Month: August 2021

Kenya’s Olympic team won 10 medals at the Tokyo Games, the most of any African nation. However, Kenyan officials say the medal count could have been even higher if not for the training restrictions brought on by COVID-19.

As in past years, Kenya dominated the long-distance running competitions, winning gold in the 800 and 1500 meters and men’s and women’s marathons.

Emmanuel Korir, who won the 800 meters gold for Kenya, told VOA he was happy with his performance.

“To be honest, I am so happy. We didn’t get time to train well. I don’t want to complain. It affected everyone, so we were all equal. Everything was fine. The only problem was there were no spectators, but at least we did it,” Korir said.

The East African nation won more medals than any other African nation, but this year’s performance was not as good compared to the 2016 Olympics in Rio, where its athletes won 13 medals.

Kenya lost the men’s 3,000 meters steeplechase in Tokyo after winning gold in the event every Olympics since 1984.

Barnaba Korir, the general team manager for Kenya’s Olympic team, says the lockdowns and restriction of movements caused by the COVID-19 pandemic stopped the athletes from winning more medals.

“Athletes were not allowed to train in a group. They had to train individually. It really affected them and we did not expect them to do well. And when we selected the team for the Olympics, there were also restrictions. We have to have athletes at the camp and the development where an athlete is not allowed to leave outside, the movement is restricted. They had to be in the camp, so those things were psychologically affecting our athletes but they ran very well,” Barnaba Korir said.

Emmanuel Korir says he is already looking forward to the next Olympics in Paris.

“I am working for maybe one day to run a world record. Preparing for the world championship and for the next Olympics; we have only three years, so everything is going to be fine,” he said.

Meanwhile, many Kenyans on social media criticized government officials for failing to organize a reception for its returning champions.

But Barnaba Korir says the criticism is unjustified.

“But I was there. I came early from Tokyo and we had officials from the government. Most of our athletes were arriving minutes after midnight and we organized for Faith Kipyegon and Peres Chepchirchir, Brigid Kosgey. We organized our athletes to be received at the airport and taken to a five-star hotel. So, I don’t think we should go that direction,” he said.

Barnaba Korir added that the government’s Ministry of Sports is working on developing a standard procedure to honor winning Olympic athletes in the future.

Source: Voice of America

The extreme heat in the Mediterranean region continued to trigger wildfires, with dozens of people killed in Algeria, Greece, Italy and Turkey in recent days. The weather system, nicknamed “Lucifer,” has unleashed record temperatures, and on Thursday it was moving slowly west toward Spain and Portugal.

A weather station near the town of Syracuse in southeast Sicily registered what could be Europe’s highest recorded temperature Wednesday, at 48.8 degrees Celsius (119.8 F). The record had yet to be verified by the World Meteorological Organization.

Fire crews said forests and fields, baked to tinder by the intense heat, were easily ignited by such things as a discarded cigarette or concentration of the sun’s rays by a shard of glass.

Horrifying sight

At night, the hills of southeast Sicily were lit up in flames. It was a frightening spectacle for the residents of the ancient mountain villages.

“Our small town was really invaded by fire. It is a catastrophe. The entire Calaforno Park and the surrounding area went up in flames,” said Giovanna Licitra, a resident of Giarratana. “We are living through some really sad moments because our land has suffered a very serious loss. And it will take a long time before it returns to its former glory.”

On the Greek island of Evia, the air was filled with acrid smoke, frequently punctured by the low-flying sorties of water-dropping aircraft. Fire crews have traveled from across Europe and as far away as Russia and Egypt to help. But for many residents, it was too late.

“Today, we have a lot of water-dropping aircraft, but they should have been here from day one. The damage now is too big, unfortunately,” said Dimitris, an island resident.

The heat has also triggered huge fires in Algeria, which reportedly have killed at least 69 people. Aid agencies said that more than 600 families had been made homeless. Algerian Prime Minister Aymen Benabderrahmane visited some of the affected regions Thursday and promised further government help.

Scientists said governments should make better preparations for further extreme weather.

