World

NECOCLI — Halfway on their perilous journey to the United States, news reaches a Haitian mother and son near the Colombian border with Panama that American officials are deporting their newly arrived compatriots by the thousands.

But Benedictine and Roberth Point Du Jour are undeterred by the disturbing images of Haitian border-crossers being detained on arrival in Texas from Mexico.

"My goal is to get there and they cannot stop me," said the mother, 42, who began the journey with her son on August 6 from Chile, where many Haitians found refuge after a devastating earthquake in 2010.

With economies struggling from the fallout of the coronavirus epidemic and travel restrictions being lifted, many are now making their way north through Central America with dreams of a better life in the United States.

The Point Du Jours find themselves stuck in the coastal town of Necocli in northwest Colombia with some 19,000 other undocumented migrants, mainly Haitians, trying to enter Panama.

Some have been stranded here for weeks, waiting for seats on boats that cross the Gulf of Uraba to Acandi on the Panama border.

There are only 250 boat tickets available every day.

From Acandi, they will start on foot, and armed with machetes, lanterns and tents — the dangerous trek of at least five days to Panama through the Darien jungle, battling snakes, steep ravines, swollen rivers, tropical downpours and criminals often linked to drug trafficking.

In a recent report, Doctors Without Borders (known by its French acronym MSF) said criminal gangs in the jungle prey on migrants, and assaults and rapes are common.

Fear of drowning 

Still in Necocli, Roberth Point Du Jour on Thursday recounted his biggest fear: Drowning on the 60 kilometre journey across the gulf.

“The second [fear]is that they will deport me,” he said, “because the thing I want most is to make something of myself in life.”

The US government came in for much criticism over images of mounted border patrol officers wielding long leather reins and confronting a slew of migrants crossing the border from Mexico.

Many have been driven back, and some 1,400 others repatriated to Haiti on a series of flights.

“It’s a shame but my goal is... to get there, no matter what,” Benedictine insisted, stubbornly.

Waiting their turn, she and her son are renting accommodation in Necocli, a town of some 45,000 people, for $10 a night.

Many other migrants have no choice but to camp on the beach.

“It’s too late to go back now,” said Frank, a 38-year-old Haitian who also made the trip from Chile and withholds his family name for fear of reprisals from authorities along the way.

Six countries still separate him from the United States, where friends and family await.

Frank is travelling with five relatives including a baby of six months.

Under an agreement between the governments of Panama and Colombia, no more than 650 migrants are allowed to cross the border every day, contributing to the bottleneck.

Some 11,500 people have managed to buy tickets to make the boat trip to Acandi by October 13, and a further unknown number of people are trying to make the crossing on “illegal” vessels, according to Colombia’s human rights ombudsman Carlos Camargo.

‘Do not come’ 

All this despite US officials insisting in recent months that undocumented migrants will not be allowed entry.

“Do not come,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in June. “You will be turned back.”

Last year, a steady influx of migrants from Colombia northward dried up due to coronavirus travel restrictions and border closures.

But officials say there have been several thousand new arrivals at Necocli in recent weeks.

So far this year, an estimated 60,000 people have crossed the Colombia-Panama border, a key crossing for migrants fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries in search of a better life up north.

Many did not make it through the forest, according to their fellow travelers.

Those who make it to Panama, MSF said in a report last month, are generally held for processing and deportation.

Those with pending administrative or judicial processes — refugee applications, for example, or giving testimony against human traffickers — can be held at a migrant reception center for weeks or months.

“The centres are a source of complaints, as those who are held there face inadequate food and shelter, a lack of clean water and showers, and no means to communicate with their families,” MSF said.

NEW YORK — Afghanistan is at risk of “imminent hunger” with winter approaching and services disrupted by the return to power of the Taliban, a UN official warned in an interview with AFP.

Natalia Kanem, director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), said via video that the situation in the country was dire.

“It would not be an exaggeration to say” that at least a third of Afghanistan’s population of around 33 million is affected by “imminent hunger”, Kanem warned.

Harsh winters, disrupting the ability to transport supplies to isolated areas of the mountainous country, plus the coronavirus pandemic will aggravate an already complicated situation, she added.

“There is a lot of anxiety over how we’re going to deliver healthcare, where the next meal is going to come from,” Kanem told AFP from the UNFPA headquarters in New York.

