Month: June 2022

BERLIN, Germany accused Russia of taking the world hostage with its “grain war” on Friday as Berlin hosted a conference to address concerns the Ukraine conflict could cause hunger in some countries.

Held under the banner “Uniting for Global Food Security”, the meeting brought together foreign, agriculture and development ministers from 40 countries ahead of a G7 leaders summit in Bavaria starting on Sunday.

With stalled grain deliveries from Ukraine leaving many countries fearing food shortages, the conference was attended by G7 ministers as well as hard-hit nations like Nigeria, Tunisia and Indonesia.

Moscow is “deliberately causing food prices to explode … in order to destabilise entire countries”, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told the meeting, accusing Russia of waging a “cynical grain war”.

At a news briefing ahead of the conference, Baerbock had accused Russia of using hunger “quite deliberately as a weapon of war” and “taking the whole world hostage”.

As a result of Russia’s invasion of top agricultural exporter Ukraine, grain deliveries across the Black Sea have been stalled by minefields and a Russian military blockade of Ukrainian ports.

The crisis has seen food prices soar and contributed to the global spike in inflation.

The United Nations has warned that it is currently affecting poorer African countries the most because of their heavy dependence on Russian and Ukrainian wheat.

United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the conference the world was facing “an unprecedented global hunger crisis”.

“There can be no effective solution to the global food crisis without reintegrating Ukraine’s food production as well as the food and fertiliser produced by Russia into world markets,” he said.

Moscow denies blocking the passage of cargo vessels and blames Western sanctions against Russia for contributing to the food crisis.

But US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday said “Russia is the only one responsible for the crisis”.

“I would like to highlight that in contrast to what Russia says, it is not the sanctions (that) are responsible” for the crisis, he said.

“Food security is a global good that must not be utilised as a tool for political means,” he added.

Turkiye has been spearheading efforts to resume grain deliveries across the Black Sea and this week agreed to pursue talks on how to solve the crisis after a meeting with Russian officials in Moscow.

The Turkish defence ministry said four-way grain talks between Russia, Ukraine, Turkiye and the UN could be held in Turkiye “in the coming weeks”.

In a video message recorded for the summit, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany was “in intensive talks… to get exports of Ukrainian agricultural products by sea back on track as quickly as possible” as well as “working on alternative export routes via rail and road”.

But South African Agriculture Minister Angela Thokozile Didiza said the main priority should be to end the conflict through diplomacy.

“It has always been clear that cessation of hostilities and persuading those in conflict to come to the table and negotiate” is the best route to peace, she said.

Though the meeting was not billed as a donor conference, Britain on Thursday evening pledged an additional 372 million pounds ($456 million) in aid for the countries worst affected by rising global food prices.

The package includes 130 million pounds for the World Food Programme this financial year, the government said in a statement.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

GABORONE, BOTSWANA — Activists in Botswana have slammed the Kimberley Process, which is intended to prevent diamonds from financing wars, after meetings this week failed to censure Russia.

The European Union (EU) and allies sought to expand the definition of conflict diamonds to include top supplier Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.

A push to get Russian diamonds censured during a week-long meeting in the resort town of Kasane came up empty.

The EU, Ukraine and the United States had wanted the Kimberley Process inter-sessional meeting to broaden the definition of conflict diamonds in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February.

Russian is the world’s largest producer of diamonds.

Speaking at the closing meeting Friday, Kimberley Process Chairperson Jacob Thamage said the efforts of the EU and its allies failed to go through due to lack of consensus.

“You will recall that when we started on Monday afternoon, it took quite an ordinate amount of time to reach consensus on the agenda as initially we had the EU proposing an inclusion of an agenda item around which there was no consensus,” Thamage said. “Ideas and proposals were tabled for inclusion on the agenda. For instance, those who supported the EU’s initial proposal, with a modified proposal that spoke to preventing diamonds from fueling conflict.”

World Diamond Council Chairperson Edward Asscher says there is a need for reforms, particularly with the definition of conflict diamonds.

“This year, throughout our engagement with many government participants here in Kasane, there seems to be strong support for further reforms, including that of the conflict diamond definition,” Asscher said. “We joined an inter-session hosted by the civil society coalition and we were pleased to have been able to conduct an open and honest dialogue about the reform of the KP. We would like to see this dialogue continued within the KP.”

Asscher says he still has confidence and belief in the Kimberley Process despite recent criticism the diamond trade body is losing relevance.

However, Hans Merket, a member of the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition, was disappointed with the outcome of the Botswana meeting.

“The consensus system makes it too easy for a small minority to hold everyone hostage,” Merket said. “The consensus model is being used to veto any progress. The world is bypassing the Kimberley Process.”

Merket adds it is disappointing that discussions on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine were blocked.

“We had somewhat expected a discussion on whether Russian diamonds must be seen as conflict diamonds with the invasion of Ukraine,” Merket said. “That discussion was blocked. We were prepared that veto power will be used to avoid KP to address that. What is worse is that we could not have a discussion on what the KP’s general weakness are and how the KP falls short in breaking the link between diamonds and violent conflict.”

