Voice of America’s immigration news

abuja, nigeria — A regional African court has ruled that Nigerian authorities violated the rights of protesters during mass demonstrations against police brutality in 2020. The protests, dubbed End SARS, called for disbanding the Special Anti-Robbery Squad after allegations of torture, extortion and extrajudicial killings. A coalition of human rights activists and organizations sued in late 2021. Applicants  Obianuju Udeh, Perpetual Kamsi and Dabiraoluwa Adeyinka alleged severe human rights violations by state agents as they put down the street protests. In its verdict issued Wednesday, a three-member panel of the Court of Justice - linked with the Economic Community of West African States, or ECOWAS - determined that Nigerian authorities had used disproportionate force in their response to the protests. The panel said security agents had violated the African Charter on Human and People's Rights as well as several international human rights laws. Bolaji Gabari, lead counsel representing the applicants, welcomed the verdict. "Justice is finally achieved and obtained. ... What we were really looking for was to get an affirmation that this really happened," Gabari said. "This judgment just affirms what we have been saying. The other applicants that came forward initially considered their safety and withdrew." The ECOWAS court ordered the Nigerian government to compensate each applicant with $6,400, or about 10 million naira; to investigate the rights abuses; and to show progress on holding offenders responsible within six months. The court also stated that the use of live rounds against protesters at the Lekki toll gate on October 20, 2020, caused fear, and that the Nigerian government did not present evidence refuting those allegations. Authorities have not responded to the court ruling, and a national police spokesperson did not take VOA's calls for comment. But human rights groups like Amnesty International and some activists welcomed the court’s decision as a significant victory for human rights in Nigeria. Nelson Olanipekun, a human rights lawyer and founder of Citizens' Gavel, a civic organization that seeks to improve the pace of justice delivery through the use of technology, said, "The ECOWAS court judgment came at a right time, especially now that Nigerians are going through tough times. And there's also a regional move where Africans largely are recognizing their power as citizens. For example, what happened in Kenya — people demanding accountability from their government — was also similar to what happened during End SARS."  Olanipekun said, however, that more work needs to be done. "What is the next move? Since End SARS, even though the police have tried, there has been reoccurrence of incidents of police brutality in the country," he said. "It has not abated. There's no sufficient accountability and oversight over government organizations. Also, the Nigerian court has been weak, inefficient and corrupt. They're not independent enough." Thousands of young Nigerians poured into the streets in October 2020 to demand the dissolution of the SARS unit, but the protest soon expanded to call for better governance before it was forcefully quelled on October 20. Last October, Amnesty International said at least 15 End SARS protesters languished in a Lagos jail while activists marked the third anniversary of the protests.

Members of the world’s largest military alliance converge in Washington to commemorate NATO's 75th anniversary. Explore the pressing issues of European security and Ukraine’s defense. Plus, catch up on the latest developments in elections across Britain, France, and the United States.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Water for irrigation is once again flowing from Syria’s Al Balaa reservoir after it was rehabilitated recently following years of wartime attacks. With Moawia Atrash and Ahmad Fallaha, Dorian Jones reports the dam’s restoration has opened a lifeline for besieged farmers in the face of a continuing war, rising unemployment, and food insecurity. (Camera: Moawia Atrash, Ahmad Fallaha)

