Did your smart phone cost you a lot of money? It is possible it is costing somebody their life in Congo. Hundreds of thousands of Congolese people risk their lives mining minerals to power your phone. And the demand will only intensify with the growing market for electric cars.Sylvain Obedi, Executive Director of Enable the Disabled Action in Congo, was recently in Iowa.
He was part of a delegation of African professionals on a multi-city tour of the U.S. to explore human rights. “The situation in Congo is disastrous, with an ongoing conflict primarily fueled by the M23 rebel group supported by the Rwandan government. This has led to massive displacement, loss of human lives, with clashes in the city of Goma.” Obedi says his country is currently experiencing “a humanitarian crisis affecting millions of people.”
Whether or not you agree that the U.S. has a responsibility to provide humanitarian assistance to countries as compensation for harmful activities such as tampering in governments and exploiting resources, the assistance has also served the U.S. as a form of soft power. It tempers Russian and Chinese aspirations, especially in Africa where Chinese influence has grown significantly over the past two decades. USAID has created more favourable markets for America.
And many people do not see USAID as criminal. According to Obedi, their “assistance has been crucial for providing humanitarian aid, supporting initiatives for the rights of persons with disabilities, and facilitating access to services for marginalized populations, although there is always room for increased support and collaboration.”
USAID provides more than humanitarian assistance, they work in crisis stabilization, governance and counterterrorism. The oversight we once had over corrupt practices and ensuring that responsible investors are in control have been abandoned. We have essentially handed over the purse strings to China or others who may or may not do the work of USAID in improving economic stability and ameliorating trade with the US.
Our codependent relationships with our smartphones is one reason why USAID oversight was essential. “American consumerism, particularly in mobile phones and electric vehicles, drives the demand for minerals like coltan and cobalt, which often come from conflict regions, primarily in the eastern part of my country,” Obedi explained to me. “This demand can exacerbate exploitation and violence against local communities.”
And Iowa’s connection with Congo and USAID goes beyond the electronics many of us are attached. The dismantling of USAID will cut off research funding received by our state universities and affect our farmers. It is hard to say how much of the $450 million in USAID food distributions was grown in Iowa, but suffice it to say it will add insult to injury with the other $10 million broken promise to Iowa farmers for their conservation initiatives.
Obedi wants “Americans to understand that Congo is a resource-rich nation but is ravaged by conflict and systemic inequality. Repeated armed conflicts and the ongoing war have devastating effects on its population, especially on the most vulnerable. The disabled population, which represents 15% of the Congolese population, faces immense challenges, including lack of accessibility, social stigma, and barriers to accessing healthcare and education.
Our rights and needs must be prioritized in all humanitarian efforts.” He says that “Americans can advocate for ethical sourcing of materials, support organizations working for peace and human rights in Congo, like mine, and push for policies that hold accountable those who perpetuate violence and the illegal exploitation of our resources.”
The circumstances behind the issues in Congo are complex and go beyond the minerals themselves. While some violent groups have sought control over the mineral trade, there is a long history of corruption, destructive colonialist practices and political mismanagement that have led to the horrifying violence and desperate conditions in Eastern Congo.
Admirably, these conditions have not led to apathy and despair for all. Obedi is a model of resilience. Despite many obstacles he has faced in his life, including the loss of his leg at the age of three due to poliomyelitis, he perseveres. He has a peaceful yet powerful aura about him.
He believes strongly on resilience and self-reliance, not just for himself, but for his people. “It is important to highlight the resilience of the Congolese people and the grassroots efforts being undertaken to advocate for peace and rights, despite the challenges. My dream for Congo is to have a peaceful and inclusive society where all individuals, regardless of their disabilities, can thrive. I envision a country where human rights are respected, and everyone has access to education and healthcare.”
Some say we have hungry people in America and others in need, and many have fallen prey to the dangers of the America First fallacy. It was the failed strategy leading up to World War I. Even if we ignore the racism and xenophobia behind America First (which we shouldn’t ignore), aid to foreign countries does not preclude helping others here in the states. Our government just has had different priorities.
