New EU chief pledges to back Africa on Ethiopia trip

Yahoo – AFP, Robbie BOULET, December 7, 2019

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen in Ethiopia's capital Addis
Ababa, her first trip outside Europe since being appointed (AFP Photo/
EDUARDO SOTERAS)

Addis Ababa (AFP) - European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen assured Africa of the EU's strong support during a visit to Ethiopia on Saturday, her first trip outside Europe since assuming her post.

The former German defence minister, who took office on December 1, landed in the capital Addis Ababa in the morning and headed to the African Union headquarters for talks with AU chief Moussa Faki Mahamat.

"I hope my presence at the African Union can send a strong political message because the African continent and the African Union matter to the European Union and to the European Commission," she said after the meeting.

"For us, for the European Union, you are more than just a neighbour."

Von der Leyen, who has prioritised the fight against climate chang, said the EU and AU could collaborate on the issue.

"You here on the African continent understand climate change better than anyone else," she said.

She and Faki also discussed migration and security issues.

"Honestly I don't have all the answers to these challenges but I am convinced that together we can find answers," she said.

Faki for his part called for greater international mobilisation to counter security threats, including terrorism.

'We are at your side'

Von der Leyen also met with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, congratulating him on winning this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

"I think that Ethiopia has given hope to the whole continent," she said, adding that "I want you to know that we are at your side".

Abiy thanked her for the EU's support but said he hoped for more funding to spur economic reforms.

"We're still demanding more financial support because we are ambitious. As Madam President mentioned, when you are a young prime minister you are also more ambitious and you want to deliver more," said Abiy, who will receive his Nobel in Oslo on Tuesday.

Von der Leyen congratulated Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed for winning 

this year's Nobel peace prize (AFP Photo/EDUARDO SOTERAS)

The EU and Ethiopia also signed agreements worth 170 million euros ($188 million) on Saturday.

Of that sum, 100 million euros will go towards transport and infrastructure in the East African country, 50 million for the health sector, 10 million for job creation and 10 million for elections ahead of landmark polls next year.

Saturday's agenda also included a sit-down between von der Leyen, the commission's first woman president, and Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde, the first woman to hold that title.

Speaking to journalists after her meetings, von der Leyen said it was "important" for the EU to continue to support Abiy's ambitious reform agenda.

"They have started but we need a long breath to see the effects that these reforms are bringing along," she said.

Migration and security

The EU is Africa's largest trading partner and biggest source of foreign investment and development aid.

But the two blocs have struggled in recent years to find ways to curb the number of African migrants heading north to Europe using perilous sea routes.

Just this week at least 62 migrants died when a boat capsized off the coast of Mauritania.

Both African and European officials are keen to address the root causes of migration like poverty.

The EU has also been a strong supporter of the AU's peace and security efforts.

Its African Peace Facility, a mechanism established in 2004, has allocated more than 2.7 billion euros for peace and security operations, targeting 14 African-led operations in 18 countries.

Yet European officials have signalled they want to shift away from providing stipends for troops in places such as Somalia, where the EU is a main backer of the regional peacekeeping force known as AMISOM.

The AU has struggled to get member states to impose a 0.2 percent levy on eligible imports so the body can provide more of its own financing -- an initiative the EU supports.

So far just 17 African countries have followed through on that commitment.

Babies born on floor as Zimbabwe's health system totters

Yahoo – AFP, Ish MAFUNDIKWA, with Zinyange AUNTONY in Bulawayo, December 4, 2019

Where a child is born: Esther Gwena, 69, who acts as a midwife but has no
training, lays down sheets in her rundown apartment -- a makeshift maternity
unit (AFP Photo/Jekesai NJIKIZANA)

Harare (AFP) - The floor is dusty, the walls filthy and the furniture decrepit, but for two weeks last month a tiny flat in a Harare township was transformed into a maternity clinic where scores of babies were born.

Its owner, 69-year-old Esther Gwena, says she helped to deliver 250 infants as Zimbabwe's health sector tottered -- a feat that earned comparisons to Florence Nightingale, the pioneer of modern nursing.

Hundreds of junior medics at state hospitals began a strike three months ago because their salaries -- less than $200 a month -- are not enough to live on in a country gripped by 500 percent inflation.