The world’s leading diamond producers, drawn from 85 countries, will return to Botswana in November for plenary discussions.

Source: Voice of America

YAOUNDE, Two soldiers have been injured and one Boko Haram fighter killed in clashes in Cameroon’s Far North region, army sources said.

The clashes took place overnight into Friday in the Kiliari locality of the region.

Heavily armed militants of the terror group attempted to attack the locality but were repulsed by troops who were patrolling the area, an army official said.

One of the militants was found dead early Friday after the clashes which lasted for hours, the official said.

Militants of the group have increased attacks mostly on civilians over the last two months, killing several, torching houses and looting property, according to security reports.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

WASHINGTON, June 23 (NNN-AGENCIES) — A senior US official hinted that more Arab nations are looking to make gestures to improve relations with Israel when President Joe Biden visits the region next month.

Biden will travel from July 13 to 16 to Israel, the West Bank and to a regional meeting in Saudi Arabia, which former US president Donald Trump assiduously courted in hopes the kingdom home to Islam’s holiest sites would recognize the Jewish state.

Barbara Leaf, the top US diplomat for the Middle East, said that the Biden administration was encouraging greater cooperation between Israel and the Arab nations with which it has relations.

“We are working, in the space that is not in the public domain, with a couple of other countries. And I think you’ll see some interesting things around the time of the president’s visit,” she told a congressional subcommittee.

Asked to elaborate, Leaf said, “I really wouldn’t want to step on the president’s toes.”

The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco in 2020 became the first Arab states in decades to normalize relations with Israel as part of the so-called Abraham Accords which Trump considered a signature foreign policy achievement.

Leaf said that the UAE-Israel relationship “is going like gangbusters” but that the Biden administration also wanted to encourage broader cooperation.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined his counterparts from Israel, the UAE, Morocco, Bahrain and Egypt in a March meeting in Israel’s Negev desert.

Leaf said that the United States wanted the event to be annual and to include the Palestinian Authority and Jordan — the only other Arab nation that recognizes Israel but which has seen rising tensions over the status of Jerusalem.

The meetings aim to deepen cooperation on areas including water, tourism, health and food security, Leaf said.

Israel has also found common cause with Gulf Arab states in their tense relationships with Iran’s Shiite clerical state.

Source: NAM NEWS NETWORK

YAOUNDE — Cameroon’s President Paul Biya has for the first time sent a delegation to Europe to try to encourage well-off Cameroonians living there to invest back home. But members of Cameroon’s diaspora say undemocratic practices and corruption in Biya’s government put off investors.

Government officials say a delegation led by Youth Affairs and Civic Education Minister Mounouna Foutsou was dispatched to Germany this week to ask Cameroonians there to invest in their country of origin.

Foutsou said his wish is for all Cameroonians in the diaspora to put aside their differences and help develop Cameroon.

“The head of state reiterated his call to the Cameroonian diaspora to come and build Cameroon. We seize this opportunity to come and exchange with the whole Cameroonian diaspora here in Europe so that we can present the different opportunities offered by the president of the republic and his government so that the Cameroonian diaspora can come back and participate in the development of the nation,” said Foutsou.

Foutsou said the government will offer tax exemptions of up to 40 percent for diaspora investments in Cameroon, and loans of up to $10,000 with no interest rates for diaspora youths who return to invest in agriculture and livestock.

Kennedy Tumenta is a Cameroonian investor who lives in Germany. He said many in the diaspora find it hard to trust promises made by their government.

He said corruption, high taxes and a lack of confidence in President Biya, who has been in power for 40 years, scare investors.

“Freedom is restricted and they are afraid to move around in Cameroon and do their businesses and speak freely. Most diasporans believe that there is widespread corruption when it concerns opening businesses in the country or the Northwest-Southwest crisis is not being taken into consideration seriously by the government in place. It makes them frustrated and the only way to express this frustration is either to withdraw their investments in the country or attacking the head of state,” said Tumenta.

Separatists have been fighting to carve out an independent English-speaking state in mainly French-speaking Cameroon, since 2016. The U.N. says 3,300 people have died in the fighting.

Some disgruntled Cameroonians in the diaspora have become hostile to the government, and at least seven Cameroonian embassies have been attacked or ransacked since January 2020.

Felix Mbayu is a top official with Cameroon’s Ministry of External Relations. He said Cameroonians taking part in such protests are hurting the country’s image.

“Those who left Cameroon unhappy and have not been able to make it there are those who would speak ill of Cameroon. Those who left Cameroon to better their lot in life and have made it there are those who come back to invest in Cameroon. That is why you see medical doctors who have built hospitals, built clinics, who bring back home medical supplies. You don’t see them in the idle marches abroad. In fact, when you talk ill of your own home, you tarnish your own image,” said Mbayu.

An estimated five million Cameroonians live abroad. The government says the largest diaspora population is in Nigeria where about two million live.

There are also high concentrations in Belgium, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Source: Voice of America