Author: Théophile Niyitegeka

Study : Watching too much TV makes a man less fertile

{The amount of time spent watching TV daily can have a negative impact on a man’s fertility according to researchers at Copenhagen University.}

The study which was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that watching more than five hours of TV a day can slash a man’s sperm count by a third.

The researchers made this conclusion after studying 1,200 healthy young men to see if a couch potato lifestyle can affect a man’s fertility.

The researchers found that binge-watchers had average sperm counts of 37 million per millilitre of fluid compared to 52 million per millilitre among men who hardly watch TV.

Surprisingly, the researchers found that spending time sitting at a computer didn’t affect a man’s fertility like watching TV did. The researchers suggested this could be because men who watch too much TV are less likely to be doing much exercise or eating healthily, which are crucial habits for maintaining fertility.

Source:Elcrema

March 22, 2017
Dirty Money: The bad economics of drug trade

{Recently, media reports have been awash with people being arrested over drug trafficking and seizure of scores of contrabands and narcotics.}

Regionally, this is considered a serious challenge facing law enforcement agencies.

Back in Rwanda, cannabis and contrabands especially crude gin commonly known as Kanyanga, and other illicit gin packed in banned plastic bags such as Chief waragi, zebra waragi and African gin, among others, continues to be a threat to community safety and social welfare.

Gicumbi District has been labeled as one of the main transit routes for traffickers of kanyanga, which this article focuses on.

These contrabands are classified among the psychotropic substances under article 24 of the law governing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors in Rwanda, which categorize all drinks with alcoholic content exceeding 45 percent, as ‘narcotics.

According to experts, such illicit gins interfere with legal economic activity in many different ways, as do other types of crime. The consequences stem largely from the direct and indirect influences of the large amounts of money in illegal trades.

Between January and February this year, for example, Rwanda National Police (RNP) seized and destroyed Kanyanga valued at Rwf36 million from Gicumbi alone.

To the law enforcers, lives were saved and criminals apprehended and to the economists, investing Rwf36 million in drug trade is “bad and criminal business” considering the risks.

Economic analysts use multiplier effect to make a breakdown of what Rwf36 million can do if invested in clean business, saying that it can multiply ten times or even more with almost no risks, if invested in clean business.

The Chief Executive Officer of Business Development Fund (BDF) Innocent Bulindi, says: “If you leverage off Rwf36 million for a loan, you may get five times that amount, which is Rwf180million, imagine what you can do with this amount; a lot.”

According to Celestin Ntaganzwa, the President of FERWACOTAMO, a federation of motorcycle cooperatives in Rwanda, Rwf180 million comes in handy.

“This money can purchase 150 brand new commercial motorcycles with each going for Rwf1.2 million. With each motorcycle making a daily return of Rwf5000, this would mean 150 motorcycles would collect Rwf750, 000 daily which is equivalent Rwf274million annually,” said Ntaganzwa.

{{Multiplier Effect}}

Leaving all factors constant, according to Ntaganzwa, a brand new TVS motorcycle can run for three years in good mechanical condition if maintained well. This means, the 150 motorcycles can approximately fetch Rwf274 million annually or Rwf823m in three years.

For, Bulindi of BDF, “this is one way of creating jobs; assuming every motorcyclist has dependants, there are thousands of people that would be benefiting from this money.”

He points out that, besides the motorcycle business, the Rwf36million, leveraged off for a loan of Rwf180million can still do a lot in agriculture.

Pundits say that when you cultivate maize, you can harvest 3 tons on one hectare; this means that with Rwf180 million invested on 500 hectares of land, one would make returns of Rwf300 million just in one season.

The figures imply that any mount that is invested in clean business and well managed can make tremendous profits.

According to Bulindi, those benefiting are not only the investors but also banks and the nation since the load are paid off with a minimum interest rate of 16.5% which is a 29.7million paid in interests.

