said he had told his government and top military leaders to look hard at France’s operations in the region, adding, “I told them all options are open”.

He gave no indication what those options were. However, French officials have ruled out withdrawing its 4,500-strong force from the region, fearing this could lead to even more chaos.

As France mourns the dead commandos, Macron wants to incorporate more European allies into operations and to ensure local troops are better trained and equipped.

French officials have also bemoaned the fact peace accords agreed in Mali in 2015 have still not been implemented and that the political will power to implement them is missing.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told lawmakers there was a need for more political action in Mali and a common desire to defeat terrorism, adding that was also the case for neighbouring Burkina Faso.

An unwinnable war?

Despite French troops, 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers in Mali and thousands of pan-regional forces, Islamist militants have strengthened their foothold across the arid Sahel region, making large swathes of territory ungovernable and stoking ethnic violence, especially in Mali and Burkina Faso.

On Wednesday, France’s top general acknowledged France would never achieve a total victory over al Qaeda- and Islamic State-affiliated militants.

Macron’s government denies it is bogged down in an intractable conflict. But Monday’s deaths have provoked renewed public comparisons with the United States’ drawn-out military involvement in Afghanistan.

France has complained to European allies that it is bearing the brunt of a counter-terrorism operation that benefits all Europe. It hopes to persuade them quickly to send special forces to the region to back up local troops, Le Drian said.

REUTERS

Zimbabwe is on the brink of man-made starvation and the number of people needing help is “shocking” for a country not in conflict, a United Nations special expert on the right to food said Thursday.

Hilal Elver said she found stunted and underweight children, mothers too hungry to breastfeed their babies and medicine shortages in hospitals during her 10-day visit to the economically shattered country.

She said the southern African nation is among the four most food insecure states in the world. The others — Yemen, South Sudan and Somalia — have been ravaged by war. Zimbabwe’s food crisis has the potential to spark fighting, the U.N. expert said.

“I urgently call on the government, all political parties and the international community to come together to put an end to this spiraling crisis before it morphs into a full-blown conflict,” she said.

The consequences of hunger have been dire, Elver said. School dropouts, early marriage, domestic violence, prostitution and sexual exploitation are on the rise.

She blamed widespread corruption, mismanagement, natural disasters, droughts and sanctions for the crisis. Zimbabwe is facing its worst economic difficulties in more than a decade.

More than 60% of the population of 16 million is now considered food insecure. “It comes from (a) dysfunctional system,” the U.N. expert said.

About 5.5 million people in rural areas face food insecurity. In urban areas, about 2.2 million people lack access to basic public services, including health and safe water, according to figures by U.N agencies and the government. Electricity is cut up to 19 hours a day.

“These are shocking figures and the crisis continues to worsen,” Elver said. Where food items are available most people have no money to buy, she said.

Critics blame the administration of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who has struggled to fulfil promises of prosperity since taking power in 2017 after the forced resignation of longtime leader Robert Mugabe.

Mnangagwa blames recurrent droughts and sanctions imposed by the United States for the crisis. The U.S. says the sanctions target entities and individuals, including Mnangagwa, over rights abuses, not the country at large.

AP

The spokesman of the Gabonese presidency, Ike Ngouoni, has been detained in the capital Libreville in what is believed to be an anti-corruption investigation, his lawyers told the AFP news agency on Monday.

Mr. Ngouoni, along with over a dozen others have been detained since last Thursday “without any reason,” said lawyer, Anges Kévin Nzigou.

The lawyer further disclosed that his clients were all questioned about the financing of the “republican tour” led a few months ago by Brice Laccruche Alihanga, then cabinet director of the presidency.

The wave of arrests in progress is neither a witch hunt nor a settling of accounts. The fight against impunity has no agenda or timetable, it is permanent.

Despite his efforts, it was in early November that he was sacked from the presidency. He was subsequently appointed to the post of minister in charge of the follow-up of the “Strategy of the human investments and the objectives of sustainable development”.

Another lawyer for the detained presidential spokesperson, Boris Rosenthal, insists that “there is a political vendetta” in the current process, a claim the Prime Minister refutes.

“The wave of arrests in progress is neither a witch hunt nor a settling of accounts,” said Gabonese Prime Minister Julien Nkoghe Bekale on Monday on Twitter. “The fight against impunity has no agenda or timetable, it is permanent.”

The Central Africa oil producer has in the past few months been rocked by a timber scandal that also led to the firing of top government officials including the vice president.

Source: Africa News