nairobi, kenya — The combination of climate change and a growing world population may threaten global food security. As the United Nations marks World Population Day, changes in agriculture, especially in Africa, may be the only way forward. The global population is expected to grow over the next 60 years, from 8.2 billion today to 10.3 billion in the 2080s. Much of that growth will occur in Africa, where many countries still have high fertility rates. The United Nations Population Fund said climate change is expected to exacerbate global inequalities and trigger national and international migration. U.N. agencies say 1 billion of the 1.3 billion people living in Africa struggle to afford healthy diets and hunger worsened between 2019 and 2022. Food needs grow, farmland shrinks Africa's farmland has been shrinking because of persistent drought, while the growing population leaves less space to farm. Chris Ojiewo, principal scientist at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, said African farmers need to produce a lot of food in small spaces to feed the growing population. "We cannot even think of a human way ... or ethical way to stop population growth, so let it grow but let us people able to produce more within a small area," said Ojiewo. "For example, where we are able to produce only one ton of maize per hectare, why don't we work and that is what we are doing to improve this productivity to go beyond 1 ton to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 to 10 tons per hectare, considering developing varieties but also production systems that enable us to produce in the intensified system but also to produce even when there is drought." Speaking at a conference in Mexico this week, Ann Vaughan, deputy assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, said scientific research and technology can help farmers cope with climate change and assist them in cultivating diverse crops. "To help make sure we are accelerating smart innovations so that farmers are getting access so even in the face of horrific drought, they are still able to produce food for themselves and their families," said Vaughan. "... what that looks like is making sure we have the right science, the right seeds, the right private sector partners who are pulling and creating a demand for these types of seeds, diversifying so that you are not just growing maize but you are also growing cowpeas and other things which are more resilient to climate change and the brighter type of practices so that you are mixing intercropping and having less tilt." Initiative promotes sustainable practices In 2010, the U.S. government launched Feed the Future, an initiative aimed at addressing the causes of hunger and poverty in developing countries worldwide. The program improved African agriculture systems by promoting sustainable practices that considered climate challenges. That helped increase economic opportunities, employment and trade. In some African countries, the dominance of maize crops as the primary source of food has worried experts. The crop relies on rain, and climate change is causing unpredictable rainfall patterns. African farmers must change when and what they grow to produce enough food, said Ojiewo. "Ensuring that production and productivity continue, whether in season or off-season, does not necessarily mean relying 100 percent on rain-fed agriculture," said Ojiewo. "Diversification, as I mentioned here, does not mean overlying on one single crop for population survival. I know many countries are relying on maize in terms of cereals and ignoring some of the other crops that will fit into these systems." Due to increasing drought in several African countries, farmers are urged to cultivate crops such as cassava, sorghum, pigeon peas, and pearl millet, which are resilient to unpredictable and harsh conditions.

Washington — While much of the focus at the NATO summit in Washington has been on providing additional support for Ukraine, some Western officials are equally intent on confronting another challenge unleashed by Russia’s invasion: a nascent arms race with global implications. The officials argue it is no longer enough to try to ensure Ukraine has the weapons and systems it needs to keep pace with Russia’s unrelenting attacks. They say NATO must simultaneously prepare to outspend, outpace and outproduce the fledgling alliance that has kept the Russian military on the move. “There is no time to lose,” a NATO official told VOA, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the growing defense cooperation among Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. “This must be a key priority for all our allies, because it is not just about spending more,” the official said. “It is also on getting those capabilities.” Officials have repeatedly accused China of playing a critical role in sustaining Russia’s military by sending Moscow raw materials and so-called dual-use components needed to produce advanced weapons and weapons systems. In April and May, the United States and Britain levied new sanctions against Iranian companies and officials involved in the production of drones for the Russian military. And declassified U.S. intelligence has noted Russia’s use of North Korean ballistic missiles, while South Korean officials said earlier this year that Pyongyang has so far sent Russia at least 6,700 containers which could contain more than 3 million artillery shells.  The NATO official who spoke to VOA said the support from China, Iran and North Korea has significantly altered Russia’s posture on the battlefield, rendering intelligence assessments that Russia’s military “will require years of rebuilding” obsolete.   “When you look at the assessments of the pace of reconstitution of the Russian armed forces and the Russian defense industrial and technological base, those assessments were made without taking into account how much China would be stepping in,” the official said. And there are concerns this is just the beginning. The prospect for increased cooperation between Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, “essentially underlines the urgency of the task at hand,” the official said. Some U.S. officials have taken to calling the growing alliance a new “axis of evil.” “We ought to act accordingly,” former commander of U.S. forces in the Indo-Pacific Admiral John Aquilino told lawmakers in March.  Some analysts are also alarmed, seeing signs that the defense relationship between Russia and the other countries is moving beyond a series of bilateral efforts to support Moscow’s war in Ukraine. “What we are seeing now is … an intensification, a deepening of these strategic partnerships,” said Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “Whether or not they're 100% aligned all the time, every day, what's important is that on the strategic capabilities that they're building in partnership, they are aligned,” Goldberg, a U.S. National Security Council official under former President Donald Trump, told VOA. “Our response has to view them as an axis, not individual parts.” But how quickly that axis evolves into a true rival to NATO is less certain. “There are still significant tension points between the four countries that prevent the formation of a more cohesive alliance,” said Michelle Grisé, a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. “Within the Russia-Iran relationship, for example, friction points include competition for energy markets and for influence in the Caucasus, as well as — at least historically —divergent approaches to Israel,” Grisé told VOA. “The Russia-China-North Korea-Iran axis poses a serious threat to U.S. and NATO interests, but I don’t think this axis is an unsurmountable rival,” she said. “To form a more cohesive alliance, they’ll have to translate their shared opposition to the Western-led international order into a coherent, shared vision for the future, which I expect they’ll struggle to do.” NATO allies, however, are not ready to take such struggles by the evolving Russian-Chinese-North Korean-Iranian axis for granted. In a speech July 9 at the NATO Summit Defense Industry Forum in Washington, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks noted the “rapid defense industrial expansion of our strategic competitors,” while urging NATO allies to expand cooperation on weapons procurement and development. As an example, Hicks cited an effort by the U.S., Germany, Spain and others to produce interceptors for Patriot air defense batteries in Europe while praising a U.S.-Turkish effort to produce 155-millimeter artillery shells in the southern U.S. state of Texas. “None of us should think it’s enough,” she said. “Expanding transatlantic defense industrial capacity is not a nice-to-do. It is a need-to-do, a must-do for the NATO alliance.” Even if the NATO efforts to boost weapons production are not enough, some officials see them as a reason to believe the West can retain an upper hand. “I think that the steps and the progress we're making is really delivering results,” the NATO official told VOA, adding, they “wouldn't be overly pessimistic.” “On issues like ammunitions, you're starting to see the ramping up actually materializing,” the official said. “And I think if we look at the year to come, we're going to have much better, much better numbers.” 

