News That Matters To Africa©️
Quote of the Day:
“Thinking is difficult, that’s why most people judge”
Highlights:
Sudan war disrupts SSudan oil pipeline
Cocoa prices at record high
Senegal has a new president
SADC force to quit Mozambique
Climate Change’s impacts 45 Million African children
Top News:
Eastern Africa
Ethiopian bank recovers 78% of 801.4 million birr lost in system glitch
Catastrophe looms as Kenya’s health sector suffers crisis after crisis
Explosion near a police station in northern Kenya kills 4
Kenya to spend $83m on inaugural nuclear reactor
M-Pesa mobile money to compete in West Africa market
Nairobians worried they could be eating donkey meat
The fight to cure South Sudan’s mysterious neurological disorder
Sudan war causes stoppages on South Sudan oil pipeline
Uganda civil servants told to exercise weekly
West Africa
Supporters want Cameroon’s 4-decade president, 91, to run again
Cocoa prices at record high after drought hits harvests
Nigeria defence chief says bad intel hinders fight on kidnappings
Nigeria charges Binance with tax evasion after Kenyan executive flees custody
More traffickers traced to South Africa in Nigeria’s biggest airport heroin bust
Nigerian court sentences Chinese to death for murder
Senegal’s president-elect Faye vows to govern with humility
Senegal election a welcome boost for coup-prone West Africa
Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s road to Senegal’s presidency
Togo adopts a new constitution
Southern Africa
SADC force to quit Mozambique over lack of money
South Africa’s election court rejects ANC bid to de-register Zuma’s MK party
South Africa’s main opposition party not ruling out deal with ANC
Prosecutors allege SAfr’s Speaker took $135,000 and a wig in bribes
Zambia strikes debt restructuring deal with creditors
North Africa
Libya’s oil minister suspended for legal violations
Central Africa
Seven soldiers in Chad killed & blamed on Boko Haram
Chad main opposition figures barred as leaders cleared for election
Africa General
BRICS bank aims to make $5 bln in loans in 2024
Britain agrees $100 mln trade finance to boost Africa food security
A decade of increasing migrant deaths shows that fleeing is more lethal than ever
UN-Related
Unicef: Climate Change leaves ‘dire situation’ for 45 Million African children
UN chief calls for slavery reparations to overcome ‘Generations of Discrimination’
(11) Articles on Analysis,Editorial & Opinion
Eastern Africa
ETHIOPIA
Ethiopian bank recovers 78% of 801.4 million birr ($14m) lost in system glitch
Abe Sano, President of the state-owned Commercial Bank of Ethiopia (CBE), announced this morning that the maximum amount of money vulnerable to theft during the recent “system glitch” is estimated at 801.4 million birr. According to Abe, 25,761 of the bank’s customers were involved in withdrawing cash from the bank’s ATMs and making digital transfers. The bank’s president revealed that, as of yesterday, CBE had successfully recovered 78% (662.9 million birr/$11.6m) of the lost funds. The bank expects, 118 million birr ($2m) of the remaining amount, which was transferred to other banks to be recouped this week. CBE has requested these banks to freeze the funds, Abe noted. Within a day of the incident, the bank reclaimed 44.6 million birr ($784K) from 10,727 customers who had sufficient funds in their accounts, Abe reported. Continuing their efforts the following day, the bank managed to recover 205.8 million birr from 15,008 customers, despite their account balances being insufficient. According to the president, 9,281 bank customers voluntarily returned the full amount they withdrew, totaling 223.4 million birr ($36m) while 5,160 customers returned a portion of the withdrawn funds. Meanwhile, the bank stated that 567 clients are currently unable to return a total of 9.8 million birr ($172K) they withdrew, either partially or in full.
KENYA
Catastrophe looms as Kenya’s health sector suffers crisis after crisis
Kenya is teetering on the brink of a health catastrophe as doctors in public facilities have laid down their tools demanding better working conditions, implementation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), posting of medical interns and medical cover. Patients once assured of care now find themselves in a dehumanising state, left on their own as hospitals and doctors demand cash before treatment. Across the country, doctors, including those in private hospitals, have given a seven-day ultimatum to the government to suspend the mandatory use of the Electronic Tax Invoice Management System (eTIMS) in the sector or face a nationwide strike. If this strike happens, it will exacerbate an already dire situation. Going by the back and forth that has played out over the last seven days between the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Union (KMPDU) and the government — ministries of Health, Labour and the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) — it appears patients will suffer a long while. On Wednesday, the union officials went to public hospitals and drew out doctors who had reported to work. The doctors are not attending to emergency and critical services in all public hospitals in the country. Major hospitals including Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), have stopped admitting patients for elective surgeries and even admission in the wards. Pumwani Maternity Hospital, one of Kenya’s leading facilities in maternity admissions, has stopped taking in pregnant women who are now forced to seek services elsewhere.