Some of former kanyanga traffickers regret venturing their money into the criminal business, how they were arrested by the police, the risks involved in the business, how much they lost and how Kanyanga eventually ruined their lives and those of their families.

Nicholas Ntambara says he was into Kanyanga business for seven years.

“To me, these are seven wasted years since I can’t show anything that I achieved rather than losing millions of francs in kanyanga that would end up seized,” says Ntambara.

“My fate started hanging in balance after knowing that all security organs were out on a hurt for me. I abandoned my wife and went into hiding for four months. Later I crossed over to Uganda in an attempt to start a new life but I couldn’t cope with the situation. I had to come back and I got arrested upon arrival,” said Ntambara as he narrated the ordeals of his life as a drug trafficker.

“Through this criminal business, I lost my land and house. Had I made clean investments in the seven years, I would be a rich man. I am a victim of my poor decisions,” he notes.

Ntambara shares a closely similar story with Jean de Dieu Ntamitondero, who was convicted for trafficking of kanyanga and served a one-and-half years imprisonment.

The reformed Ntamitondero has since invested in tamarillo fruits locally known as Ibinyomoro, and earns over Rwf400, 000 in profits every year.

Getting rid of Kanyanga in Gicumbi

Gicumbi being one of the places prone with Kanyanga, several mechanisms have been put in place and they are paying off, according to Police.

Chief Supt. Dan Ndayambaje, the District Police Commander of Gicumbi, said: “Residents themselves have come up with mechanisms like anti-kanyanga clubs in each of the 21 sectors, and several anti-crime forums to support security organs in information sharing, fight the vice and break the chain of suppliers.”

“We managed to wipe out all distillation plants, identified porous borders used as transit routes. This collaboration justifies why we seize big quantities and increased number of arrested dealers.”

He expressed optimism that Kanyanga will eventually be wiped up but appealed for continued partnership from residents.

Kanyanga and illicit drugs are blamed for most domestic violence cases.

Police and health experts have both warned the public against Kanyanga and illicit drugs arguing they do not only cause health repercussions but also affect the victims economically.

Police also says that most other crimes like gender based violence, and child abuse, are mainly committed by people under the influence of drugs.

Fighting drug abuse as one of the high impact crimes, with focus on breaking the chain of supply through community awareness and operations, is one of the major priorities of Rwanda National Police.

Source:Police

March 22, 2017
First patient cured of rare blood disorder

{Using a technique that avoids the use of high-dose chemotherapy and radiation in preparation for a stem cell transplant, physicians at the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System have documented the first cure of an adult patient with congenital dyserythropoietic anemia. CDA is a rare blood disorder in which the body does not produce enough red blood cells, causing progressive organ damage and early death.}

The transplant technique is unique, because it allows a donor’s cells to gradually take over a patient’s bone marrow without using toxic agents to eliminate a patient’s cells prior to the transplant.

Dr. Damiano Rondelli, the Michael Reese Professor of Hematology at the University of Illinois at Chicago, says the protocol can be used even in patients with a long history of disease and some organ damage because of the minimal use of chemotherapy.

“For many adult patients with a blood disorder, treatment options have been limited because they are often not sick enough to qualify for a risky procedure, or they are too sick to tolerate the toxic drugs used alongside a standard transplant,” said Rondelli, who is also division chief of hematology and oncology and director of the stem cell transplant program at UI Health.

“This procedure gives some adults the option of a stem cell transplant which was not previously available.”

For more than 30 years, Northbrook, Illinois, resident David Levy’s only course of treatment for CDA was regular blood transfusions to ensure his organs and tissues received enough oxygen. Levy was 24 when the pain became so severe he had to withdraw from graduate school.

“I spent the following years doing nothing — no work, no school, no social contact — because all I could focus on was managing my pain and getting my health back on track,” Levy said.

By age 32, Levy required transfusions every two to three weeks; had lost his spleen; had an enlarged liver; and was suffering severely from fatigue, heart palpitations and iron poisoning, a side effect of regular blood transfusions.