So far this year these priorities have included stripping civil rights and trying to erase entire groups of people, snatching data out of the hands of doctors and scientists, and using expensive military planes to deport immigrants, among others. No wonder they haven’t had time to take action to make our eggs cheaper.
The reality is that we live in a global economy, and stable markets in other countries are good for American business. What we eat, what we drive, the electronics we use, and the clothes we put on our body come from around the globe. We depend on the world; the world should be able to depend on us. By Chris Espersen, The Gazette.
Egypt announced on Sunday its rejection of any attempt to form a parallel Sudanese government or any action that threatens the unity and sovereignty of Sudan.
“The Arab Republic of Egypt expresses its rejection of any attempts that threaten the unity, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Sudan, including efforts to establish a parallel Sudanese government," the Egyptian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
It further warned that such attempts "complicate the situation in Sudan, hinder ongoing efforts to unify the visions of Sudanese political forces, and worsen the humanitarian crisis."
Egypt also urged all Sudanese factions to "prioritize the country’s national interest and engage positively in launching an inclusive political process without exclusion or external interference."
On Feb. 22, the Sudanese paramilitary group the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), along with Sudanese political groups and armed movements, signed a political charter in Nairobi, Kenya, to form a parallel government opposing Sudanese authorities.
The Sudanese government protested Kenya's hosting of what it called a "conspiracy to establish a government" for the RSF.
On Feb. 20, Sudan recalled its ambassador to Nairobi, Kamal Jabara, in protest against Kenya's involvement in discussions aimed at forming a "parallel government," as announced by the Sudanese Foreign Ministry at the time.
Kenya, however, defended its role, stating that hosting the meetings was part of its efforts to find solutions for ending the war in Sudan in coordination with the UN and the African Union.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese army has been making gains against the RSF in several regions, including Khartoum, Gezira, White Nile, and North Kordofan.
In Khartoum State, which consists of three cities, the army now controls 90% of Bahri in the north, most of Omdurman in the west, and 60% of Khartoum city, where the presidential palace and international airport are located. However, the RSF still maintains positions in the eastern and southern neighbourhoods of Khartoum.
Sudan has been embroiled in a war between the Sudanese army and the RSF since mid-April 2023 killing more than 20,000 people and displacing 14 million, according to the UN and local authorities. Research from US universities, however, estimates the death toll at around 130,000. By Amer Solyman and Ikram Kouachi Anadolu Agency
Child Welfare of Kenya Registered Trustee Ludeki Chweya makes his presentationsbefore Social Protection Committee in consideration of 2025/2026 Budget Policy Statement at Bunge Towers, Nairobi. February 25th,2025. Present were Labour CS Alfred Mutua, PS Joseph Mutari and CWSK CEO Irene Mureithi. [Elvis Ogina, Standard]
Kenyan children are facing unprecedented budget cuts that threaten their well being as successive decisions expose the country’s vulnerable.
From serious budget reduction in the education sector to suspension of critical health programmes for school going children and an uncertain funding in higher education, the children are exposed.
And the latest blow, the government’s recent decision to defund and dissolve the Children Welfare Society of Kenya (CWSK) casts a dark shadow over the future of more than 700,000 vulnerable children.
The ripple effects are already being felt: homes in progress are threatened, children rescued from labour or the streets are at risk of abandonment, and the most vulnerable could be plunged into unimaginable peril.
When they appeared before the National Assembly’s Social Protection Committee on Tuesday, Chweya Ludeki, a member of the Child Welfare Society board of trustees told the MPs that the treasury cut the funding of CWSK to zero.
The Cabinet arrived at the decision to dissolve CWSK following President William Ruto’s directive for the merging of forty-two state corporations and dissolving of nine State corporations as part of fiscal consolidation efforts.
