Category: Government Policy

On Wednesday, 7 October, 2021 the Malawi Electoral Commission presented reports for the Tripartite Elections held on 21 May 2019 and Fresh Presidential Elections held on 23 June, 2020 to the State President, Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera.

In his presentation remarks, MEC Chairman, Justice Dr Chifundo Kachale said although the Commission was an independent institution, it had a duty to be accountable on how it conducted or discharged its functions.

“The reports that the Commission is presenting to you, Your Excellency, give details and an account on the management of the entire process of two elections starting from voter registration up to results management and announcement,” he said.

Justice Kachale reaffirmed the commitment of the Commission towards holding elections that are free, fair and credible to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.

“The Commission will remain impartial, nonpartisan and professional in the execution of its mandate,” he stated.

The MEC Chairman said there have been by-elections in 13 constituencies and five wards since May 2019 and none of these by-elections have been successfully challenged in court.

The MEC chairman also expressed gratefulness to the government for being responsive and providing financial support timely for running electoral activities.

“The country is facing challenges especially with the Covid-19 pandemic which has put so much stress to the economy. However, despite the pressure that has been exerted on the economy the government has always gleaned resources to ensure that electoral activities are implemented on time. We are very grateful for this,” he said.

In his remarks, State President Dr Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera assured the Commission of the government support in terms of finances and resources for it to continue discharging its mandate.

The State President also commended the Commission for its efforts in the past 18 months in correcting constitutional irregularities experienced in past elections.

“When an institution acts independently, follows the law to deliver its mandate, Malawians will start to develop trust in it and that does not only consolidate our democracy but also institutional trust.

The President urged the Commission to follow up on its officers that neglect or abuse their mandate in the course of duty.

Section 6(1) of the Electoral Commission Act says “Every individual member and employee of the Commission shall perform the functions and exercise the powers provided for in this Act independently of the direction or interference of:

• any public office;

• any organ of the Government;

• any political party;

• any candidate; or

• any person whosoever or organization whatsoever:

Provided that for the purpose only of accountability the Commission shall be answerable, and report directly, to the President on the overall fulfilment of the functions and powers of the Commission.

Source: Malawi Electoral Commission

Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera has ordered sign language to be used on all television stations and at official functions, and to be recognized as a national language.

Chakwera said he was concerned with challenges deaf people in the country face largely because of a lack of sign language interpreters.

“We must stop thinking of sign language as a favor to deaf people,” he said. “That kind of condescension has no place in this new Malawi. We need a re-education of our minds to regard sign language as a human right.”

Chakwera said every person has a right to acquire language from the moment of birth, including sign language for people born with hearing impairments.

“In this new Malawi, we want the use of sign language to be adopted everywhere for every function and by every institution,” he said.

Chakwera said his administration will work with the Malawi National Association of the Deaf, MANAD, to make life easier for the country’s 400,000 sign language users.

“It is because of this commitment that we are supporting the reproduction of the first ever Malawian sign language dictionary developed by MANAD to help harmonize the existing sign languages in Malawi into one sign language,” he said.

Chimwemwe Kamkwamba, a partially deaf student at Exploits University in Lilongwe, said youths with hearing difficulties are denied loans to start their businesses.

“We are excluded because they feel like we cannot pay back, which is not a right thing because we are also persons,” she said. “We are also people with needs. We are also people who need to be somewhere. And to be denied that, we (are) being denied our right to do what we believe we can do.”

Stephano Maneya, chairperson for the Malawi National Association of the Deaf, said another challenge is there is only one secondary school for deaf learners in Malawi.

“So, our plea is that government should help us with special secondary schools for the deaf so that after these learners who do better from primary school, they should also get specialized support in special secondary schools and be able to excel with their education,” he said through an interpreter.

Chakwera said his government will look into that, but will first focus on training more people who can use sign language in government offices. Malawi currently has five professional sign language interpreters.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON – U.S. warnings to Russian President Vladimir Putin over shielding cybercriminals holed up in Russia appear to have made little impact, according to top U.S. law enforcement and cyber officials.

“There is no indication that the Russian government has taken action to crack down on ransomware actors that are operating in the permissive environment that they’ve created there,” Paul Abbate, deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Tuesday at an intelligence summit just outside Washington.

“We’ve asked for help and cooperation with those who we know are in Russia, who we have indictments against, and we’ve seen no action,” Abbate said. “So, I would say that nothing’s changed in that regard.”

U.S. President Joe Biden has twice called on the Russian leader to take action against cybercriminals operating out of Russia — first at a summit in June in Geneva and again in a phone call a month later.

“I made it very clear to him that the United States expects when a ransomware operation is coming from his soil, even though it’s not sponsored by the state, we expect them to act if we give them enough information to act on who that is,” Biden told reporters following the July phone call.

