In Rome, C. Africa govt inks peace deal with rebel groups

Yahoo – AFP, June 19, 2017

L-R: National Convergence Kwa Na Kwa party general secretary Bertin Bea,
Republic of Central Africa foreign minister Charles Armel Doubaned and
Central African president political advisor George Isidore Alphonse Dibert
pose on June 19, 2017 in Rome (AFP Photo/FILIPPO MONTEFORTE)

Rome (AFP) - The Central African Republic's government on Monday signed an "immediate ceasefire" deal with rebel groups at a meeting in Rome aimed at ending violence in the strife-torn country.

The accord, negotiated over five days, was hailed as a precious chance to stabilise one of the world's most volatile and poorest countries.

Under it, armed groups will be given representation in the political arena in exchange for an end to attacks and blockades, and their members will be brought into the country's armed forces.

"We commit to the immediate implementation by political-military groups of a country-wide ceasefire, to be monitored by the international community, as a fundamental step on the way to definitive peace," the deal read.

"The government undertakes to ensure military groups are represented at all levels" and are "recognised as part of the reconstruction efforts", it said.

The accord was brokered by the Community of Sant'Egidio, a group rooted in the Catholic church that promotes dialogue with other religions and non-believers. It has been an active mediator in many African conflicts.

The rebel groups pledged to ensure "the free movement of people and goods by removing illegal barriers as an immediate consequence of the ceasefire".

State authority

The signatories also committed to "restoring the (authority of the) state across the national territory."

One of the world's poorest nations, CAR has been struggling to recover from a civil war between the Muslim and Christian militias that started in 2013 when President Francois Bozize was overthrown by a coalition of Muslim-majority rebel groups called the Seleka.

They in turn were ousted by a military intervention led by former colonial ruler France.

Those events sparked the bloodiest sectarian violence in the country's history as mainly Christian militias sought revenge.

Christians, who account for about 80 percent of the population, organised vigilante units dubbed "anti-balaka", in reference to the machetes used by the rebels.

The signatories of Monday's agreement included various factions of the Seleka as well as Christian and animist groups.

Members of armed groups will be "integrated" into the country's armed forces, "in line with pre-established criteria" and after an "upgrade," according to the deal.

Sant'Egidio's president Marco Impagliazzo described the accord as "an historic agreement, a deal full of hope".

CAR's foreign minister, Charles Armel Doubane, echoed those remarks, speaking of a "day of hope" for the country.

The UN's special representative on CAR, Parfait Onanga-Anyanga of Gabon, who is also head of the UN's stabilisation force there, attended the talks. Several heads of CAR political parties also took part.

The agreement announced on Monday comes against a backdrop of mounting concern.

Last month, the UN's humanitarian coordination agency OCHA reported on an "alarming" rise in violence, with "clashes (that) have taken an increasingly religious and ethnic connotation,."

It said the number of internally displaced people is now over half a million for the first time since August 2014, while a further 400,000, out of a population of 4.5 million, had fled to neighbouring countries.

The country's armed forces are estimated to number about 8,000, backed by 900 French troops and 10,000 troops and 2,000 civilians serving in a UN force called MINUSCA.

They have stabilised the situation, but around half the country -- which covers almost 623,000 square kilometres (241,000 square miles), a little less than Afghanistan or Chile -- remains outside government control.

Israel uncovers ancient Roman history at Mediterranean port

Yahoo – AFP, April 26, 2017

People sit next to an ancient aqueduct in the Roman-era city of Caesarea which
is set for renovation as part of a multi-million-dollar project (AFP Photo/Jack GUEZ)

Caesarea (Israel) (AFP) - Israeli archaeologists working on a major Roman-era port city on Wednesday unveiled new discoveries including an altar dedicated to Augustus Caesar and a centuries-old mother-of-pearl tablet inscribed with a menorah.

The finds at Caesarea, a complex on the Mediterranean coast 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Tel Aviv, were the result of "one of the largest and most important conservation projects ever undertaken in Israel," the Israel Antiquities Authority said.

Caesarea was established some 2,030 years ago by Roman-appointed King Herod the Great, who ruled what was then Judea.

Today, the ruins are a popular tourist destination where concerts are still held in the remains of an ancient Roman theatre.

Archaeologists say a small tablet engraved with a seven-branched menorah, 

discovered during at the ancient harbour of Caesarea, indicates Jewish presence

at the site dating back to the fourth or fifth centuries (AFP Photo/JACK GUEZ)

Archaeologist Peter Gendelman, leading a tour of the site, said the preservation work was perhaps the most "complicated and interesting" project he had worked on in his 30-year career.