The doctor from Panama warned that women and girls would bear the worst of it.

“It is urgent, for women and girls in particular who were already suffering. This is one of the countries with the highest death during childbirth and pregnancy rates.” 

“We cannot underscore enough that even during a transitional period, women and girls have human rights and these are to be respected,” she said.

Kanem repeated calls made by the international community to the Taliban, who swept to power last month as the United States withdrew its last troops, ending Washington’s 20-year war there.

“The women of Afghanistan have made clear over years that they want their education, they want their healthcare, and that they’re also ready, willing and able to design programmes and to be able to lead in their communities,” she said.

Taliban leaders have tried to portray the group as more moderate than when it last ran Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. Then, women were banned from school or work and only allowed to leave home with a male chaperone.

They have promised to change, saying they will respect women’s rights within the framework of Sharia law, but many remain sceptical.

But not a single woman was appointed to the provisional government and the Islamists seem to be incrementally stripping away Afghans’ freedoms.

Kanem notes that in a country ravaged by decades of conflict, many women, particularly in areas most affected by violence, are the sole breadwinners.

“We’re all anxiously hoping that there will be regularity and ability of delivery of goods” to people in small communities where many of the UNPFA’s staff are women, she said.

“We have said that we want to be able to maintain a functioning health system.”

“[It’s] pretty challenging right now with the airport having been closed, with certain professionals who have left the country,” Kanem added.

She warned that if the health system breaks down, that’s going to spell “complete disaster”, but added that for the most part the agency’s family health centres have remained open.

The UN on Wednesday released $45 million in emergency aid to support Afghanistan’s health system.

BERLIN — "Merkel must go" was a common refrain at anti-migration demos in the run-up to Germany's last election in 2017, helping to propel the far-right AfD into parliament as the largest opposition force.

But with Chancellor Angela Merkel retiring after general elections this Sunday, the AfD is about to lose its favourite scapegoat.

Though it appears to have lost support since 2017, currently polling at around 11 per cent, the party — whose initials stand for "Alternative for Germany" — has become firmly rooted in the country's political landscape.

But now, with “Merkel must go” redundant, the anti-immigration, anti-establishment party is having to direct its anger elsewhere.

“The chancellor’s departure is a good thing because it creates a space for change,” Tino Chrupalla, one of the AfD’s two top candidates for the elections on September 26, told AFP.

“But the consequences of the Merkel era will weigh on Germany for a long time,” he said.

The AfD blames Merkel for “mass illegal immigration” after her 2015 decision to leave Germany’s borders open to refugees fleeing Syria and Iraq, for the “expensive” phasing out of nuclear power and for “endless financial bailouts” of southern European countries.

‘Evil personified’ 

Founded in 2013 as an anti-euro outfit, the AfD seized on xenophobia and anti-Islam sentiment, especially in the former East Germany, to win 12.6 per cent of the vote in 2017.

But with political priorities changing in Germany, the party has had to reinvent itself.

“This period of personalisation is over,” Chrupalla says. “We must now attack the political agenda of globalism, even if it doesn’t have a name.”

“It’s not about Merkel as a person but the system she represents,” says Christoph Berndt, head of the Zukunft Heimat (Future Homeland), a far-right group in the former East German state of Brandenburg.

The three leading candidates vying to replace Merkel as chancellor are Armin Laschet of Merkel’s CDU, Olaf Scholz of the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Annalena Baerbock of the Greens.

“We can easily replace ‘Merkel must go’ with ‘Laschet must go’, ‘Scholz must go’ or ‘Baerbock must go’,” says Berndt.

In his view, the movement will have achieved its objective only “when her political decisions have been overturned and Merkel is held politically and, if necessary, legally responsible”.

“By not closing Germany’s borders in 2015 when refugees arrived in Germany via Hungary and the Balkan route, Merkel became evil personified for the German far-right,” says Jan Riebe of the anti-racism foundation Amadeu Antonio.

Anti-establishment 

The slogan “Merkel must go” was “more a slogan against the system than against the person and will be transferrable to something more abstract”, agrees Miro Dittrich, a specialist at the far-right observatory CeMAS.

This “may not work as well as having Merkel as a scapegoat, but it will certainly not lead to a lasting weakening of the far right”, Riebe says.

