By 2030, 250 million people in Africa will be hit by a scarcity of freshwater, according to a UN report.

The State of the Climate in Africa report further said the phenomenon is expected to displace up to 700 million people on the continent by the same year.

"An estimated 58 million people in Eastern Africa are experiencing acute food insecurity, whilst another 23.7 million in Sahel and West Africa were estimated to be in a crisis or worse," said the report released by the UN's World Meteorological Organization (WMO).

"Around 14 million people were internally displaced in sub-Saharan Africa for various causes and 2.5 million due to disasters, while out of five African countries are unlikely to have sustainably managed water resources by 2030," the report further read.

To avert further deterioration of weather patterns on the continent, the WMO recommends the states to majorly expand early warning weather systems to protect livelihoods.

In response to the report, Mike Mposha, Zambia's water minister, said his country is investing more in strengthening transboundary cooperation and has signed a number of agreements on early warning systems with countries with which it shares its natural waters, such as Mozambique.

Mposha said the agreements were meant to give relief and warn affected stakeholders so they can prepare for floods and other calamities./aa

An Indian Muslim journalist has been granted bail, two years after his arrest by the country's northern state police who accused him with conspiracy to incite riots.

Siddique Kappan was given bail by the Indian Supreme Court on Friday after being arrested by police in northern Uttar Pradesh state in 2020 while on his way to report on the death of a lower-caste Dalit teenager days after she was gang-raped.

On September14, 2020, a 19-year-old Dalit woman was gang-raped in the state's Hathras area, resulting in serious injuries and her death two weeks later.

The incident triggered widespread outrage and protests across the country.

The caste system in India divides Hindus into four main categories – Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and the Shudras.

Outside of this are Dalits, who are regarded as "untouchables" or socially excluded from upper caste Hindus.

Legal breather

A four-member bench granted release to the journalist, who worked for a regional Malayalam language news website and had been imprisoned since October 2020.

His bail plea was previously denied by lower courts, so he petitioned the Supreme Court for bail last month.

Wills Mathews, who represented Kappan's case in lower courts, confirmed to Anadolu Agency that the apex court has granted bail to the journalist. 

He added that the court has ordered him to remain under the jurisdiction of the national capital New Delhi for the next six weeks and to report to local police stations every week.

The state authorities alleged in a charge sheet filed against the journalist that Kappan and the co-accused were travelling to Hathras with the purpose to disrupt the area's harmony.

The state administration also alleged that he had close ties to the Popular Front of India, a Muslim organisation accused by the federal government of having ties to "terrorist" outfits, which the organisation denies.

Source: AA

Kenya's tourism earnings more than doubled to 167.1 billion shillings ($1 billion) in January to August from 83 billion shillings in the same period a year ago, Tourism and Wildlife Minister Najib Balala said on Friday.

Balala said in a statement the earnings were as a result of a 91% rise in the number of international visitors to 924,812 partly due to a recovery from the pandemic, and forecasts strong growth to the end of the year.

Tourism alongside horticulture, tea and remittances are Kenya's top foreign exchange earners. ($1 = 120.2000 Kenyan shillings) (Reporting by George Obulutsa Editing by James Macharia Chege)/Agencies

 According to Property Finder, the leading MENAT’s proptech company, the real estate market in Dubai recorded 9,720 total sales worth AED24.3 billion in August, the highest performing month in terms of sales transactions volume and value in 12 years.

Comparing period-over-period growth, August witnessed a monthly growth rate in volume of around 37.1 percent and 69.6 percent compared to last year. In terms of value, August registered a month-on-month (MoM) growth of 16.1 percent and around 63.6 percent year-on-year (YoY).

In terms of the growing volume of transactions, total sales for ready properties jumped 27.4 percent over July 2022 at 67.5 percent compared to August 2021. Additionally, the value of transactions witnessed around a 6.7 percent MoM increase at 57.4 percent year-on-year.

The off-plan market transacted 4,392 properties worth AED8.5 billion, the highest monthly transaction in 12 years. Considering the transactional volume, the off-plan market presented a significant increase of 51.1 percent MoM at 72.1 percent YoY. In terms of value, the market surged by 38.5 percent MoM at 76.5 percent YoY.

On the other hand, in terms of volume, the mortgage industry experienced an unprecedented growth of 15.7 percent MoM, exceeding previous records year on year by 21.2 percent.

The August rental market recorded an increase of 10.6 percent MoM, whereby rental contracts dipped to 9.3 percent YoY due to the decrease of the renewal rate by 18.9 percent YoY.

Furthermore, annual contracts witnessed around a 12.4 percent growth rate MoM, at 4.4 percent YoY, while non-annual contracts dropped by 52.2 percent YoY. Residential contracts are growing larger than expected, acquiring 70.9 percent in August 7.5 percent MoM unlike contracts for commercial purposes, which witnessed an increase of 21.3 percent MoM with a slight decrease of 0.6 percent YoY.

Agencies

 Ukraine's grain exports are down 48.6% year-on-year in the 2022/23 season so far at 5.291 million tonnes, the agriculture ministry said on Friday.

The country's grain exports have slumped since the start of the war because its Black Sea ports, a key route for shipments, were closed off, driving up global food prices and prompting fears of shortages in Africa and the Middle East.

Three Black Sea ports were unblocked at the end of July under a deal between Moscow and Kyiv, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey.

The ministry data showed that exports so far in the July 2022 to June 2023 season included 3.17 million tonnes of corn, 1.65 million tonnes of wheat and 447,000 tonnes of barley.

