U.N. agencies say humanitarian conditions for millions of people in Mali are deteriorating, as armed groups and extremists wreak havoc and destroy the livelihoods of civilians.

The United Nations reports around 4.3 million Malians need humanitarian aid this year, including more than one million who are suffering serious food shortages.

Uta Kollies, the head of the U.N. office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Mali, calls their situation very disconcerting. She said people are unprotected. They live in a state of chronic insecurity and abuse, which paralyzes their ability to provide the most basic necessities for themselves and their families.

“People are unable to go to their fields because of the insecurity,” Kollies said. “Malnutrition is obviously coupled with the food insecurity and remains of high concern. We have a national prevalence of global acute malnutrition at about 9.4%, which is a serious situation according to WHO.”  

Mali has experienced chronic instability since jihadist groups briefly seized control of the north in 2012. The groups and criminal networks remain active in Mali and neighboring countries despite the presence of French and African counter-terrorism forces.

Kollies said the international community spends far more money on beefing up military intervention in Mali than on helping people suffering from hunger, lack of food, water, health, education and other basic relief.  

She said last year the U.N. received only half of its $324 million appeal. At the same time, she says the U.N. blue helmets, different national forces and the Malian army received a total of $3 billion.  

Although these forces are in Mali to protect the population, she tells VOA they have done little to bolster security in the country.

“I personally think that asymmetric terrorist attacks in the past historically have very seldom been won with a military intervention only,” Kollies said. “You have to have political solutions and you have to follow up at that level.”  

Kollies said she cannot recall any country where hundreds of thousands of soldiers being deployed has met with success in engaging in a war on terror.

What is needed, she said is a political solution and more financing for humanitarians who can help lift people up out of their despair.

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From: MeNeedIt

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued rules on Sunday to implement new restrictions on Americans who have recently visited China to address the threat of the coronavirus.

Airline officials said Sunday the new rules will mean they must now ask all U.S.-bound passengers if they have visited mainland China. Airlines are expected to scrutinize passports of travelers, and warned the new rules could require passengers to arrive even earlier for U.S.-bound flights.

American Airlines Inc said Sunday it encouraged U.S.-bound passengers “to arrive at the airport three hours early as we expect this additional screening will lengthen the normal check-in process.”

The United States said Friday that for flights departing after 5 p.m. EST Sunday, it will bar entry to nearly all foreign visitors who have been in China within the last two weeks.

The Trump administration is limiting flights from China and for Americans who have visited China within the last 14 days to eight major U.S. airports for enhanced screening: New York’s JFK, Chicago’s O’Hare, San Francisco, Seattle-Tacoma, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Dulles in Washington, DC.

Three more airports – Newark, Dallas/Fort Worth and Detroit – would be added on Monday, DHS announced on Sunday.

The new rules do not impact cargo-only flights, DHS said. American Airlines temporarily halted all flights to mainland China on Friday, while Delta Air Lines said Sunday its

last flight had departed China before it planned resumption of flights in May. United Airlines is scheduled to continue China flights through Wednesday before halting flights through March 27.

Many other nations are imposing similar restrictions.

Airlines must ensure foreign visitors arriving in the United States have not visited China within the last two weeks and Americans who traveled within the last 14 days to China are flying to one of the seven designated airports.

Airlines said they are working to ease the burden on gate agents by also including questions about China travel online and at check-in lobbies, and adding new signs.

A spokeswoman for a group representing U.S. airlines said Sunday “carriers will continue to comply with all government rules and regulations.”

DHS warned that “travelers without a nexus to China” may also be routed through one of the screening airports if it is discovered mid-flight that someone else on their flight has been in China in the last 14 days.

Americans who have been in Hubei, China province within 14 days of their return will be subject to up to 14 days of mandatory quarantine. U.S. citizens who have been in other areas of mainland China within the last 14 days “will undergo proactive entry health screening and up to 14 days of self-quarantine,” DHS said.

For Americans who recently traveled to China – but outside Hubei – if they show no symptoms after a screening “they will be re-booked to their destination and asked to ‘self-quarantine’ at their homes.”

DHS said Sunday none of restrictions impact flights or visitors from Hong Kong or Macau.

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From: MeNeedIt

Algeria’s president is proposing that Libya’s tribal groups hold meetings in a neighboring country to find new solutions to the conflict tearing oil-rich Libya apart.

Fighting among militias, arms and migrant trafficking and extremism in Libya are a big concern to neighboring Algeria and Tunisia, whose presidents met Sunday in Algiers. Both leaders were elected in recent months, and are eager to keep Libya’s lawlessness from further spilling over their borders.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune called for meetings in either the capital of Algeria or Tunisia “with all of Libya’s tribes, to begin a new era for building new institutions, allowing for the organization of general elections and establishment of new foundations of a democratic Libyan state.’’