“It was bad,” Levy said. “I had been through enough pain. I was angry and depressed, and I wanted a cure. That’s why I started emailing Dr. Rondelli.”

Rondelli says that because of Levy’s range of illnesses and inability to tolerate chemotherapy and radiation, several institutions had denied him the possibility of a stem cell transplant. UI Health’s advances in curing sickle cell patients opened up a new possibility. Rondelli performed Levy’s transplant in 2014.

“The transplant was hard, and I had some complications, but I am back to normal now,” said Levy, now 35. “I still have some pain and some lingering issues from the years my condition was not properly managed, but I can be independent now. That is the most important thing to me.”

Levy is finishing his doctorate in psychology and running group therapy sessions at a behavioral health hospital.

Rondelli says the potential of this approach to stem cell transplantation is very promising.

“The use of this transplant protocol may represent a safe therapeutic strategy to treat adult patients with many types of congenital anemias — perhaps the only possible cure,” Rondelli said.

This case report is published in a letter to the editor in the journal Bone Marrow Transplantation.

Source:Science Daily

March 22, 2017
Bugesera mayor calls on mediators to engage in anti-crime sensitization

{The mayor of Bugesera District, Emmanuel Nsanzumuhire has called upon mediators in the district to join efforts with security organs and locals to strengthen awareness and prevent crimes.}

The mayor was speaking to mediators on March 20, during which he delivered to them 174 bicycles donated by His Excellency President Paul Kagame.

He noted that by preventing crime and improving the social welfare of the people should be at the top of every one and every sector at all times.

“Some of the issues you handle such as domestic conflicts, misuse of family property, and adultery are caused by abuse of psychotropic substances. As elders and opinion leaders, your voice adds much value in preventing such from happening and transforming families and communities,” the mayor said.

Assistant Inspector of Police (AIP) Cyprien Uwitonze, the District Community Liaison Officer of Bugesera, said that although drug related crimes are on the decrease in the district, it is still an issue that requires concerted efforts due to its high impact.

He singled out cannabis, illicit gin like kanyanga, zebra waragi and chief waragi, among many others, which still influence users to commit most injustices handled by mediators.

Source:Police

March 22, 2017
Mars volcano, Earth’s dinosaurs went extinct about the same time

{New NASA research reveals that the giant Martian shield volcano Arsia Mons produced one new lava flow at its summit every 1 to 3 million years during the final peak of activity. The last volcanic activity there ceased about 50 million years ago — around the time of Earth’s Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, when large numbers of our planet’s plant and animal species (including dinosaurs) went extinct.}

Located just south of Mars’ equator, Arsia Mons is the southernmost member of a trio of broad, gently sloping shield volcanoes collectively known as Tharsis Montes. Arsia Mons was built up over billions of years, though the details of its lifecycle are still being worked out. The most recent volcanic activity is thought to have taken place in the caldera — the bowl-shaped depression at the top — where 29 volcanic vents have been identified. Until now, it’s been difficult to make a precise estimate of when this volcanic field was active.

“We estimate that the peak activity for the volcanic field at the summit of Arsia Mons probably occurred approximately 150 million years ago — the late Jurassic period on Earth — and then died out around the same time as Earth’s dinosaurs,” said Jacob Richardson, a postdoctoral researcher at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “It’s possible, though, that the last volcanic vent or two might have been active in the past 50 million years, which is very recent in geological terms.”

Richardson is presenting the findings on March 20, 2017, at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas. The study also is published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Measuring about 68 miles (110 kilometers) across, the caldera is deep enough to hold the entire volume of water in Lake Huron, and then some. Examining the volcanic features within the caldera required high-resolution imaging, which the researchers obtained from the Context Camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.

The team mapped the boundaries of the lava flows from each of the 29 volcanic vents and determined the stratigraphy, or layering, of the flows. The researchers also performed a technique called crater counting — tallying up the number of craters at least 330 feet (100 meters) in diameter — to estimate the ages of the flows.

