Africa News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

DR Congo's government to ban protests against election 'irregularities'

Five opposition presidential candidates called the joint demonstration in the capital Kinshasa over alleged election irregularities.

But on Tuesday the government said it would ban the event, saying it did not have a legal basis and aimed at undermining the electoral process while the CENI election commission was still compiling results.

"No government in the world can accept this, so we will not let it happen," Vice Prime Minister Peter Kazadi told a press conference.

The protest's organisers did not immediately respond to the ban – which could exacerbate tension surrounding the Dec. 20 presidential and legislative vote that will determine whether Tshisekedi gets a second term.

https://www.france24.com/en/africa/2023 ... gularities

[firestar464]

Worth noting the DRC is rated as one of the most authoritarian countries in the world by the Economist Democracy Index

[caltrek]

Sierra Leone Charges Ex-President Koroma with Treason Over Failed Coup
January 3, 2024

Introduction:

(Al Jazeera) Sierra Leone’s ex-President Ernest Bai Koroma has been charged with four offences including treason for his alleged role in a failed military attempt to topple the West African country’s government in November, a court in the capital Freetown has said.

The court’s decision on Wednesday could escalate tensions in the country coming after the attempted coup and a contentious election in which President Julius Maada Bio was re-elected for a second term in June 2023.

Frictions have been on the rise in the country, which is still recovering from a 1991-2002 civil war that killed more than 50,000 people.

The result of the election was rejected by the main opposition candidate, and questioned by international partners including the United States and the European Union.

Gunmen on November 26 attacked military barracks, a prison and other locations in Sierra Leone, freeing about 2,200 inmates and killing more than 20 people.

Read more here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/ ... led-coup


Sierra Leone

[caltrek]

Ethiopia’s Deal with Somaliland Upends Regional Dynamics, Risking Strife Across the Horn of Africa
by Alemayehu Fentaw Weldemariam
January 13, 2024

Introduction:

(The Conversation) The Horn of Africa ushered in the new year with news of a deal that would ensure that diplomatic relations in the region got off to a bumpy start in 2024. Ethiopia, it was announced on Jan. 1, had signed a memorandum of understanding with the breakaway region of Somaliland, opening the door to an agreement to exchange a stake in flagship carrier Ethiopian Airlines for access to the Gulf of Aden.

Such transactions of economic reciprocity are generally routine, as scholars of international relations and law like myself are aware.

But this deal has another element. It intertwined sea access with Ethiopia’s formal recognition of Somaliland – and this has sparked quite a diplomatic stir. Ethiopia’s neighbor Somalia has demanded that the agreement be immediately retracted. In Somaliland itself, the deal has been greeted by protest and the defense minister’s resignation.

Prior to the memorandum of understanding with Somaliland, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had signaled his intention to gain Red Sea access for his landlocked country – a bid observers warned could have a destabilizing effect in the region.

Ethiopia is reeling from an intense and bloody two-year war within its own borders, coupled with ongoing strife among different ethnic groups. As a result of the violence, Ethiopia is currently experiencing massive internal displacement and famine.

Read more here: https://theconversation.com/ethiopias- ... ca-220617

[caltrek]

UN Says All Peacekeepers Will Leave Democratic Republic of the Congo by End of 2024
January 13, 2024

Introduction:

(Al Jazeera) The United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which has helped in the fight against rebels for more than two decades, will completely withdraw from the country by December.

“After 25 years of presence, MONUSCO will definitively leave the DRC no later than the end of 2024,” Bintou Keita, head of the mission known as MONUSCO said at a media briefing in the Congolese capital Kinshasa on Saturday.

The announcement comes after the Congolese government – which was just re-elected in a disputed vote – called for the UN mission to leave the country, saying it had failed to protect civilians from armed groups.

Numerous armed groups, including the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) and M23, are active in restive eastern areas such as North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri provinces, where civilians face violence and displacement.

The withdrawal will take place in three phases.

Read more here: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/ ... -of-2024

[Powers]

As the UN ever been actually useful in solving military conflicts?

[caltrek]

Sudan in Crisis
by Violet Ikong
January 12, 2024

Introduction:

(Amjambo Africa!) Eight months have passed since violence erupted in Sudan. The conflict so far has claimed over 9,000 lives and has displaced millions of people who are now living on the edge, either within or outside Sudan. With no end in sight, fear, hunger, and illness plague the population. At a time like this, healthcare is an essential need. Yet the medical system in Sudan is broken.

