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Saturday, March 28, 2020

ANALYSIS: Virus prevention measures turn violent in parts of Africa

Issued on: 29/03/2020 - 02:24 GMT/ZULU

Soldiers patrol the streets in an attempt to enforce a 21 day nationwide lockdown, aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Alexandra township, South Africa, March 28, 2020. © Siphiwe Sibeko, Reuters

by Natalie Duval and Biodun Iginla, France24 News Analysts, Nairobi

Police fired tear gas at a crowd of Kenyan ferry commuters as the country’s first day of a coronavirus curfew slid into chaos. Elsewhere, officers were captured in mobile phone footage whacking people with batons.

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Virus prevention measures have taken a violent turn in parts of Africa as countries impose lockdowns and curfews or seal off major cities. Health experts say the virus’ spread, though still at an early stage, resembles the arc seen in Europe, adding to widespread anxiety. Cases across Africa were set to climb above 4,000 late Saturday.

Abuses of the new measures by authorities are an immediate concern.

Minutes after South Africa’s three-week lockdown began Friday, police screamed at homeless people in downtown Johannesburg and went after some with batons. Some citizens reported the police use of rubber bullets. Fifty-five people across the country were arrested. The country leads Africa with more than 1,000 cases.

In an apparent show of force on Saturday, South Africa's military raided a large workers' hostel in the Alexandra township where some residents had defied the lockdown.

In Rwanda, the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to impose a lockdown, police have denied that two civilians shot dead Monday were killed for defying the new measures, saying the men attacked an officer after being stopped.

And Zimbabwe, where police are widely criticized by human rights groups for deadly crackdowns, is set to enter a three-week lockdown on Monday. The country's handful of virus cases already threatens to overwhelm one of the world's most fragile health systems.

In Kenya, outrage over the the actions of police was swift.

“We were horrified by excessive use of police force” ahead of the curfew that began Friday night, Amnesty International Kenya and 19 other human rights groups said in a statement issued Saturday. “We continue to receive testimonies from victims, eyewitnesses and video footage showing police gleefully assaulting members of the public in other parts of the country.”

The tear gas caused hundreds of people trying to reach a ferry in the port city of Mombasa ahead of the overnight curfew to touch their faces as they vomited, spat and wiped away tears, increasing the chance of the virus’ spread, the rights groups said. Even some health workers reported being intimidated as they tried to provide services after the 7 p.m. curfew.

'People must be treated humanely'

The police actions were unacceptable and “brutal,” the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops' Justice and Peace Commission said in a separate statement.

“I am appealing to our people to make it very unnecessary for them to engage with police by staying at home,” Kenya's Cabinet secretary for health, Mutahi Kagwe, said. “I am also urging the police that people must be treated humanely.” The country has 38 virus cases.

Kenya’s interior ministry on Saturday replied to criticism in a statement saying the curfew "is meant to guard against an apparent threat to public health. Breaking it is not only irresponsible but also puts others in harm’s way.”

Kenya's government has not said how many people have been arrested. Because courts are also affected by virus prevention measures, all but serious cases will now be dealt with at police stations, the government has said. That means anyone detained for violating curfew faces time in crowded cells.

The Law Society of Kenya will go to court to challenge the curfew on the grounds that it is unconstitutional and has been abused by police, president Nelson Havi said in a statement. The penalty for breaking a curfew is not corporal punishment, he added.

“It is evident that COVID-19 will be spread more by actions of police than of those claimed to have contravened the curfew,” Havi said.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.

If Kenya goes further and imposes a lockdown, “there is bound to be violence,” said James Shikwati, an economist. People in poor neighborhoods of cities like the capital, Nairobi, will need a way to access food, water and sanitation.

“It will mean for the first day, maybe, they stay indoors," he said. “Then the second day, when they are hungry, they will move out.”