Nurses are only working two days a week.

Those who can't afford private care -- the majority of the 14 million people reeling under an economic crisis compounded by acute food shortages -- suffer at home or seek help from people like Gwena.

Senior doctors, in a letter last week, said state hospitals had become a "death trap" and warned of a "slow genocide".

Gwena, a widow and member of the local Apostolic Faith sect, is a self-taught midwife.

When the health services strike peaked last month, she came to the rescue.

In need: Monica Bepu, 33, heavily pregnant with her second 

child, sits on a bench in the passage outside Esther Gwena's 

two-room flat in Harare (AFP Photo/Jekesai NJIKIZANA)

'I had to do something'

"A man came to me and said there were two women in advanced labour at (a nearby clinic) but the place was closed because the nurses were on strike," she told AFP in her two-room flat in Mbare township.

She rushed there and found that one of the women had a baby which had died.

"I took the other one to my place, where I helped her. The baby survived. From that time, I knew I had to do something," she said.

Word that she was helping deliver babies for free spread quickly.

The state-owned television ZBC described her as "a modern Zimbabwean version of Florence Nightingale" and First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa visited Gwena and donated food, detergents and blankets.

A funeral services company chipped in with a mobile water tank and pitched a tent outside to serve as a waiting room for women before they went into advanced labour.

"I helped to deliver 250 babies ... (they) are alive and kicking and at home with their mothers," Gwena said.

Two weeks later, the government asked her to stop after a nearby maternity clinic reopened.

Winnie Denhere, 35, cradled her two-day-old baby boy outside the clinic, where she had taken him for an immunisation injection.

"Everything went very well, she didn't ask us for money," she said, speaking of Gwena, who brought her child into the world.

A moment for prayer: Gwena belongs to an Apostolic religious sect where she 

says she got her calling to take up midwifery. She says she has delivered as 

many as 250 children (AFP Photo/Jekesai NJIKIZANA)

'People dying'

But while some laud Gwena as a selfless do-gooder, doctors worry that she exposed herself, the mothers, the babies to infection.

"We need to do something about our facilities so no one goes to her," Harare's director of medical services Prosper Chonzi, said.

Medicines have been in short supply and broken machines go unrepaired.

The government has fired 448 junior doctors for striking.

Senior doctors last week also stopped work in protest over the sacking of junior colleagues. Dozens marched in Harare on Monday.

"People dying has become the order of the day in our hospitals," said the vice-president of the Senior Hospital Doctors Association Raphael Magota.

He told AFP machines were breaking down and that intensive care units were only able to treat two or three people "due to lack of equipment".

A senior doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the situation has become untenable.

Gwena collects water in a bucket as she prepares for a long day (AFP Photo/

Jekesai NJIKIZANA)

"There is no public health in Zimbabwe at the moment; everything has come to a standstill," he said.

Even the scarce equipment is often not right.

"One needs gloves that fit just right when performing delicate operations, but we get old gloves that are too big," said another doctor.

A UN special rapporteur on food security, Hilal Elver, last week spoke of "disturbing information" that public hospitals had exhausted food stocks, forcing them to seek humanitarian aid and that medical equipment in some cases was "no longer operational".

In the second largest city of Bulawayo, Zimbabweans living abroad are helping in a small way by crowdfunding and sending money back home to offer health care for the vulnerable.

One such initiative is Citizwean Clinic, which opened its doors last month and attended to hundreds of patients in the first five days -- providing free consultation and drugs.

"We go to the hospital these days it's bad, there are no doctors. We heard that there were doctors here," said hypertensive patient Elina Dzingire, 63.

"We've really been helped here," she told AFP from the clinic in the city's Cowdray Park township.

Health Minister Obadiah Moyo admitted the situation in hospitals is constrained but says the government will soon advertise the posts left vacant by the sacked doctors.

Malawi tobacco pressured as US butts in over labour abuses

Yahoo – AFP, Jack MCBRAMS, December 1, 2019

Tobacco is known locally in Malawi as "green gold", but the southern African nation
must wrestle with allegations of child labour if the industry is to have a future
(AFP Photo/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA)

Blantyre (Malawi) (AFP) - Malawi is being forced to confront child and forced labour practices after the US restricted tobacco imports from the impoverished southeastern African nation over allegations workers including children were being exploited.

