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Police block Thunberg, marchers in Dutch climate protest

Police block Thunberg, marchers in Dutch climate protest
Climate activists march to block the A12 highway to ensure that the Dutch government stops subsidies for fossil fuels, in The Hague on Apr. 6, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 06 April 2024
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Police block Thunberg, marchers in Dutch climate protest

Police block Thunberg, marchers in Dutch climate protest
  • Dozens of police officers, some on horseback, blocked protesters from reaching the A12 arterial highway into the Dutch seaside city
  • “It’s important to demonstrate today because we are living in a state of planetary emergency,” Thunberg told AFP
Updated 06 April 2024
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THE HAGUE: At least one protester was arrested on Saturday after a tense stand-off with police during a climate march against fossil subsidies, which was joined by environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg.
Dozens of police officers, some on horseback, blocked protesters from reaching the A12 arterial highway into the Dutch seaside city, the scene of previous actions organized by the Extinction Rebellion (XR) group.
Carrying XR flags and placards saying “Stop fuel subsidies now!” and “The planet is dying!,” protesters marched from the city center to a field next to the highway, where they were met by a wall of law enforcement.
Thunberg, dressed in a grey top, black trousers and blue shoes, joined the group at the start and was chanting songs with the group as they came to an abrupt stop.
“It’s important to demonstrate today because we are living in a state of planetary emergency,” Thunberg told AFP as police blocked marchers.
“We must do everything to avoid that crisis and to save human lives,” she said.
At least one protester was arrested and dragged away to a waiting police van, an AFP correspondent saw.
Asked whether she was concerned about police action and arrest, Thunberg said: “Why should I be?“
Activists said that despite majority backing by the Dutch parliament as well as broad popular support to slash fossil fuel subsidies, “the plans will not be implemented before 2030, or even 2035.”
“Meanwhile the ecological crisis continues to rage and the country’s outgoing cabinet pretends that we have all the time in the world, while the crisis is now,” XR said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The protest, added XR, was part of a plan to pressure the Dutch government ahead of another planned debate about fossil subsidies in June.

Topics: Greta Thunberg The Hague climate fossil subsidies

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Congo doubles salaries for beleaguered army amid rebel advance

The conflict has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and piled pressure on President Felix Tshisekedi. (Reuters)
The conflict has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and piled pressure on President Felix Tshisekedi. (Reuters)
Updated 33 sec ago
Reuters
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Congo doubles salaries for beleaguered army amid rebel advance

The conflict has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and piled pressure on President Felix Tshisekedi. (Reuters)
  • We learned that our pay has been doubled, but we have not yet experienced this increase because our salary has been frozen
Updated 33 sec ago
Reuters AFP

KINSHASA: Democratic Republic of Congo doubled salaries for soldiers and police on Friday, the Finance Ministry said, in an apparent bid to boost morale as Rwanda-backed M23 rebels advance in the east.
M23 has seized eastern Congo’s two largest cities in a swift offensive that has left thousands dead, forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes, and piled pressure on President Felix Tshisekedi.
The Finance Ministry said that the pay hikes will be “a turning point toward better conditions” for the army. An officer in North Kivu province said on Thursday he had heard about the raises, but said that troops had not received even their basic salaries over the last two months since banks shut following the fall of the city of Goma.
“We learned that our pay has been doubled, but we have not yet experienced this increase because our salary has been frozen,” the officer said.
Congo has roughly 260,000 soldiers and other security forces, according to the 2025 budget law.
Government documents show that official monthly salaries since 2022 have averaged between $100 and $200 for all ranks.
It was not immediately clear what effect the pay raise would have on the budget.
A draft law amending the budget for 2025 was due to be sent to lawmakers earlier this month, but that has not emerged.
“These expenses are being incurred outside the budget. This is serious because no one will be able to monitor the actual numbers and salaries of the military personnel to be paid,” Valery Madianga, a Congolese expert on public finances, said.
Rwanda denies allegations from Congo and the UN that it supports the M23 with arms and troops, saying its forces are acting in self defense against Congo’s army and militias hostile to Kigali.
Rwanda’s government severed links with Belgium on March 17, accusing it of having “consistently undermined” it during the conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
National and international NGOs working in Rwanda have been banned from cooperating with Belgian institutions, the Rwanda Governance Board said, after Kigali cut off diplomatic ties with Brussels earlier this month.
The RGB, which oversees service delivery in the east African nation, said the ban also extended to “faith-based organizations” and common-benefit companies.
The RGB said any current projects or agreements with the Belgian government or its affiliates were “prohibited” and “must be terminated immediately and reported.” “No funds, grants, donations, or financial contributions shall be received from or disbursed to the government of Belgium, its institutions, affiliated agencies or programs,” it said in a statement issued Thursday.
“Any attempts to circumvent these financial restrictions, including indirect transactions through subsidiaries or partner organizations, will be subject to strict penalties.”
Political and human rights activist Pelly Prudence Iraguha said the decision should have been submitted to parliament.
But RGB chief executive Doris Uwicyeza Picard wrote on X: “RGB has powers to take such decisions backed by laws passed by parliament.
“These laws give RGB powers to suspend NGOs involved in activities that infringe on citizens unity or security.”