Explosion near a police station in northern Kenya kills 4
An explosion at a small hotel located near a police station in the Kenyan town of Mandera, which is on the border with Somalia, killed four people, including three officers, and wounded several others on Monday, authorities said. The blast, planted at the hotel, detonated as a crowd of people sat down to eat breakfast, police said. Investigators have blamed east Africa-based extremist group al-Shabab for the attack. The group, which hasn’t claimed responsibility for the explosion, has staged major attacks in Kenya and neighboring Somalia. The latest attack followed another one on Sunday in coastal Kenya’s Lamu County, where two police reservists were killed. The area is near the Kenya-Somalia border, from where militants have in the past infiltrated and launched attacks. The Kenyan government had last year announced plans to reopen the border with Somalia, but later postponed the reopening because of extremist attacks.
Govt to spend $83m on inaugural nuclear reactor
Kenya will require at least Ksh11 billion (about $83 million) as the initial cost of developing the country’s first nuclear research reactor in what is expected to be the stepping stone towards future nuclear power production. Nuclear Power and Energy Agency (NuPEA), the State agency leading the country’s nuclear power programme, says it will request the amount from Treasury in two tranches to help in meeting 40 percent of the initial costs of the Kenya nuclear research reactor project. NuPEA will require Ksh3 billion ($22.6 million) in 2026 and Ksh8 billion ($60.6 million) in 2027 for the project, which it says will accelerate economic development. The agency says in the recently launched 2023-2027 strategic plan that the reactor will have wide applications in education and training, health, industry, energy, and research. This will be the single largest project for NuPEA, which requires Ksh32.5 billion ($246 million) to implement its five-year plan. It says it has already secured 65 acres at Konza Technopolis for the construction of the nuclear research reactor and other nuclear research centre facilities. The development comes after Kenya in December hosted a team of experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for a nine-day mission to review the preparations for a research reactor programme in Kenya. The IAEA review mission concluded that the country has made “significant progress” in the development of the national nuclear infrastructure for the country’s new research reactor programme. Kenya plans to commission its first research reactor between 2030 and 2034 and, therefore, hopes to start the work in 2026.
Nairobians worried they could be eating donkey meat
Pictures of carcasses of slaughtered donkeys left to rot away in the bush has left many Nairobians wondering about meat safety. The shocking pictures and the accompanying stories — have left many concerned about the type and quality of meat that may have made its way into their kitchens…Dr. Raphael Kinoti, the Regional Director Brooke East Africa, an international animal welfare charity, said that “Kenya doesn’t slaughter donkey either for food consumption or for external export. Therefore, anyone slaughtering a donkey is doing it in a bush somewhere, in very unsanitary condition.” He added that “there is a big challenge in the supply of meat in Nairobi with the price of meat rising by over 40 percent over the last one year. So, people have been looking for donkey meat, disguising it and selling it cheaply to unsuspecting customers.” In 2020, the government of Kenya banned the slaughter of donkeys. The African Union announced a 15-year continent-wide ban of donkey in February 2024.
M-Pesa mobile money to compete in West Africa market
Kenya’s Safaricom is expanding its mobile money transfer service M-Pesa to West Africa. When the service was launched in Kenya in 2007 it revolutionised banking and money services in the country. But it is entering a much more crowded market in West Africa. There are more new mobile money customers in the region than anywhere else in the world, a recent report found. In Nigeria, for example, less than half of all adults are said to have a bank account, meaning many rely on mobile money services such as Palmpay and Opay. The M-Pesa plans were announced on Monday. It’s part of a deal with Access Holdings – the parent company of Africa’s largest bank, and a Nigerian wealth management group called Coronation Group.