Although exports to the United States make up only a small part of Malawi's total, the US move could make it harder selling its tobacco elsewhere and has sparked anxiety among farmers who fear they will be forced to accept lower prices.

As tobacco, known locally as "green gold", is Malawi's top crop in terms of employment, foreign exchange earnings (60 percent) and tax revenue (25 percent), any trouble the sector runs into could quickly reverberate throughout the economy.

The US decision piles even more pressure on the tobacco sector, already confronted with global anti-tobacco campaigns.

The trouble began in late October. British law firm Leigh Day announced it was preparing a landmark class action case against British American Tobacco (BAT) on behalf of 2,000 Malawian farmers, including hundreds of children, for forced labour and poverty wages.

BAT, which says it "takes the issue of child labour extremely seriously", has denied any wrongdoing and noted that it buys tobacco from Malawi via international dealers who are required adhere to a code of conduct that does not tolerate child and forced labour.

The US suspended imports of tobacco from Malawi, saying it had information that reasonably indicated it was being produced using forced labour and forced child labour.

Third of children work

According to a survey conducted in 2017 by the country's statistics agency the use of child labour in Malawi is extensive. It found that 38 percent of the country’s children aged between five and 17 were working.

Although the survey did not provide specific information about the tobacco sector, it is widely acknowledged that child labour is a problem.

Betty Chinyamunyamu, who heads an association of smallholder farmers, said incidents of child labour occur despite efforts to eliminate the practice.

"In some cases, farmers may think that that is the way things are supposed to be without knowing that they are engaging in child labour," she said.

Tobacco and Allied Workers Union general secretary Raphael Sandram accused the government of dithering in addressing child labour in the industry.

"In our labour report in 2015, we raised the issue that there were some irregularities in the industry that government needed to address," he said.

"The fact that the government did not respond according to the requirements of the US government means that they delayed to act on these issues. But these issues have been there for a long time," he said.

Malawian children carrying tobacco leaves on a farm in 2009. A government survey 

conducted two years ago found that more than one in three childen work (AFP Photo/

FELIX MPONDA)

Pushing for compliance

Agriculture Minister Kondwani Nankhumwa acknowledged pockets of child and forced labour in Malawi, but downplayed the US action saying it "is not a ban, they are just pushing for compliance".

US authorities said firms wishing to import Malawi tobacco into the country will need to demonstrate it was not produced with forced labour. But what will be needed to convince US authorities and how much effort firms will be willing to take is unclear.

Nankhumwa said 80 percent of Malawi's tobacco was grown under a special scheme which is free from child or forced labour.

"So, we are only grappling with the 20 percent within which there is also some kind of compliance," he said.

The law firm Leigh Day described a tobacco farming system that puts farmers under extreme pressure.

Leaf buyers who sell to multinational tobacco firms make contracts with landowners who then engage tenant farmers who spend 10 months on the plantations. Each tenant farmer is allotted around a hectare but needs four workers to work that amount of land.

"However, the amount the tenant farmers are paid for their crop is too low for them to be able to afford to employ workers to help on the farms. As a result, they have no option but to rely on their children to work on the farms," said Leigh Day in a statement.

Bone of contention

Nankhumwa pledged Malawi would conduct the necessary policy reviews to protect the tobacco industry and bring the country into compliance with global standards.

"The government is reviewing the tenancy system, which is a bone of contention but also perceived to be catalyst for child and forced labour," he said.

Farmers -- who are starting to prepare their fields for the next planting season -- are distraught at the prospect of being squeezed further by falling prices.

"We are baffled and confused," said Alick Yagontha, a small farmer in the northern Rumphi district who has been growing tobacco for two decades and harvested 28,000 kilograms this year.

He fears there will be "no future for tobacco farming in Malawi" if prices fall.

