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Tag: Humanitarian assistance

  • At least 1,000 killed in Sudan landslide, rebel group says

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    A landslide has killed at least 1,000 people in the remote Marra Mountains in western Sudan, according to the rebel group The Sudan Liberation Movement/Army.

    Days of heavy rain triggered the landslide on Sunday, which left just one survivor and “levelled” much of the village of Tarasin, the group said in a statement.

    The movement has appealed for humanitarian assistance from the United Nations and other regional and international organisations.

    Many residents from North Darfur state had sought refuge in the Marra Mountains region, after war between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) forced them from their homes.

    Civil war that broke out in April 2023 between the Sudanese army and the RSF has plunged the country into famine and has led to accusations of genocide in the western Darfur region.

    Estimates for death toll from the civil war vary significantly, but a US official last year estimated up to 150,000 people had been killed since hostilities began in 2023. About 12 million have fled their homes.

    Factions of the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, which controls the area where the landslide occurred, have pledged to fight alongside the Sudanese military against the RSF.

    Many Darfuris believe the RSF and allied militias have waged a war aimed at transforming the ethnically mixed region into an Arab-ruled domain.

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  • Ethiopia hosts UN internet meeting after cutting off Tigray

    Ethiopia hosts UN internet meeting after cutting off Tigray

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    GENEVA — A U.N. body devoted to promoting broader and better access to the internet is about to hold its annual meeting in Ethiopia, whose government has cut off internet access in its northern Tigray region during a two-year war there.

    Critics say Ethiopia stands out as an egregious example of a government preventing citizens from getting online — jeopardizing family ties, human rights and information flows.

    The Internet Governance Forum, whose annual gathering has drawn top leaders like former German Chancellor Angela Merke in the past, scheduled this year’s Nov. 28-Dec. 2 meeting in Ethiopia well before the government of Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed spearheaded a military campaign in Tigray against regional fighters in November 2020.

    Since then, fighting has impeded humanitarian access into the region as Ethiopia’s federal authorities try to isolate Tigray’s rebellious leaders by impeding humanitarian aid deliveries, isolating its beleaguered residents and shutting down banking and telecommunications services — leaving them largely incommunicado from the rest of the world.

    Ethiopian authorities, however, insist they haven’t deliberately targeted the Tigrayan people.

    Under a widely praised cease-fire deal agreed on Nov. 2, Ethiopia’s government is to continue restoring basic communications, transport and banking services for Tigray’s more than 5 million people, and both sides promised to allow unfettered access for humanitarian aid.

    Ethiopia’s government in the past has said it needed security guarantees for workers sent in to repair communications infrastructure.

    The government of Ahmed, who won the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize, has promoted the upcoming IGF gathering in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, as it strives to promote Ethiopia’s status as a regional economic power and African diplomatic hub.

    Organizers of the meeting seek concrete steps to achieve “universal and meaningful internet connectivity.”

    The Geneva-based forum laments that 2.7 billion people worldwide remain unconnected. It will focus this year’s meeting on “connecting all people and safeguarding human rights,” and avoiding internet fragmentation. It decries government policy that “limits uses of the internet or affects the open and interoperable character of the internet.”

    Chengetai Masango, the forum’s program and technology manager, said Addis Ababa was a “prime place” to hold the annual meeting as Ethiopia is fast-developing country, home to a “large youth base” and a diplomatic hub — with many embassies, international institutions and the headquarters of the African Union.

    “Ethiopia is a UN member state and as such is entitled to host U.N. meetings,” Masango wrote, adding: “The IGF and UN’s position on shutdowns everywhere has been consistent; they are incompatible with human rights.”

    Even before the Tigray conflict began, the U.N. human rights office expressed concern about internet access and communications in Ethiopia, citing a “communications blackout” that began in January 2020 in areas under federal military control — namely western Oromia — during military operations against an armed faction there.

    Fighting in the Oromia region this week led to several dozen casualties, witnesses said.

    The rights office noted that Ethiopia is far from the only country to impose restrictions on the internet.