“Germany will continue to be slammed as a dictatorship and Scholz and Laschet as representatives of the Merkel system. And if Baerbock becomes chancellor, the hatred of some people may boil over,” he adds.

Beyond personalities, the AfD will also have to rethink its focus on migration. According to a recent poll by the Bild daily, only 20 per cent of Germans consider migration a priority, well behind climate protection (35 per cent) or pensions (33 per cent).

To add to its problems, the AfD has also been plagued by internal disputes between its more radical fringe and supporters of a more moderate course.

The party’s efforts to court voters from Germany’s sizeable anti-mask movement, with members joining rallies against virus measures, have also so far largely failed to bear fruit.

LOS LLANOS DE ARIDANE, Spain — A vast wall of molten lava creeping down the slopes of Spain’s La Palma island has now destroyed 320 buildings, as distraught residents watched the flow inching towards the sea on Wednesday.

The Cumbre Vieja volcano erupted on Sunday in the south of La Palma, one of seven islands that make up the Canary Islands archipelago off the coast of Morocco.

The EU’s Copernicus observation programme said the lava now covered 154 hectares and had destroyed 320 buildings, double the figure it had given 24 hours earlier.

Experts are expecting the number to rise as the slow-moving mass slides towards the island’s western coast, when its interaction with the sea is likely to cause explosions and trigger toxic gas emissions.

So far, 6,100 people have been evacuated, among them 400 tourists who were taken to the neighbouring island of Tenerife, the Canaries regional government said.

Although there have been no casualties, the damage to land and property has been enormous, with the Canaries regional head Angel Victor Torres estimating the figures to be well over 400 million euros ($470 million).

In a desperate attempt to divert the flow, firefighters could be seen using heavy machinery to dig a channel towards a nearby ravine as the advancing lava glowed in the background.

“It’s not for a want of trying,” they tweeted alongside a video of the digger hard at work.

‘Battle of titans’ 

Experts working on the Pevolca volcanic emergency plan say there are two lava flows: One to the north and one further south, which is barely moving.

David Calvo, an expert with the Involcan volcanology institute, said the lava had “slowed down a lot because it is reaching a very flat area but it is gaining height. There are areas where it is already 15 metres thick”.

If the lava — which has a temperature of 1,100ºC — continues to move at the same pace, it will reach the sea later on Wednesday or possibly on Thursday.

And when it gets there, there will be “a huge battle of the titans between the water and the lava”, he said.

“With those contrasting temperatures, it causes massive explosions and a fragmentation of the lava which shoots out like missiles.”

Exploding fragments 

Involcan experts witnessed the same phenomenon in 2018 at the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii where 16 people were hurt by the explosion of fragments and one person “almost lost a leg”, he said.

When the lava reaches the shore, it will also send clouds of acidic, toxic gas into the air, generated by the interaction with the seawater, which can be dangerous to inhale, experts say.

The volcano was also putting out some 10,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide emissions per day which showed “the pace, the intensity of the eruption is not going to decrease”, Calvo said.

Involcan believes the eruption of La Cumbre Vieja could last “between 24 and 84 days”.

The eruption on this island of some 85,000 people, the first in 50 years, may have caused huge damages over a vast area, but so far nobody has been hurt.

The local authorities also urged the population to avoid contact with volcanic ash, warning it could cause damage to the respiratory tract and eyes as well as skin irritation.

“Dealing with this crisis won’t end when the lava reaches the sea,” Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on Tuesday.

“It will end when we’ve managed to rebuild everything the volcano has destroyed and will destroy.”

MOGADISHU — Somalia was due to host its first screening of a movie in three decades on Wednesday under heavy security, as the conflict-ravaged country hopes for a cultural renewal.

Built by Chinese engineers as a gift from Mao Zedong in 1967, the National Theatre of Somalia’s history reflects the tumultuous journey of the Horn of Africa nation.

It has been targeted by suicide bombers and used as a base by warlords.

And it has never screened a Somali film. Until now.

“This is going to be a historic night for the Somali people, it shows how hopes have been revived... after so many years of challenges,” said theatre director Abdikadir Abdi Yusuf.

“It’s a platform that provides an opportunity to... Somali songwriters, storytellers, movie directors and actors to present their talent openly.”

The stage was set for the evening screening of two short films helmed by Somali director IBrahim CM — “Hoos” and “Date from Hell” — with tickets on sale for $10 (8.50 euros) each, an expensive price for many.