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

NATO criticizes China for helping support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. US to station long-range missiles in Germany, a move Moscow says is “aggressive.” President Zelenskyy went to Capitol Hill and VOA was there, plus an update from Kyiv. A look at a plan for the next presidential administration put together by extreme conservatives that some are calling authoritarian and antithetical to the American system of checks and balances within government.

Islamabad — A new United Nations report says the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), an alliance of extremist groups, is “the largest terrorist group” in Afghanistan and receives growing support from that country’s Taliban rulers to conduct cross-border attacks in Pakistan. The U.N. sanctions monitoring team released the assessment late Wednesday amid a dramatic surge in TTP-led terror attacks against Pakistani security forces and civilians, killing hundreds of them in recent weeks. “TTP continues to operate at a significant scale in Afghanistan and to conduct terrorist operations into Pakistan from there, often utilizing Afghans,” the report read. It noted that the globally designated terrorist group, also known as the Pakistani Taliban, is operating in Afghanistan with an estimated strength of 6,000-6,500 fighters. “Further, the Taliban have proved unable or unwilling to manage the threat from Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan, whose attacks into Pakistan have intensified,” the document said. “Taliban support to TTP also appears to have increased.” The deadly violence has strained relations between Islamabad and the de facto Taliban government in Kabul, which denies allegations of the presence of any terrorist groups or that it allows the use of Afghan soil to threaten neighboring countries. “The Taliban do not conceive of TTP as a terrorist group: the bonds are close, and the debt owed to TTP is significant,” the U.N. report said.  TTP emerged in Pakistan’s volatile border areas in 2007, providing recruits and shelter to the Afghan Taliban as they intensified insurgent attacks against U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan in the years that followed. The international forces withdrew from the country in August 2021, clearing the way for the Taliban to reclaim power from the then-U.S.-backed Afghan government in Kabul. Al-Qaida links The U.N. report said regional al-Qaida operatives in Afghanistan, who have long-term ties to the Taliban, are assisting TTP in conducting high-profile terrorist activities inside Pakistan. The Taliban have not immediately responded to the latest U.N. findings, but they have previously rejected such reports as propaganda meant to malign their government, which they call the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The U.N. assessment quoted member states as noting that TTP operatives, along with local fighters, are being trained in al-Qaida camps that the terrorist outfit has set up in multiple border provinces such as Nangarhar, Kandahar, Kunar, and Nuristan. Al-Qaida's support for TTP also involves sharing Afghan fighters for military staffing or attack formations. The report quoted one U.N. member state as expressing concern that “greater collaboration” with al-Qaida could transform TTP into an “extra-regional threat.” US weapons and TTP U.N. member states reiterated that NATO “caliber weapons, especially night vision capability, that have been provided to TTP since the Taliban takeover add lethality to TTP terrorist attacks against Pakistani military border posts.” Officials in Islamabad have also repeatedly attributed the increasing number of casualties among security forces to the modern U.S. weapons that were left behind by international forces and have fallen into the hands of TTP. The U.S. Department of Defense responded to the allegations in a quarterly report made public in late May, saying that Pakistani intelligence forces recovered a few U.S.-manufactured small arms, including M-16 and M-4 rifles, following counterterrorism operations earlier this year. “Militants, including the TTP, are probably using only a limited quantity of U.S.-origin weaponry and equipment, including small arms and night vision goggles, to conduct attacks in Pakistan,” the U.S. report said. It added, however, that “the amount of U.S.-origin weaponry that Pakistani sources allege is in the hands of anti-Pakistan militants is likely an exaggeration.” Islamabad has repeatedly called on Kabul to rein in TTP-led cross-border terrorism, apprehend its leaders, including Mehsud, and hand them over to Pakistan. The Taliban’s response has been that TTP is an internal security issue for Pakistan to handle instead of blaming Afghanistan. TTP has gradually intensified the number of attacks against Pakistan from 573 in 2021 to 1,203 in 2023, with the trend continuing into 2024, according to the U.N. report. Pakistani officials also attribute the spike in violence to the “greater operational freedom” the terror outfit has enjoyed in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power almost three years ago. The Taliban’s spy agency, the General Directorate of Intelligence, facilitated three new guest houses in Kabul for TTP leaders and reportedly issued passes to senior TTP figures to facilitate ease of movement and immunity from arrest, as well as weapons permits, according to the U.N. report. The assessment noted that the Taliban are concerned that “excessive pressure” might lead TTP to collaborate with the Afghanistan-based Islamic State affiliate, known as IS Khorasan, which routinely plots deadly attacks on Taliban security forces and members of the Afghan Shiite minority. 