“I spent a whole twenty minutes trying to save the Society but there were a lot of questions that came up. It was however agreed that nobody would be losing their job,” Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua told the committee.
“After the meeting, I also wrote to the National Treasury to make funds available, but we have to be clever on how to save the agency. Even if that money came today, we cannot do the work they were doing,” Mutua added.
This new reality to defund and dissolve the agency may further expose thousands of Kenyan vulnerable children to homelessness, violence, dropping out of school, forced child labour or even death.
The history of Child Welfare Society of Kenya dates back to 1955 with existence that last 70 years.
In his presentation to the MPs, the CWSK trustee reported that the Society supports 700,000 children, mostly brought in by the Government for protection, medical care, education, and welfare.
According to Chweya, CWSK received Sh900 million from government allocation, Sh19.6 million from well-wishers and Sh2.6 million from own income generating activities.
Chweya noted that the directive to discontinue Treasury funding would have consequences for the hundreds of thousands of children under its care and support.
CWSK argued that 206,000 children will be at risk of loss of life, abuse, malnutrition, neglect and even becoming potential victims of trafficking, gender-based violence and radicalisation.
Under their Emergency Preparedness and Response pillar, the Society cushions families and children against emergences.
The Society’s representative further told MPs that 3,000 infants and toddlers in children’s homes might be displaced hence exposing them to the risk of abuse, abandonment and deny them basic care.
The committee further heard that efforts to re-unite 2,700 lost and found children with their families or setting them up for adoption would be hampered.
Further, the society supports a total 171,000 children through primary, secondary and university and a lack of funding is set to jeopardize the same.
Some of the functions of the society include rescuing lost, abandoned and abused children, providing shelter and caring for neglected and abused children, preventing exposure to child labour among others.
The 171,000 vulnerable children under the Society’s Education and Skills Development programme will also be at risk of dropping out school, exacerbating lack of access to education, increased risks of child labour, early marriage, increased teenage pregnancies, and exploitation.
The decision to defund will also expose further 156,000 Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) supported through family strengthening and psychosocial support while 50,000 others covered under the Society’s Child Labour and Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children programme will be at risk of being victims of the worst forms of child labour, child trafficking, teenage pregnancies, sexual exploitation and related abuse.
“In light of the above, I urge this committee to continue the funding of the Society for the reasons given. If funding is discontinued, the impact will be severe,” Ludeki told the committee.
Committee chair Alice Ng’ang’a pressed the CS to adopt a collaborative approach to ensure that funding to the society was restored, noting that it was unfortunate that the society would not receive funding from July next year.
“Here we are not dealing with infrastructure but the children of Kenya who are vulnerable. The members here understand what the Children Welfare Society has been doing. What now happens to the homes that are 85 per cent to completion and the 700,000 children under the welfare?” Ng’ang’a posed.
“Why does the government then send children to the society if it incapable to handle them? We need to be told what is going to happen to these children,” she added.
Seme MP James Nyikal sought to know what informed the Cabinet decision to defund and dissolve the agency and whether a serious impact assessment report was undertaken and the legal and structural relationship between the children’s department and the Children Welfare society.
“What is the purpose of taking from the right and giving to the left? It is very unfortunate that despite the society being in existence for the last 70 years, it is being scrapped by the stroke of a pen,” Kipkelion West MP Hillary Kiplangat, a committee member posed.
But this is not the first time the government is implementing policies that severely affect the future of the society’s most vulnerable, the children.
In the 2025/2026 financial year, the government has reduced education budget by Sh43.4 billion posing a financial crisis in the education sector.
With the reduction of education budget, key programmes, including free primary and secondary education are expected to be majorly affected.
Already the Principal Secretary for Basic Education Belio Kipsang has intimated that the funding gap may have a significant impact on school operations.
Speaking when he appeared before the National Assembly’s Education Committee, Dr Kipsang warned that about 982,127 students may miss out on capitation if the budget estimates are adopted.