“It’s a disaster. Hospitals are down. The few ones that are still functional have limited staff and resources. It’s also difficult to import drugs, medical supplies, and machines into the country due to the conflict,” said Maram Saeed, a layperson working with the U.S.-based nonprofit Sudanese American Physicians Association (SAPA).

Before the conflict between the Sudanese Army and the Rapid Support Forces began in April 2023, the country’s healthcare system was already in a poor state. The crisis has made it much worse, with 70% of hospitals in the country no longer functional as of November. “Prior to the conflict, the healthcare sector was already in a bad state. There were challenges providing quality healthcare to people in the country, because of recurring issues like extreme tribal conflicts and political instability,” Anmar Homeida, a medical doctor with SAPA, told Amjambo.

In June, the United Nations reported that 11 million people in Sudan were in need of urgent healthcare. Humanitarian organizations are trying to provide healthcare assistance, but funding is inadequate, and conditions are challenging.

Founded in 2019, SAPA escalated the level of its work in Sudan on April 20, five days after the conflict broke out, and has been helping to meet the health needs of internally displaced persons in Sudan ever since. SAPA’s network includes over 50 medical doctors and over 200 laypeople who are working in places like Darfur, Khartoum, White Nile, Al Jazirah or Gezira, and Sudan’s Northern State. They are also working with refugees who have fled the country to neighboring Chad.

Read more here: https://www.amjamboafrica.com/sudan-in ... onflict/


Sudan

[caltrek]

Félix Tshisekedi Sworn in for Second Term as Democratic Republic of Congo President After Disputed Election
January 20, 2024

Introduction:

(The Guardian) Félix Tshisekedi, the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has been sworn in for a second five-year term after a landslide victory his opponents have refused to recognise owing to widespread irregularities in the December general election.

Further extract:

With armed military police deployed throughout the capital, there was no immediate sign that opposition supporters had heeded a call from two of Tshisekedi’s main opponents to protest against his re-election.

In the eastern city of Beni, protesters set up makeshift barricades in the early hours and burned tyres – a demonstration that police dispersed without major incident. Similar small-scale protests broke out in the eastern city of Goma and other urban centres, but were contained by the mass deployment of security forces.

Congo’s largest election-monitoring group, the National Episcopal Conference of Congo (CENCO), this week called the presidential and legislative polls an “electoral catastrophe”, citing its own observations of fraud, mishandling of election materials, parallel voting and other issues.

The country’s electoral commission has said such infractions were limited in scale and did not affect the outcome of the elections, which they say were ultimately free and fair.

Read more here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024 ... president


Democratic Republic of the Congo

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‘We Cannot Trust the Janjaweed’: Sudan’s Capital Ravaged by Rapid Support Force Rule
by Mat Nashed
January 20, 2024

Introduction:

(Al Jazeera) Nine months of civil war between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese army have turned Sudan’s capital Khartoum into a plundered, lawless and bloodied shell of its historic self, according to current and former residents.

For months now, the RSF has controlled most of the city, looting markets, homes, warehouses and vehicles. It has also set up hundreds of checkpoints and contributed to reducing entire neighbourhoods to rubble by embedding its fighters in residential areas, which are then indiscriminately shelled and bombed by the army.

“[The checkpoints] have led to a general state of fear and most people are afraid to leave their houses. There’s also a curfew that starts right after sunset,” said Mabrooka Fatma*, a Sudanese activist in the city.

In the weeks after a bitter political dispute between the RSF and the army erupted into war in April 2023, hundreds of thousands of people fled the capital to nearby cities under the latter’s control, but not everybody followed. Some were too poor to leave, while others feared that the RSF would confiscate and loot their homes if they fled. Dozens of activists also stayed behind to help communities affected by the war.

Read more here: https://www.aljazeera.com/features/202 ... -rsf-rule

[caltrek]

Comoros: Election Rigging Claims Spark Turbulence
by Peter Fabricius
January 22, 2024

Introduction:

(Eurasia Review) Africa’s 2024 election season – comprising 19 presidential and general polls – got off to an unpromising and alarming start this past week. After the re-election of President Azali Assoumani to an effective fifth term, violent protests against the result broke out in Moroni, the capital of Comoros.

The government responded by imposing a night-time curfew and deploying the army on the streets. The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights appealed for calm and for the authorities to show restraint in dealing with the protests.

