At least 110 members of several rebel groups have put down their weapons in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), local media reported on Tuesday.

The surrender took place in the eastern province of North Kivu on Monday in the presence of Lt. Gen. Constant Ndima, the military governor of the province.

North Kivu and the neighboring Ituri province have been under siege since early May by the military in a bid to contain armed groups.

Military governors head the provinces' respective local governments, while police chiefs serve under them as vice-governors.

Addressing residents in the city of Kitchanga during the event, Ndima asserted that it was no longer the time for negotiation with the rebels, but rather for the imposition of peace.

"Our population is tired of violence and kidnappings in our province," he was quoted as saying by the UN-run Radio Okapi.

"Our mission is to impose peace within the framework of the State of Siege decreed by the Head of State.

"Anyone who voluntarily accepts laying down their weapon will be received as a friend. But, any offender will be declared an enemy of the republic. And together with you, we'll put an end to this insecurity," he said.

The DRC has been plagued by violence for decades as several rebel groups fight with each other or against the country's military and UN forces for territorial control.

According to the UN, exploitation of natural resources continues to be one of the root causes of conflict. Most armed groups have reportedly set aside their political demands and are involved in mineral trafficking.

The DRC is the site of the world's most neglected displacement crisis, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council's (NRC) annual list, due to overwhelming needs and an acute lack of funding, as well as media and diplomatic inattention./agencies

China urged the US on Monday to stop practicing double standards on labor issues, reflect “on its own serious violations of labor rights" and “take up responsibility accordingly,” local media reported. 

“Every perpetrator of forced labor and child labor should be held accountable for their actions,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.

He was responding to a question on US remarks earlier this month at the 109th International Labor Conference in Geneva, Switzerland.

“Over the past five years, all 50 US states and Washington, D.C. have reported cases of forced labor and human trafficking, with as many as 100,000 people trafficked to the United States from abroad for forced labor every year,” Zhao said, according to Xinhua.

“According to statistics from some academic institutions in the United States, at least half a million people in the country have been subjected to modern slavery and forced labor,” he said.

“The US Department of Homeland Security admitted that forced labor is widespread in the United States.

“On child labor rights, the United States is the only country in the world that has not ratified the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC),” Zhao added, according to the report./aa

A webinar on Monday marked World Refugee Day with a discussion led by experts in the field of migration, in an event organized by the Zolberg Institute on Migration and Mobility of New York’s The New School.

At the event, Oxford University’s Alexander Betts and David Owen of the University of Southampton discussed their recent books on refugees and laid out different perspectives and ideas on global migration, policy, and states.

Speaking on his book The Wealth of Refugees: How Displaced People Can Build Economies, Betts said 86% of world refugees are currently hosted by low- and middle-income countries, adding that not only states but also societies and markets have complimentary roles to play on migration.

“I'm particularly interested in the economic lives of refugees, because I think economic opportunity matters on three levels,” he said.

“It matters for rights, we often forget that practically the entire second half of the 1951 [Refugee] Convention is about socioeconomic rights, and those rights are very often denied,” he added.

“It also matters, secondly, for well-being. We know from a lot of literature, including the psychosocial well-being, but work and being able to work matters, people's mental health, it matters for their general sense of wellbeing.

“And thirdly, the politics, we know from the wider literature that hosts community attitudes towards refugees are much more likely to be positive when they're perceived to be economic contributors, able to work, able to participate as consumers, employees, and entrepreneurs.”

Betts said it is crucial to be able to ensure that host communities share in the benefits of hosting refugees in order to make refuge sustainable “through public services like health and education, but also through access to jobs and achieving that relies upon building economies, building infrastructure, improving access to finance, improving access to employment.”

Owen spoke about his book What Do We Owe To Refugees? and relations between refugees and states.

“I'm kind of trying to indirectly affect policy by getting people to see the refugee regime in a different light, and including for activist groups to be able to say things like ‘well no actually, you know, smuggling people into Europe is a perfectly legitimate form of justified resistance. Refugees crossing on dangerous journeys we wish they didn't have to take is a kind of transnational civil disobedience and perfectly legitimate as such’,” he explained./aa

The World Health Organization (WHO) is in discussions with a consortium of companies that will set up a technology transfer hub in South Africa to train manufacturers from low-income countries on how to produce COVID-19 vaccines. 

“This is great news, particularly for Africa, which has the least access to vaccines,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Monday at a media briefing in Geneva.

Ghebreyesus said “COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of local production to address health emergencies, strengthen regional health security and expand sustainable access to health products.”

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the technology transfer hub for coronavirus vaccines was a milestone -- not only for the world, but also for the continent.

“This landmark initiative is a major advance in the international effort to build vaccine development and manufacturing capacity that will put Africa on a path to self-determination,’’ Ramaphosa said.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed the full extent of the vaccine gap between developed and developing economies and how that gap can severely undermine global health security,” he added.

The South African leader said his country welcomes the opportunity to host a vaccine technology transfer hub and to build on the capacity and expertise that already exists on the continent to contribute to this effort.
The announcement follows the recent visit to South Africa by French President Emmanuel Macron, who said his country was committed to supporting efforts in Africa to scale up local manufacturing capacity of COVID-19 vaccines and other medical solutions.

Technology transfer hubs are training facilities where the technology is established at industrial scale and clinical development performed.
Interested manufacturers from low- and middle-income countries in Africa and Asia can receive training and any necessary licenses to the technology.

The WHO and its partners will bring in the production know-how, quality control and necessary licenses to a single entity to facilitate a broad and rapid technology transfer to multiple recipients.

Benefits of the technology transfer include the Medicines Patent Pool’s vast experience of intellectual property (IP) management and issuing of IP licenses./aa

Ukraine can carry out many joint projects with Turkey in the field of space as in the defense industry, the head of the State Space Agency of Ukraine said Monday.  

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Volodymyr Taftay evaluated Ukraine’s space program and the possibilities of cooperation between Ankara and Kiev in the field of space.

Underlining that they are very open to cooperation, Taftay said the two countries can definitely engage in common projects in the space field.

He also said they would like to visit the Turkish Space Agency in the second half of this year and discuss opportunities for cooperation.

"I strongly believe that cooperation is much stronger than being alone in any project. Especially with long-term partners like Turkey.

"Turkey has a very advanced industry, so I am completely sure we can engage in joint projects,” he added.

Turkey and Ukraine can launch joint space rocket

Noting that Turkey is a priority partner for Ukraine, Taftay said he believes that with the consolidation of cooperation, a space rocket or satellite co-produced by Ukraine and Turkey can be sent into space.

On the project of sending Turkish astronauts into space in line with Turkey's National Space Program, he said that sending astronauts into space is a kind of test and self-realization because the space industry has to go through many new procedures to be able to send astronauts.

“I think it's a very great, emotional project for the Turkish people to have their own astronauts flying to space,” he added.

He also reminded that Ukraine has historically had significant experience in the field of launch systems and rockets, adding they are open to cooperation in these fields as well as satellites.

New space program

Taftay said the Ukrainian Space Agency’s first priority is to launch the Sich 2-1 satellite together with the SpaceX company at the end of 2021 and the second priority is to implement a new space program.

He said Ukraine's 5th National Space Program ended in 2017, noting that the new program he prepared after taking office in March this year is in the process of being approved.

Explaining that the new program is more result-oriented and that a floating space base project is included in the plan as well as satellites, Taftay said there is no suitable place for the construction of a space base in Ukraine, so they are planning to build a floating base, completely manufactured in Ukraine.

He pointed out that they have reformed the structure of the country’s space industry and changed the law in 2020 as well as opened space activities to private companies./aa