Twitter chief Jack Dorsey announces plans to move to Africa

The Guardian, Victoria Bekiempis, 29 Nov 2019

Tech executive declared plan to move temporarily in 2020 following a month-long visit to entrepreneurs on the continent

Jack Dorsey on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, on 5 September 2018.
Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

Twitter chief Jack Dorsey said this week that he plans to move to Africa for up to six months next year. The tech executive announced the planned move following a month-long trip visiting entrepreneurs on the continent.

“Sad to be leaving the continent … for now. Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one!),” Dorsey tweeted from Addis Ababa on Wednesday. “Not sure where yet, but I’ll be living here for 3-6 months mid 2020. Grateful I was able to experience a small part.”

Asked for comment, Twitter said in an email: “We’ve nothing to share beyond Jack’s initial tweet.”

Dorsey began traveling Africa on 8 November and visited Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, CNN reported.

In Ethiopia, he listened to startup pitches. In Nigeria, he had meetings with entrepreneurs and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Twitter board member who formerly worked as managing director of the World Bank.

Software developer Dara Oladosu, who created the Twitter bot Quoted Replies, which aggregates comments on tweets, received a job offer after meeting company executives, CNN said.

Dorsey also met bitcoin business owners in Ghana. Dorsey has expressed plans to integrate bitcoin use on Twitter and the payment app Square, according to CNN.

Africa’s tech industry is presently experiencing rapid growth. GSMA, a mobile services industry group, said there were 618 “active tech hubs” on the continent this year, up 40% from 2018. According to GSMA, Nigeria and South Africa have the most, with 85 and 80, respectively.

The Kenyan tech entrepreneur John Karanja launched BitHub, an incubator for cryptocurrencies, in 2015. Ethiopia’s government reportedly hopes that a tech-centric economy could create 3m jobs.

Dorsey’s African tour comes as social tech giants continue to face criticism over the spread of hate speech and misinformation online. Dorsey announced in October that Twitter would ban political advertising, putting pressure on Facebook to enact a similar policy.

Sudan cabinet scraps law abusing women's rights: state media

Yahoo – AFP, Paul MAROUDIS, November 26, 2019

Sudanese women marched in Khartoum on Monday to mark International Day
for the Elimination of Violence against Women, a day ahead of the cabinet
reportedly scrapping a restrictive public order law (AFP Photo/Ashraf SHAZLY)

Khartoum (AFP) - Sudan's cabinet Tuesday scrapped a controversial law that severely curtailed women's rights during the 30-year tenure of deposed autocrat Omar al-Bashir, state media reported.

Thousands of women were flogged, fined and even jailed during Bashir's rule under the archaic public order law.

"The council of ministers agreed in an extraordinary meeting today to cancel the public order law across all provinces," the official SUNA news agency reported.

The cabinet's decision is still to be ratified by the ruling sovereign council, which is an 11-member joint civilian-military body.

Bashir seized power in an Islamist-backed coup in 1989, severely restricting the role of women in Sudan for decades.

During his rule, authorities implemented a strict moral code that activists said primarily targeted women, through harsh interpretations of Islamic sharia law.

Bashir was deposed by the army on April 11 after months of protests against his rule.

Women were at the forefront of the demonstrations.

In February, Bashir had acknowledged in a briefing with reporters that it was the public order law that had angered younger generations, especially women.

Activists say security forces linked the public order law with article 152 of the Sudanese penal code, which stipulates punishment for "indecent and immoral acts".

Under the law those who consumed or brewed alcohol -- banned in the northeast African country -- were punished, while activists said security forces used the legislation to arrest women for attending private parties or wearing trousers.

Sudan's new government led by Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has assured citizens it will uphold women's rights.

"The government has delivered what it had promised. This is a real win for us, for the feminist movement in Sudan and for women's rights," said prominent Sudanese activist Tahani Abbas.

"Many women were flogged and humiliated because of this shameful law. With this decision, Sudan is now moving toward a new life where women can enjoy dignity."

A senior member of Bashir's ex-ruling National Congress Party contended that it had been implementation of the law by individual actors -- rather than the law per se -- that had created problems.

"Some policemen were using this law to harass women," said Mohamed al-Amin, who is also a defence lawyer for Bashir.

"What we need is to precisely define under article 152 the dress code for women."

On Tuesday, the cabinet also decided to "restructure the country's judicial system in order to prepare it for the new era," SUNA reported without elaborating.