Using a new computer model developed by Richardson and his colleagues at the University of South Florida, the two types of information were combined to determine the volcanic equivalent of a batting lineup for Arsia Mons’ 29 vents. The oldest flows date back about 200 million years. The youngest flows probably occurred 10 to 90 million years ago — most likely around 50 million years ago.

The modeling also yielded estimates of the volume flux for each lava flow. At their peak about 150 million years ago, the vents in the Arsia Mons’ caldera probably collectively produced about 1 to 8 cubic kilometers of magma every million years, slowly adding to the volcano’s size.

“Think of it like a slow, leaky faucet of magma,” said Richardson. “Arsia Mons was creating about one volcanic vent every 1 to 3 million years at the peak, compared to one every 10,000 years or so in similar regions on Earth.”

A better understanding of when volcanic activity on Mars took place is important because it helps researchers understand the Red Planet’s history and interior structure.

“A major goal of the Mars volcanology community is to understand the anatomy and lifecycle of the planet’s volcanoes. Mars’ volcanoes show evidence for activity over a larger time span than those on Earth, but their histories of magma production might be quite different,” said Jacob Bleacher, a planetary geologist at Goddard and a co-author on the study. “This study gives us another clue about how activity at Arsia Mons tailed off and the huge volcano became quiet.”

Source:Science Daily

March 22, 2017
6 things to consider before quitting your job

{Sometimes you might have that gut or desire to quit your job without thinking things through, only to regret it later on.}

Quitting your job is a huge decision and isn’t a decision that should be taken in a hurry.

These are some things you should consider before quitting your job

{{1. What will be your temporal source of income?}}

One thing with paying bills is that there’s always an endless list of bills to pay; with every new month comes new bills, and they never stop coming. However, you might feel content at the moment because there’s a source of income to foot your bills. The moment you stop earning money, even the little bills will become a burden. Stagnant money isn’t money at all.

{{2. Do you have a plan ?}}

You shouldn’t just quit your job without a plan. Before you quit your job you should always ask yourself — what next? Asking yourself that question when you have quit your job will leave you unprepared for what to come ahead.

{{3. Why do you want to quit?}}

Sometimes, people have quit good jobs just because of silly situations, and many regret this decision for many years.

Are you quitting your job because your boss talked to you in a harsh tone? Are you unhappy at work. Find out why you want to quit, and if it’s enough reason for you to quit.

{{4. Is this the right time?}}

Are you prepared to quit? Is the timing right? How will you survive at that point? Even if you have a plan, it should be in timely fashion; are you quitting that job at the right time?

{{5. Do you have the right experience?}}

Do you have enough experience to land yourself another job if you quit your present job? Are you a hot property in the market and you already have job offers coming from other firms. If the answers are no, then you need to have a rethink.

{{6. Do you have the right tools?}}

If you are quitting your job to start a business or pursue a dream, then there are questions you need to ask yourself — do you have the tools necessary to start the project? Do you have the capital and resources to start? Have you learned enough of that project you are heading into, and are you ready?

Quitting your job could be a blessing and could also be a curse; it all depends on you. Many people quit their jobs without being ready for the next phase, and end up suffering for it.

Source:Elcrema

March 22, 2017
MINEDUC-Rusizi University exchange heightens

{The Ministry of Education has largely condemned acts of the Chancellor and Legal representative of Rusizi International University; Dr Gahutu Pascal who recently wrote to the Prime Minister claiming that the closure of his university was unlawful, illegally influenced by the Minister of Education, Dr Musafiri Papias Malimba.}

In a press briefing yesterday, the State Minister for Primary and Secondary schools Munyakazi Isaac said it is saddening to have a university leader attacking the Minister of Education other than respecting regulations he was asked to comply with.

“Other universities received letters and replied committing to meet the requirements. However Rusizi University reacted against it and accused one person other than rectifying the situation, ,” said Munyakazi.