Since the initial talks, senior White House officials have noted a decrease in ransomware attacks, though they have been hesitant to attribute the change to any action by Moscow.

“The present absence of criminal activity should not be confused with solid policing,” U.S. National Cyber Director Chris Inglis told an audience later Tuesday.

“There’s still a monetary incentive and possibly a geopolitical incentive to allow that to come back,” he said, pushing back against calls for the U.S. to go on the offensive.

“There is a sense that we can perhaps fire some cyber bullets and kind of shoot our way out of this. That will be useful in certain circumstances if we have a clear shot at a cyber aggressor and it could take them offline,” Inglis said. “That’s not going to affect the leadership that allows this to happen.”

“We have to figure out what is it that matters to Putin and the oligarchs and how do we change their decision calculus,” he added.

The Kremlin has repeatedly denied any role in a series of ransomware and cyberattacks against U.S. companies and infrastructure.

And following the Biden-Putin call in July, it issued a statement supporting collaboration on cybersecurity, calling for such efforts to “be permanent, professional and nonpoliticized and should be conducted via special communication channels … and with respect to international law.”

The U.S. blames Russia or Russian-based cyber actors for a series of high-profile hacks and ransomware attacks, including the December 2020 hack of SolarWinds, a U.S.-based software management company, and for the May 7 ransomware attack against Colonial Pipeline, the largest fuel pipeline operator in the U.S. 

U.S. officials have blamed the GRU for targeting the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 elections and the pharmaceutical companies developing vaccines against the coronavirus. 

Asked Tuesday whether the U.S. has reached the point where it is ready to take action against Russia, the commander of U.S. Cyber Command deferred to the White House.

“That’s obviously for the president to decide,” CYBERCOM’s General Paul Nakasone said. “But those options certainly will be provided for his consideration.”

Source: Voice of America

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – Apple released a critical software patch to fix a security vulnerability that researchers said could allow hackers to directly infect iPhones and other Apple devices without any user action.

Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab said the security issue was exploited to plant spyware on a Saudi activist’s iPhone. They said they had high confidence that the world’s most infamous hacker-for-hire firm, Israel’s NSO Group, was behind that attack.

The previously unknown vulnerability affected all major Apple devices — iPhones, Macs and Apple Watches — the researchers said. NSO Group responded with a one-sentence statement saying it will continue providing tools for fighting “terror and crime.”

It was the first time a so-called “zero-click” exploit — one that doesn’t require users to click on suspect links or open infected files — has been caught and analyzed, the researchers said. They found the malicious code on September 7 and immediately alerted Apple. The targeted activist asked to remain anonymous, they said.

“We’re not necessarily attributing this attack to the Saudi government,” said researcher Bill Marczak.

Citizen Lab previously found evidence of zero-click exploits being used to hack into the phones of Al-Jazeera journalists and other targets but hasn’t previously seen the malicious code itself.

Although security experts say that average iPhone, iPad and Mac user generally need not worry — such attacks tend to be limited to specific targets — the discovery still alarmed security professionals.

Malicious image files were transmitted to the activist’s phone via the iMessage instant-messaging app before it was hacked with NSO’s Pegasus spyware, which opens a phone to eavesdropping and remote data theft, Marczak said. It was discovered during a second examination of the phone, which forensics showed had been infected in March. He said the malicious file causes devices to crash.

Citizen Lab says the case reveals, once again, that NSO Group is allowing its spyware to be used against ordinary civilians.

In a blog post, Apple said it was issuing a security update for iPhones and iPads because a “maliciously crafted” PDF file could lead to them being hacked. It said it was aware that the issue may have been exploited and cited Citizen Lab.

In a subsequent statement, Apple security chief Ivan Krstic commended Citizen Lab and said such exploits “are not a threat to the overwhelming majority of our users.” He noted, as he has in the past, that such exploits typically cost millions of dollars to develop and often have a short shelf life.

Apple didn’t respond to questions regarding whether this was the first time it had patched a zero-click vulnerability.

Users should get alerts on their iPhones prompting them to update the phone’s iOS software. Those who want to jump the gun can go into the phone settings, click “General” then “Software Update,” and trigger the patch update directly.

Citizen Lab called the iMessage exploit FORCEDENTRY and said it was effective against Apple iOS, MacOS and WatchOS devices. It urged people to immediately install security updates.

Researcher John Scott-Railton said the news highlights the importance of securing popular messaging apps against such attacks.

“Chat apps are increasingly becoming a major way that nation-states and mercenary hackers are gaining access to phones,” he said. “And, it’s why it’s so important that companies focus on making sure that they are as locked down as possible.”

The researchers said it also undermines NSO Group’s claims that it only sells its spyware to law enforcement officials for use against criminals and terrorists and audits its customers to ensure it’s not abused.