The cabinet also agreed to form a committee to review all appointments made during the Bashir era that are suspected of having been made on the basis of questionable personal connections or favours.

Bashir, who is in prison in Khartoum, is on trial for allegedly illegally acquiring and using foreign funds.

Namibia's first female candidate vows to 'restore dignity'

Yahoo – AFP, Sofia CHRISTENSEN, November 24, 2019

Esther Muinjangue, Namibia’s first woman to run for president, told AFP of her
bid 'restore dignity' to the southwest African country (AFP Photo/HILDEGARD TITUS)

Windhoek (AFP) - Calm and confident, Esther Muinjangue, Namibia’s first woman to run for president, says she feels a "wind of change" softly blowing through the southwest African country which goes to the polls on Wednesday.

From her modest home in a quiet suburb of the capital Windhoek, Muinjangue spoke to AFP about her bid to "restore dignity" to the country's 2.45 million inhabitants -- struggling through an economic recession after nearly 30 years of independence from South Africa.

"You hear a lot of people complaining about the (ruling) SWAPO-led government," she said on Saturday, before heading into the final day of campaigning for her National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO) party.

"There was apathy among the youth," added the 57-year-old former social worker. "But now you see at every rally... more and more young people coming on board."

Namibia's South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) has remained in power since its founder Sam Nujoma won the first democratic election in 1990, after decades of guerrilla war against colonial rule.

But President Hage Geingob, elected in 2014, has faced increasing disgruntlement amid SWAPO's inability to redistribute wealth to the majority black population.

Supporters of Namibia's National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO) wear 

traditional Herero dress at a presidential campaign rally in Windhoek (AFP Photo/

HILDEGARD TITUS)

'Empty glass'

Namibia "was like a full glass of water," said Muinjangue, but "the first president brought it down half, the second drank further"

"So when Hage took over we were already in the mess that we are in today."

Despite vast mineral wealth, abundant fish reserves and a growing tourist industry, Namibia remains the world's second most unequal country after South Africa, according to the World Bank.

Low commodity prices and drought caused the economy to slump in 2016, and Geingob has come under fire for expanding his cabinet at the expense of other sectors.

Muinjangue is campaigning on a promise to cull the bloated government and invest more in education, health and affordable housing.

She said Namibia has resources to take care of its needs, but corruption has taken root.

"Top leaders... are selling the land, they are selling the country, they are selling mines to foreigners."

NUDO won just two percent of the vote in 2014, when SWAPO's Geingob swept to victory with more than 87 percent.

But Muinjangue was confident her party would perform better this time and that disgruntlement with the regime could drive more voters towards the opposition and break SWAPO's two-thirds parliamentary majority.

Namibian President Hage Geingob, elected in 2014, has faced increasing
disgruntlement amid the ruling SWAPO party's inability to redistribute wealth
to the majority black population (AFP Photo/GIANLUIGI GUERCIA)

'Expecting miracles'

"We are expecting a lot of miracles to happen this year," said Muinjangue.

As a member of Namibia's minority Herero group and daughter of an exiled politician, Muinjangue learnt to challenge the status quo against a backdrop of tradition.

"I have never been conforming to the norms of my community," she said, describing it as an environment "where women are expected to have their places in the kitchen".

Wearing a traditional Herero dress, Muinjangue spoke of women's empowerment, gay rights and legalising abortion in Namibia.

Her ascent to the NUDO presidency touched off a "paradigm shift" that prompted members of the majority Herero party to question "their old way of thinking".

Namibia's National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO) presidential candidate 

Esther Utjiua Muinjangue (C) campaigns on the streets of Windhoek (AFP Photo/

GIANLUIGI GUERCIA)

'Same as the Holocaust'

Aside her new role as party leader, Muinjangue continues to fight for reparations for the German-led slaughter of thousands of Herero and Nama people who rose up against colonial rule in 1904-08.

Germany -- which controlled Namibia before South Africa took over in 1915 -- has so far failed to officially apologise for the massacre and refused to pay any compensation.

Muinjangue, whose grand-father was "the product of a German soldier" and a Herero woman, said the case deserves "exactly the same" treatment as the Holocaust.