“It really is horrific, and unfortunately, this is just the beginning of the heat and humidity deaths which we’re going to see, which we can attribute directly to human-caused climate change,” Ilan Kelman, a professor of disasters and health at University College London, said in an interview with VOA.

“When we’re up to this level of 45 degrees [Celsius] and over, when this continues for a while, and when we add humidity, really the only way to get through it unfortunately is indoor cooling,” Kelman said. “And most people do not have that. Many people cannot afford it. And we also have the challenge that even if everyone was given access to it and could afford it or were helped, then that would overload the power system. We would see power outages.”

Economic disruption

In addition to the immediate danger to life, the extreme weather disrupts livelihoods and entire economies, Kelman said.

“When it’s too hot to be outside, we are not going to have people tilling the fields,” he added. “We are not going to have people harvesting the crops and sending it to be processed for our supermarket shelves. Construction cannot happen. What do we do about repairs for infrastructure which require people being outdoors” when it’s simply too hot to be out there?

The weather system was slowly moving west toward Spain and Portugal. Social workers were checking in on the most vulnerable residents, including the elderly.

“Weather phenomena that are generated by climate change contribute to this vulnerability. This calls for more care and attention, and puts them at even more risk,” Madrid social worker Clara Garcia told Reuters.

Meanwhile in northern Turkey, heavy rains have caused catastrophic flooding in recent days, sweeping away cars and buildings and triggering mudslides — echoing scenes from Germany and Belgium last month.

Scientists said it showed the urgency of fighting climate change. But in the short term, they warned that extreme weather was increasingly common and said humanity must adapt as best it can.

Source: Voice of America

Militants in Mali have massacred more than 50 villagers near the borders with Burkina Faso and Niger. The area has seen increasing violence from armed Islamists, and activists are calling on authorities to act.

Militants attacked three villages in northern Mali simultaneously this past Sunday, leaving more than 50 civilians dead and several injured.

The neighboring villages of Karou, Ouatagouna, and Daoutegeft are in an area near the borders with Niger and Burkina Faso that has seen increasing, often deadly, violence the past few years.

Almahady Cissé is coordinator of the collective Songhoy Chaawara Batoo, a group of organizations representing the Songhoy people, who make up most of the inhabitants of the Gao region, where the attacks occurred.

He says through a messaging application from Bamako, the assailants shot at everything that moved, including those leaving the mosques and those returning to the village from the fields.

Batoo has called on the Malian government and the international community to secure the area, and to disarm militants in a released statement.

“We can’t understand how a locality like Karou, like Ouatagouna, he says, where the military camps are not even 18 kilometers away, that massacres are happening and there are not reinforcements, there are no prosecutions… we do not understand,” he said.

Since a Tuareg rebellion and coup in 2012 Mali has seen both chronic political instability and increasing Islamist violence.

Through a messaging application from Dakar, Alioune Tine, an independent U.N. expert on human rights in Mali, said these Islamist groups are exploiting local mineral resources, mostly gold, and are able to finance themselves.

With funds, and control of the local area, which is largely inaccessible by the state, they gain credibility among the local population.

“In reality, we have, little by little, a state within the state, or two states within the state, and that is a real threat for the Malian state, for the survival of the Malian state,” he said.

Mali’s neighbors, Niger and Burkina Faso, are also plagued by violence from Islamist groups.

The same day of the attacks in the Gao region, suspected jihadists attacked Burkinabe troops near Mali’s border.

Thirty civilians were also killed in attacks in northern Burkina Faso last week.

Tine says the Sahel needs a regional strategy, focused on all of the affected countries in the Sahel and West Africa.

“The problem isn’t just Mali,” he says. “We can’t just fix Mali with a national security response. We can’t do this for Burkina Faso, nor Niger. What must be made is a regional strategy, with Africans that will cover the region, and who are supported – this is important – supported by the international community,”

VOA attempted to talk to Malian authorities for this story, but they did not make themselves available for comment.

Elections in Mali are scheduled for February 2022.

Tine says the insecurity in Mali’s center and north remains the top priority for the transitional government.

Source: Voice of America