“If Pegasus was only being used against criminals and terrorists, we never would have found this stuff,” said Marczak.

Facebook’s WhatsApp also was allegedly targeted by an NSO zero-click exploit. In October 2019, Facebook sued NSO in U.S. federal court for allegedly targeting some 1,400 users of the encrypted messaging service with spyware.

In July, a global media consortium published a damning report on how clients of NSO Group have been spying for years on journalists, human rights activists, political dissidents, and people close to them, with the hacker-for-hire group directly involved in the targeting.

Amnesty International said it confirmed 37 successful Pegasus infections based on a leaked targeting list whose origin was not disclosed.

One case involved the fiancee of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi just four days after he was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in 2018. The CIA attributed the murder to the Saudi government.

The recent revelations also prompted calls for an investigation into whether Hungary’s right-wing government used Pegasus to secretly monitor critical journalists, lawyers and business figures. India’s parliament also erupted in protests as opposition lawmakers accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government of using NSO Groups’ product to spy on political opponents and others.

France also is trying to get to the bottom of allegations that President Emmanuel Macron and members of his government may have been targeted in 2019 by an unidentified Moroccan security service using Pegasus.

Morocco, a key French ally, denied those reports and is taking legal action to counter allegations implicating the North African kingdom in the spyware scandal.

Source: Voice of America

PARIS – The chaotic aftermath of Washington’s troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is being followed with a mix of trepidation and glee thousands of kilometers away — in Africa’s Sahel, where another foreign power, France, also vows to wind down its long-running counterinsurgency operation, at least in its present form.

As the United States continued to evacuate thousands of citizens and allies at Kabul’s airport this week, dozens of civilians and soldiers were killed in several Islamist attacks across a vast and dangerous three-border region that straddles Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali. It was just another marker in a protracted fight that has killed thousands, displaced 2 million and — like Afghanistan — is considered by some as unwinnable.

If there many stark differences between America’s war in Afghanistan and France’s in the Sahel — from their size and nature to their Islamist targets — there are also haunting similarities, analysts say.

Both involve yearslong foreign involvement in countries with weak and unstable governments. Both operations have struggled against troop fatigue, casualties, and dwindling support at home. Both are against Islamist groups which, many say, are patiently confident they will outlast their enemy.

“If there’s any lesson to draw, it’s that indefinite military solutions aren’t sustainable,” said Bakary Sambe, Senegal-based director of the Timbuktu Institute think tank.

“Sooner or later, there’s got to be an exit,” he said.

Staying put

Unlike the U.S., France for now has no intention of withdrawing from the Sahel, a vast area below the Sahara. It will, however, soon begin decreasing its 5,100-troop Barkhane operation, the linchpin of a regional counterterrorist fight spanning five West and Central African countries.

Nor was the Sahel mentioned in French President Emmanuel Macron’s first major response to the Taliban’s swift victory. Rather, he warned against resurgent terrorism in Afghanistan and illegal migration to Europe.

Yet it may be hard to compartmentalize.

“I think the French cannot afford not to look at what’s going on in Afghanistan when preparing for the very gradual drawdown” of Barkhane forces, said University of Kent conflict expert Yvan Guichaoua.

Images of mayhem and anguish at Kabul’s airport and elsewhere “is something that certainly shocked French officials,” he said, “and maybe made them think about the circumstances in which they are going to leave.”

Others are not so sure.

“I don’t think [the French] are drawing this kind of direct parallel,” between Afghanistan and the Sahel, said Jean-Herve Jezequel, Sahel Project director for the International Crisis Group policy group.

“Maybe this is a mistake. But the French are downsizing, they’re not withdrawing. They’re still the biggest military force in the region,” he said.

Different — but also echoes of Afghanistan

Macron announced in July France’s Barkhane operation would formally end early next year, with troops shrinking to up to half their current numbers and shifted to other anti-terrorist missions — notably forming backbone of the European Union’s fledgling Takuba force, currently aimed at helping Mali fight terrorism in the Sahel region.

Yet France’s revamped mission with its narrowed goals — counterterrorism and beefing up local forces rather than securing large tracts of territory — comes after mounting casualties, fading support at home, a spreading insurgency and growing anti-French sentiment in some Sahel nations.

Born in 2013, France’s military intervention in that region is half as old as the U.S. war in Afghanistan was, with a fraction of its scope and troop losses. Originally aimed to fight jihadist groups in Mali, it later expanded to four other vulnerable former colonies — Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania — that together now form a regional G5 Sahel counterinsurgency operation. Meanwhile, the jihadists are moving south, into parts of sub-Saharan Africa.