Some of the finds are "completely changing our understanding of the dynamics of this area", he said.

Authorities are planning to finish the excavations within months and open a visitors' centre built into ancient vaults to illustrate the city's history.

Guy Swersky, vice chairman of the Rothschild Caesarea Foundation, said Caesarea was a major city from Roman times right through to the Crusader era.

"This was by far the most important port city in this area of the Middle East," he said.

A picture taken on April 26, 2017 shows part of an ancient synagogue in the

Roman-era town of Caesarea on the Israeli coast (AFP Photo/JACK GUEZ)

The Edmond de Rothschild Foundation and local authorities have allocated more than 100 million shekels ($27 million, 25 million euros) for the project.

The site, which contains ruins from later periods including the Byzantine, Muslim and Crusader eras, has been the focus of major excavation work over the decades but recent work has revealed new secrets.

The project also aims to preserve the remains of an ancient synagogue and a nearby aquaduct.

Officials said a small mother-of-pearl tablet engraved with a menorah was testimony to an ancient Jewish presence at the site.

Archaeologists said it likely dates to the fourth or fifth century AD.

'Largest ever' Med gas field found off Egypt: Eni

Yahoo – AFP, 30 Aug 2015

The so-called Zohr project is "the largest gas discovery ever made in Egypt and
in the Mediterranean Sea," ENI said in a statement (AFP Photo/Damien Meyer)

Cairo (AFP) - Italian energy giant Eni on Sunday announced the discovery of the "largest ever" offshore natural gas field in the Mediterranean, in Egypt's territorial waters.

The discovery, confirmed by Egypt's oil ministry, could hold a potential 30 trillion cubic feet (850 billion cubic metres) of gas in an area of about 100 square kilometres (40 square miles), Eni said in a statement.

The so-called Zohr project is "the largest gas discovery ever made in Egypt and in the Mediterranean Sea," it said, adding the find would meet Egypt's own natural gas demands for decades.

The "supergiant" field -- potentially one of the world's largest natural gas finds -- is located at a depth of 4,757 feet (1,450 metres) in the Shorouk Block, Eni said.

The firm said it would "immediately appraise the field with the aim of accelerating a fast track development of the discovery", giving a timeframe of four years.

It added Eni's CEO, Claudio Descalzi, has visited Cairo and discussed the discovery with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab.

"This historic discovery will be able to transform the energy scenario of Egypt," Descalzi said in the statement.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, in a message to Descalzi, congratulated the oil company for the "extraordinary" discovery.

"A find of this size should be enough to cover a lot of Egypt's energy gap," Robin Mills, a Dubai-based analyst at Manaar Energy Consulting, told Bloomberg News.

"They'll likely have to meet domestic needs first, before any export plans are discussed. This will also put a damper on Israeli plans to export gas to Egypt," he added.

Egypt, the largest country of the Arab world, is of strategic and economic interest to Italy. In the past Italy invested heavily in neighbouring Libya, but for the past four years Libya has been mired in chaos and violence.

In recent years the western Mediterranean has seen seen a jump in gas exploration. In 2010, a major natural gas fields was found off Israel.

In March, British energy giant BP unveiled plans to invest $12 billion (10.7 billion euros) in Egyptian offshore gas fields with Russian partner DEA, despite the slump in world oil prices.

It said the investment in the West Nile Delta fields aims to develop five trillion cubic feet of gas resources and 55 million barrels of condensates, with output expected to begin in 2017.

Europe and Africa pledge new approach on migration issue

European and African ministers have agreed to adopt a coordinated approach to deal with the issue of migration. They are in Rome to discuss the humanitarian crisis caused by a surge in the number of migrants.

Deutsche Welle, 28 Nov 2014

Interior ministers of 58 European and African countries convened on Friday for a summit on migration in the Italian capital of Rome.

In a joint commentary published in the German daily Frankfurter Rundschau on Friday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his Italian counterpart Paolo Gentiloni said that by strengthening the educational and health systems in African countries, Europe can tackle the refugee problem.

The two ministers emphasized the importance of comprehensive strategies and a collaborative approach - that goes beyond the policing of borders - to deal with the issue.

Senegal's interior minister, Abdoulaye Daouda Diallo, said Thursday the migration issue was creating problems for both the European countries and their Mediterranean neighbors. However, Diallo said the fourth round of the so-called Rabat process in Rome had resulted in a "significant forward step" in terms of its objectives.