SOUTH SUDAN
The fight to cure South Sudan’s mysterious neurological disorder
Nodding syndrome is a distressing disease that stunts growth, harms brains and sparks convulsions. The syndrome was first identified in Tanzania in the 1960s, then it was seen in South Sudan in the 1990s and in Uganda in 2007. In the past five years cases have been reported in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic and Cameroon, according to Dr Gasim Abd-Elfarag, an expert on the disease who leads a South Sudanese charity, Access for Humanity. But South Sudan’s Western Equatoria state has the highest prevalence of nodding syndrome in the world, with more than 6,000 cases recorded at health facilities across four of the state’s 10 counties. “New cases are also being discovered in other counties, like Wulu, in Lakes state,” says Stephen Jada, a doctor and researcher with Amref Health Africa, the aid organisation leading the response in the country. The cause of nodding syndrome is still unknown and no cure has been found for the disease, which affects children aged three and above, continuing into adulthood. When it begins, head-nodding episodes are triggered by the sight of food and dropping temperatures.
Without epilepsy drugs, the condition worsens, with seizures potentially causing accidents and even death. Long-term effects include brain damage, stunted growth and mental impairment.
SUDAN
Death stalks Sudan war victims as world focuses on Gaza
As the war in Sudan nears one year since it broke out on April 15, 2023, humanitarian agencies are concerned that the world has abandoned the country to focus on the war in Palestine. According to the latest reports by the at the United Nation Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), the humanitarian crisis is reaching catastrophic proportions, amid “inattention” and “inaction,” by the international community. Ocha head Martin Griffiths said that Sudan is one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory in Africa, courtesy of the sheer scale of humanitarian needs, and the number of people displaced and facing hunger. Carl Skau, deputy executive director of the UN World Food Programme (WFP), warned that Sudan could become the world’s largest “den” of hunger, given that the ongoing war could affect the planting season, which begins in May. Appeals by the UN Security Council in early March for a ceasefire during Ramadhan to allow more access to humanitarian aid have been ignored. The RSF is now consolidating its positions near the borders with Chad and Libya, amid allegations that the paramilitary is increasingly using foreign fighters. Last week, the Sudan Armed Forces paraded 14 alleged mercenaries from South Sudan whom they said possessed expertise in operating heavy artillery and unmanned aerial vehicles. This echoes a similar concern in February when a UN panel of experts reported that RSF was allegedly receiving fuel supply from South Sudan.
Sudan war causes stoppages on South Sudan oil pipeline
The main pipeline carrying oil from South Sudan through Sudan for export has been suffering stoppages since last month due to problems linked to the war between Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), according to three Sudanese officials. A March 16 letter from Sudan’s minister of petroleum, declared force majeure on deliveries of oil through the pipeline to a terminal near Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast. The letter said gelling had restricted flows on Feb. 10, and that after this was cleared a major rupture occurred at another point in the pipeline.The letter said both incidents occurred in areas affected by fighting, and that communications had been hampered by network outages that spread across Sudan in recent weeks. The quantity of oil affected and resulting loss of revenue from the stoppage were not immediately clear. South Sudan had been sending about 150,000 barrels per day of crude through Sudan for export, under a formula established when South Sudan gained independence from Khartoum in 2011, taking most oil production with it. The exports are an important source of revenue for South Sudan, and Sudan takes a cut of the oil as a transit fee.
UGANDA
Civil servants told to exercise weekly
The Ugandan government has instructed all civil servants to spend two hours a week doing physical exercise to keep them fit and healthy. The directive was shared in a letter to government agencies from the head of public service, Lucy Nakyobe, who said the sessions would “help save the lives of staff and reduce the disease burden”. The Government of Uganda also tweeted that the initiative will “tame the rising burden of lifestyle disease” in the country. It comes two years after a national health survey showed obesity rates in the country had risen from 17% to 26% in the last 17 years. This is not the first time Uganda’s government has introduced initiatives to encourage exercise. In 2018, Uganda brought in the national day for physical activity which sees sporting activities held across the country. Dr Charles Oyoo Akiya, the commissioner for non-communicable diseases prevention, told local media that the health ministry had already been running exercise sessions for their staff, and they wanted to see it adopted across all departments.
West Africa
CAMEROON
Supporters want Cameroon’s 4-decade president, 91, to run again
Supporters are urging the world’s oldest leader, 91-year-old Cameroonian President Paul Biya, to run for office in the 2025 presidential election, potentially extending his more than four-decade rule. They say Biya is the only one who can bring peace and development to the country, but the opposition says Biya must leave office after running Cameroon for decades. Several hundred people sang in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde, on Sunday, calling for Biya to accept the nomination of the Cameroon Peoples Democratic Movement, or CPDM party, in the 2025 presidential election. Biya created the CPDM on March 24, 1985, three years after his predecessor, Cameroon’s first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo, stepped down due to ill health and handed power to Biya. Biya has been president of Cameroon since 1982 and leader of his party since 1985.