    A U.N. report published in June noted internet shutdowns or clampdowns on social media in places including Myanmar, Sudan and Russia. It said shutdowns often occurred in places where governments carry out armed operations — and some may have been aimed to cover up human rights violations.

    “The U.N. as a whole has been outspoken about the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia, and also about the alleged violations of human rights, humanitarian and refugee law,” Masango saiad.

    Many Tigrayans have told The Associated Press they have been unable to contact loved ones in the region since the conflict began, and don’t know whether they are still alive.

    The #KeepItOn coalition — which brings together over 280 organizations from 105 countries to promote open internet access — says it’s petitioning the African Union “to condemn the Ethiopian government’s prolonged shutdown, which has had devastating impacts on people living through a conflict, and to help reestablish internet access in the region and across Ethiopia.”

    Access Now, another advocacy group, has launched a campaign to highlight Tigray’s two years without internet. It says the meeting in Addis Ababa offers an opportunity to focus on internet shutdowns and “to urge governments, particularly in Africa, to put an end to the practice.”

    “Authorities have weaponized internet shutdowns against people in and outside of Tigray — disconnecting families, destroying business, and impeding humanitarian aid delivery,” it said. “This compounds the humanitarian crisis and provides cover for the human rights abuses.”

    ———

    Anna reported from Nairobi, Kenya.

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  • Ethiopia peace talks extended as disarmament, aid discussed

    Ethiopia peace talks extended as disarmament, aid discussed

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    NAIROBI, Kenya — The latest round of peace talks between Ethiopia’s government and representatives of the country’s Tigray region has been extended as military commanders work out details on disarmament of Tigray forces after two years of conflict.

    An official familiar with the talks confirmed the extension into Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The talks that began Monday in Kenya had been set to end Wednesday.

    The African Union-led talks follow last week’s signing of a “permanent cessation of hostilities” in the conflict that is estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of people.

    The agreement calls for the disarmament of Tigray forces within weeks, but there is concern about when other combatants who aren’t part of the deal will withdraw from Tigray. They include forces from Eritrea, which neighbors the region, and Ethiopia’s Amhara region.

    Other issues discussed at this round of talks include the restoration of basic services like internet, telecommunications and banking to the region of more than 5 million people, as well as the resumption of deliveries of humanitarian aid.

    The United Nations on Wednesday said they and partners were still waiting on access to a region where even some basic medical supplies have run out. World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is from Ethiopia, told reporters he had expected aid to resume “immediately” after the peace deal’s signing.

    The lead negotiator for Ethiopia’s government, Redwan Hussein, has said that “maybe by the end of this week or the middle of next week” humanitarian aid will be allowed to go in.

    United Nations-backed investigators have said Ethiopian forces resorted to “starvation of civilians” as a weapon in the conflict marked by abuses on all sides.

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  • UN: Russian invasion has uprooted 14 million Ukrainians

    UN: Russian invasion has uprooted 14 million Ukrainians

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    UNITED NATIONS — Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has driven some 14 million Ukrainians from their homes in “the fastest, largest displacement witnessed in decades,” sparking an increase in the number of refugees and displaced people worldwide to more than 103 million, the U.N. refugee chief said Wednesday.

    Filippo Grandi, who heads the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, told the U.N. Security Council that Ukrainians are about to face “one of the world’s harshest winters in extremely difficult circumstances,” including the continuing destruction of civilian infrastructure that is “quickly making the humanitarian response look like a drop in the ocean of needs.”

    Humanitarian organizations have “dramatically scaled up their response,” he said, “but much more must be done, starting with an end to this senseless war.”

    But given “the likely protracted nature of the military situation,” Grandi said his agency is preparing for further population movements both inside and outside Ukraine.

    In his wide-ranging briefing, Grandi told members of the U.N.’s most powerful body that while Ukraine continues to grab headlines, his agency has responded to 37 emergencies around the world in the last 12 months arising from conflicts.

    “Yet, the other crises are failing to capture the same international attention, outrage, resources, action,” he said.

    Grandi pointed to the more than 850,000 Ethiopians displaced in the first half of the year, and said the recent surge in conflict in that nation’s northern Tigray region has had “an even more devastating impact on civilians.”

