Nyombi Morris was only ten years old when the family home and farm in Butaleja district in eastern Uganda were swept away by devastating floods, which he says were made worse by illegal sand mining on the banks of a river.
“I’m here to represent my mother, who lost a farm, a house, in 2008,” said the 24-year-old African activist. “There was a flash flood and more than 400 people had to flee to Kampala”, the capital, he recalls.
When he learned that the UN climate conference would take place this year in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, Nyombi Morris, founder of the NGO Earth Volunteers, decided to go there to make his voice heard. and that of his own. “I am here to ask for compensation for my community”.
But from day one, obstacles arose. “I was so happy when they announced that the COP would be held in Africa, I thought maybe I would have the right to enter the room where the negotiations are taking place.”
For Nyombi Morris, it all started with an interrogation after landing at Sharm el-Sheikh airport, a huge seaside resort in Egyptian Sinai on the Red Sea. “With the interrogation we had at the airport, it will not be easy to do what we had planned,” he says.
To demonstrate, you must request accreditation 36 hours in advance by revealing the names of the organizers, their access badges and the details of the march. And if we obtain this precious sesame, demonstrating is only authorized, according to the organizers of COP27, “from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.”, in a specific area built apart.
– “The COP of polluters” –
“We started to worry when they asked us where we were going, where we were going to sleep, our passports, our names”, he continues, because all climate activists have a story in mind: that of their comrade Indian Ajit Rajagopal.
A week before COP27, he attempted a symbolic gesture, wanting to cover the 500 kilometers that separate Cairo from Sharm el-Sheikh in eight days.
But as soon as he left, he was arrested and sent to detention. The Egyptian lawyer who came to his rescue also ended up behind bars.
They finally emerged after an international outcry.
“After what happened to this Indian activist, how can we be sure that they will leave us alone”, wonders Mr. Morris.
For Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, “everyone must be able to fully participate in COP27”. And “this includes civil society,” he said on Twitter on Monday.
But for Adam Coogle, of the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), “the Egyptian government has no intention of easing its abusive security measures to leave room for freedom of expression and assembly”.
Already, according to NGOs, at least 151 “arbitrary arrests” have taken place for calls to demonstrate elsewhere than in Sharm el-Sheikh, on November 11, against repression and the brutal increase in the cost of living.
“Even if this COP is taking place in Africa, we have not been given any chance to express ourselves. So why are we here?” asks Mr. Morris.
“It’s not the African COP, it’s the polluters’ COP because it’s the polluters who dominate, look, Coca-Cola is there!”, he says while the multinational, one of the official sponsors of COP27, is, according to Greenpeace, “the first person responsible for plastic pollution in the world”.
– Activists “outside” –
The activists, themselves, “are outside”, “unable to participate in the negotiations” and above all, he says, to “reclaim the 100 billion (per year) promised in 2009 and never given” by the developed countries to the countries of the South for reduce their emissions.
Last year, for COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland, tens of thousands of demonstrators from around the world braved torrential rains to demand “climate justice”.
On Sunday, ignoring the restrictions, a handful of activists from a vegan sect demonstrated by waving banners “Be vegan, make peace” at the entrance to the Palais des Congrès where the COP27 participants flocked.
“We are trying to promote veganism to help save the planet from greenhouse gases,” said Tom Modgmah, member of the “Supreme Master Cheng Hai Cult,” told AFP. “Livestock is responsible for a large part of the current disaster,” he adds.
Nyombi Morris stayed outside the door.
“Our ‘observer’ badges don’t allow us in. So I’m here, but I’m watching what’s happening via online broadcasts,” he sighs.