‘Comoros is experiencing an insurrectionary situation,’ the five losing presidential candidates said in a joint statement. This was ‘fuelled by a spontaneous reaction of indignation’ among young people against Assoumani’s perceived rigging of his victory. The candidates called for nationwide protests on 19 January after prayers.

The riots were sparked when the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) announced on Tuesday that Assoumani had won 62.97% of votes in the first round, avoiding a run-off. The most astonishing statistic was that only 16.3% of registered voters turned out to elect a president. So Assoumani will assume a mandate to govern with just 33 209 of his people formally backing him.

The excuses offered included tropical cyclones and general voter apathy. But these did not explain why the turnout in the simultaneous vote for the three island governors had, on average, been over 50%.

Read more here: https://www.eurasiareview.com/22012024 ... nalysis/


Comoros


Locator map

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Understanding Ethiopia’s Port Deal with Somaliland and Its Geopolitical Implications
by Raisana Debates
January 25, 2024

Introduction:

(Observer Research Foundation) The year 2024 began with political turmoil in the Horn of Africa region. On the very first day of the year, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed signed a deal with President Muse Bihi Abdi of Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. The deal will give Ethiopia, a landlocked country, direct commercial and military access to the Red Sea. As per the deal, Somaliland agreed to lease a military port in the Gulf of Aden and 20 kilometres of Somaliland's coastline to Ethiopia for 50 years. In return, Somaliland would be formally recognised as a sovereign state and acquire a portion of the shares in Ethiopia's flagship carrier, Ethiopian Airlines. This makes Ethiopia the first country in Africa to recognise Somaliland as an independent state, and the second country in the world after Taiwan, another self-governing territory lacking international recognition.

Ethiopia’s quest for Red Sea access

Prima facie, the deal seems to be a diplomatic success, fulfilling Ethiopia's long-standing need for immediate access to the sea. Ever since Eritrea’s independence, Djibouti, a port on the Red Sea, has served as Ethiopia's most important trade route. However, Djibouti charges Ethiopia about US $1.5 billion annually in port fees, prompting Ethiopia to explore other alternatives in neighbouring Eritrea, Sudan, Somaliland, and Kenya. The 2018 Peace Deal with Eritrea was greeted with optimism by Ethiopia as a move to reclaim duty-free access to Eritrean ports. There were also announcements with Somalia’s former President, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, for Ethiopia to jointly invest in four Somalian seaports. In August 2023, Ethiopian Minister for Transport and Logistics Alemu Sime visited Kenya's Lamu port too. However, Ethiopia’s plan to use any of these ports never materialised so far.

As a matter of fact, Ethiopia has been eyeing Berbera and Port Sudan since 2005. However, Ethiopia was unable to carry out a complete transition from Djibouti due to several challenges, including logistical problems and the possibility of conflict with Somalia.

Further extract:

Everything changed in 2023 when Ethiopia's Prime Minister declared that his landlocked country must break the ‘geographic prison’ of approximately 120 million Ethiopians.

Read more here: https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak ... ications


Ethiopia

[weatheriscool]

Namibian President Hage Geingob dies in a hospital where he was receiving treatment, his office says

Source: ABC News/AP

February 4, 2024, 12:58 AM

HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Hage Geingob, President of Namibia, one of Africa’s most stable democracies, died Sunday while receiving medical treatment at a local hospital, his office announced. The Namibian presidency said Geingob's medical team at Lady Pohamba Hospital did its best to help him, but he died with his wife, Monica Geingos, and children by his side, in a post on X, formerly Twitter,

Angolo Mbumba, Namibia’s acting president, called for calm, saying in the same post that the “Cabinet will convene with immediate effect in order to make the necessary state arrangements in this regard.” Local media reported Mbumba has called for an urgent cabinet meeting. According to Namibia’s constitution, there should be an election to choose a new president within 90 days of Geingob’s death.

Geingob was undergoing treatment for cancer. The 82-year-old had a colonoscopy and a gastroscopy on Jan. 8, followed by a biopsy, his office said last month. He returned home on Jan. 31 from the United States where he had undergone a trial two-day “novel treatment for cancerous cells,” according to his office. In 2014, he said he had survived prostate cancer.