Under the Free Day Secondary Education programme, the ministry required Sh76 billion for capitation but the government has only allocated Sh54 billion in the budget estimate, leaving a Sh22 billion gap.
Kipsang noted that the budget cuts will also affect primary schools with a Sh1.2 billion deficit, having been allocated Sh9.1 billion against the required Sh10.3 billion.
Children in junior secondary schools were also not spared in the government’s fiscal coverage cuts.
In junior secondary schools, there will be a Sh4 billion shortfall, as the budget team allocated Sh45.66 billion out of the required Sh49.72 billion.
“This goes against Chapter Four of the Constitution, which guarantees free and compulsory basic education,” Kipsang told the National Assembly’s Education Committee.
Students who sat their Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) last year are still uncertain when they will join universities after High Court Judge Chacha Mwita declined to lift orders quashing Kenya Kwanza’s new university funding model, leaving more than 400, 000 students stranded.
In his decision, Justice Mwita upheld the judgment made on December 20 last year, which declared the funding model unconstitutional.
The application had been filed by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) seeking a temporary suspension of the court’s decision to allow the regularisation of the new funding model.
“Public interest is better served when everyone operates within the law. The new funding model was found to be inconsistent with the Constitution and existing laws, and suspending its nullification would only allow actions taken outside the legal framework to continue,” Justice Mwita ruled.
“I am not persuaded that there is merit in granting the application. Therefore, the application dated January 27, 2025, is declined and dismissed,” he added.
The contested funding model, introduced by President Ruto on May 3, 2023, sought to allocate financial aid to university and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) students based on their household income.
But the contestation now leaves more than 400,000 students uncertain of financing their higher learning.
President Ruto’s administration also scrapped EduAfya Medical Scheme in December 2023.
The scheme was started in 2018 by the then President Uhuru Kenyatta to provide quality education alongside comprehensive healthcare for students in public and private schools.
EduAfya scheme covered 3.4 million secondary school learners for medical expenses through the defunct National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF).
All the students in public secondary schools were eligible for the scheme even If their parents /guardians had alternative medical insurance.
Among the services covered under EduAfya included outpatient, inpatient, dental and optical cover, emergency road and air rescue, overseas treatment, accident cover and life cover.
Despite efforts by stakeholders in the education sector calling for reinstatement of the scheme, the government has remained adamant.
Instead, PS Kipsang last year directed all learners to register for Social Health Insurance Fund (SHIF).
“All school going children are required to register as dependents of their parents before school opening dates for the third term of 2024,” said Kipsang.
On January 31, Kipsang wrote to County and Sub-County directors of education directing them to emphasize on the need to register under SHA.
“The Act provides that every Kenyan, including children, shall register on SHA. In this regard, parents/guardians of school going children are required to register them on Social Health Authority, following the instructions,” read the letter in part.
The Ministry of Education set a deadline of February 28, 2025, for the registration to be completed.
In another blow, Social Health Authority Chief Executive Officer Robert Ingasira recently announced that teenage mothers will have to pay for insurance premiums.
This means that pregnant girls and teenage mothers below 18 years cannot be covered by their parents’ medical insurance.
Instead, Ingasira revealed that expectant teenagers would be subject to a means-testing to determine if they require financial assistance from the government or not.
The SHA chief executive argued that the programme is deliberately meant to help teenage mothers and to address the gap in the previous health scheme.
“The initial arrangement where teenage mothers were being identified using their mother’s ID created problems for us because some had mothers who were still within the childbearing age,” said the CEO during the signing of an MoU between SHA and the Murang’a County government.
“So you would find issues where a mother could reportedly be said to have given birth more than twice in a year just because her ID was used for her own delivery and also for her daughter’s delivery,” Ingasira added.
Under SHA, pregnant underage children will be issued with “temporary IDs” different from their parents’ number within the Integrated Healthcare Information Technology System (IHTS).
Through means testing, SHA will evaluate individual’s financial capacity to allow the system determine their annual premium.
