Friday 15- Nov-2024 {HMC} The Nigerian National Human Rights Commission on Wednesday inaugurated a forum targeting rights violations in the West African nation.

The Human Rights Defenders Forum was held on the sidelines of an NHRC meeting to review the state of human rights in Nigeria.

The initiative is a partnership between the NHRC and the European Union.

Officials say the forum, comprising various human rights groups, will be responsible for ensuring greater protection of civil liberties in Nigeria and serve as a unified platform for rights defenders to interact and address common challenges.

NHRC Executive Director Anthony Ojukwu said, “We’re gathered here not only to discuss the current state of human rights in Nigeria, but also to start to chart a way forward — one that ensures safer protection for civil liberties, fosters democratic consolidation and safeguards the fundamental rights of all Nigerians, especially those who stand up for the rights of others.”

The meeting comes amid a recent spate of human rights violations, including a crackdown on antigovernment demonstrations in August and the prolonged detention of minors who took part.

The delegates also discussed digital rights, privacy protection, gender-based violence and child abandonment by parents.

The NHRC said security forces were contributing to human rights violations in Nigeria.

Hilary Ogbonna, a senior adviser to the agency, said, “The majority of these violators are the Nigerian police, the military, bandits and parents of children. We also saw an upsurge of sexual and gender-based violence.

“But that is not as worrisome as 4,300 [cases of] child abandonment,” he said.

The Nigerian police and military have not responded to being named as violators of human rights, but last week, the NHRC found the military culpable for infanticide and extrajudicial killings during a 2016 operation in a remote village in northeastern Borno State.

The NHRC also raised concerns about the growing threat of insecurity in Nigeria and its impact on the rights of the people.

The commission said it recorded more than 1,700 cases of kidnappings and about 1,500 killings between January and September this year.

Damilola Decker, programs officer with the Nigeria-based group Global Rights, said economic vulnerability is one of the reasons that the rights situation is deteriorating.

“What we’re observing under the [Nigerian President Bola] Tinubu administration is that civic space is under attack, attacks on journalists, attacks on the rights of people to protest,” Decker said.

“We’re also seeing economic and sociocultural rights of Nigerians being impacted majorly because of the harsh economic conditions especially related to energy prices,” he said. “It’s cascading — crime is on the rise; the state of insecurity is on the increase.”

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Friday 15- Nov-2024 {HMC} Hundreds of illegal gold miners remained stuck underground Friday at an unused mine in South Africa that police have surrounded. South African authorities are refusing to allow supplies down to the miners, who they say are criminals.

Police initially thought some 4,000 illegal miners were underground at the closed Stilfontein mine, about 150 kilometers from Johannesburg.

They’ve revised the figure to several hundred but are still denying them food and water as part of “Operation Vala Umgodi” or “close the hole.”

Police say they are trying to force the miners — believed to have been underground for several weeks — to resurface. They say the miners are refusing to come up, fearing arrest, or in the case of undocumented migrants, deportation.

The government loses millions of dollars each year to illegal mining, according to the Minerals Council of South Africa.

“We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out,” said Cabinet Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni earlier this week. “They will come out.”

Anxious relatives have gathered at the mine, hoping to send supplies down to loved ones. On Thursday, a decomposing body was recovered from the shaft.

Some have accused the government of taking an inhumane position. David van Wyk, a researcher at the Bench Marks Foundation, a nonprofit that works on issues surrounding illegal miners, said what is happening at Stilfontein is a “problematic” humanitarian situation.

“The workers got to be there because South Africa is in a transition,” he said. “Large-scale industrial gold mining is no longer profitable, and many mines are shutting down and tens of thousands of workers are losing their jobs.”

There’s a term in South Africa for the men who risk their lives searching for gold deep underground: “zama zamas,” which means “take a chance” in the Zulu language.

Johannesburg, dubbed “egoli” or “city of gold” for the riches that lie beneath, was once a major gold mining hub. Many of the mines have closed, however, and the illegal artisanal miners have gone underground hoping to get what’s left.

Most are desperately poor, many from neighboring countries such as Lesotho and Mozambique, and stay underground for weeks or even months at a time with no protective equipment in the huge maze of tunnels under the city.

Subterranean networks and an underground economy have developed, where food and cigarettes, and sometimes prostitutes, are brought down to the men, experts say. Drug use is rife, and turf wars between rival groups armed with AK-47s and other weapons often break out.

While they eke out a meager living, zama zamas have become associated with violent gangs and criminal syndicates that run things and are getting rich from the illicit industry.

The Bench Marks Foundation’s Van Wyk said his organization has recommended government regulate and legalize small-scale mining. He says there are some 6,000 abandoned mines in South Africa.

“It’s basically a free for all that has evolved and that has resulted in mine workers becoming super exploited,” Van Wyk said. “The police never arrest the mining syndicates that control them. Everyone is profiting from it except the poor guys who find themselves starved underground.”

Police say more than 1,000 zama zamas have resurfaced in North West province, where the Silfontein mine is located, since police started operations there in mid-October.