Geingob, president of the southern African nation since 2015, was set to finish his second and final term in office this year. He was the country’s third president since it gained independence in 1990, following more than a century of German and then apartheid South African rule.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/International/wi ... -106929859

[Time_Traveller]

Madagascar is to castrate child rapists, prompting criticism but also support

Feb. 11, 2024, 9:15 AM ET

ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (AP) — Madagascar's Parliament has passed a law allowing for the chemical and, in some cases, surgical castration of those found guilty of the rape of a minor, prompting criticism from international rights groups, but also finding support from activists in the country who say it's an appropriate deterrent to curb a “rape culture.”

Parliament in the Indian Ocean island nation of 28 million passed the law on Feb. 2 and the Senate, the upper house, approved it last week. It must now be ratified by the High Constitutional Court and signed into law by President Andry Rajoelina, who first raised the issue in December. His government proposed the law change.

Justice Minister Landy Mbolatiana Randriamanantenasoa said it's a necessary move because of an increase in cases of rape against children. In 2023, 600 cases of the rape of a minor were recorded, she said, and 133 already in January this year.

“Madagascar is a sovereign country which has the right to modify its laws in relation to circumstances and in the general interest of the people," Randriamanantenasoa said. “The current penal code has not been enough to curb the perpetrators of these offenses."

Surgical castration “will always be pronounced” for those guilty of raping a child under the age of 10, according to the law's wording. Cases of rape against children between the ages of 10 and 13 will be punished by surgical or chemical castration. The rape of minors aged between 14 and 17 will be punished by chemical castration.

https://www.britannica.com/news/355562/ ... 1e6d7baefd

[Powers]

^^^ I heard that never worked as intended.
Now capital punishment...

[caltrek]

Refugees and Returnees Remain in Dire Situations as Thousands are Stuck in Khartoum, Sudan
by Richard Sultan
February 17, 2024

Introduction:

(Amjambo Africa!) Outside their temporary shelters of tents and rickety buildings made of iron-sheet roofs and no walls, South Sudanese refugee returnees crowded together one recent morning, awaiting the arrival of members of a youth-led initiative known as Citizens’ Call for Emergency Evacuation and Reception of South Sudanese Trapped in Sudan’s War (CC-ERRI). The returnees expected a much-needed food delivery from CC-ERRI – a few kilos of rice for each recipient. Some of the returnees said CC-ERRI does more than their government or other humanitarian agencies to help. One returnee named her newborn child “Citizens Call” in honor of the support she receives from the initiative.

The scale of need in Sudan and South Sudan is staggering. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, announced in a statement on January 31 that battles between the army and the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan have led to the displacement of “about 8 million” people since last April 15. Some are internally displaced within Sudan, and others have sought help elsewhere, including South Sudan. According to the UNHCR, since last April, an average of 1,500 people cross daily into South Sudan from Sudan. Many of these were originally from South Sudan, but fled to Sudan during their own country’s civil war.

As the returnees patiently waited, some women talked and others stared off into space. One woman, known as Mama Abdalla, who is the mother of two children under 5 years old, told Amjambo, “When the fighting started, my husband wasn’t at home as he works in a construction site outside Khartoum. We couldn’t wait for him to come back, as that would mean the end of us, considering the intensity of the fighting in our neighborhood. ” She added that when her neighbor informed her of free trucks taking people to South Sudan, she jumped on board with her children.

The trucks were driven by members of CC-ERRI, and eventually evacuated over 10,000 South Sudanese from the battleground suburbs of the Sudanese capital of Khartoum. This was a herculean effort that the returnees hoped would continue as long as there were still South Sudanese stuck in Sudan – including Mama Abdalla’s husband.

Read more here: https://www.amjamboafrica.com/refugees ... khartoum/


Sudan

[Time_Traveller]

Ousmane Sonko and Bassirou Diomaye Faye: Senegal opposition leaders freed ahead of election

51 minutes ago

Senegal's opposition leader Ousmane Sonko and the presidential candidate he is backing in this month's delayed election, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, have been released from prison.

The two met hundreds of their jubilant supporters in the capital, Dakar, after their release late on Thursday.

Their release followed an amnesty announced by President Macky Sall.

The elections are due to be held on 24 March after a failed bid to push them to December.

"It's the most beautiful day of my life," a supporter told the BBC.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-68562465

[caltrek]

Skepticism Over Sudan’s Ramadhan Ceasefire Despite Fresh Appeal by UN Chief
by Richard Sultan
March 13, 2024

Introduction:

(Amjambo Africa!) There is growing anxiety and skepticism, instead of a renewed hope among most Sudanese in and outside the country, as to whether the UN Security Council Resolution 2724 to stop hostilities in Sudan during Ramadan, which began yesterday, Monday 11th March 2024, will hold or not.