She blasted SWAPO for being soft-handed in its negotiations with Germany.

While Germany formally handed back Herero and Nama remains to Namibia in 2018, it maintains bilateral aid makes up for compensation.

"Being a social worker, social work is a value-based profession, and one value of social work is social justice.

"So for me it’s more about social justice. It’s more about why is the German government treating our issue different from the issue of the holocaust - which is exactly the same."

Chagos islands: The fight over Africa’s last British colony

DW, 22 November 2019

A piece of Britain lies between Madagascar, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. To date the Chagos Islands are still under British control and their inhabitants live in exile. But the UK has missed a deadline to return them.

   

The anger in his voice is clearly audible. There is a lack of goodwill on the side of the British government, Olivier Bancoult says. The fight over the Chagos archipelago has been dragging on for too long. "We are continuing to put pressure [on the British government]," Bancoult told DW. As a young boy, Bancoult was one of the Chagos residents who were forced to resettle. Today he lives in Mauritius and as a lawyer has been fighting for the people of Chagos and their descendants to return to the islands. On Friday, November 22, the United Nations deadline for the return of the islands to its people. Bancoult is amongst the organizers of a demonstration outside the British High Commission in Mauritius.

Mauritius, which had once been part of the same colonial territory as the Chagos islands, gained its independence in 1968. Between 1968 and 1973, up to 2,000 residents of the Chagos archipelago were forced to move to Mauritius, the Seychelles and UK in order to establish a military base on the main island, Diego Garcia. In the meantime, the UK has leased it to the US until 2036. Chagos served as a military base for both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The largest island, Diego Garcis, serves as a US military base

Geostrategic importance

"We were poor people who are living in peace and harmony until they made the decision to giv one of the largest islands to America to make a military base. Since that time our nightmare started. Many of us were forcibly removed from our native land to live in Mauritius and the Seychelles," Bancoult told DW. In February the International Court of Justice in The Hague, ruled that the archipelago is legally a part of Mauritius. The court said that Britain had illegally separated the islands from Mauritius and should give them back.

The British government rejected the ruling. "The UK has no doubt as to our sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT), which has been under continuous British sovereignty since 1814," read a statement by the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. The statement, however, alleged that Britain had pledged  to hand over the islands to Mauritius when they are no longer needed for defense purposes.

In May, the UN General Assembly also called on the UK to handover the islands. The deadline for the handover expired on November 22, but the resolution is not binding and the UK seems to have no intention to make such a move in the near future.

The strategic location and the military role of the island, make the very calls for its independence very difficult.  Philippe Sands, a British lawyer who advises the Mauritian government on the Chagos matter, believes that talks between the UK, the US and Mauritius will continue to take place. "Mauritius has indicated that the military base could even remain on the island," Sands told DW.

Read more: The Commonwealth: Still relevant for Africa today?

The archipelago belings to the same island group as Mauritius which
gained independence from Britain in 1968

Clinging onto the last African colony

Sands believes that Britain's reluctance to bow to international pressure lies in the fact that it is still coming to terms with its new place in world politics. "[The UK] is a diminished power. It has lost its judge at the International Court of Justice, it has lost a series of resolutions at the UN General Assembly. I think its just taking time to come to the realization, that ist legal situation and is very different, but ultimately I think the UK will comply with the court," Sands said.

The UK, Sands explained, is paying a high price for its political losses. "They're in the process of leaving the European Union, and they have to negotiate new trade agreements and political agreements with several countries. The government is in real trouble and I think that is why it is clinging on to its last colony in Africa," Sands said.  For him, keeping the islands under British control amounts to a crime against the people of Chagos.

Chagossians celebrate the news of the UN resolution calling on the
UK give up control of the islands (February 2019)

Hopes set on upcoming UK elections

According to Sands, the UN is already preparing new maps which show the Chagos islands as part of Mauritius. Additionally Mauritius is the only country that can have legal rights to fishing and overflying rights of the area.

Sands and Bancoult have the hope that the upcoming UK elections set for December 12 could make a difference. "The Labour party has promised to respect the ruling of the International Court of Justice," Sands said. "If the next government is under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn that would be very good,” Bancoult said. "He already supports us."

