World
Italy: UN Presence in Niger, Sudan Can Help Migrant Crisis
FRANCES D’EMILIO, Associated Press
ROME (AP) — Italy pressed the EU on Wednesday to devise robust steps to stop the deadly tide of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, including considering military intervention against smugglers and boosting U.N. refugee offices in countries bordering Libya.
“We know where the smugglers keep their boats, where they gather,” said Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti. “The plans for military intervention are there.”
Some 90 percent of smugglers’ boats leave from Libya, where the lack of a central authority coupled with extremists affiliated with the Islamic State group have contributed to chaos and lawlessness that have allowed criminal trafficking networks to proliferate.
Pinotti said Italy was willing to take the helm of any military intervention if asked and as long as it is carried out as an international mission, backed by the United Nations.
“We’re ready to do our share,” she told Sky TG24. “We’re the closest country to Libya.”
Pinotti spoke a day before EU leaders hold an emergency summit in Brussels called in the wake of a shipwreck off Libya last weekend that may have killed more than 800 migrants. It would be the highest known loss of migrants’ lives in a single incident in the Mediterranean.
Ahead of the summit, Premier Mario Renzi called for EU leaders to approve three key proposals: doubling the resources and assets of the current EU border patrol mission; destroying smugglers’ boats and improving coordination across the EU for transferring asylum seekers.
“European Union naval operations in the Horn of Africa have successfully fought piracy — and a similar initiative must be developed to effectively fight against human trafficking in the Mediterranean,” Renzi wrote in a New York Times opinion piece. “Trafficking vessels should be put out of operation.”
In the latest arrivals of migrants, an Italian naval vessel docked in the Sicilian port of Augusta with 446 people who had been rescued off the southern coast of the Italian mainland. The navy said 59 were children.
“We prefer to die trying (to migrate) than stay back there and die,” said Emmanual, a Nigerian migrant who recently arrived in Sicily. “Stay at home and get shot dead or maybe burnt to death, I just prefer to die while trying or survive.”
Later in the day, another 540 migrants arrived in Salerno on the mainland. Some were in isolation under a tent of the main deck of the Italian navy ship that rescued them since they had scabies — underscoring a growing health threat that on Wednesday prompted Italian Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin to convene a summit of EU health ministers in Rome to coordinate immunization and other health measures for the new arrivals.
Pinotti said she was cautiously hopeful that the EU summit on Thursday, solicited by Italy, would take tangible steps to deal with the emergency.
“We think it’s the moment in which Europe decides, forcefully, to have an international police operation, which will undo this band of criminals,” Pinotti said.
In a speech to Parliament, Renzi urged the EU to swiftly craft long-range, comprehensive policy on the migrants.
“When a person has to risk his life because he needs to escape from a situation where they are chopping off the heads of those near him, you cannot discourage departures with a generic statement,” the premier said. “You can do it by putting the (U.N.) High Commissioner for Refugees in Niger, Sudan” and elsewhere in Africa.
Italian media reports this week said Italian government officials were considering proposing the setting up of refugee camps, under U.N. auspices, in Niger, Tunisia and Sudan, so that migrants’ applications for refugee status could be examined there. Renzi didn’t specify if camps would be an option, but stressed involvement of U.N. refugee offices in countries near Libya.
Pinotti indicated that if requests for asylum were processed in Africa, all EU countries could take a share of the migrants found eligible for refugee status or asylum.
She urged “sharing and co-responsibility,” saying the migrants “all can’t arrive in Italy.”
Italy has saved about 200,000 migrant lives at sea since the start of 2014. But Renzi said Italy’s “noble, generous reaction alone isn’t enough.”
“We are asking Europe to be Europe, not just when it’s time to devise a budget,” Renzi said.
He said broad, long-term EU strategy, including wider sea patrols, could help combat “21st-century slave drivers” of migrants. He also called for a robust presence of “international organizations” in the southern part of Libya.
Pinotti warned that the flow of migrants isn’t about to stop, saying “90 percent are from Nigeria, Ethiopia, Somalia, from places where they are afraid of dying. We cannot stop them” from leaving their homelands.
Mohammed Cisse, a recent migrant from Gambia, said he and his “blood brothers” have little choice but to leave.
“We are all from the same Africa, we are risking our lives to cross the sea to come to Europe,” he said from Clatagirone, Sicily. “It’s very painful, we are dying at sea.”
Since Italy is the first EU country where the boat migrants set foot, they stay in reception centers, sometimes for years, while their requests or appeals for asylum are processed.