    The U.N. refugee agency is also in Myanmar, where the country’s military rulers are facing armed resistance and an estimated 500,000 people were displaced in the first half of the year, Grandi said.

    Humanitarian access remains “a huge challenge,” he said, adding that a return home remains distant for the almost 1 million Rohingya Muslim refugees who fled from Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh.

    In Congo, brutal attacks including sexual violence against women have added more than 200,000 people to the 5.5 million already displaced in the country, Grandi said.

    He lamented that “the horrors” he witnessed when he worked in Congo 25 years ago are repeating themselves, “with displacement being, once again, both a consequence of conflict and a complicating factor in the web of local and international tensions.”

    Addressing a council responsible for ensuring international peace and security, Grandi said: “Surely we can do better in trying to bring peace to this beleaguered region.”

    The refugee chief said these crises and others, including the longstanding issue of refugees from Afghanistan and Syria and the complex flow of migrants from the Americas, “are not only fading from media attention but are being failed by global inaction.”

    Reasons for displacement are also becoming more complex, with new factors forcing people to flee including the climate emergency, Grandi said.

    He urged greater attention and much greater financing for preventing and adapting to the warming planet, warning that otherwise tensions and competition will grow “and spark wider conflict with deadly consequences, including displacement.

    “And what is a starker example of `loss and damage’ than being displaced and dispossessed from one’s home?” he asked.

    Last week, Grandi said he met emaciated Somalis who had walked for days to get help and whose children had died on the way, and Somali refugees “pushed into already drought-affected areas of Kenya.”

    He praised the Kenyan government, despite its own challenges, for “ making a landmark shift from encampment of refugees to inclusion — a transition that I hope all will robustly support.”

    Grandi expressed hope that this month’s U.N. summit on climate change in Egypt and the summit in the United Arab Emirates next year will take into account both climate’s link to conflict and the displacement it causes.

    But Grandi said this is not enough. He said the U.N. refugee agency needs $700 million by the end of the year to avoid severe cuts in its services.

    He further called for strengthened peacebuilding to prevent the recurrence of conflict, including by reinforcing the police, judiciary and local government in fragile countries. He said that security also must be improved for humanitarian workers who are under increasing threat and that the Security Council needs to overcome its divisions on humanitarian issues.

    “Because what I saw in Somalia last week was a condemnation of us all,” Grandi said.

    He pointed to “a world of inequality where extraordinary levels of suffering are getting scandalously low levels of attention and resources,” adding that those who contribute the least to global challenges such as climate change “are suffering most from their consequences.”

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  • Russia’s Iranian drones complicate Israel’s balancing act

    Russia’s Iranian drones complicate Israel’s balancing act

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    JERUSALEM — The Iranian-made drones that Russia sent slamming into central Kyiv this week have complicated Israel’s balancing act between Russia and the West.

    Israel has stayed largely on the sidelines since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last February so as not to damage its strategic relationship with the Kremlin. Although Israel has sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine, it has refused Kyiv’s frequent requests to send air defense systems and other military equipment and refrained from enforcing strict economic sanctions on Russia and the many Russian-Jewish oligarchs who have second homes in Israel.

    But with news of Moscow’s deepening ties with Tehran, Israel’s sworn foe, pressure is growing on Israel to back Ukraine in the grinding war. Israel has long fought a shadowy war with Iran across the Middle East by land, sea and air.

    Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, a military spokesman, said the suicide drone attack in Ukraine had raised new concerns in Israel.

    “We’re looking at it closely and thinking about how these can be used by the Iranians toward Israeli population centers,” he said.

    The debate burst into the open on Monday, as an Israeli Cabinet minister called on the government to take Ukraine’s side. Iran and its proxies in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen have threatened Israel with the same delta-shaped, low-flying Shahed drones now exploding in Kyiv.

    The Iranian government has denied providing Moscow with the drones, but American officials say it has been doing so since August.

    “There is no longer any doubt where Israel should stand in this bloody conflict,” Nachman Shai, Israel’s minister of diaspora affairs, wrote on Twitter. “The time has come for Ukraine to receive military aid as well, just as the USA and NATO countries provide.”