Speaking in New York on Sunday, the 10th March, 2024, on the eve of Ramadhan, the UN Chief says the start of the Holy Month of Ramadhan is a period where Muslims worldwide celebrate and spread the values of peace, reconciliation, and solidarity.

Last Friday, the resolution adopted by the UN Security Council from New York received 14 votes in favor against one abstention.

Drafted by Britain, it called on the warring factions to remove all obstacles, allow unhindered humanitarian aid, even across borders and lines of contact, and comply with international humanitarian law.

Conclusion:

Since that time (mid-April 2023 when fighting erupted) tens of thousands of people have been killed, nearly 10 million internally displaced, and according to the UN nearly 25 million people – about half of Sudan’s population – are going hungry.

Read more here: https://www.amjamboafrica.com/skeptici ... un-chief/

[caltrek]

Updates from Africa
by Olive Mukahirwa
March 17, 2024

Introduction:

(Amjambo Africa!)

U.S. to add five military bases in Somalia

The U.S. will build five new military bases in Somalia, to help Somalia in their fight against the extremist group al-Shabaab, which continues to carry out sporadic attacks across the country on military bases and civilians. The latest attack by al-Shabab was on a military base in Mogadishu, and killed four Emirati soldiers and a Bahraini military officer. The five new bases will be for the Danab Brigade, a U.S.-trained Somali rapid intervention force. At least 3,000 Somali soldiers will be recruited to receive special military training to prepare them to respond quickly to al-Shabab attacks anywhere in the country.

Somalia

Amhara region in Ethiopia sees violence

The U.S. and the European Union have called for an urgent investigation into the massacre of 45 people who were allegedly killed by soldiers going door to door in the city of Merawi in the Amhara region of Ethiopia in late January. The soldiers were looking for members of Fano, an armed militia group. Ethiopia’s government has denied the allegations. Fano fought alongside the federal government in the violence in Tigray that finally ended in 2022. Ethiopian authorities have cut off the internet in Amhara, as well as in nearby areas, and human rights groups say this makes what is happening in the Amhara region impossible to monitor. Journalists are also banned from entering the region

Ethiopia

Africa will produce own vaccines

Africa plans to significantly increase vaccine production over the next 10 years, and by 2040 the continent will produce 60% of the vaccines needed to protect her people against disease, according to delegates of the International Vaccine Institute, which met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on February 18. The announcement comes just weeks after Cameroon became the first country in the world to start using the new malaria vaccine. Malaria annually kills more than 600,000 people in the world, and 95% of them are in Africa. Of these, most are children under 5 years of age. President William Ruto of Kenya was among African heads of state who attended. He pointed to the difficulty Africa had in obtaining vaccinations against COVID-19 as one motivation for ramping up vaccine production in Africa.

Source: https://www.amjamboafrica.com/updates-from-africa-4/

[weatheriscool]

Taps have run dry across South Africa's largest city in an unprecedented water crisis

Source: AP

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME
Updated 4:04 AM CDT, March 21, 2024

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — For two weeks, Tsholofelo Moloi has been among thousands of South Africans lining up for water as the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, confronts an unprecedented collapse of its water system affecting millions of people.

Residents rich and poor have never seen a shortage of this severity. While hot weather has shrunk reservoirs, crumbling infrastructure after decades of neglect is also largely to blame. The public’s frustration is a danger sign for the ruling African National Congress, whose comfortable hold on power since the end of apartheid in the 1990s faces its most serious challenge in an election this year.

A country already famous for its hourslong electricity shortages is now adopting a term called “watershedding” — the practice of going without water, from the term loadshedding, or the practice of going without power.

Moloi, a resident of Soweto on the outskirts of Johannesburg, isn’t sure she or her neighbors can take much more.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/south-africa ... 05864d61fb

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Eric Tabaro Nshimiye: Rwandan Genocide Suspect Arrested in Ohio
by Ido Vock
March 22, 2024

Introduction:

(BBC) A Rwandan-born man has been arrested in Ohio on charges of hiding his involvement in the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

Federal prosecutors accuse Eric Tabaro Nshimiye of concealing his involvement in the mass murders, including personally hacking people to death.

Mr Nshimiye has lived in Ohio since 1995 after fraudulently gaining refugee status in the US, prosecutors say.

He has previously denied participating in the genocide.

He is due to appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.

Read more here: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68632905