World Tour: Another election in Peru

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour with our reporter in Africa, Onize Ohikere.

ONIZE OHIKERE, REPORTER: We begin today in southern Africa.

AUDIO: [Choir singing]

Church members and relatives in Zambia’s capital of Lusaka have received the body of a 23-year-old student, who died fighting for Russia in the Ukraine War.

Lemekani Nyirenda was studying at Moscow Engineering Physics Institute when he received a nine-and-a-half year sentence in April 2020 over a drug offense.

The Russia-based paramilitary group Wagner later admitted it recruited him for its “special operation” in Ukraine.

Nyirenda’s cousin in Zambia said the family still believed he was studying in Russia when they learned of his death.

AUDIO: Even now we don't believe Lemekani is no more.

The Wagner group is also accused of recruiting prisoners from the Central African Republic to fight in Ukraine. This month, the U.S. State Department designated the group as a religious freedom violator, along with other notorious terror organizations.

Next, to Peru. Recently appointed President Dina Boluarte is trying to move up general elections to April. At least seven protesters have died in ongoing demonstrations against the new government.

AUDIO: [Protest scene with tear gas]

Protesters are calling for Boluarte’s resignation and the release of former president Pedro Castillo. Authorities detained Castillo last week shortly after his impeachment.

Thousands have demonstrated across Peru, including in the capital of Lima, where police fired tear gas.

AUDIO: [Protesters chanting]

In Peru’s second-largest city of Arequipa, thousands of protesters burned security booths and forced the closure of the airport.

Rural unions and indigenous peoples’ groups have called for an indefinite strike to support Castillo, who was a rural teacher and union leader.

We head over to northern Kosovo.

AUDIO: [Car sounds]

Ethnic Serbs used trucks and other heavy vehicles to block roads on Sunday after authorities detained a former Kosovo Serb police officer.

Kosovo proclaimed independence from Serbia in 2008, but Serbia has refused to recognize its statehood.

The officer was one of about 600 ethnic Serbs who resigned from the force last month. They were protesting a proposal requiring Serbs to trade Serbian license plates dating to before the war for Kosovar ones.

Serbia’s president said he would ask a NATO-led peacekeeping force to deploy a thousand Serbian troops to the region.

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti rejected the move.

KURTI: Serbia is trying to return its army to Kosova in spite of genocide over 23 years ago, which was stopped by NATO intervention.

NATO and the European Union have called on both sides to avoid provocations.

We wrap up today in Bethlehem, where Christmas pilgrims are making a comeback.

AUDIO: [Customers talking]

Customers walked through olive-wood carvings depicting Nativity scenes. Elsewhere, tourist groups from around the world explored the town where Jesus was born.

Israel reopened to vaccinated foreign tourists last year, but Bethlehem remained closed.

Saliba Nissan is the co-owner of the Bethlehem New Store.

NISSAN: We were closed for almost two years. No tourists, no nothing.

Elias Arja, head of Bethlehem hotel association, said he expects business to start picking up as Christian tourists return to visit the Church of the Nativity, the Holy Sepulchre, and other historic sites.

ARJA: This year, I see it is 100% occupancy of the three nights of the Christmas Eve, and the day before and the day after.

That’s it for this week’s World Tour. Reporting for WORLD, I’m Onize Ohikere in Abuja, Nigeria.

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