Sunday, March 24, 2019

BREAKING: 'Lots of dead', 'water full of snakes': cyclone survivors recount

Date created : 24/03/2019 - 23:45 GMT/ZULU

Survivors seek safety on the roof of a house submerged by floods in Mozambique's Buzi town Survivors seek safety on the roof of a house submerged by floods in Mozambique's Buzi town AFP/File

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Búzi (Mozambique)

by Susan Peterson and Biodun Iginla, France24

"It was very scary, we were running in all direction, the water was full of snakes," recalls 39-year-old Otelea Jose after arriving from one of the areas worst hit by southern Africa's deadly cyclone.

Jose had been in Buzi, home to nearly 120,000 people, and moved to higher ground fleeing the raging flood waters unleashed by powerful cyclone Idai 10 days ago.

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But soon it was not high enough.

She survived by scaling onto the roof of a local administrator's office, but 446 other of her compatriots were not so lucky.

Authorities fear the toll will be more than 1,000 in one of the worst storms to hit southern Africa.

Jose lives in Beira, which was also smashed by Idai, but had gone to Buzi to visit her mother.

Now she has to check if her husband, left behind in Beira, is safe.

She spoke at Beira port just after disembarking from a boat from Buzi where many people had by the weekend started picking up pieces of their lives as the waters receded and the sun came out.

Survivors are not only dealing with immediate needs of food, shelter and healthcare.

Joaquin Joao Chidja, 16, managed to salvage prized possessions: family photos. He dries them on the roof of a commercial building where he climbed when flood waters rapidly rose.

- 'Water covered everything' -

Joao Zakaria, 42, is still haunted by the viciousness of the cyclone which also left a trail of destruction in neighbouring Zimbabwe where more than 250 people were killed, and bridges and roads ripped apart.

There are "lots of dead (people), we can't even count", he says.

Zakaria vividly remembers the velocity of the water as it swept past his neighbourhood and mourns on behalf of his neighbour.

"There was a man, he had 40 cows and he lost all of them. Forty! Imagine. Everybody lost everything,"he says.

The father of four, who survived by climbing up a tree, remembers the floods back in the year 2000 that claimed 800 lives, saying that was nothing compared to Idai.

"I have never seen anything like that, even the elders have never experienced something like that, it?s new.

" In 2000 there was flooding but (the water) was up to the shoulder-level only.

"But this time ...the water covered everything," he says.

But as a rainbow appears in the sky, more people start to venture outside into the wet and muddy streets of Buzi -- 30 kilometres southwest of Beira -- to try pick up pieces of their lives.

Some mop thick layers of mud off the floors of their homes while others dry wet laundry on sagging electricity power lines that were blown down by the force of the cyclone which produced wind gusts of close to 200 kilometres per hour (120 mph).

Around 2,000 people have been rescued from Buzi, a town which aid agencies feared had been wipped out by the floods.

strs-sn/bp

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

ANALYSIS: Zimbabwe and the economic crisis

January 24, 2019 03H:15 GMT/UTC/ZULU

by Susan Peterson and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters News Analysts, Harare

HARARE - Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa has promised action in response to a crackdown by security forces on anti-government protesters following a hike in the price of fuel.

FILE PHOTO: Barricades burn as rain falls during protests in Harare, Zimbabwe January 14, 2019. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo/File Photo

Lawyers and activists say police and soldiers have killed at least a dozen people, wounded scores and arrested hundreds over the demonstrations. Zimbabwe’s Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) accused security forces of systematic torture.

Critics say the country is reverting to the authoritarian rule that characterized the 37-year regime of former leader Robert Mugabe, who was forced from power after a coup in November 2017.

The crisis will not be easy to fix. There is a severe shortage of dollars, fuel and medicines, while inflation hit 42 percent in December, the highest in a decade. Foreign investors are, by and large, staying away.

WHAT SPARKED THE LATEST CLASHES?

Everyday life has been getting harder as the price of basic goods spirals. In the past two months, the country has suffered acute shortages of imported goods, including medicines, food and fuel.

Motorists can wait for hours to fill up at fuel stations, where soldiers are often deployed to break up fights over who is next in line.

On Jan. 12, Mnangagwa announced to reporters that the price of petrol had increased to $3.31 per liter from $1.32 from midnight, but there would be no increase for foreign embassies and tourists paying in cash U.S. dollars.