 

Topics: Congo

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Mali condemns violence against migrants

Passengers from the Mauritanian side of the Senegal river disembark from a pirogue in Rosso, Senegal, on March 20, 2025. (AFP)
Passengers from the Mauritanian side of the Senegal river disembark from a pirogue in Rosso, Senegal, on March 20, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 11 min 12 sec ago
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Mali condemns violence against migrants

Passengers from the Mauritanian side of the Senegal river disembark from a pirogue in Rosso, Senegal, on March 20, 2025. (AFP)
  • More than 1,800 Malian migrants have been pushed back from Mauritania in recent weeks, according to Minister for Malians Living Abroad Mossa Ag Attaher
Updated 11 min 12 sec ago
AFP

BAMAKO: Mali says it is outraged over violence suffered by its citizens deported by neighboring Mauritania and has demanded the “flagrant violation of human rights” must end.
For several weeks, Mauritania has been throwing out migrants, mostly from neighboring countries in west Africa like Senegal, Mali, Ivory Coast, and Guinea.
The vast, arid country on the Atlantic seaboard is a departure point for many African migrants seeking to reach Europe by sea.
The authorities say their “routine” deportations target undocumented people.
But the campaign has sparked an outcry in the region.
“The government of Mali expresses its indignation and condemns with the utmost rigour the treatment suffered by its nationals in Mauritania,” it said in a statement released during a press conference on the issue held in the capital Bamako.
It also said it regretted “the conditions of arrest in flagrant violation of human rights and the rights of migrants in particular.
The government said it “calls on the Mauritanian authorities to show restraint and calls for an immediate cessation of violence against Malian nationals.”
Migrants’ rights groups such as SOS Esclaves have condemned arrests in “inhumane” conditions.
Mauritania says the migrants are returned to the border crossings through which they had entered the country.
More than 1,800 Malian migrants have been pushed back from Mauritania in recent weeks, according to Minister for Malians Living Abroad Mossa Ag Attaher.
Talks with Mauritania will continue “to preserve the solid historic ties between the two countries,” the Malian government said.
The state AMI news agency reported that Mali’s foreign minister, Abdoulaye Diop, visited Mauritania on Thursday to deliver a message on maintaining the “friendly and brotherly relations” between the two countries.
His Mauritanian counterpart, Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug, raised the issue of their respective citizens in each other’s country, AMI said.
But Ould Merzoug insisted that Mauritania “has the right to take all necessary measures to ensure its security and to protect its citizens,” the agency reported.