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Friday 15- Nov-2024 {HMC} Southern African Development Community leaders are expected at a coming summit to address the scores of civilian fatalities and injuries that have occurred in Mozambique since the ruling Frelimo party declared Daniel Chapo president with more than 70% of the vote.

This week, Venancio Mondlane, leader of the opposition PODEMOS party, called for even more protests against the October 9 election result. Police have used brutal force to crack down on thousands of Mondlane’s supporters who have taken to the streets since the announcement in favor of Chapo.

Analyst Willem Els of the Institute for Security Studies said Mondlane “had to flee Mozambique. He’s somewhere in a neighboring country and we suspect that he’s in South Africa because his life is severely in danger.”

Els described some of the damage done by pro-Mondlane demonstrators at a border post a week ago. It has since been closed intermittently.

“They burned down the border post as well as immigration and everything on the Ressano-Garcia side at the Lebombo border post with South Africa,” he said. “They then kept about a thousand trucks that were at Mile Four — where they had to clear customs — at ransom. And what happened then is that they looted some of those trucks and they also burned down at least one of the trucks.”

South Africa’s commissioner of the border management authority, Michael Masiapato, said in a statement Thursday, “We have resumed operations, especially the processing of cargo to the Mozambican side, after they have confirmed to us that the situation has stabilized. And therefore, the corridor is ready to receive the export cargo from the South African side into Maputo.”

Masiapato confirmed that officials were also processing people at the border.

“But the majority of the people that we are processing are Mozambicans that are returning back to their country, as well as South Africans that are returning back to South Africa,” he said. “On that basis we would like to still discourage South Africans from going into Mozambique for holiday purposes primarily because the situation remains volatile.”

Cross-border analyst Kage Barnette, who’s an affiliate of the Southern Africa Association of Freight Forwarders, said the unrest was costing the region millions.

“South Africa is one of the largest producers of chrome in the world, so there’s a huge amount of ore that goes along that corridor,” as well as mining equipment, food and fuel, he said.

He said the association had been told that the military had been placed along the route. But he said truck drivers were nervous.

“The last thing you want is to potentially be facing a protesting crowd that could potentially not only cause damage to your vehicle but also yourself,” Barnette said.

SADC leaders, who have been criticized for taking too long to respond to the crisis, are slated to meet in Harare for five days beginning Saturday, in an extraordinary session to discuss possible solutions. The regional bloc may decide to deploy its panel of elders, comprising former heads of state, to mediate between the government, opposition and all other stakeholders.

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Friday 15- Nov-2024 {HMC} For decades, Nigeria has relied on imports to meet fuel demand, spending about $15 billion annually. Now, new alliances aim to cut these expenses by investing in homegrown energy, targeting affordable petrol for consumers and boosting the economy.

New agreements among the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Dangote Refinery and independent oil marketers may end long-standing issues over fuel imports. NNPC and oil marketers will now take petrol directly from local refiner Dangote instead of importing it, aiming to reduce import costs, stabilize petrol prices and make fuel more affordable for consumers.

Energy expert Faith Nwadishi praises this move for its potential to strengthen the economy.

“If we begin to buy products from Dangote, we will be able to save at least 24 trillion naira [$14.3 billion] yearly,” said Nwadishi. “Nigeria depends on that. The economy depends on that. If there’s no fuel, you see the hardship it takes on people. Products cannot come from farms to markets.”

Sharing optimism, David Etim, an energy expert and entrepreneur, said he believes this is the right step toward energy independence.

“Energy self-sufficiency or energy dependency is actually a national security issue,” said Etim. “It’s just like food security. No country in the world that depends on outsiders to provide such an essential input to its social life as energy can call itself independent. So, the fact that Nigeria has moved from energy dependency to energy independency is a significant move in a very positive direction.”

Nigerians currently pay high fuel prices, with some areas reporting more than 1,200 naira per liter [$0.71]. This deal raises hopes as the oil sector shifts to local production.

Consumers such as Felix Chukwuemeka, an Abuja businessman feeling the heat of rising prices, eagerly await relief.

“From my house to my junction, we paid 300 [$0.18], but now we are paying 600 naira [$0.36],” said Chukwuemeka. “So, you can see the expense is doubled. … It would be very exciting to many of us, especially in the business sector, if the price of petrol seems to reduce, because it will really enhance our business.”

Despite optimism, Nigeria’s four refineries remain nonfunctional, raising sustainability concerns.

Senior economist Paul Alaje emphasizes the need to revamp refineries and stabilize the currency for lasting gains.

“The more you abandon your refinery, it becomes moribund, it becomes sunk cost to the economy. And sadly, this is reality today,” said Alaje. “… Nigerians will be looking at a price between 500 to 600 naira per liter of PMS [petroleum motor spirit]. But, do I think this is achievable even under this current agreement? I doubt very much. Why? There is a big elephant in the room. This elephant is called the exchange rate.”

While the new alliances in the oil sector signal a positive step toward stable, affordable fuel, experts stress the need for transparency, accountability and strict implementation to ensure that Nigerians benefit.

For now, there’s been no notable impact on the cost of PMS across the country.

However, if successful, these agreements could mark a major shift for Nigeria’s oil industry — securing energy independence, easing prices and boosting economic growth.

SOURCE VOA