    His comments set off a storm in Russia. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Telegram that providing military aid to Ukraine would be “a very reckless move” by Israel.

    “It will destroy all interstate relations between our countries,” he wrote.

    But Shai doubled down on Tuesday, while stressing his view did not reflect the government’s official stance.

    “We in Israel have a lot of experience in protecting our civilian population over 30 years. We’ve been attacked by missiles from Iraq and rockets from Lebanon and Gaza,” Shai, a former military spokesman, told The Associated Press. “I’m speaking about defense equipment to protect Ukraine’s civilian population.”

    The Israeli prime minister’s office and Defense Ministry both declined to comment.

    For years, Russia and Israel have enjoyed good working relations and closely coordinated to avoid run-ins in the skies over Syria, Israel’s northeastern neighbor, where Russian air power has propped up embattled President Bashar Assad. Russia has let Israeli jets bomb Iran-linked targets said to be weapons caches destined for Israel’s enemies.

    Israel has also been keen to stay neutral in the war over concern for the safety of the large Jewish community in Russia. Israel frets about renewed antisemitic attacks in the country, with its long history of anti-Jewish pogroms under Russian czars and purges in the Soviet era. Over 1 million of Israel’s 9.2 million citizens have roots in the former Soviet Union.

    Israel’s former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett maintained strict neutrality after the invasion, refraining from condemning Russia’s actions and even trying to position himself as a mediator in the conflict. As the U.S. and European Union piled sanctions on Russia, Bennett became the only Western leader to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

    But in recent months, Israel’s cautious stance has grown more fraught.

    Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who took over as caretaker leader over the summer, has been more vocal than his predecessor. As foreign minister, he described reports of atrocities in Bucha, Ukraine as possible war crimes. After Russia bombarded Kyiv last week, he “strongly” condemned the attacks and sent “heartfelt condolences to the victims’ families and the Ukrainian people,” sparking backlash from Moscow.

    Tensions rose further when a Russian court in July ordered that the Jewish Agency, a major nonprofit that promotes Jewish immigration to Israel, close its offices in the country. Israel was rattled. A hearing to decide the future of the agency’s operations in Russia is set for Wednesday. “Anything could happen,” said Yigal Palmor, the agency’s spokesman.

    Now, Israeli alarm about the Iranian drones buzzing over Kyiv has heightened the debate.

    “I think Israel can help even more,” said Amos Yadlin, a former chief of Israeli military intelligence. He described Israel’s “knowledge on how to handle aerial attacks,” its “intelligence about Iranian weapons” and “ability to jam them” as potentially crucial to Ukraine.

    Iran is battle testing weapons that could be used against Israel’s northern and southern borders, argued Geoffrey Corn, an expert on the law of war at South Texas College of Law in Houston.

    Iran backs Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group and Hamas in the Gaza Strip — both of which have fought lengthy wars against Israel.

    If the drones prove effective in Ukraine, Iran will “double down on their development,” Corn said. If they are shot down, Iran will have an “opportunity to figure out how to bypass those countermeasures.”

    Israel’s air defense system, the Iron Dome, has boasted a 90% interception rate against incoming rocket fire from Gaza. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hit out at Israel for not providing Kyiv with the anti-rocket system.

    Former Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky, a onetime Soviet dissident, criticized his country’s reluctance to help Ukraine in an interview with the Haaretz daily on Tuesday, deriding Israel as “the last country in the free world which is still afraid to irritate Putin.”

    Still, some insist that Israel must not enter the fray precisely because it differs from its Western allies.

    “We are not Germany or France,” said Uzi Rubin, a former head of Israel’s missile defense program. “We are a country at war.”

    ———

    Associated Press writers Eleanor Reich and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

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  • US offers hurricane assistance to Cubans amid blackouts

    US offers hurricane assistance to Cubans amid blackouts

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    MIAMI — The United States said Tuesday it has offered critical emergency humanitarian assistance to the people of Cuba to recover from the devastation caused by Hurricane Ian, an unusual but not unprecedented move after years of bilateral tensions.