The killing of a sixth journalist in Pakistan underscores the dangers for local media, say analysts and reporters. With threats increasing, including on the border with Afghanistan, some journalists fear for their safety. For VOA News' Tabinda Naeem, Elizabeth Cherneff narrates.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Pakistan is increasingly becoming an authoritarian state, critics say. On Monday, the government authorized a military spy agency to tap civilians’ phones. From Islamabad, VOA Pakistan bureau chief Sarah Zaman looks at why the state is clamping down on people’s rights to free speech and privacy. Camera: Wajid Asad   

Washington — The House rejected a GOP effort Thursday to fine Attorney General Merrick Garland $10,000 a day until he turns over audio of President Joe Biden's interview in his classified documents case as a handful of Republicans resisted taking an aggressive step against a sitting Cabinet official. Even if the resolution — titled inherent contempt — had passed, it was unclear how the fine would be enforced as the dispute over the tape of Biden's interview with special counsel Robert Hur is now playing out in court. The House voted 204-210, with four Republicans joining all Democrats, to halt a Republican resolution that would have imposed the fine, effectively rebuffing the latest effort by GOP lawmakers to assert its enforcement powers — weeks after Biden asserted executive privilege to block the release of the recording. "This is not a decision that we have reached lightly but the actions of the attorney general cannot be ignored," Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., the resolution's lead sponsors, said during debate Wednesday. "No one is above the law." The House earlier this year made Garland the third attorney general in U.S. history to be held in contempt of Congress. But the Justice Department said Garland would not be prosecuted, citing the agency's "longstanding position and uniform practice" to not prosecute officials who don't comply with subpoenas because of a president's claim of executive privilege. Democrats blasted the GOP effort as another political stunt. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., said that the resolution is unjustified in the case of Garland because he has complied with subpoena. "Their frustration is that they can't get their hands on an audio recording that they think they could turn into an RNC attack ad," McGovern said in reference to the Republican National Committee. "When you start making a mockery of things like inherent contempt you diminish this institution." Garland himself has defended the Justice Department, saying officials have gone to extraordinary lengths to provide information to the committees about Hur's classified documents investigation, including a transcript of Biden's interview. However, Garland has said releasing the audio could jeopardize future sensitive investigations because witnesses might be less likely to cooperate if they know their interviews might become public. House Republicans sued Garland earlier this month in an attempt to force the release of the recording. Republicans have accused Biden of suppressing the recording because he's afraid to have voters hear it during an election year. The White House and Democratic lawmakers, meanwhile, have slammed Republicans' motives for pursuing contempt and dismissed their efforts to obtain the audio as purely political. The congressional inquiry began with the release of Hur's report in February, which found evidence that Biden willfully retained and shared highly classified information when he was a private citizen. Yet the special counsel concluded that criminal charges were not warranted. Republicans, incensed by Hur's decision, issued a subpoena for audio of his interviews with Biden during the spring. But the Justice Department turned over only some of the records, leaving out audio of the interview with the president. Beyond the bitingly critical assessment of Biden's handling of sensitive government records, Hur offered unflattering characterizations of the Democratic president's memory in his report, sparking fresh questions about his competency and age that cut at voters' most deep-seated concerns about the 81-year-old seeking a second term.