It was the final straw for some Zimbabweans, and violent protests broke out two days after his announcement.

GENESIS OF CASH SHORTAGES

The country abandoned the Zimbabwe dollar in 2009 after inflation reached 500 billion percent the year before. In its place, the government adopted the U.S. dollar and other currencies including sterling and the South African rand.

People hoped the move would spell the end of spiraling prices and rampant money printing that made much of their earnings and savings virtually worthless.

But over time, supply of the U.S. and South African currencies dried up, so in November 2016 authorities in Harare launched a surrogate currency - paper ‘bond notes’ designed to ease acute hard currency shortages.

The notes, which now have a total face value of $400 million, are backed by a $500 million loan from the African Export and Import Bank, the central bank has said. They are used like cash.

Officially pegged to the dollar at a rate of 1:1, on the street $1 fetches up to 3 bond notes, reflecting the ongoing shortage of U.S. dollars and people’s desire to trade out of cheapening bond notes and into more reliable currency.

A dwindling supply of bond notes and coins has led to banks limiting daily withdrawals to as little as $30 in bond notes. Companies are struggling to pay for imports and foreign investors cannot repatriate dividends or profits.

“ZOLLARS”

When the bond note was introduced, dollar deposits in the electronic banking system started losing their value.

Government borrowing via Treasury Bills meant authorities were creating money without the backing of sufficient currency reserves or gold.

It is these electronic dollars, theoretically worth $10 billion and nicknamed “zollars” by economists, that are raising fears that Zimbabwe might be heading for its second financial collapse in a decade.

Zimbabweans can do little but watch as the money in their bank accounts loses value compared with cash, prompting demands from businesses and civil servants for hard currency which can be deposited and used to make payments.

Zollars remain officially pegged at 1:1 to the U.S. dollar, but on the black market $1 is now worth $4 zollars. That has led some businesses to offer discounts on dollar payments.

Zimbabwe’s foreign reserves now provide less than two weeks’ cover for imports, central bank data show.

The government has said it would only consider launching a new currency if it had at least six months of reserves. But Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube said Zimbabwe planned to introduce a new currency in the next 12 months.

HOW ARE BUSINESSES AFFECTED?

Companies are struggling to import raw materials and equipment, forcing them to buy dollars on the black market.

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Civil servants are paid in zollars like many other workers across the country. Only a small minority of employees working for foreign embassies, charities, or large international corporations are paid in U.S. dollars.

Last October, the central bank ordered banks to create separate U.S. dollar accounts for clients who are paid from overseas, which analysts said was a tacit admission by authorities that the greenback was not equal to the zollar.

The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries has warned that some of its members could stop operating by the end of the month due to the dollar crunch. The group said its members had a backlog of $480 million in unpaid payments to foreign suppliers.

Cooking oil and soap maker Olivine Industries said on Saturday it had suspended production and put workers on indefinite leave because it owed foreign suppliers $11 million.

Zimbabwe’s largest brewing company Delta Beverages, part-owned by Anheuser-Busch Inbev, said it had abandoned a plan to only accept hard currency payments rather than zollars for its beer and soft drinks after the government intervened.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Mnangagwa, a former spy chief installed after Mugabe’s removal in a coup in November 2017, was elected in July amid hopes that he would help secure an economic turnaround for Zimbabwe, and has said his nation is “open for business”.

But critics say the man nicknamed “The Crocodile” is moving too slowly on economic and political reforms, including repealing Mugabe-era laws that restrict the media.

Mnangagwa has also called for the lifting of U.S. sanctions against officials from the ZANU-PF ruling party, top military figures and some government-owned firms, which were imposed during Mugabe’s rule for what Washington called violations of human rights and democracy.

The IMF has said it would be difficult for the fund to support the country’s reform program unless its $2 billion arrears with the World Bank, African Development Bank and European Investment Bank are paid.

Harare says that should be done in the next 12 months and plans a program allowing the IMF to monitor its economic reforms, although it does not entail funding from the lender.

Analysts said the ongoing security crackdown could quell the protests for now, but more clashes were expected unless Mnangagwa’s administration could find a solution to the cash shortages.