Any such meetings should have U.N. backing, Tebboune said at a news conference after his talks with Tunisia’s Kais Saied.

Tebboune insisted that any solution to Libya’s conflict should come from Libyans themselves and “protected from foreign interference and weapons flows.’’

Libya is torn between a weak U.N.-recognized administration in the capital of Tripoli overseeing the country’s west, run by Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj, and the self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces led by Gen. Khalifa Hifter, based in eastern Libya.

Sarraj’s administration is backed by Turkey and to a lesser degree Qatar and Italy. Hifter’s forces have received support from the United Arab Emirates and Egypt as well as France and Russia.

International powers approved plans to restore peace to Libya two weeks ago, but the U.N. envoy for Libya accuses some signatories of stepping up weapons deliveries despite the truce efforts.

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From: MeNeedIt

As the Syrian government forces continue to advance on the Syrian province of Idlib, the last main rebel stronghold in the country, experts say the northwestern region may no longer serve as a shelter for the Islamic State (IS) fighters who have sought refuge there following their defeat elsewhere in the war-torn country.

Syrian troops, backed by Russia, for months have been trying to take control of parts of Idlib.  

Last week, Syrian regime forces recaptured the strategic town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib, which had been under rebel control since 2012.

Idlib is home to nearly 3 million people, including many who have been displaced from other parts of Syria over the last eight years of war in the country.

Relocated IS fighters

A recent report published by the U.N. Security Council said the Syrian province remains dominated by extremist groups affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State terror groups.

Idlib “also plays host to relocated ISIL fighters and dependents,” the U.N. report added, using another acronym for IS.

Following the military defeat of the terror group in eastern Syria in March 2019, many IS militants and their families moved to Idlib, fleeing from U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Experts say that IS, also known as ISIS, would inevitably face the same fate as many rebel and Islamist factions based in Idlib.

“If the Syrian regime retakes Idlib province, the ISIS members who have taken refuge in the Islamist dominated enclave will be killed or flee into Turkey,” said Joshua Landis, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma.

“The Alawite leadership of Syria regards ISIS as a lethal enemy because ISIS regards Alawites in the same category as Yazidis — unbelievers whose women can be taken as slaves and whose men should be killed or converted,” Landis told VOA.

Alawites are a sect of Islam that are largely based in Syria. They make up about 10% of the country’s population. Alawites are the backbone of the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is an Alawite himself.

Mistrust

In addition to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the largest Islamist group in Idlib, which previously was al-Qaida’s branch in Syria, there are other extremist factions that are active in the northwestern province.

Huras al-Din is one of several al-Qaida-linked groups that have maintained a significant presence in parts of Idlib. Other Turkey-backed rebel groups also have a foothold in the province.

Western intelligence agencies believe that thousands of foreign fighters affiliated with different radical groups are active in Idlib.

Some experts believe that the ever-changing military dynamics in Idlib could determine the presence of IS militants in the Syrian province.   

IS “fighters that relocated to Idlib are in a precarious position because few local Syrian rebel groups trust them,” said Nicholas Heras, a Middle East expert at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) in Washington. “The ISIS presence in Idlib is facilitated by the group’s access to large sums of money, which for all intents and purposes allows it to bribe local Syrian rebel groups to abide its presence,” he told VOA.

Heras added that many IS fighters who relocated to Idlib are also Syrian nationals from the western parts of the country who have family networks there that facilitate their presence.

Baghdadi’s death

In October 2019, U.S. Special Forces carried out an operation in Idlib that killed the leader of the group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

The former IS leader reportedly had been hiding in Idlib for months after moving between towns across eastern Syria as his so-called caliphate was crumbling.

The fact that “Baghdadi got to Idlib shows there was an active smuggling route from their former areas to Idlib,” said Seth Frantzman, director of the Middle East Center for Reporting and Analysis.

He said IS members who have fled to Idlib in the last two years have largely remained inactive there.

They were “part of the collapse of the ‘caliphate,’ sometimes seeking to find a way to get to Turkey or Idlib from Raqqa and then Baghuz as ISIS strongholds fell,” Frantzman told VOA. 

‘Not center of gravity’

Analyst Heras of ISW says at this point Idlib doesn’t hold any strategic importance for IS as the terror group seeks to reorganize itself following the death of Baghdadi and the appointment of its new leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Qurashi.

“Idlib is not ISIS’s center of gravity in Syria; that remains the Badiya [region] of the central desert region and in Deir al-Zour,” he said. “The future of ISIS will not be Idlib, which is slowly and surely falling to Assad, it is the eastern parts of Syria that border Iraq and where ISIS has the most robust local networks of support,” Heras noted, adding that IS “can sustain an insurgency for years in eastern Syria.”

