Freedom Fighters, Beware
NEED TO KNOW
Freedom Fighters, Beware
NAMIBIA
The South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) led the fight against South Africa, then under Apartheid, for Namibia’s independence in 1990. It has led the country since.
Now, that might be changing.
As University of Pretoria political scientist Henning Melber argued recently in the Conversation, SWAPO presidential candidate Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, known as NNN, is running after a series of elections in which Namibian voters have expressed their dissatisfaction with SWAPO’s unfulfilled promises for economic growth, its corruption scandals, and other issues.
NNN, who if elected would become the country’s first female president, wants to reduce Namibia’s dependence on diamonds. Namibia’s uranium mining industry, for example, could generate more revenues, the Diplomatic Courier wrote. SWAPO officials believe the country could double its economic growth to 8 percent annually through offshore oil and gas exploration, too, the Financial Times reported. Chevron, ExxonMobil, Galp, TotalEnergies, and Shell are operating in Namibia now.
But NNN has also pledged to protect those resources for future generations – reflecting how many Namibians might be skeptical of her claims. Her closeness with business leaders as SWAPO’s endorsed candidate might seem like cold comfort to many voters who have yet to see the reforms they want. Angola and Nigeria have oil riches but have still struggled to lift many of their citizens from poverty, too.
At the same time, Panduleni Itula, a former SWAPO official and the founder of a new opposition party, Independent Patriots for Change, appears to be giving NNN a run for her money. Itula has pledged to create jobs while investing in housing, sanitation, electricity, and water for the approximately one million Namibians who now lack those services, Channel Africa noted.
Itula and other opposition figures have also successfully sounded alarm bells about the unfair fundraising practices and connections that have helped SWAPO retain power over the past decades, added the Friedrich Naumann Foundation.
This efforts come as trust in SWAPO has fallen from 42 percent in 2014 to 17 percent in 2021. The coup de grȃce in this downward plunge was the so-called “fishrot scandal,” which involved SWAPO leaders diverting fishing quotas from local companies to foreign ones for millions in kickbacks.
SWAPO is facing a downward momentum that other liberationist political parties in Botswana, Zambia, Mauritius, South Africa, and elsewhere also are, mainly because they have failed to live up to their pledges for growth as governing political parties, noted Nyasha Mcbride Mpani of the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation based in Cape Town, South Africa, in the Mail & Guardian.
Namibia is on the brink of change, he added.
Namibians, having witnessed the possibility of ousting a liberation movement, now see this as their opportunity to push for change,” he wrote. “(SWAPO) must confront its vulnerabilities by addressing corruption, reconnecting with its grassroots base and offering tangible solutions to Namibia’s economic problems. Its liberation struggle credentials, while significant, may not be enough … The outcome will not only determine SWAPO’s future but also signal whether Namibia will follow the regional trend of rejecting liberation movements in favor of change.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
A Moment of Peace
ISRAEL/ LEBANON
A ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah took effect early Wednesday, halting the deadliest war in Lebanon in decades, even as fighting continued “up to the 11th hour,” the Washington Post reported.
The US-brokered agreement, intended to bring a permanent end to the conflict, is ushering in a 60-day halt to the fighting.
Even so, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel would strike again if the Lebanese militant group violated the deal.
And both sides warned displaced residents – tens of thousands on both sides of the border – not to return to areas under Israeli evacuation orders, even as some residents began to return.
The agreement, meanwhile, sets out a plan for the coordinated withdrawal of Israeli soldiers south of the Litani River, to be replaced by the Lebanese army, the newspaper added.
The terms of the agreement require that Lebanese forces ensure all heavy weaponry and Hezbollah infrastructure have been removed from the area between the Litani River and the Israeli border, known as the Blue Line, CNN reported.
In a joint statement, US President Joe Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron said that the ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon would “create the conditions to restore lasting calm and allow residents in both countries to return safely to their homes.”
The agreement passed in a 10-1 vote in Israel’s cabinet. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, however, called the decision a “grave mistake.”
Hezbollah leaders said they would closely monitor the deal’s implementation because they expect the Israelis to violate it.
Until now, reaching a ceasefire deal has been difficult. Hezbollah, which began attacks in solidarity with Hamas in Oct. 2023, said it would not negotiate until Israel ended its war with Hamas in Gaza. In September, Israel escalated its campaign against the Lebanese group, targeting the communication devices of thousands of Hezbollah members, killing the group’s longtime leader and eventually invading southern Lebanon on Oct. 1.
Now, the US hopes it can use this deal to revive negotiations for a similar agreement in Gaza. “Over the coming days, the United States will make another push with Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, Israel and others to achieve a cease-fire in Gaza,” Biden said.
In the hours leading up to the ceasefire, both Israel and Hezbollah ramped up attacks, with Israeli airstrikes pounding multiple cities including the capital, Beirut.
To date, at least 3,768 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. In Israel, at least 78 people have been killed in the past year due to Hezbollah strikes, according to the Israeli military.
A Judgeship, Anyone?
MEXICO
More than 18,000 people have registered to run for Supreme Court seats and federal judgeships in Mexico’s new election-based selection process, officials announced this week, following a recent reform bill earlier this year that critics say will compromise the independence of the judiciary, the Associated Press reported.
The new judicial overhaul – enacted by the ruling Morena party – will make Mexico the first country to choose all its judges by popular vote, replacing a system where candidates were vetted and shortlisted for appointments.
Under the new rules, candidates need only a law degree, a 3.2 grade point average, five years of professional experience, and five letters of recommendation from neighbors or friends to qualify.