"For Africa, it is not desirable to see some of its best people leaving while European countries find themselves with newcomers they feel they cannot deal with," Diallo said.

Italy, the host of the summit, has been particularly affected by a rise in the number of North African migrants seeking to enter Europe by sea. At least 165,000 migrants - an increase of about 100,000 people compared to last year - have entered Europe via the Mediterranean this year, according to some estimates.

The meeting of the EU and African ministers comes as a ship carrying more than 700 men,women and children broke down in international waters about 30 nautical miles (56 kilometers) from the Mediterranean on Thursday. The ship was later towed to the Greek island of Crete. It is one of the largest refugee boats to make the crossing in recent months.

shs/kms (AFP, dpa)

Sudan Christian woman spared death sentence arrives in Rome

Yahoo – AFP, 24 July 2014

File image shows Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag (C), a Christian Sudanese woman

 sentenced to hang for apostasy, with husband (L), her newborn baby and
20-month-old son and members of the legal team at an undisclosed location
in Khartoum on June 23, 2014 (AFP)

A Sudanese Christian woman who was sentenced to death for renouncing Islam, then acquitted after intense international pressure on Khartoum, arrived on Thursday in Rome with her family en route to the United States.

Meriam Yahia Ibrahim Ishag was greeted on the tarmac by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzo and his wife as well as Foreign Minister Lapo Pistelli.

"Today is a day of celebration", Renzi said.

A global outcry erupted in May after Ishag was sentenced under Sharia law to 100 lashings and then to hang for apostasy.

Days after her conviction, she gave birth to a second child in prison.

Ishag's conviction was overturned in June, but she was immediately rearrested while trying to leave Sudan using what prosecutors claimed were forged documents.

Two days later, Ishag was released from prison and she and her family -- including her American husband and two young children -- took refuge in the US embassy.

Ishag was born to a Muslim father who abandoned the family, and was raised by her Ethiopian Orthodox Christian mother, according to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Khartoum which said she joined the Catholic church shortly before she married.

Ishag was convicted under Islamic Sharia law that has been in force in Sudan since 1983 and outlaws conversions which are punishable by death.

Her case has raised questions of religious freedom and sparked an outcry from Western governments and human rights groups.

Sudanese Christian woman spared death sentence meets Pope Francis (AFP)

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Eritreans flee repression, says UN rapporteur

Some 4,000 Eritreans flee their country each month because of government repression and military conscription, according to a UN investigator. Many arrived in Italy as boat refugees.

Deutsche Welle, 19 June 2014

UN special rapporteur Sheila Keetharuth said on Thursday that Eritrea's system of forcing all citizens from the age of 18 into military service equated to "forced labor" and was resulting in a "shocking" exodus, especially of young people.

She said many risked dangerous journeys across deserts and seas - some toward Ethiopia and Sudan - rather that toil for Eritrea's military or other government jobs for hardly any pay - even until retirement age.

"People know those risks - they take them because there are no other choices," Keetharuth said in Geneva. "If this trend continues, Eritrea will soon be a country without people inside."

She also accused the government of President Issaias Afeworki of arbitrarily detaining Eritreans and punishing them with impunity in secret detention centers.

Eritreans among boat refugees

Since January alone, some 13,000 Eritreans had arrived by boat in Italy -- accounting for a third of all arrivals, according to the UN's refugee agency.

That compares with 9,800 for the whole of 2013.

Alone in April, more than 3,000 Eritreans applied for asylum in European countries, Keetharuth said.

Next week, the UN Human Rights Council is due to consider a resolution calling for the appointment of a special of three investigators, including Keetharuth, to probe the situation inside Eritrea.

Keetharuth has not been allowed into Eritrea but said she had spoken with some of the thousands of Eritreans who had fled.

ipj/kms (AP, AFP)

Former Lampedusa migrant: 'Nobody helped'

Deutsche Welle, 7 October 2013

Abu Kurke of Ethiopia is all too familiar with the dangers of trying to reach the Italian island of Lampedusa by boat from Africa. He told DW his tale of survival - and of the images he hopes to forget.

A blue, double-decker boat overflows with people of African descent as a
military-like ship sits on the water's horizon in the distance.

News of the drowning of more than 300 migrants seeking refuge in Lampedusa, Italy from Africa brought back painful memories to Abu Kurke of Ethiopia. He was one a handful of survivors in a traumatic tale of sea-crossing endurance that ultimately brought him to the Netherlands.