He explained that Rusizi University should not accuse an individual who wrote the letter as the representative of the Ministry of Education adding that the last auditing team included foreigners who, by no means, could involve in personal conflicts.

“If you follow up the history of that University you will find that it is entangled between business and education. The government will not tolerate those who front business interests at the expense of quality education to Rwandan children,” said Munyakazi.

Rusizi International University is among four higher learning institutions whose programs have been provisionally suspended following an audit by MINEDUC which gave them six months for meet the required standards if they are to resume services.

In the letter written on 11th March 2017, Dr Gahutu appealed for justice saying the Minister of Education based his decision to close the university on conflicts among shareholders of Rusizi International University without hearing his side of the story.

Dr Gahutu explained that the Minister of Education has on several occasions declined meeting him face to face for talks but rather meets his colleagues with whom they’re conflicting.

In the letter, to the prime minister, Dr Gahutu accuses Dr Malimba of being behind his imprisonment in February 2017 claiming he forged documents and misallocated university resources.

Four universities were provisionally closed while others had some courses suspended.

These include University of Technology and Arts of Byumba (UTAB), Open University of Tanzania, University of Gitwe, JomoKetta University of Agriculture and Technology, InstitutCatholique de Kabgayi (ICK) and Institutd’EnseignementSuperieur de Ruhengeri (INES-Ruhengeri) .

They were given six months to meet the set university standards.

March 21, 2017
Macron and Le Pen clash in presidential debate

{Frontrunners Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen dominate heated debate which centres on immigration and economy.}

The top candidates in France’s presidential election have clashed in a televised debate, with centrist Emmanuel Macron accusing far-right leader Marine Le Pen of lying and seeking to divide the French.

The election is shaping up as the most unpredictable in decades, with Macron and National Front leader Le Pen tied in polls for the April 23 first round, while the mainstream left and right languish in third and fourth place.

One of the most heated exchanges in Monday’s debate came between the two frontrunners, after Le Pen accused Macron of being in favour of the burkini, a full-body swimsuit worn by Muslim women that created weeks of controversy in France last summer.

“The burkini is a public order problem. Do not use it to divide the French,” he said, accusing Le Pen of transforming “the over four million French people, whose religion is Islam…into enemies of the Republic”.

“I want to put an end to immigration, that’s clear,” Le Pen said, before talking about a rise of “Islamist fundamentalism” in France and saying the security situation was “explosive”.

The Socialist Party’s Benoit Hamon took issue with Le Pen’s claim that public schools are wracked by violence, calling her remarks “nauseating”.

The debate, the first between the five main contenders ahead of a two-round election on April 23 and May 7, could help viewers make up their minds in an election where nearly 40 percent of voters say they are not sure who to back.

While polls show Macron and Le Pen establishing a clear lead in the first round, conservative candidate Francois Fillon, the one-time front-runner, has fallen back, damaged by a scandal surrounding the employment of his wife as a parliamentary assistant.

Fillon, accused of paying his wife a generous salary for work she may not have done, has been put under formal investigation, a first for a French presidential candidate.

Only the top two candidates go through to the runoff, where polls show Macron easily beating Le Pen.

But with so many voters undecided and polls showing the abstention rate could be higher than ever in France, the level of uncertainty remains high. A high abstention rate could benefit Le Pen as polls consistently show that her supporters are the most certain of their vote.

The election is taking place against a backdrop of high unemployment and sluggish growth.

Fillon said Le Pen’s proposal to ditch the euro and bring back the French franc would cause “economic and social chaos”.

“You don’t leave the euro and the protection afforded by the European Central Bank…for an adventure… that would ruin borrowers and savers alike,” Fillon said.

Le Pen, who has been buoyed by Donald Trump’s election in the US and Britain’s decision to leave the EU, accused Fillon of scaremongering.

“That’s called Project Fear, Mr Fillon. It was used before Brexit,” said Le Pen, who has pledged a similar referendum on France’s EU membership.