    The assistance includes $2 million in provisions and supplies that will be delivered through independent non-governmental organizations that have experience and are already working on the island directly with the affected populations, said a senior administration official who asked to remain anonymous following government policies.

    “We are responding to a disaster by working with our international humanitarian assistance partners to deliver critical assistance directly to those most in need,” she said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press before the official announcement. “We stand with the Cuban people and will continue to seek ways to improve their political and economical well-being.”

    The emergency aid will be provided through “trusted international partners,” like the Red Cross, by way of the United States Agency for International Development, or USAID.

    The announcement comes after Ian hit the western part of the island in late September, causing extensive damage to its power grid. The hurricane left large swathes of Cuba with blackouts, fueling discontent on the Caribbean island, especially in rural areas where the blackouts are the worst.

    Cuba already faced a deep energy crisis and economic turmoil before Ian, especially after a fire in August devastated an oil deposit 60 miles (97 kilometers) from Havana that was a key source of energy.

    The protests sparked by the blackouts are the biggest since mass demonstrations in 2021 triggered by similar problems. Detentions of protesters by Cuban authorities have repeatedly generated human rights complaints from international observers, including the U.S.

    While the two countries have long had a tense relationship, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez expressed his gratitude for the offer from the Biden administration immediately after the announcement and confirmed that it will come through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

    Rodríguez said on his Twitter account that the aid will contribute to recovery efforts and support those affected by Hurricane Ian.

    After the storm, U.S. officials spoke with the island’s authorities to find out what their needs were and how they could help, the official said in the interview with AP. The assistance, however, will not go to the Cuban government, but rather to the population directly, she said. She said through the conversations the administration learned that the greatest needs are in shelter restoration and food.

    On some occasions, the Cuban authorities have accused the United States of approving aid for NGOs that are a cover for Cuban dissidents in Florida, whom they allege have appropriated the money.

    This is not the first time that the U.S. government has provided humanitarian assistance to Cuba in the wake of natural disasters. It did it in 2008, in the wake of Hurricane Gustav; and from 2004 to 2006, in the wake of Hurricanes Charley, Dennis and Wilma.

    The current move represents a small step in thawing icy relations between the two nations.

    For more than six decades, the United States has imposed various levels of embargo on Cuba. During the Obama administration, such restrictions were eased but came back into full force under the Trump administration. While President Joe Biden has made efforts to ease a few of the measures – like travel and remittances to bring families closer – he’s left many Trump-era restrictions in place, which have significantly affected the Cuban economy. The administration also announced it would resume visa services after previously closing the embassy following a series of health incidents.

    The full embargo can only be lifted with an authorization from the U.S. Congress, and the official said the aid will be consistent with the U.S. laws and regulations.

    The official said the U.S will continued its demands for the release of political prisoners and respect for human rights on the island.

    ———-

    AP reporters Megan Janetsky and Andrea Rodríguez contributed from Havana.

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  • New report: A record 4.7 million Haitians face acute hunger

    New report: A record 4.7 million Haitians face acute hunger

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    UNITED NATIONS — A record 4.7 million people in Haiti are facing acute hunger, including 19,000 in catastrophic famine conditions for the first time, all in a slum controlled by gangs in the capital, according to a report released Friday.

    The U.N. World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization said unrelenting crises have trapped Haitians “in a cycle of growing desperation, without access to food, fuel, markets, jobs and public services, bringing the country to a standstill.”

    The Cite Soleil district of the capital, Port-au-Prince, where violence has increased as armed gangs vye for control, is facing the most urgent need of humanitarian assistance, they said.

    The report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which is a global partnership of 15 U.N. agencies and international humanitarian groups, paints a grim picture of escalating hunger in Latin the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country,

    The partnership uses five categories of food security, from Phase 1 in which people have enough to eat to Phase 5 in which households have an extreme lack of food and face famine, starvation, death and destitution. The 19,000 people in Cite Soleil are now in the latter group, the report said.

    According to the analysis, a record 4.7 million Haitians are in the three worst categories — 2.9 million in “crisis” Phase 3 characterized by gaps in food consumption and acute malnutrition, 1.8 million in “emergency” Phase 4 in which there are large gaps in food consumption, very high acute malnutrition and excess deaths, and 19,000 in “famine” Phase 5.