GHANA/IVORY COAST
Cocoa prices at record high after drought hits harvests
The price of cocoa hit a new record fuelled by climate change and adverse weather conditions – impacting a market that has already seen high Easter chocolate prices in Europe. In the latest price hike, the cocoa bean traded above $10,000 (£8,000) per tonne on world commodity markets, $2,000 more than last week. The world’s largest cocoa exporters – Ivory Coast and Ghana – suffered poor harvests after droughts in February following heavy rains in December. Popular brands of Easter eggs will now cost 50% more than last year, forcing companies to promote non-chocolate Easter treats like biscuit bunnies.
NIGERIA
Defence chief says bad intel hinders fight on kidnappings
Nigeria’s Defence Chief General Chris Musa said on Monday the military was being fed bad intelligence by informants, hampering the fight against armed kidnapping gangs who continue to abduct students and residents in the north of the country. The military announced on Sunday that it had rescued 137 students abducted by gunmen earlier this month in northwestern Kaduna state. The school children arrived in Kaduna on Monday. Musa said that the military was too stretched and often relied on informants to pursue the armed gangs, known locally as bandits, often with little success. “They (informants) make the troops go elsewhere and when they get there, they meet nothing and allow the bandits to commit acts of criminality,” said Musa. He added that there had been no confrontation with gunmen during the rescue of the Kaduna students. But he would not say how the students were freed or if any of the gunmen were taken into custody. There have been at least 68 mass abductions in the first quarter of 2024 mostly in northern Nigeria, according to risk consultancy SBM Intelligence. Musa said once bandits retreat to Nigeria’s vast forests, it becomes difficult to pursue them. That is because gunmen quickly trek through the forest, often for days with their victims. “Once they go in there, getting them out is difficult. The aircrafts cannot see them quite easily,” he said, adding that Nigeria’s vast and loosely patrolled northern border made the situation worse.
Binance charged with tax evasion after Kenyan executive flees custody
Nigeria has filed tax evasion charges against cryptocurrency platform Binance and is seeking an international arrest warrant for the company’s regional manager for Africa who fled custody last week, officials said on Monday. The manager Nadeem Anjarwalla, a British-Kenyan, was detained in connection with an ongoing criminal investigation into Binance’s activities in Nigeria. Nigeria’s security adviser’s office said it is working with Interpol after Anjarwalla escaped on Friday. Binance said on Monday it was aware that Anjarwalla was no longer in Nigerian custody and was working with authorities to resolve the issue. Anjarwalla and Tigran Gambaryan, a US citizen and Binance’s head of financial crime compliance flew to Nigeria following the country’s decision to ban several cryptocurrency trading websites and were detained on arrival on February 26. A person representing them, who asked not to be named, said the two officials were being held unlawfully since their detention order expired on March 12, adding that Anjarwalla left Nigeria by lawful means. “Nadeem left unlawful custody on Saturday 23, he was not being tried by Nigerian courts and has not been informed of any charges against him,” the person said. Nigerian authorities had asked a court in Abuja to extend the detention of the two Binance executives after the warrant under which they were initially detained lapsed. On Monday, Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) filed a case in Abuja accusing Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, of four counts of tax evasion.
More traffickers traced to South Africa in Nigeria’s biggest airport heroin bust
Nigerian police are cracking down on a drug trafficking syndicate smuggling narcotics between there, South Africa, Mozambique, the US and Europe, after heroin was discovered in metal cutting machines and investigators linked it to a logistics company tied to [South Africa]. Over 12 days last month Nigerian police arrested a group of suspects, raided a hotel and ensured that more than 100 bank accounts were frozen in a takedown targeting an international heroin trafficking syndicate that has a key base in South Africa. The operation is the latest cop crackdown showing narco links between Nigeria and [South Africa] – as well as several other states. In November 2023, Rohypnol, otherwise known as the date rape drug, was found hidden in dried fish at OR Tambo International Airport after it landed there from Nigeria. And last month Daily Maverick reported on how three port workers, who were allegedly involved in smuggling drugs, pistols, ammunition and military items via Durban, were arrested in Nigeria. Cops there believed three kingpins linked to that syndicate were also in South Africa. Now, in the latest crackdown, police in Nigeria have started unravelling a heroin trafficking syndicate that they say also has ties to [South Africa].