 

Topics: mali

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Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh welcome $73 million in new US financial aid

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh welcome $73 million in new US financial aid
Updated 51 min 52 sec ago
AP
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Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh welcome $73 million in new US financial aid

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh welcome $73 million in new US financial aid
  • The US had been the largest provider of aid to the Rohingya refugees, contributing nearly $2.4 billion since 2017 and providing the UN with emergency food and nutrition assistance, according to the State Department
Updated 51 min 52 sec ago
AP

COX’S BAZAR, Bangaldesh: The US government has confirmed it would provide $73 million in new financial aid for Rohingya refugees through the United Nations’ food agency, easing worries among more than 1 million refugees that essential food rations would be cut.
Aid agencies, the UN and refugees have voiced concerns after the World Food Program  warned it may be affected after US President Donald Trump’s administration announced it was cutting international aid.
The World Food Program said earlier this month that if it is not able to raise funds, it will have no option but to halve food rations to $6 a month from previous $12.50 in Bangladesh’s southern coastal district of Cox’s Bazar, where the Rohingya live in sprawling camps.

FASTFACT

The US had been the largest provider of aid to the Rohingya refugees, contributing nearly $2.4 billion since 2017.

Bangladesh government’s Refugee, Relief and Repatriation Commissioner, Mohammed Mizanur Rahman, told reporters that he received confirmation from the WFP on Thursday that refugees in Cox’s Bazar — as well as the thousands who have been relocated to Bhashan Char island — will continue to receive $12 to $13 a month each in aid.
“This food and nutrition support through WFP will provide critically needed food and nutrition assistance for more than one million people,” US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday.
“It is important that our international partners engage with sharing the burden with life-saving assistance such as this,” Bruce added.
The US had been the largest provider of aid to the Rohingya refugees, contributing nearly $2.4 billion since 2017 and providing the UN with emergency food and nutrition assistance, according to the State Department. The US provided about $300 million in humanitarian aid for the Rohingyas in 2024.
Refugees in Cox’s Bazar welcomed the announcement that aid will continue.
“I am glad that the president of America is donating the money, which will help (provide food for) our grandchildren. We are very happy,” said 60-year-old Hussain Bahar.
Forid Alam, a 36-year-old refugee at Balukhali Rohingya refugee camp, said the announcement was a gift coming days before Muslims’ largest festival Eid Al-Fitr.
“We are grateful to the people of Bangladesh, its government, and the donors who are donating. We are so thrilled after hearing the news ahead of Eid that we don’t have words to express our gratitude. We are praying from the bottom of our hearts and are truly glad,” he said.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, who visited Bangladesh recently, said Cox’s Bazar is “ground zero for the impact of the budget cuts on people in desperate need.”
Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya reside in Bangladesh, including more than 700,000 who arrived in 2017 fleeing persecution in Myanmar. About 70,000 others crossed the border from Myanmar in 2024 when, during fighting with the military junta, the opposition force known as the Arakan Army effectively took over the Rakhine state where Rohingya were displaced.
Bangladesh says repatriation of the refugees to Myanmar is the ultimate solution, but complexities over verification and other diplomatic and political issues have made the refugees’ return uncertain.

 

Topics: Rohingya Bangladesh

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Nepal police clash with pro-monarchy demonstrators

Nepal police fire tear gas to disperse pro-monarchy demonstrators demanding a Hindu state, in Kathmandu on March 28, 2025. (AFP)
Nepal police fire tear gas to disperse pro-monarchy demonstrators demanding a Hindu state, in Kathmandu on March 28, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 56 min 40 sec ago
AFP
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Nepal police clash with pro-monarchy demonstrators

Nepal police fire tear gas to disperse pro-monarchy demonstrators demanding a Hindu state, in Kathmandu on March 28, 2025. (AFP)
  • The Himalayan nation adopted a federal/republican political system in 2008 after monarchy was abolished
Updated 56 min 40 sec ago
AFP

KATMANDU: Nepal police fired tear gas and water cannon on Friday to disperse thousands of people gathered in Katmandu demanding the restoration of the monarchy, prompting authorities to impose a curfew in the area.