Although Mogadishu was home to many cinema halls during its cultural heyday, with the national theatre also hosting live concerts and plays, the seaside capital fell silent after civil war erupted in 1991.

Warlords used the open-air theatre as a military base and the building fell into disrepair.

It then reopened in 2012, but was blown up by Al Shabaab militants two weeks later.

The Al Qaeda linked Islamist group launches regular attacks in Mogadishu and considers entertainment evil.

Happier times  

After a painstaking restoration, the authorities announced plans to hold the theatre’s first screening this week.

For many Somalis, it was a trip down memory lane and a reminder of happier times.

“I used to watch concerts, dramas, pop shows, folk dances and movies in the national theatre during the good old days. It makes me feel bad when I see Mogadishu lacking the nightlife it once had,” said Osman Yusuf Osman, a self-confessed film buff.

“But this is a good start... I will not miss this historic event tonight,” he told AFP, adding that he had made arrangements to attend the screening with a friend.

Others were more circumspect, and worried about safety.

“I was a school-age girl when my friends and I used to watch live concerts and dramas at the national theatre,” said Hakimo Mohamed, a mother-of-six.

“People used to go out during the night and stay back late if they wished — but now, I don’t think it is so safe,” she told AFP.

The militants were driven out of Mogadishu a decade ago, but retain control of swathes of countryside and continue to stage deadly attacks in the capital and elsewhere.

Organisers said they were hoping for a strong turnout, with attendees required to pass through several security checkpoints before arriving at the theatre, which is inside a heavily guarded complex that includes the presidential palace and the parliament.

But for some, the inconvenience and the risks paled in comparison to the anticipation of seeing a film in a cinema after such a long wait.

“I was not lucky to watch live concerts and or movies in the theatre [earlier]... because I was still a child, but I can imagine how beautiful it was,” NGO employee Abdullahi Adan said.

“I want to experience this for the first time and see what it’s like to watch a movie with hundreds of people in a theatre.”

KABUL — The Taliban said on Tuesday Afghan girls will be allowed to return to school "as soon as possible", after their movement faced international fury over their effective exclusion of women and girls from education and work.

The hardliners' spokesman meanwhile announced the remaining members of Afghanistan's all-male government, weeks after the militants seized Kabul in an offensive that shocked the world.

The Taliban were notorious for their brutal, oppressive rule from 1996 to 2001, when women were largely barred from work and school, including being banned from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative.

One month after seizing power and pledging a softer version of their previous regime, the Islamists have incrementally stripped away at Afghans' freedoms.

"The work is continuing over the issues of education and work of women and girls," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said at a press conference, saying schools will reopen "as soon as possible", without providing a timeframe.

"More time is needed... instructions on how to deal with their work, their services and their education are needed because the system has changed and an Islamic system is in place."

At the weekend, girls and female teachers were excluded from returning to secondary school, while boys and male teachers were ordered back to the classroom.

The Taliban have also slashed women's access to work, with officials previously telling them to stay at home for their own security until segregation under the group's restrictive interpretation of sharia law can be implemented.

The group imposed a harsh interpretation of Sharia law during their last rule and this time round have said progress in women's rights will be respected "within the framework of Islamic law".

Many women however are deeply suspicious about the Taliban's pledges.

"This happened last time. They kept saying they would allow us to return to work, but it never happened," a woman teacher told AFP on Monday.

New additions to the Taliban’s government were also announced on Tuesday, with businessmen and engineers added to the line-up, as well as a doctor appointed as health minister.

The Taliban had promised an inclusive administration, but no women were added on Tuesday, and it remains largely drawn from loyalist ranks.

A member of the Hazara community, which is majority Shiite and has long been persecuted by the Sunni Taliban — joined the health ministry as a deputy minister.

Although still marginalised, Afghan women have fought for and gained basic rights in the past 20 years, becoming lawmakers, judges, pilots and police officers, though mostly limited to large cities.

There was no mention in the press conference of the recently shut down women’s affairs ministry, with its offices replaced with a department notorious for enforcing strict religious doctrine during the Taliban’s last rule.

Women have been at the forefront of several small, scattered protests across the country — a show of resistance unthinkable under the last regime — demanding to be included in public life.

The Taliban have attempted to shut them down, slapping rules on any form of assembly.