Migrants deemed ineligible for asylum are ordered expelled, but many slip away and head to northern Europe to reach relatives.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Barbara Lee
Congresswoman Barbara Lee Issues Statement on Deaths of Humanitarian Aid Volunteers in Gaza
On April 2, a day after an Israeli airstrike erroneously killed seven employees of World Central Kitchen (WCK), a humanitarian organization delivering aid in the Gaza Strip, a statement was release by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA-12). “This is a devastating and avoidable tragedy. My prayers go to the families and loved ones of the selfless members of the World Central Kitchen team whose lives were lost,” said Lee.
By California Black Media
On April 2, a day after an Israeli airstrike erroneously killed seven employees of World Central Kitchen (WCK), a humanitarian organization delivering aid in the Gaza Strip, a statement was release by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA-12).
“This is a devastating and avoidable tragedy. My prayers go to the families and loved ones of the selfless members of the World Central Kitchen team whose lives were lost,” said Lee.
The same day, it was confirmed by the organization that the humanitarian aid volunteers were killed in a strike carried out by Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Prior to the incident, members of the team had been travelling in two armored vehicles marked with the WCF logo and they had been coordinating their movements with the IDF. The group had successfully delivered 10 tons of humanitarian food in a deconflicted zone when its convoy was struck.
“This is not only an attack against WCK. This is an attack on humanitarian organizations showing up in the direst situations where food is being used as a weapon of war. This is unforgivable,” said Erin Gore, chief executive officer of World Central Kitchen.
The seven victims included a U.S. citizen as well as others from Australia, Poland, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Palestine.
Lee has been a vocal advocate for a ceasefire in Gaza and has supported actions by President Joe Biden to airdrop humanitarian aid in the area.
“Far too many civilians have lost their lives as a result of Benjamin Netanyahu’s reprehensible military offensive. The U.S. must join with our allies and demand an immediate, permanent ceasefire – it’s long overdue,” Lee said.
Bay Area
Nigerian Bank Chief Killed in Helicopter Crash on Way to Superbowl XVIII
According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Dept., the crash occurred near Nipton, on the edge of the Mojave Desert Preserve. The poor weather conditions — rain, wind and snow showers—may have contributed to the accident, although the investigation is not complete. All six aboard were killed. Herbert Wigwe, 57, founded Access Bank in 1989, and it became the country’s largest competitor, Diamond Bank in 2018.
By Post Staff
The co-founder of one of Nigeria’s largest banks died with his wife, son and three others when the helicopter transporting them from Palm Springs, Ca., to Boulder City, Nev. to attend the fifty-eighth SuperBowl at the stadium outside Las Vegas crashed on Feb. 9.
According to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Dept., the crash occurred near Nipton, on the edge of the Mojave Desert Preserve. The poor weather conditions — rain, wind and snow showers—may have contributed to the accident, although the investigation is not complete. All six aboard were killed
Herbert Wigwe, 57, founded Access Bank in 1989, and it became the country’s largest competitor, Diamond Bank in 2018.
More recently, Wigwe was planning to open a banking service in Asia this year after making successful expansions to other parts of Africa, including South Africa, Kenya, and Botswana.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu described Wigwe’s death as an ‘overwhelming tragedy.”
Oakland resident and Nigerian immigrant Kayode Gbadebo agrees with Tinubu. He met Wigwe in Nigeria but crossed paths with him in London in 2006. Wigwe, he said, “took risks.”
He was young and people thought he couldn’t do what he intended, which was not so much about money but community.
“He was more like Jesus in washing the feet of the poor– Wigwe was culturizing community,” Gbadebo said.
“There will never be another like him. This is a deep, deep loss” and he hopes everyone will eventually “be comforted.”
He was also disappointed that a replacement has already been named even before Wigwe is buried. “It is not reasonable. You don’t want a vacuum, but it’s” not fair to the family, Gbadebo observed.
Wigwe had also been working to solve the migration issues from African countries, believing that “investing in higher education was key to controlling mass migration, which “is destabilising countries across the world,” BBC News reported.
“We need to take a holistic approach to address global migration, starting with our traditional framework for international development,” Wigwe wrote.
To that end, according to BBC News, Wigwe was preparing to open Wigwe University in Niger, where he was from.
“The best place to limit migration is not in the middle of the Mediterranean or the English Channel or the Rio Grande. It is in the home countries that so many migrants are so desperate to leave,” he wrote, saying his university was an opportunity for him “to give back to society.”
Besides Wigwe and his wife, Chizoba Nwuba Wigwe, and one son, two crew members and Bimbo Ogunbanjo, former group chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group Plc, were also killed in the crash.
According to Wikipedia, three other children survive Wigwe.
In his statement reported in People magazine, Tinubu described Wigwe as “a distinguished banker, humanitarian, and entrepreneur.”