According to Bancoult, 596 Chagossians who were forced to leave the islands are still alive today. All in all, he said, they have 9.800 descendants who identify as Chagossians. Bancoult himself finds the thought of growing old away from his homeland difficult. "Most old people want to die where they were born," he said.

Ethiopia PM praises referendum for new state as votes tallied

Yahoo – AFP, November 21, 2019

With apparently overwhelming support among Sidamas to form their own state,
excitement is high on the streets of the regional capital Hawassa (AFP Photo/
Michael TEWELDE)

Hawassa (Ethiopia) (AFP) - Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Thursday praised the conduct of a referendum in the ethnic Sidama region, that many expect will approve the creation of a new federal state.

Abiy's comments came as votes were tallied a day after the ballot seen as a critical test in a nation already struggling with community tensions.

With apparently overwhelming support among Sidamas to form their own state, the backing of Abiy is an important indication of the central government response ahead of the official release of results.

Analysts say it could inspire other groups to push for autonomy and redraw boundaries in Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous country with more than 100 million people.

"Congratulations to citizens and institutions involved in holding a peaceful and democratic referendum for Sidama statehood," a statement from Abiy's office said.

"The voting process is demonstrative of our capacity for taking our differences to the ballot and allowing democratic processes to prevail."

Map of Ethiopia locating the Sidama region which voted on Wednesday in a 

referendum that could carve out a new federal state (AFP Photo/Jochen GEBAUER)

The Sidama autonomy push gained fresh momentum after Abiy, winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize, took office last year and enacted a series of reforms that have encouraged more freedoms.

But his drive to open up Ethiopia's authoritarian one-party state has also unleashed ethnic violence as different groups and regions jostle for power and resources.

Ethnic divisions

Desta Ledamo, chief administrator of Sidama, said the election "shows the world that a civilised power struggle can take place in Ethiopia".

Local election observers and voters also reported no major issues during Wednesday's ballot.

If approved, the new state would be largely based on ethnic divisions, handing tax-raising powers and control over schools, police, health and other services to the Sidamas, who would be in the majority in the state.

Excitement is high on the streets of the regional capital Hawassa, roughly 200 kilometres (125 miles) south of Addis Ababa.

Results are expected by Friday, said Soleyana Shimeles, spokeswoman for the National Electoral Board of Ethiopia.

The vote is seen as a critical test in a nation already struggling with community 

tensions (AFP Photo/Michael TEWELDE)

But there is also concern among non-Sidama people in the would-be state, especially in Hawassa, for whom the city is home.

The Sidama push for autonomy triggered days of unrest in July that left dozens dead and prompted the government to place Ethiopia's southern region under the control of soldiers and federal police.

Armed soldiers and police remained on the streets of Hawassa on Thursday, patrolling the city in pickup trucks.

The referendum on autonomy springs from a federal system designed to provide widespread ethnic self-rule in a hugely diverse country.

At present, Ethiopia is partitioned into nine semi-autonomous regional states -- with the Sidama voting for a potential tenth.

The constitution requires the government to organise a referendum for any ethnic group that wants to form a new entity.

Not 'created overnight'

The Sidama -- who number more than three million -- have agitated for years to leave the diverse Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region.

The referendum on autonomy springs from a federal system designed to provide
widespread ethnic self-rule in a hugely diverse country (AFP Photo/MICHAEL TEWELDE)

If the people in Sidama choose to form a new state, the implementation of the referendum is expected to raise a host of thorny issues.

The city of Hawassa is ethnically diverse -- only about half the population is Sidama -- and up to now has served as the administrative centre for the entire southern region.

In the short term, tensions may be defused by a recent agreement that will allow the regional government to stay in the city for two five-year election terms.

"Celebrations may well be due, but a new region will not be created overnight -- this is just one key part of a process," said William Davison from the International Crisis Group.

"And during no part of that process should Sidama statehood harm non-Sidama residents or businesses."

With more than 10 other ethnic groups potentially keen to hold their own referendum on autonomy, the Sidama referendum is being watched closely across Ethiopia.

The "key question now is how Wolayta, Hadiya, Gurage, Keffa and other zones seeking statehood referendums will react", Davison said.