Hong Kongers battle for veggies, other supplies

Supermarkets across Hong Kong this month displayed empty black plastic basins that would usually hold fresh fruits and vegetables. A supply shortage in the territory worsened after China temporarily shut its border crossings due to spiking cases of the omicron variant among truckers and across Hong Kong.

In the downtown Wan Chai Market last week, a staffer from Qiandama vegetable store struggled to control the crowds trying to enter. “No more veggies inside,” she told Al Jazeera. “It’s like the battlefield.”

Hong Kong relies on mainland China for most of its fresh produce. Cheung Yak-fai, a representative of the Hong Kong–Guangdong Transportation Drivers and Employees Association, said only about 50 Hong Kong cross-border vegetable truckers were working after 250 had to undergo quarantine.

Hong Kong recorded more than 6,000 new infections on Thursday. Health experts warn the daily infection rate could rise to about 28,000 by the end of March. Authorities converted newly built public housing and about 10,000 hotel rooms into isolation centers to deal with the growing need.

Chinese President Xi Jinping asked Hong Kong to use “all necessary measures” to get the outbreak under control. Like China, Hong Kong has approached the pandemic with a goal of attaining “dynamic zero” infection rates, even as other countries start adapting to living with the virus.

The pandemic restrictions have also provided authorities a channel to further clamp down on dissent. Hong Kong has imposed China’s controversial national security law over the past year. Christians in China’s house churches said the government will make it illegal for foreigners or unregistered religious groups, including house churches, to share religious content online beginning March 1.

The new policy by the Religious Affairs Administration requires government authorization for any religious content on social media platforms or by independent organizations with religious affiliations. Only government-approved religious organizations can apply for the licenses, leaving unregistered house church leaders in fear.

“It is circulated online that national security officers called believers and threatened them not to talk about faith online nor record sentences with religious words,” Huang Deqi, an attorney, wrote in a WeChat post that was later deleted.

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen in Phnom Penh, Cambodia Associated Press/Photo by Heng Sinith, file

World radar

• CAMBODIA: The Cambodian government this week delayed the rollout of a controversial internet gateway system that has drawn comparisons to China’s Great Firewall. The telecommunications ministry said it halted the midweek release of the National Internet Gateway due to disruptions caused by the pandemic. The reform would have required all internet providers to reroute traffic through the gateway. The government has insisted the move is necessary to support tax collection, protect national security, and preserve “social order, culture and national tradition.” The Cambodian Center for Human Rights said the government last year detained, convicted, or issued arrest warrants for 39 Cambodians over their posts online.

• NIGERIA: Saturday marks four years since the abduction of Leah Sharibu, the Christian schoolgirl held captive by the Islamic State West African Province. The insurgents abducted 110 girls from a secondary school in northeastern Nigeria in 2019. The extremists returned all the surviving girls except Sharibu, who was 14 at the time and a Christian who refused to renounce her faith. Her family and other supporters will share updates, prayers, and messages in an online Saturday event.

• CHAGOS ISLANDS: The British government this week upheld its sovereignty claim over a remote Indian Ocean archipelago after representatives of Mauritius raised their country’s flag on the islands. Britain controls the archipelago, but Mauritius has continued to contest its sovereignty. Mauritian officials sang their national anthem as Jagdish Koonjul, the Mauritian ambassador to the United Nations, raised the nation’s red, blue, yellow, and green flag on the Peros Banhos atoll. The symbolic ceremony was the culmination of a 15-day expedition. Britain separated the islands from its former colony of Mauritius in 1965 and allowed the United States to set up a military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the isles. After nonbinding opinions from the United Nations and the International Court of Justice, Britain in 2020 said it would “cede sovereignty of the territory to Mauritius when it is no longer required for defense purposes.”

• ETHIOPIA: Lawmakers voted this week to end the country’s six-month state of emergency early, citing developments in the conflict in Tigray. The national government imposed an emergency declaration early in November as Tigrayan regional rebel forces advanced on the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa. The rebels withdrew late in December amid a drone-backed military offensive and mediation efforts, and the Cabinet moved to end the state of emergency early during a meeting last month. The war began in 2020 when the federal government staged an offensive against the Tigrayan regional leadership following rising political tensions. The World Health Organization on Monday said it has access to send medical supplies to Tigray for the first time in six months, but fuel shortages continue to hamper distribution.

• PAKISTAN: A mob in central Pakistan lynched a man late last Saturday over accusations he burned pages of the Quran. Dozens of people gathered outside a mosque after the son of the prayer leader said he saw 41-year-old Mushtaq Ahmed burning the book. The mob stoned Ahmed and hung his body on a tree. His family said he had been mentally unstable for the past 15 years. Authorities detained more than 80 people in an ongoing investigation. In December, a mob lynched a Sri Lankan manager of a sporting goods factory in the same province after accusing him of blasphemy.

• EGYPT: President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi last week appointed the first Christian to preside over the Egyptian Supreme Court. El-Sissi selected Judge Boulos Fahmy, a 65-year-old Coptic Christian, from five other judges of the 15-member court. Christians make up 10 percent of Egypt’s population and have complained of discrimination from the Muslim majority, although many have welcomed reforms under al-Sissi’s government.

• PARIS: The French capital launched its first noise radar on Monday, hoping to counteract its reputation as one of Europe’s noisiest cities. The city installed the first radar on a street lamppost in the 20th district in eastern Paris and a second in the western part of the city. Authorities will observe whether it can successfully measure the noise level and identify the license plates of loud cars or motorcycles over the next few months before fining begins early next year.

People buy fuel at a petrol station in Lagos, Nigeria, on Friday. Associated Press/Photo by Sunday Alamba

Africa brief

I asked a taxi driver here in Abuja how his week was going. I got a frustrated hum in response. It’s a widespread sentiment here, as an ongoing fuel scarcity has stalled the city. Several people rode motorcycles hauling empty yellow 20-liter plastic jerrycans in search of fuel stations that were open without discouragingly long queues. Along major highways, black-market vendors lined the roadside with cans of fuel for sale at four times the usual price. Frustration mounted in some residential parts of the city (including mine), where power was out for about 48 hours beginning Sunday evening. Without the usual fuel supply for generators, we had to get creative with rationing the little fuel we had before power returned.