“I pray for the peaceful repose of the departed and ask God Almighty to comfort the multitude of Nigerians who are grieving and the families of the deceased at this deeply agonizing moment,” the president said.
He added, “Their passing is an overwhelming tragedy that is shocking beyond comprehension.”
Besides feeling the tremendous loss, Gbadebo fears the disorder and greed that will follow. “It’s a mess,” he said.
People magazine, BBC News and Wikipedia were the sources for this report.
Activism
No Valid Reason for Failing to Condemn Hamas’ Act of Terrorism
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists crossed the Israel-Gaza border and indiscriminately slaughtered Israeli civilians in their homes. They killed nearly 300 young people at a music festival and took at least 200 hostages including 30 children. The atrocities they committed included massacres of families, abduction of the elderly and children, burning of babies and rapes of women.
By Joe W. Bowers Jr.
California Black Media
OPINION
On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists crossed the Israel-Gaza border and indiscriminately slaughtered Israeli civilians in their homes.
They killed nearly 300 young people at a music festival and took at least 200 hostages including 30 children. The atrocities they committed included massacres of families, abduction of the elderly and children, burning of babies and rapes of women.
The horrific surprise attack deserves universal and unequivocal condemnation. President Joe Biden called what Hamas did “an act of sheer evil” and pledged to defend the lives of Israelis and Jewish Americans.
He said, “Let there be no doubt. The United States has Israel’s back. We’ll make sure the Jewish and democratic state of Israel can defend itself today, tomorrow, as we always have.”
Hamas killed approximately 1,400 people including 32 Americans. Citizens from 40 different countries including the United Kingdom, France, Mexico, and Thailand were killed or reported missing.
Hamas fighters breached Israel’s border defenses on the final day of Sukkot while soldiers were away due to the holiday and launched attacks on 22 towns outside the Gaza Strip. This security lapse has been described as a catastrophic failure of Israel’s intelligence agencies..
Hamas is an extremist Islamist militant organization that has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007. It is recognized as an Iranian-backed terrorist group by the U.S. and the European Union and has a long history of violence against Jews and Palestinians, the latter of whom they often use as human shields.
While there have been plenty of groups who have unequivocally condemned the massacres, there are a number who haven’t, including organizations such as the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), Black Alliance for Peace, Red Nation, and independent Black Lives Matter (BLM) chapters (excluding the national Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation).
The DSA San Francisco chapter put out a statement on Oct. 9 that said, “Socialists support the Palestinian people’s, and all people’s, right to resist and fight for their own liberation. This weekend’s events are no different.”
Student organizations at a number of universities and colleges in California signed a solidarity statement titled “Resistance Uprising in Gaza” from Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The statement attributes the violence of the Hamas attack to what it refers to as Israeli apartheid and occupation.
The SJP statement written by Bears for Palestine at UC Berkeley says, “We support the resistance, we support the liberation movement, and we indisputably support the Uprising.” Essentially, these students are indirectly associating themselves with Hamas’ barbaric acts under the guise of “resistance.”
Signing the statement were 51 student organizations including those from Stanford, UC Berkeley, UCLA, UC Davis, UC San Diego, CSU Sacramento, and USC.
A statement signed by 34 Harvard student organizations said, “We, the undersigned student organizations, hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence.”
Many university leaders, where these students are enrolled, have been guilty of failing to unequivocally condemn Hamas and for inadequately addressing their students’ expressed support for Hamas.
Several Stanford faculty members, including three Nobel laureates, condemned Stanford’s administrators’ weak response to acts of terrorism and the expression of pro-Hamas sentiments by students on campus.
Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005. It dismantled 21 Israeli settlements in the territory and handed them over to the Palestinian Authority.
The assault by Hamas on Oct. 7 was not an ordinary clash with Israel. Hamas’ actions resulted in the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.
While there are valid reasons for protesting Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and a real reckoning with the Israeli government on its policies is long overdue, nothing justifies Hamas’ attack.
Israelis who were killed largely had nothing to do with the conditions of Palestinians in Gaza. Some of the victims weren’t even Israeli — they were just tourists.
The students blaming Israel for the atrocities committed by Hamas have faced criticism. Some groups have withdrawn their endorsements because of the backlash aimed at them. Others have doubled down on their activism. SJP held a “National Day of Resistance” on several campuses.
Several CEOs have asked Harvard to disclose a list of members from the organizations assigning responsibility to Israel to insure they do not hire any of their members. A Berkeley law professor has also urged firms not to hire his students who have publicly blamed Israel for the war.
This California Black Media report was supported in whole or in part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
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