The Taliban now face the colossal task of transitioning from insurgent force to ruling Afghanistan, an aid-dependent country whose economic troubles have only deepened since the Islamists seized power and outside funding was frozen.

Many government employees have not been paid for months, with food prices soaring.

“We are working on a mechanism for the payment of salaries. Salaries will be paid to all the employees in coming days,” Mujahid said.

While many Afghans are relieved that the Taliban victory has brought an end to the ongoing fighting, air strikes and bomb attacks, the Daesh branch of Afghanistan remains a security risk.

It has claimed a handful of bomb attacks in their former stronghold of Nangarhar province, as well as a devastating suicide blast that killed scores of people outside Kabul airport during the chaotic US-led evacuation.

PERM, Russia — Shocked and grieving Russians gathered at a university in the city of Perm on Tuesday after a student went on a campus shooting spree killing six people and wounding dozens.

With a heavy police cordon still around Perm State University a day after the killings, shaken students in groups and families laid flowers and lit candles.

A photo of one of the victims was placed on the makeshift memorial.

Ksenia Punina, a professor of international relations at the university, told AFP she was in shock and in pain at the beginning of an official day of mourning over the attack.

"Our university is our home," said the 40-year-old, wearing a black mask bearing the university's name.

"It's completely unexpected; a total shock when a man comes into your house with a weapon to your family," she said as people gathered in a bright and crisp cold day.

On Monday morning a university student wearing black tactical gear and a helmet roamed through the densely populated campus wielding a hunting rifle and shooting down people in his path.

He was confronted by police and wounded while being detained.

There was no official indication yet of any motive for the attack, but local media said the attacker was a 19-year-old who had written on social media of wanting to harm people.

The rampage caused chaos on campus, with footage on social media showing dozens of students leaping from windows to evade the attacker.

'Shots' and 'screams' 

"First I saw people running, then I saw the shooter. I understood what was happening straight away," Yuri Aydarov, an adviser to the rector, told AFP Tuesday.

"I told students they have to move from the windows and lie down," Aydarov said.

"We were sitting quietly. Then there were shots and screams in the corridor," he added.

President Vladimir Putin described the incident, which claimed the lives of one man and five women aged between 18 and 66, as a "great loss" for the entire country.

On Tuesday morning, police had closed off the university’s mainly Soviet-era buildings except to senior staff. Other universities in Perm reopened Tuesday after closures but were on high alert along with schools.

The attack in Perm, some 1,300 kilometres from Moscow, was the second mass shooting to target students in Russia this year, and came with growing attention on gun control laws.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that legislative action had already been taken to further restrict gun buying since the first attack this year in the city of Kazan, which left nine people dead.

He said authorities would analyse what had happened this time.

Investigators said the student who carried out Monday’s shooting had legally obtained the hunting rifle earlier this year.

Of around two dozen people injured in the attack, nine were in a critical condition, said Health Minister Mikhail Murashko, who was dispatched to the scene to coordinate a response.

Local media said Education Minister Valery Falkov visited injured students in hospital Monday evening and said those that need more intense care will be taken to Moscow.

‘Lying here killed’ 

One of Punina’s students was among those badly wounded, she told an AFP journalist at the memorial, and had undergone surgery after being shot in the stomach.

Others that gathered to mourn victims were still coming to terms with what happened.

Alexei Yuldashev, an economics student, recounted that he couldn’t believe what was happening.

“Suddenly one of our classmates wrote to us that a shooting had started,” he said. “We didn’t believe it at first.”

“We closed ourselves in the lecture room until we were told to get out,” the 21-year-old told AFP.

Maria Zhyzhyleva, a 20-year-old geology student, was coming to terms with classes starting again.

“Imagine you arrive at university knowing that a man was lying here killed. Just try to imagine that. Personally, it will be hard for me,” she said.

Authorities have blamed foreign influence for previous school shootings, saying young Russians have been exposed online and on television to similar attacks in the United States and elsewhere.

In November 2019, a 19-year-old student in the far eastern town of Blagoveshchensk opened fire at his college, shooting dead one classmate and injuring three other people before killing himself.

In October 2018, another teenage gunman killed 20 people at a Kerch technical college in Crimea, the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

He was shown in camera footage wearing a similar T-shirt to Eric Harris, one of the killers in the 1999 Columbine High School shooting in the US, which left 13 people dead.