Analyst Frantzman believes that any takeover of Idlib by Syrian government forces could breathe new life into IS in other parts of the country.

“If it weakens the HTS and other Syrian extremist groups, then it might make ISIS appear to be the sole extremist group still active in marginal areas,” he added.

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From: MeNeedIt

The World Food Program warns millions of people in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso do not have enough to eat and are in desperate and immediate need of food aid.

A recent U.N. food assessment in the Central Sahel finds 3.3 million people are going hungry, a rise of nearly 1 million since last year.  World Food Program spokeswoman Elizabeth Byrs warns this alarming situation is expected to worsen without sustained humanitarian support.

“The number of food-insecure people is expected to double as the June lean season gets underway, pushing 4.8 million people into hunger, up from 2.4 million in 2019,” she said. 

Hunger is wreaking havoc on the nutritional status of people in these countries.  The U.N. Children’s fund reports more than 700,000 children under 5 suffer from life-threatening severe acute malnutrition.  

The United Nations reports nearly a million people in the region have been displaced by conflict, which is devastating agriculture and rural economies.  Many people are fleeing in search of food and grazing land for their cattle.  

Byrs tells VOA people are resorting to extreme measures to survive.

“They skip meals. They sell their asset,” she said. “In some conflict-affected areas, some people have a lot of difficulty to find something to eat.”  

WFP is working to scale up its humanitarian operation to assist 2 million people across the three Sahelian countries.  It is urgently appealing for $227 million to provide life-saving food aid over the next six months.  Money also will be used for education, nutrition, and health, and to shore up livelihoods.

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From: MeNeedIt

Madison County, Iowa, gained nationwide attention because of its many bridges that inspired a novel and movie but in real life its politics now dominating that region as voters there prepare for the first in the nation presidential caucus which begins the process for Democrats to pick a nominee to go up against President Donald Trump in the November general election. Kevin Enochs narrates this report from VOA’s Suli Yi

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From: MeNeedIt

The Trump administration is bringing renewed attention to the issue of human trafficking in the United States. The White House marked the 20th anniversary of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act by announcing new measures to strengthen prosecution for traffickers and support services for victims. VOA’s Ardita Dunellari reports from the White House that activists and survivors of human trafficking welcome increased efforts to fight the problem, though many of them see mixed messages in the president’s pledge to fight human trafficking and his crackdown on illegal migrants.

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From: MeNeedIt

India will spend billions of dollars to revive the farm sector, increase spending on infrastructure to create jobs, and slash taxes — all in a bid to boost its sputtering economy, which has posted its worst growth in a decade. “

This is a budget to boost incomes and enhance purchasing power,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Saturday in parliament as the nation’s 2020 budget was laid out. “We wanted to make sure money is in the hands of the people, particularly for the middle class and lower middle class.”  

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India Projects Economic Revival After Worst Slowdown in a Decade

IMF says slowdown in India dragging down global growth

Economists warned, however, that a quick turnaround is unlikely for Asia’s third largest economy (after China and Japan). “I don’t see this economy reviving for at least one year, not a chance, and that, too, is an optimistic assessment,” said Santosh Mehrotra, an economics professor at New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. “The situation continues to be grim.”

Political analysts say rebooting the economy is critical for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who swept to power six years ago promising to take India’s economy to new heights and create millions of jobs, but is facing criticism for focusing on a Hindu nationalist agenda during his second term.   

The world’s fastest growing major economy until just a year ago, India has witnessed a sharp slowdown as its growth plummets to less than five percent in recent months. A government survey however has forecast the economy will pick up the pace and expand next year to between six and six-and-a-half percent.

The country’s GDP is at its lowest point in six years and growth across multiple key industrial sectors has shrunk. Growth in the 2019 financial  year (April 2019 to March 2020 in India) is projected to be less than five percent. The last quarter for which figures are available was the July to September quarter in 2019 when growth was 4.5 percent.   

A massive slowdown in spending by the country’s 1.3 billion people who are coping with dwindling incomes and record unemployment is hurting the economy, which unlike most of Asia’s export-driven economies, depends heavily on domestic consumption.  

The government said it would spend about $40 billion on various measures that could improve rural incomes. It will help farmers set up solar power generation units and establish cold storage facilities to transport perishable commodities, such as fruits and vegetables that farmers often are forced to sell at low prices.  

Although the farm sector accounts for only 15 percent of India’s gross domestic product, it sustains two-thirds of the country’s population.  

Tax cuts for individuals also are expected to persuade consumers to open their wallets and buy more cars and homes. The government also plans to push big infrastructure projects to create jobs – unemployment is at its highest in more than four decades.    