DW: Mr. Kurke, this week must have been very distressing for you. How did you feel when you heard the news about events near Lampedusa?

Abu Kurke: That made me very sad. It was similar to what happened in 2011 - to me and many people who had to die. It's very terrible. How can I tell you? I don't know.

You were only one of nine people to have survived a similar crossing. Where did your journey begin?

I was in Libya - I was in prison. I'd been kicked out of Italy in 2010, and I was in prison for eight months. Then, when I got out of prison, there was a war in Libya. So I was looking for somewhere to go. I took the boat with my friend from Tripoli. It was a small boat, and there were too many people on it - 72 people, with small children, also women. We were going to Italy, but we never reached Italy.

We had many problems on the sea. The wind was very bad - the captain said he couldn't steer well. We received some calls from the Italian Coast Guard, but in the end, nobody helped. A helicopter came with water, and then went away and told us he was coming back to help us. He never came back. We were waiting for that helicopter for six hours.

So there we were, without any food - children on the boat, women. When we'd first seen the helicopter, everyone was happy. We thought, "We will survive." So when it never came back, that was terrible. We were there for two weeks on the sea, without any food. A baby was crying for a week in front of me - the baby died in front of me. I watched that. I still have problems. I still have nightmares, always.

What was the feeling like on the boat? Had people given up, or were you still hopeful you would make it?

Everybody was praying. We'd also received a telephone from the coast guard, but the battery ran out. For many days we saw ships and many fishing boats, and all of them just looked at us when we got close to them - and then they'd run away. We tried to speak with them. We showed them the baby - we showed them we didn't have any oil - we needed food - also, that there were bodies of people in the boats. All the boats ran away from us. No one helped. In the two days after we saw the helicopter, we lost many people.

 An estimated 300 men, women and
 children died on October 3 trying to
reach Europe

The boat washed up in Libya after two weeks. There were 11 of us. When we saw land, we thought it was Italy. Everybody was praying that it was Italy. Only five of us could walk - the other people were exhausted. Military people helped us, but the military also took us to prison.

We were in prison for three days without medical help. One guy died in prison. Another, a woman, died one hour after coming off the sea. Afterwards we went to the Catholic Church in Libya. They helped. I want to say thanks to them, because they saved our lives.

You ultimately reached the Netherlands via Italy. What made you decide to get on another boat after that first traumatic experience?

I was not planning to go again to the sea. I was planning to go to Shousha [a UN refugee camp in Tunisia]. Military people arrested me and other people and put me on the boat. The boat finally arrived in Lampedusa.

How were you received there?

When I reached Lampedusa I was happy. The Italians helped us from the boat. But I left Italy because there are thousands of migrants there. I was looking for medical help.

Knowing all the risks, people continue getting on those boats. Why are they prepared to take this risk?

Most of the immigrants are from Eritrea, from Ethiopia - women and children, dying - families coming. It's because there are political problems. In Ethiopia, thousands of Oromo people are in prison. I am from Oromia [an ethno-political state in central Ethiopia]. Most of the people who die on the boats are from Oromia.

Africa and Europe must help these people to get out of prison and stop these people coming to sea and dying - and not just the sea, but in the Sahara Desert. The problem comes from their own country.

Now that you're in the Netherlands, what do you hope for the future?

I hope freedom will come for my people, in my country. I'm also happy here. I want to live my life in peace.

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Migrants tell of perilous journey that ended in tragedy at sea

Survivors who were rescued off Lampedusa had escaped war-torn Eritrea through the Sahara and endured hardship in Libya before their boat was ravaged by fire

The Guardian, The Observer, Tom Kington in Rome, Sunday 6 October 2013

A bunch of flowers reading 'Dead at sea' marks the disaster at sea off
 Lampedusa, with 300 African asylum-seekers feared dead. Photograph:
Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

For the young Eritrean, the reason he is still alive is very simple. "I know how to swim," he said. "My friends on the other hand had never been in the sea."

The teenager, who gave his name as David Villa, was among the 155 migrants pulled out of the water alive off the Italian island of Lampedusa on Thursday after their vessel – with around 440 packed on board – caught fire and sank, taking hundreds to their deaths and making it among the worst tragedies on a route where around 6,000 migrants have perished in the last 20 years.

In the first accounts given to Italian newspapers, Villa, 18, and other survivors described their hellish journey from war-ravaged Eritrea through the Sahara and across the Mediterranean, and claimed a second ship was sailing alongside them to Italy.

