Day: June 18, 2021

Rwandan prosecutors on Thursday requested a life sentence for the man who inspired the film Hotel Rwanda as he faces terrorism charges, while his family asserts that he faces mistreatment and an unfair trial.

Paul Rusesabagina, once praised for saving hundreds of ethnic Tutsis from Rwanda’s 1994 genocide as a hotel manager, faces charges related to attacks by an armed group inside Rwanda in 2018 and 2019. The nine charges include the formation of an irregular armed group, membership in a terrorist group and financing terrorism. Prosecutors seek to link him to activities that killed at least nine people.

Rusesabagina, a Belgian citizen and U.S. resident, has denied the charges, arguing his case is politically motivated in response to his criticism of Rwanda’s longtime President Paul Kagame.

Rusesabagina alleges that he was abducted last year while visiting Dubai and taken to Rwanda, where he was charged. But a court ruled that he was not kidnapped when he was tricked into boarding a chartered flight. Rwanda’s government has asserted that Rusesabagina was going to Burundi to coordinate with armed groups based there and in neighboring Congo.

“My father Paul Rusesabagina is a political prisoner. He is accused of invented charges, and zero evidence against him has been presented in the Rwandan kangaroo court,” daughter Carina Kanimba tweeted after the prosecution sought the life sentence.

The family also has said Rusesabagina was being denied access to food and water, but Rwanda’s prison authority has denied it.

The case has received global attention. This month the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice said it had filed a formal submission in the U.S. recommending sanctions against Rwandan Justice Minister Johnston Busingye and the head of the Rwanda Investigation Bureau, Col. Jeannot Ruhunga, for their role in Rusesabagina’s detention.

Rusesabagina stopped appearing in court in March, saying he doesn’t expect justice after his request to postpone the trial to prepare his defense was rejected. His attorney, Felix Rudakemwa, has asserted that Rusesabagina’s legal papers were confiscated by prison authorities.

Source: Voice of America

The World Food Program warns tens of millions of people, mainly in Africa, are teetering on the brink of famine because of conflict, climate shocks and economic downturn due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The U.N. food agency estimates more than 270 million people, most of them in Africa and the Middle East, around the world are acutely food insecure, with millions at risk of starving to death.

It says the number of people at imminent risk of famine has increased from 34 million last year to 41 million now.

Without immediate emergency food aid, World Food Program spokesman Tomson Phiri warns the slightest shock will push those extremely vulnerable people over the cliff into famine. He says more than half-a-million people already are facing famine-like conditions.

“These are people in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, Madagascar—particularly in the southern part, South Sudan, especially now as we are now at the height of the lean season in that country and Yemen,” Phiri said.

Phiri says Nigeria and Burkina Faso also are of particular concern because in recent months pockets of people have been in a state of famine. He says the WFP is mounting the biggest operation in its history to avert the catastrophic situation from taking hold.

“WFP is focused on scaling up life-saving food and nutrition assistance to meet the essential needs of those furthest behind, overcoming access challenges and expanding cash-based transfers with significant scale-ups foreseen across several operations,” Phiri said.

Phiri says the WFP is targeting its food assistance program to 139 million people in countries at particular risk, including Ethiopia, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Sudan, and Syria. He says the WFP will need $5 billion to carry out the mammoth operation this year.

Source: Voice of America

The U.N. refugee agency, which just released its 2020 Global Trends report, said the number of people forcibly displaced last year by wars, violence, persecution and human rights violations hit a record high of 82.4 million, 4% more than in 2019.

This is the ninth consecutive year that forced displacement figures have continued to rise. Even lockdowns and border closures because of the coronavirus pandemic have not stopped people from fleeing for their lives in the face of war and atrocities.

Of the more than 82 million forcibly displaced, 26.4 million are refugees, who have crossed international borders in search of protection. Most of the rest are people displaced within their own countries because of conflict and violence.

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi said the number of internally displaced people has doubled over the past 10 years.

“We are now in excess of one percent of humanity being forcibly displaced,” Grandi said. “And one of the many figures that to me is quite interesting and striking is that 42% of these people are children.”

The report found that more than two-thirds of all refugees who have fled abroad come from just five countries — Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar. For the seventh consecutive year, Turkey has hosted the largest number of refugees, followed by Colombia, Pakistan, Uganda, and Germany.

Grandi said new crises that have caused fresh displacements include northern Mozambique, where violence by armed groups, poverty, climate change and other factors have displaced up to 700,000 people.

He said violence in countries in the Central Sahel, including Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, has prompted 750,000 people to flee their homes.

“And then, of course, Ethiopia, where the Tigray crisis has provoked up to — and we are not even sure about that — up to 1 million additional internally displaced people in addition to about 50 to 60,000 that have crossed the border into Sudan.”

High Commissioner Grandi said the global trend for displacement crises in 2021 is not looking good. In the first six months of this year, he said, very few refugees have returned home and protracted refugee crises have stagnated.

At the same time, he said, new crises are arising, churning out new refugees and internally displaced people faster than solutions can be found.

Source: Voice of America