A total of 11 candidates are running for president. Six smaller candidates were excluded from Monday’s debate.

Source:Al Jazeera

March 21, 2017
Darren Rainey’s death in prison shower ‘accidental’

{Activists decry Florida state attorney ruling that 2012 death of schizophrenic inmate in scalding shower was accidental.}

Civil rights organisations have condemned a US state attorney’s decision to close the case against prison guards who sent an inmate to a scalding shower, which witnesses and lawyers believe killed him.

In June 2012, four guards trapped 50-year-old Darren Rainey, a schizophrenic, in a shower at Florida’s Dade Correctional Institute for two hours

He was found dead lying face up in the shower, his skin red and slipping off.

Some prisoners said they heard Rainey scream out for help, saying the water was “too hot”, that they saw steam coming out of the shower, and that CPR was not performed.

While a prison nurse said that Rainey’s body felt hot, she said a sergeant did perform CPR.

On Friday, the office of Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle released a 101-page report saying Rainey’s cause of death was “an accident”.

The report concluded: “Facts and evidence in this case do not meet the required elements for the filing of any criminal charge … none of the correctional officers at Dade CI are criminally responsible for the death.”

In a statement sent to Al Jazeera on Monday, Howard Simon, American Civil Liberties Union’s (ACLU) Florida executive director, said: “Just because the state attorney found that the standards to secure a criminal conviction was not met does not mean that corrections officers did not do something horribly wrong.

“Changes need to be made in our corrections department to ensure that guards are held responsible when their actions, negligent or willful, result in the death of an inmate.”

Florida, a state that holds more more than 100,000 people behind bars, is home to America’s third largest prison system behind California and Texas.

{{Rainey’s death ‘utterly preventable’}}

Anger swelled after the Rundle’s report was released.

Protesters said on social media that they would gather outside the state attorney’s office on Tuesday to demand her resignation, calling on those concerned to continue to phone Rundle for answers.

“We’re fully aware of [the planned protest],” a spokeswoman from Rundle’s office told Al Jazeera, refusing to comment further about Rainey’s death.

Later on Monday, Rundle tweeted that due to the volume of calls she had established a hotline “to answer your concerns regarding the death of Darren Rainey”.

According to Human Rights Watch, there are around 2.37 million people in American prisons, the largest reported incarcerated population in the world.

“Jail and prison staff throughout the US use unnecessary, excessive, and even malicious force against prisoners with mental disabilities,” the group said in its 2016 annual report.

Alex Friedmann, associate director of the Florida-based Human Rights Defense Center, told Al Jazeera that he was not surprised by the state’s decision to close Rainey’s case, but explained his death was “utterly preventable”.

“Florida specifically has a long and sordid history of prisoners being killed by guards,” he said. “There are systemic failures at every step, from preventing abuse, investigating, and holding them accountable.”

It was unlikely that Rainey – who had been on hunger strikes – had the mental health support he needed, Friedmann explained.

“Rainey was mentally ill. We have basically criminalised mental illness in the United States. People who commit crimes on the base of mental illness, we funnel them into prison, not mental health facilities.

“We have more people with mental health [issues] incarcerated, rather than in hospitals. We put them in prisons. They don’t fare well in those environments.”

{{‘A grave injustice’}}

Rainey had allegedly wiped faeces over himself before the shower.

“Prisons aren’t mental health hospitals. They [prison authorities] tell you, ‘we don’t need to be dealing with it’. When you put mentally ill people in these situations, these are the tragic results that happen,” said Friedmann.

One nurse at Dade Correctional Institute, Britney Wilson, said that prisoners were routinely disciplined with long showers, according to the state attorney’s report.

“She observed that Rainey’s skin … appeared red and wrinkled,” the report said. “Wilson told the [911] operator that Rainey’s body appeared to be burned.”

READ MORE: Is the US failing its inmates?