The Himalayan nation adopted a federal and republican political system in 2008 after parliament abolished the monarchy as part of a peace deal that ended a decade-long civil war responsible for more than 16,000 deaths.
Support for the restoration of the monarchy re-enshrining Hinduism as the state religion has grown in tandem with popular dissatisfaction over political instability, corruption and lackluster economic development.
“The country should have developed significantly. People should have had better job opportunities, peace and security and good governance. We should have been corruption-free,” Mina Subedi, 55, who joined the demonstration, told AFP.
“But things have only deteriorated.”
Protesters gathered near the national parliament chanting that the king and country were “dearer to us than life.”
Police spokesman Dinesh Kumar Acharya told AFP that police fired tear gas and water cannon to clear the demonstrators after they broke into a restricted area and vandalized buildings.
Local authorities announced a curfew in the area after the clash.
Opposition parties marshalled thousands more people at a counter-demonstration elsewhere in the capital to “safeguard the republican system.”
“Nepalis will not return to the past,” said Pushpa Kamal Dahal, a former guerrilla chief who led the decade-long Maoist insurgency before entering politics and has since served as prime minister three times.
“Maybe they have dared to raise their heads because us republic supporters have not been able to deliver as per the wishes and wants of the people.”
Abdicated king Gyanendra Shah, 77, had largely refrained from commenting on Nepal’s fractious politics, but recently made several public appearances with supporters.
Shah was crowned in 2001 after his elder brother king Birendra Bir Bikram Shah and his family were killed in a palace massacre that wiped out most of the royal family.
His coronation took place as the Maoist insurgency was raging in far-flung corners of Nepal.
Shah suspended the constitution and dissolved parliament in 2005, triggering a democratic uprising in which the Maoists sided with Nepal’s political establishment to orchestrate huge street protests.
That eventually precipitated the end of the conflict, with parliament voting in 2008 to abolish Nepal’s 240-year-old Hindu monarchy.

 

Topics: nepal

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Lithuania says ‘long night ahead’ in US soldiers search

Lithuania says ‘long night ahead’ in US soldiers search
Updated 28 March 2025
AFP
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Lithuania says ‘long night ahead’ in US soldiers search

Lithuania says ‘long night ahead’ in US soldiers search
  • “Another long night ahead,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene said
  • The Lithuanian army said earlier they were “moving forward” on their goal to “turn the swamp into water so divers can jump in“
Updated 28 March 2025
AFP

PABRADE, Lithuania: Lithuania’s defense minister said on Friday that rescuers faced “another long night” in their operation to recover the submerged vehicle of four missing US soldiers.
Authorities from the Baltic state received a report on Tuesday that the soldiers had disappeared during a military drill on a training ground in the eastern city of Pabrade, near the border with Belarus.
Search and rescue teams were at the scene on Friday, using heavy military equipment and excavators to remove silt from the body of water where the vehicle had been located.
“Another long night ahead,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Sakaliene said on social network X.
The Lithuanian army said earlier they were “moving forward” on their goal to “turn the swamp into water so divers can jump in.”


The US army said on Friday it was sending a specialized US Navy dive crew that was “expected to arrive on site within the next 24 hours.”
Local and foreign troops, along with helicopters from the air force and the state border guard service, have been deployed in the search effort.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said he was “still hoping for a miracle.”
“Although many skeptics would probably say that there is nothing to hope for in these circumstances, I want to believe,” he told reporters.
The M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle the missing US soldiers had been operating was found several meters deep in a swamp connected to a nearby lake.
“The area around the site is incredibly wet and marshy and doesn’t support the weight of the equipment,” US Army Europe and Africa’s public affairs office said in a statement.
“Draining the area has been slow and difficult due to ground water seepage,” it added.
“This will be a long and difficult recovery operation, but we are absolutely committed to bringing our soldiers home,” said Curtis Taylor, Commanding General of the 1st Armored Division.
The main goal was to remove the mud from the submerged vehicle and identify possible attachment points for extraction, Lithuanian Armed Forces chief General Raimundas Vaiksnoras said.
Lithuania, a NATO and EU member, hosts more than 1,000 American troops stationed on a rotational basis.

Topics: US soldiers Lithuania

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Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh welcome $73 million in new US financial aid
Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh welcome $73 million in new US financial aid

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