"They had given us a bottle of five litres of water for every three people, there were terrible waves and we couldn't move on the boat," said Villa, as he huddled in nothing but his underpants and a heat-retaining blanket at the packed and fetid migrant centre on Lampedusa, the holiday island that sits just 70 miles from the African mainland.

When, after a two-day voyage from Libya, the boat came within view of Lampedusa, hearts on board lifted and trouble started, he recounted.

"We started burning shirts and T-shirts," he told Corriere della Sera. "We waved them in the air, then the boat started to burn and there was an explosion. We knew there was another ship close to us which had left Misurata, which had almost always been next to ours. Many jumped in the water, but they didn't find it."

After locating just 111 bodies in the sea, authorities were forced by bad weather to call off their search on Saturday for more than 200 migrants – mainly Eritreans – who may still be packed like sardines into the hold of the vessel, now resting on its side at a depth of 40 metres.

On Saturday morning a fishing boat flotilla threw a single bouquet of yellow flowers into the sea at the site, after Italy held a national day of mourning for the disaster on Friday.

Lampedusa, a tiny speck in the Mediterranean, has long been a promised land for thousands of Africans fleeing war and poverty who aspire to new lives, usually in northern Europe. "The rules are you get asylum in the country you are identified in, and since many don't want to stay in Italy, they refuse to be fingerprinted here," said a UN official who declined to be named.

Villa, who was likely using the name of the Atlético Madrid footballer to conceal his identity, said his horrific sea voyage was just another chapter in a months-long odyssey that started in the spring of 2012, in a village near Keren in the Eritrean desert, where he was the oldest of eight children. Paying over his parents' $3,000 in savings he boarded a truck heading across the Sahara to Libya.

"We couldn't breathe, there were people crying and coughing," he said. "By day, when we stopped, they tied us up, and I was convinced I would die, I wouldn't make it."

In Libya, Villa and a friend, Kijwa, who also made it to Lampedusa with him, worked for months as painters, sleeping in their employer's shack alongside their tins of paint. "Beatings, many beatings," said Kijwa. "The Libyans are bad," he added. "Mafia, mafia," Villa told La Stampa. "They treated me like a slave."

The pair were lucky not to be locked up in one of the 22 detention centres set up in Libya and run by corrupt officials where inmates are beaten up, where they must pay up to $1,000 to be released and where the UN has limited access.

"We have a small office in Libya which is not recognised by the government," said Federico Fossi, a spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. "We are tolerated, not recognised," he added.

Italian police are meanwhile holding a Tunisian man who has been identified by passengers as the ship's navigator, who insisted on being called "the Doctor" and was part of a trafficking gang that made about €500,000 from the crossing.

After surviving the desert, Libya and the crossing, Villa and Kijwa were rubbing shoulders this weekend with Syrians who have fled the war in their own country. At the holding centre, which is fit for 250 people and where more than 1,000 are now sleeping, Syrian and Eritrean children were playing football and together sketching pictures of boats being tossed by waves.

"We like the same teams, Juventus, Real Madrid, Inter," one child told La Stampa.

"The Syrians have been sailing from Egypt, but now embark in Libya too," said Fossi. "They tend to be middle class and relatives are often at the port ready to pick them up and take them out of Italy."

As for the hundreds of Africans whose journey ended for ever half a mile from Lampedusa, they are now lined up, nameless, in a hangar at the island's airport, where a specialist team of medics formed in Italy after the Sri Lankan tsunami has been taking DNA samples in a bid to identify them.

Meanwhile, local people have long been finding photographs carried by the migrants washed up on the shore or left aboard wrecks – heartbreaking images showing them, or their families back home, dressed in their Sunday best or posing like rappers in front of backdrops featuring a Mercedes or Hollywood-style mansions, an image of the new world they hoped to reach.

"Lampedusa is the new Checkpoint Charlie between the northern and southern hemispheres," said Italy's interior minister, Angelino Alfano, after the disaster.

Cecile Kyenge, Italy's first black minister, who has pushed for looser immigration laws, said migrant boats needed better monitoring at sea while asylum seekers from Africa's warzones merited better treatment.

"Lawmakers need to imagine that it could have been them on the other side," she told the Observer.

Having made it across alive, Villa said he was now heading for Switzerland. "I want to study, I want to become a nurse," he said. And he had a message for his parents. "Mum and Dad, I want to tell you that there was wind, a huge wave and I fell in the sea. But don't worry about me, I'm fine."