Steve Wetstein, a member of the Stop Prison Abuse Now advocacy group, told Al Jazeera that it was “a grave injustice that the case has been closed”.

“There’s an awful lot of testimony that says the shower that he was placed into was used as a punishment … realistically as a torture device,” he said. “I do think that he was murdered.”

Rainey had been serving a two-year sentence on a cocaine charge.

“I think there is a tremendous amount of abuse [in prisons]. Darren Rainey is not the only death that looks like a criminal act,” Wetstein said. “There are numerous other cases where someone has died and very frankly the system has just covered it up.”

In October, 14 human rights groups led by the ACLU called for a US Department of Justice investigation (DoJ) into Florida’s prisons, urging intervention into abuse, neglect, torture and deaths of prisoners.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, the groups’ letter cited 17 prisoners who allegedly died of neglect.

The ACLU’s Simon told Al Jazeera following the closure of Rainey’s case, it was “imperative” that a federal investigation “into a pattern and practice of brutality in Florida prison” continued.

But Wetstein has lost some hope since the election of Donald Trump.

“To be very honest, we had infinitely more hope that federal charges might have been brought with the [Barack] Obama administration,” Wetstein said, referring to the former Democratic president.

Trump, a Republican, has said he is “tough on crime” and has vowed to give further powers to law enforcement.

“When Trump was elected, our opinion was it’s (the DoJ investigation) not going to happen. The change of administrations makes a big difference. With any Republican administration, I would not be hopeful. With this particular one, I’m certainly not hopeful. It’s worse if anything,” said Wetstein.

Source:Al Jazeera

March 21, 2017
Donald Trump meets Haider al-Abadi at White House

{US president hosts the Iraqi prime minister at the White House, pledging support for Baghdad in battle against ISIL.}

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has said he received assurances during talks with President Donald Trump and his administration of increasing American support as he presses his country’s campaign against ISIL.

“We have been given assurances that the [US] support will not only continue but will accelerate for Iraq to accomplish the task,” Abadi said following talks with Trump at the White House on Monday.

In a meeting on the 14th anniversary of the US invasion, Trump questioned whether the United States should have pulled combat troops out of the country.

“We should never ever have left,” he said, after previously having supported the withdrawal.

Trump told Abadi that he knew Iraqi forces were fighting hard against ISIL.

“It’s not an easy job,” Trump said. “It’s a very tough job. Your soldiers are fighting hard. I know Mosul is moving along.

“We will figure something out. I mean we have to get rid of ISIS,” he added, using an alternate acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group. “We’re going to get rid of ISIS. It will happen. It’s happening right now.”

The Iraqi authorities launched an offensive in October to retake the northern city of Mosul from ISIL with the support of US-led coalition air strikes.

Government forces retook the east side of Mosul in January before setting their sights on the more densely populated west of the city, the last major urban centre ISIL holds in Iraq.

Currently, there are almost 5,000 US troops assisting coalition forces, providing air power, training and advice. That is down from a peak of more than 170,000 in 2007.

Speaking at the United States Institute of Peace later on Monday, Abadi said the Trump administration has a greater desire to be more engaged in the fight against “terrorism” than its predecessor.

But he cautioned that the fight cannot be won solely with military action.

“There are better ways” to defeat ISIL than military might alone, Abadi said.

“We have to be careful here,” he said. “We are not talking about military confrontation [alone]. Committing troops is one thing, while fighting terrorism is another thing. You don’t defeat terrorism by fighting it militarily.”

Abadi also thanked Trump for removing Iraq from a travel ban affecting several Muslim-majority countries.

After an appeal from Abadi, Trump decided this month’s revised order would not include Iraq because of its cooperation with the US. Both the initial January 27 travel ban and the revised version have been blocked by federal courts.

“I thank you for removing Iraq from the presidential order … this was a positive response to the Iraqi request that betters the relationship with Iraq and the value of Iraq as far as Iraqi-American relations,” Abadi told Trump.

Source:Al Jazeera

March 21, 2017