The volumes include 993,000 tonnes of grain exported so far in September versus 1.67 million tonnes exported in the same period of last year.

The government has said Ukraine could harvest at least 50 million tonnes of grain this year, compared with a record 86 million tonnes in 2021, because of the loss of land to Russian forces and lower grain yields.

ZAWYA

At least eight migrants died and another 15 were missing after a boat sank off Tunisia on Thursday, as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to Italy, State Monastir Radio said.

The coastguard rescued 14 migrants who had been on the overcrowded boat, which sank off Chebba town in Mahdia region.

A security official said that the boat set off from El Awabed coast in Sfax region this week. He added that most of migrants in the boat are Tunisians.

The coastline of Sfax has become a major departure point for people fleeing poverty in Africa and the Middle East for a chance at a better life in Europe.

In recent months, dozens of people have drowned off the Tunisian coast, with an increase in the frequency of attempted crossings from Tunisia and Libya toward Italy.

Hundreds of thousands of people have made the perilous journey crossing the Mediterranean in recent years.

Agencies

The chaotic situation in Libya in recent years has made the country extremely dangerous for journalists and media outlets, says Reporters Without Borders (RSF). Press freedom, which was non-existent under Muammar Gaddafi, has improved little since his overthrow in 2011, which country plunged into civil war and domination by militias.

“The situation in Libya is particularly difficult for media professionals. The international community must take a firm and strong stand on the need to safeguard press freedom in the face of threats and pressure on journalists from armed factions. All parties to the conflict in Libya need to realise that the protection of journalists should be one of their priorities because, no matter how serious the political situation, Libyans need independent media and protected journalists.”

Khaled Drareni

RSF’s North Africa representative

Clashes at the end of August provided a reminder that this repeated violence has a major impact on the work of journalists in the field. Fierce fighting between armed groups – which are mostly financed by the various Libyan authorities, sometimes with help from foreign countries, according to RSF sources – broke out in several Tripoli districts on 28 August against a backdrop of rivalry between the two competing governments. It left a death toll of at least 30, again according to RSF sources. Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh, the prime minister of the government of national unity, responded by issuing a warrant for the arrest of all those who participated in what he called an “aggression” against Tripoli.

The rival government is headed by Fathi Bashagha, who was chosen as prime minister-designate by the parliament based in the east of the country. Dbeibeh refuses to hand over power to anything other than a government mandated by a newly elected parliament. The recent fighting in Tripoli highlighted the difficulties that journalists encounter every day as a result of the chaotic political and security situation, which prevents them from being free to report in the field.

The head of a local media outlet that struggled to cover the latest fighting told RSF:

“Libya’s media are experiencing moments of political and military tension that make it very hard for us to do our work properly even if it is absolutely necessary to follow events and inform people. For my part, I tried to go out on to the street to cover the clashes from afar, but I immediately received threats from several armed people whose affiliation I don’t even know.”

He added that he did not even have a helmet and bulletproof vest that would not only give him some protection but also serve to identify him as a journalist to the warring factions.

The leaders of the factions think there are no independent journalists in Libya and that they are all controlled by one or other of the clans. This makes journalists potential targets. A reporter used to working in the field, who we will not name for security reasons, said: “Independent journalistic work is almost impossible today in Libya, particularly during clashes between militias. Reporting statements or facts objectively can have serious consequences for the reporter.”

He added: “Everything also depends on where you are located geographically. Journalists based in the west cannot speak freely about political groups and militias in Tripoli. The situation is similar for journalists based in the east of the country.” He said reporting is much easier for foreign journalists in Libya because less attention is paid to the international media and their reporters are therefore subject to much less “supervision” than local media.

Libya has seen many press freedom violations in recent months, of which the most prominent was the abduction of Ali Al-Rifawi, a reporter for the privately-owned 218 TV channel who was kidnapped in the city of Sirte on 26 March and was not released until 5 July, after 100 days in captivity.

A physical attack on Mohamed Messaoud, a correspondent of the international TV news channel Al Arabiya, in the eastern city of Tobruk was also widely reported. Messaoud was covering a session of the Tobruk-based parliament on 15 August when he was assaulted by individuals later identified as members of Libyan Internal Security. RSF condemned this attack at the time and called on the Libyan authorities to guarantee journalists’ safety.

At a time when attacks on freedoms are on the rise in Libya, no faction or party has clearly expressed a desire to prioritise the defence of press freedom. On the contrary, the fact that many Libyan media outlets belong to or depend on one or other faction makes it almost impossible for them to be independent.

One of the Libyan journalists we consulted said he thought most media in Libya belong to one or other of the rival factions, which forces journalists to defend the positions of the faction that employs them. This has been the situation since the last elections in 2014.

Rsf

More than 800 migrants expelled this week by Algeria have reached the northern Niger town of Agadez, local authorities told AFP.

“In all we have 847 people, including 40 women and 74 unaccompanied children,” Agadez municipal authority said late Thursday.

The child protection ministry has taken care of the minors, it said.

A humanitarian source said “some 800 migrants” arrived at the border at the start of the week after being “escorted” there by Algerian officials.

The migrants, mostly from Niger, will be given medical care and basic necessities, the source said.

Since 2014, Algeria has expelled tens of thousands of migrants from west and central Africa, according to the United Nations.

Many of the travelers take the dangerous route across the Sahara in a bid to reach the Mediterranean coast and from there to cross to Europe.

The French charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) has recorded a growth in the numbers thrown out of Algeria in recent years.

Some 23,171 were expelled in 2020, 27,208 in 2021 and 14,196 from January-May this year, MSF says.

Agencies