    The report said food security has also continued to deteriorate in Haiti’s rural areas, with several dropping from the “crisis” phase into the “emergency” phase.

    The World Food Program and the Food and Argiculture Organization said food insecurity has increased over the past three years and 65% of Haitians “are in high levels of food insecurity with 5% of them in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.”

    Haiti has been gripped by inflation and political gridlock that have exacerbated protests and brought society to the breaking point.

    Daily life in the country began to spin out of control last month just hours after Prime Minister Ariel Henry said fuel subsidies would be eliminated, causing prices to double. Rising prices have put food and fuel out of reach of many Haitians, clean water is scarce, and the country is trying to deal with a cholera outbreak.

    “Harvest losses due to below average rainfall and last year’s earthquake that devastated parts of the country’s south are among the shocks that worsened conditions for people,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

    He said violence, unrest and tensions in Cite Soleil have limited access by humanitarian workers to the district.

    “So, we don’t know necessarily how bad it’s getting, although it’s very clear it’s very bad, indeed. And we need to get access to people; we need to make sure that we can get food to people,” he said.

    The World Food Program is seeking $105 million for the next six months, while the Food and Agriculture Organization said it urgently needs some $33 million.

    Jean-Martin Bauer, country director in Haiti for the World Food Program, said, “We all need to be steadfast and focus on delivering urgent humanitarian assistance and supporting long-term development.”

    The Food and Agriculture Organization’s representative in Haiti, Jose Luis Fernandez Filgueiras, said, “We need to help Haitians produce better, more nutritious food to safeguard their livelihoods and their futures.”

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  • US to pull visas of Haitian officials, send assistance

    US to pull visas of Haitian officials, send assistance

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    SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The U.S. government will pull visas belonging to current and former Haitian government officials involved with criminal organizations as well as provide security and humanitarian assistance to Haiti, senior U.S. officials said Wednesday.

    The officials spoke to reporters by telephone on condition of anonymity as a U.S. delegation was arriving in the Caribbean country that has been paralyzed by gangs and antigovernment protests and is facing severe shortages of water, fuel and other basic supplies.

    The U.S. officials declined to name which Haitian officials would see their visas revoked or how many would be affected, adding only that the measure also applies to their immediate family members.

    The U.S. officials also said the government is working with Mexico on a U.N. resolution proposing specific sanctions and additional measures to address the many challenges facing Haiti.

    The officials declined to say how the upcoming aid would be distributed, although they noted that the U.S. Coast Guard will deploy a major cutter at the request of local officials.

    They also declined to say when, how and what kind of security and humanitarian assistance will be deployed, adding only that supplies such as bleach, water jugs and oral rehydration salts will be distributed amid a recent cholera outbreak that has killed dozens of Haitians and sickened a couple hundred more.

    U.S. Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols flew to Haiti Wednesday and was scheduled to meet with politicians and civil society leaders.

    The trip comes just days after Prime Minister Ariel Henry requested the immediate deployment of foreign troops to help with security. Gangs have blockaded a major fuel depot and protests against Henry have added to the problems.

    The United Nations’ Security Council is scheduled to discuss Henry’s request later this month. In a letter sent to the council Sunday that was viewed by The Associated Press, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres offered several options, including a rapid action force.

    It was not clear whether the U.N. or individual countries or both would send troops under such a plan.

    On Tuesday, State Department Spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. government was reviewing Henry’s request with international partners “to determine how we best could contribute to the removal of security constraints on medical and humanitarian measures aimed at halting the spread of cholera.”

    One month has passed since one of Haiti’s most powerful gangs surrounded a key fuel terminal in the capital of Port-au-Prince, preventing the distribution of some 10 million gallons of gasoline and diesel and more than 800,000 gallons of kerosene stored on site.

    In addition, protesters have blocked streets in the capital and other major cities to demand Henry’s resignation. Prices have soared since the prime minister last month announced that his administration could no longer afford to subsidize fuel.

    On Monday, Price said that the U.S. government wants “to be prudent and responsible in terms of what any such action might look like.”

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