Evaluation committees will then have about one month to sift through thousands of applications and narrow the pool to around 10 candidates or fewer for each of the 881 judgeships and nine Supreme Court seats available.
From this shortlisted group, 1,793 names will be randomly selected to appear on the ballot on June 1.
President Claudia Sheinbaum and her predecessor Andrés Manuel López Obrador – who initiated the reform – have hailed the change as necessary to combat corruption, nepotism, and inefficiency in a judiciary which they describe as “rotten,” Agence France-Presse added.
However, critics lambasted the overhaul, warning that these minimal requirements and the random draw to determine who appears on the ballot could undermine the judiciary’s independence and technical competence.
“You don’t elect a doctor or a surgeon for an operation based on their popularity, you elect them based on their technical expertise, their ability, their knowledge,” Sergio Méndez Silva, legal coordinator for the civic group Foundation for Justice, told the newswire. “That also applies for a judge.”
Judicial workers, legal experts, and civic groups have staged protests, warning that the process could undermine judicial expertise and impartiality.
Meanwhile, analysts said the process could open the door for drug cartels or political parties, who might finance campaigns to sway decisions in their favor, to push their candidates.
Another point of concern is the impartiality of evaluation committees, whose members are appointed by the executive and legislative branches – both controlled by Morena.
Despite the backlash, officials called the number of applicants “historic.”
One supporter, Minerva Martínez Garza, a former human rights official who registered for a Supreme Court seat, told the AP that reforms are overdue.
“We need a justice system that gives results,” she said, emphasizing Mexico’s long history of trial delays and the high numbers of detainees awaiting judgment.
Peace, Someday
DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO/ RWANDA
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Rwanda took a step forward in advancing peace efforts this week, approving a key document outlining the terms for the disengagement of Rwandan troops from the conflict-ridden eastern DRC, Radio France Internationale reported.
The concept of operations – signed by the countries’ foreign ministers under Angola’s mediation – aims to address the long-running conflict in DRC’s North Kivu province, where M23, a largely ethnic Tutsi militia backed by Rwanda, has captured swathes of territory since 2021.
The conflict has displaced thousands and triggered widespread violence in the resource-rich region. A United Nations report found that 3,000 to 4,000 Rwandan soldiers are fighting alongside M23, with Rwanda exercising “de facto” control over the group.
Rwanda has denied the claims but has called for the dismantling of the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) – a militia formed by Hutu leaders involved in the 1994 Rwandan genocide – as a precondition for the withdrawal of troops.
The agreement follows a fragile ceasefire brokered by Angola in August, which briefly stabilized the front lines but has since been marred by violations, including renewed M23 offensives.
Earlier this month, the DRC and Rwanda launched a committee chaired by Angola to monitor ceasefire breaches and maintain dialogue, Agence France-Presse wrote.
The conflict in eastern DRC has devastated the mineral-rich region for decades and killed more than six million people since 1996.
The United Nations has documented widespread violence against civilians, particularly women and girls, with Bintou Keita, head of the UN Stabilization Mission in the DRC, calling the crisis “one of the most severe, complex, and neglected humanitarian crises of our times.”
Analysts warned that unresolved tensions could destabilize Central and East Africa, providing opportunities for increased involvement by global powers, such as China and Russia.
Others fear the prolonged violence would provide a fertile ground for the expansion of Islamist terrorist groups.
DISCOVERIES
Deepsea Giant
Last month, a dive team of researchers off the coast of the Solomon Islands found something they weren’t expecting – the largest stand-alone coral ever recorded.
They were shocked.
It was like seeing a “cathedral underwater,” Manu San Felix, of National Geographic’s Pristine Seas team, told the BBC. “It’s very emotional. I felt this huge respect for something that’s stayed in one place and survived for hundreds of years.”
San Felix was part of a research team surveying how climate change is affecting remote parts of the Pacific Ocean when they stumbled upon the mega coral. The “behemoth” coral, bigger than a blue whale – the largest animal on Earth – is around 112 feet wide, 105 feet long, and 19 feet high, according to Science News.
It also dwarfs the world’s next largest-known coral, a 72-foot-wide coral in American Samoa known as Big Momma, the magazine wrote.
This massive structure is a shoulder-blade coral – named after the scapula-like ridges that make up its body – called Pavona clavus. It’s a collection of nearly a billion coral polyps, tiny creatures, each with its own body and mouth, that live together and build rigid outer skeletons made of calcium carbonate that fuse together to form one organism instead of a reef.
It’s estimated to be between 300 and 500 years old.
Meanwhile, the coral seems to be in good health, researchers say. This may be due to the fact that it lives in deeper waters than other coral reefs, protecting it from higher temperatures closer to the surface.
“While the nearby shallow reefs were degraded due to warmer seas, witnessing this large healthy coral oasis in slightly deeper waters is a beacon of hope,” Eric Brown, a coral scientist on the National Geographic trip, told the BBC.
Corals provide habitats for marine life, and this particular species, the P. clavus, provides a home for shrimps, crabs, fish, and other creatures. As a result, protecting coral in the wake of climate change is imperative to preserving marine ecosystems, researchers say.
“Coral reef ecosystems comprise only about 0.2 percent of the ocean’s area, yet they contain over 25 percent of the marine species on the planet,” Brown said.
Meanwhile, because of the age of the coral, it serves like a window into the history of oceanic conditions of the past, researchers said. Scientists hope to study it to learn more about how it has grown and what conditions it has faced over the centuries.