“How will 15-19 year-old teens pay for SHIF? They have no capacity to do so and shouldn’t this demographic automatically fall under indigent populations without having to fill in the questionnaires for the means testing tool?” wondered Margaret Nyambura, an advocate for Universal Health Coverage.
She argued that teenage pregnancies are already a tough situation to handle, without the additional hurdle of the girls having to pay for delivery.
“According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey (KDHS) 2022,15 per cent of girls aged between 15-19 in Kenya have ever been pregnant” Nyambura said.
Ingasira noted that if the teenager or their family is found to be vulnerable to afford premiums, the government will step in to cover costs. By Jacinta Mutura |The Standard
Starmer and Zelensky. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer welcomes Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to 10 Downing Street, London for a bilateral meeting to discuss the UK's support for Ukraine, and how we ensure a just and lasting peace that secures Ukraine's future sovereignty and security, backed up by strong security guarantees. March 1, 2025 in London England. Capital Pictures / MediaPunch/MediaPunch/IPx/Photo Courtesy
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain and France agreed to work with Ukraine on a ceasefire plan to present to the United States, following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's Oval Office clash with U.S. President Donald Trump. Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, Starmer expressed confidence that Trump seeks a lasting peace in Ukraine.
He reiterated that American security guarantees would be essential to ensuring its success. Later today, Starmer will host a summit of European leaders in London to discuss the ongoing situation in Ukraine.
The summit has taken on heightened significance in the wake of Trump's remarkable rebuke of Zelensky at the White House on Friday, criticizing him for a lack of gratitude toward U.S. support.
"There's a real problem for European leaders to pick up the pieces and try and move forward," former British national security adviser Peter Ricketts told BBC radio on Saturday. "It's going to be a damage limitation exercise. It's going to have to be an exercise in where do we go from here?" This is a breaking news story and will be updated. By Daniel Orton Newsweek World/ Miami Herald
Deputy Foreign Minister Lê Thị Thu Hằng said Việt Nam always attaches importance to traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Tanzania, considers the country one of Việt Nam's leading partners in Africa.
HÀ NỘI — Deputy Foreign Minister Lê Thị Thu Hằng visited Tanzania from February 27 to March 1 to strengthen bilateral ties on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations.
During the visit, she held talks with Tanzanian Foreign Minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo in Dar es Salaam to discuss measures to enhance the two countries' traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation, especially in trade and investment.
Deputy Minister Hằng said Việt Nam always attached importance to traditional friendship and multifaceted cooperation with Tanzania, considered the country one of Việt Nam's leading partners in Africa. She conveyed an invitation from Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Bùi Thanh Sơn for a visit to Việt Nam to Minister Kombo, who said he would arrange a Việt Nam visit in 2025.
Việt Nam, with expertise in aquaculture, would be willing to share and assist Tanzania, while urging the African country to jointly seek partners for the tripartite cooperation to leverage resources from developed nations, Hằng said.
Besides, Vietnamese businesses such as Viettel could participate in digital transformation and e-government building process in Tanzania, she added.
She proposed the two sides coordinate to organise the second session of the Joint Committee on Bilateral Cooperation and the Tanzanian side explore the possibility of Tanzania opening a diplomatic mission in Hà Nội.
Minister Kombo highlighted Tanzania’s potential in agriculture, mining, and high-tech industries and encouraged Vietnamese investment in irrigation, aquaculture, rice production, and digital governance.
Both sides emphasised the need to enhance trade, facilitate business exchanges, and finalise agreements on investment protection and taxation.
Tanzania proposed an annual business forum to foster engagement, while Minister Kombo praised Viettel’s telecom venture, Halotel, and invited the company to expand its investments.
Deputy Minister Hằng thanked the Tanzanian government for its support of Halotel and urged continued cooperation.
During her visit, Deputy Minister Hằng also met with the Vietnamese Embassy and Halotel staff, recognising their contributions to bilateral relations. — VNS
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