While Paris pushes for greater governance and democracy — in June, Macron briefly suspended operations in Mali after its second coup in a year — the nation-building efforts seen in Afghanistan are not likely, Crisis Watch’s Jezequel said.

“It’s a failure,” he added. “But it’s a failure of the Sahel states.”

Today, some of those states, especially Mali, are watching Afghanistan’s swift unraveling with alarm, experts say, even as extremists celebrate.

The Sahel’s myriad jihadi groups lack the deep roots and experience of the Taliban, which held power in the 1990s. Yet, especially Western recognition of Afghanistan’s new rulers “will comfort the idea that the Islamist alternative is possible,” Sambe said.

“It will galvanize radical Islamist groups—and that’s the fear,” he said.

The European Union’s executive arm said Saturday it does not recognize the Taliban.

Moving forward

For France, moving forward in the Sahel means focusing southward, where the insurgency has spread, and beefing up the Takuba Task Force. Nearly a dozen European countries, including Estonia, Italy, Denmark and non-EU-member Norway have joined or promised to take part in the military mission. But many others remain on the sidelines, including Germany.

“The fear of many European countries is to commit troops and then be confronted with a fiasco or death of soldiers,” Guichaoua said.

However, he and others add, French persuasion, from raising fears of conflict-driven migration to Europe, to offering military support in other areas, appears to be working.

Not under French consideration, though, is any dialogue with extremists — an effort controversially tried with the Taliban that is earning support among some Sahel authorities, at least when it comes to homegrown groups.

“The French have considered this a red line,” Guichaoua said. “Because that would mean somewhat that French soldiers died for nothing. But it is on the agenda for Malian authorities.”

Local-level negotiations with jihadi groups have long taken place, he said — to gain access to markets, for example, or get hostages released — but not high-level ones, “and the main reason is France.”

For their part, the Sahel’s extremists appear willing to wait, as the Taliban did in Afghanistan.

Both, Guichaoua said, are convinced foreign powers will eventually leave, so time is on their side.

Source: Voice of America

JUBA, SOUTH SUDAN – Following a 5½-year-civil war and as intercommunal clashes continue, fashion is not the first thing that usually springs to mind for many about South Sudan.

But a small group of young fashion designers say they want to help change the country’s image by showcasing locally designed clothes that are increasingly capturing eyes in the fashion world.

“If we can come up with something that can help us boost and empower ourselves, then we can do it,” said Ghum Barnabas Kulang, founder of Kulang Enterprises.

Kulang began creating his own designs in 2019 with a focus on fashionable suits and colorful dresses made from African prints. He believes creating a national brand is important for the morale of South Sudanese people.

“So, the inspiration is, I want us to have an identity, as well,” Kulang told South Sudan in Focus. “We should have something that is commonly known in us, (because) it’s not basically the rivalries of the war. We also have good architecture in terms of culture, as well as fashion designs.”

About a dozen designers earlier this month put on the sixth annual South Sudan Fashion Week in the capital, Juba.

The show’s founder, Dawson Dau Amou, a successful East African model, wants to change the world’s focus on South Sudan from a war-torn country to a nation that can build on self-sustaining enterprise.

“What we are up to here is all about growing the fashion industry, because it is a business industry, so that we don’t rely on brands that are made from outside,” Amou told South Sudan in Focus.

Six years ago, five designers participated in South Sudan Fashion Week. This year, 20 designers sent their fashions down the runway with South Sudanese models sporting designs of local designers.

Most of the designers say their biggest challenge is finding the money to fund their small businesses.

David Shegold, founder of D’Gold’s Fashions, began designing clothes five years ago after graduating from a fashion school in Uganda.

Shegold told South Sudan in Focus that he decided to specialize in designing wedding gowns and party clothes because many South Sudanese attend these occasions but usually wear clothes imported from foreign countries.

“I have seen people doing a lot of weddings and a lot of parties, so I see most of my people go abroad and get the wedding gowns from there,” he said. “Then I was like, ‘Why can’t I do a wedding gown since I am a professional in this?’”

South Sudanese designer Wilma Amito, who designed a swimwear collection for this year’s fashion show, said she was inspired by learning how to knit online during last year’s COVID-19 lockdown.

Amito took up knitting to keep herself busy, but her hobby quickly led to her designing bathing suits, tops and shorts.

Amito believes fashion can be a uniting factor in South Sudan.

“People bring in their different ideas, so it is a sign of unity,” she said. “When I come from a different tribe and someone else comes from a different tribe, we combine and develop the love and the understanding among ourselves.”

There are no compiled business figures for South Sudan’s nascent fashion industry. I

But the designs are attracting attention in the diaspora. South Sudanese fashion designers displayed their creations for a fashion show for the Luol Deng Foundation’s annual conference in Minneapolis in 2019.

Source: Voice of America