A slowing economy has put more pressure on Modi as his government grapples with the biggest backlash it has faced since taking office.  

Widespread protests have been sparked by a new citizenship law that critics have slammed as divisive because it excludes Muslims from immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who will get citizenship. Political analysts warn the upheaval witnessed in the past six weeks risks taking the government’s attention away from the economic slowdown.     

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From: MeNeedIt

Kelly Carnes is anything but ordinary. A public relations executive and entrepreneur, she has made parties and carnivals her everyday reality and lives the life that feels natural to her. But there’s one element in her life that puzzles many, but not her. Masha Morton met with the DC carnival queen.

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From: MeNeedIt

Public health expert Dr. Tom Frieden talks with VOA about the global response to the coronavirus outbreak.

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From: MeNeedIt

It’s not for everyone, but if your idea of fun involves taking a plunge in icy water this may be your kind of event. That’s exactly what some people did in Annapolis, Maryland, for a fundraiser for the Special Olympics of Maryland. Participants raised money for the sports organization for people with intellectual disabilities. VOA’s Deborah Block takes us to the polar bear plunge.
 

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From: MeNeedIt

The Israeli military said Friday that it launched “wide-scale” airstrikes on militant targets in the Gaza Strip shortly after Palestinian militants fired three rockets into Israel, two of which were intercepted.

There were no reports of casualties or major damage from the exchange of fire overnight, which came amid heightened tensions after President Donald Trump released his Mideast plan, a U.S. initiative aimed at ending the conflict that heavily favors Israel and was rejected by the Palestinians.

Palestinians have called for large protests after Friday prayers, including at a flashpoint holy site in Jerusalem that is sacred to Muslims and Jews. 

Recent relative calm

Gaza has been relatively calm in recent months as Egyptian and U.N. mediators have worked to shore up an informal truce between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rules the coastal territory.

Hamas has curbed rocket fire and rolled back weekly protests along the frontier that had often turned violent. In return, Israel has eased the blockade it imposed on Gaza after Hamas seized power from forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority in 2007.

Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority have rejected the Trump plan, which would allow Israel to annex all of its Jewish settlements, along with the Jordan Valley, in the occupied West Bank. The Palestinians were offered limited self-rule in Gaza, parts of the West Bank and some sparsely populated areas of Israel in return for meeting a long list of conditions.

Hamas has vowed that “all options are open” in responding to the proposal, but is not believed to be seeking war with Israel. Palestinian militants have fought three devastating wars with Israel since the Hamas takeover.

Friday protest

Palestinians have held small, scattered protests in recent days condemning the Trump initiative, and larger demonstrations are expected after Friday prayers, including at the Jerusalem holy site known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary, and to Jews as the Temple Mount.

It is the third holiest site in Islam after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia, and is home to the iconic gold Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa mosque. It was also the location of the First and Second Jewish Temples in antiquity. The Western Wall nearby, the only remnant of the Second Temple, is the holiest place where Jews can pray.

The hilltop shrine is managed by an Islamic trust under Jordanian stewardship, and day-to-day affairs are governed by informal understandings with Israel known as the “status quo.” Non-Muslims are allowed to visit during certain hours, but Jews cannot pray there.

In recent years, increasing numbers of religious and ultra-nationalist Jews have visited the site, stoking fears among the Palestinians that Israel intends to one day partition it, as it has done to a similar site in the West Bank town of Hebron that is sacred to both faiths.

The status quo

Israel has repeatedly said it has no intention of changing the status quo and accuses Islamist groups of spreading unfounded rumors to incite violence. The Trump plan, which heavily favors Israel, says the status quo should “continue uninterrupted.”

But the plan also says “people of every faith should be permitted to pray on the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, in a manner that is fully respectful to their religion, taking into account the times of each religion’s prayers and holidays, as well as other religious factors.”

Palestinians view the sprawling esplanade as the last bit of territory that is fully theirs and the Dome of the Rock as a symbol of their national cause. Muslim worshippers have clashed with police there on numerous occasions in recent years in response to perceived infringements. A provocative visit to the site by Ariel Sharon, a right-wing politician who went on to become prime minister, ignited the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in 2000.

The site is part of the Old City in east Jerusalem, which Israel captured, along with the West Bank and Gaza, in the 1967 war. The Palestinians view east Jerusalem as their capital and want all three territories to form their future state.

Trump’s Mideast plan would create a disjointed Palestinian state with a capital on the outskirts of east Jerusalem, beyond the separation barrier built by Israel. The rest of Jerusalem, including the Old City, would remain Israel’s capital.

The plan would allow Israel to annex large parts of the West Bank almost immediately, while Palestinian statehood would be heavily restricted and subject to several preconditions that the Palestinians have always rejected.

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From: MeNeedIt