Court sentences Chinese to death for murder
A court has sentenced a Chinese businessman to death after being found guilty of murdering his girlfriend Ummu Kulthum Sani in 2022. Frank Geng Quarong was discovered in her room after having stabbed her several times there. The killing of the 22-year-old university student shocked Nigerians and the case was closely followed. Death sentences are rarely carried out in Nigeria. Quarong has 90 days to appeal against the verdict. Quarong, 49, and Ms Sani had been in a relationship since 2020 after having met in a shopping mall. According to neighbours, on the night of the killing Quarong was heard knocking heavily on the gate to the Sani family home. When Ms Sani’s mother opened the gate he pushed her aside and rushed straight to Ms Sani’s room, locking it from the inside. Her shouts and cries attracted the family and before anyone could break down the door to help she had been stabbed several times. She died later in hospital. Nigeria currently has more than 3,400 people on death row and the last execution was carried out in 2012.
SENEGAL
President-elect Faye vows to govern with humility
Senegal opposition presidential candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye, a political newcomer popular among disaffected youth, promised on Monday to govern with humility and transparency.
Faye, set to be declared the next president after his main rival called him to concede defeat, thanked President Macky Sall and other candidates for respecting Senegal’s democratic tradition by recognising his victory well before official results. Provisional results showed Faye with about 53.7% and Amadou Ba – from the current ruling coalition – with 36.2% based on tallies from 90% of polling stations in the first-round vote, the electoral commission said. Ba and Sall both congratulated Faye, who turned 44 on Monday. They hailed the outcome as a win for Senegal, whose reputation as one of West Africa’s most stable democracies took a hit when Sall postponed the vote. A peaceful transition of power in Senegal would mark a boost for democracy in West Africa, where there have been eight military coups since 2020.
Senegal election a welcome boost for coup-prone West Africa
For all the drama and the sometimes violent protests in the run-up to Senegal’s presidential election, the former French colony looked set for a peaceful transition of power on Monday – a welcome boost for democracy in coup-prone West Africa.Sunday’s vote, which was delayed from its original date of Feb. 25, went off smoothly with supporters of opposition candidate Bassirou Diomaye Faye celebrating in the streets overnight as preliminary results put him firmly ahead. Senegal had been already rocked by deadly protests between 2021 and 2023, partly linked to fears that Sall would use changes to the constitution to extend his hold on power as other West African presidents had done before him. But after weeks of tension and another two attempts to postpone the vote and extend Sall’s mandate – all rejected by Senegal’s Constitutional Council and the Supreme Court – millions showed up calmly at the polls on Sunday. No major incidents were reported. Senegal also stands out in a region that has seen rapturous crowds take to the streets to celebrate their militaries seizing power in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea, where support for democracy has dropped steeply over the past decade, according to Afrobarometer data. Those countries have seen Russia’s influence grow at the expense of traditional allies such as France and the United States, and are also fighting Jihadist militants.
From prison to palace: Bassirou Diomaye Faye’s road to Senegal’s presidency
Just a few months ago, the man set to be Senegal’s next president, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, was sitting in a prison cell, a relatively unknown figure outside his opposition party Pastef. Everything changed for him when the party’s firebrand leader, Ousmane Sonko, who was also detained, was charged with insurrection in July and barred from running in elections to succeed President Macky Sall. That cleared the way for Faye to emerge from the shadow of his former boss and eventually from prison, take over the race and on Monday – the day of his 44th birthday – emerge as victor after his opponent conceded defeat. It was an unlikely climb to the top for an unlikely national figurehead. Faye was a tax inspector before he became Sonko’s trusted lieutenant and Pastef’s secretary general. He was arrested in April 2023, a few months before Sonko was also held, and charged with contempt of court and defaming magistrates, charges Faye had denied. Crucially, unlike Sonko, he was not barred from running in elections…A coalition of more than 100 parties, and some political heavyweights including former prime minister Aminata Toure, joined Faye’s campaign under the banner “Doimaye mooy Sonko”, which in the local wolof language means “Diomaye is Sonko.” Thanks to a general amnesty law passed shortly before the vote to ease political tensions, Sonko and Faye left their prison cells in Dakar earlier this month, accompanied by thousands of supporters who danced and chanted through the night. Faye has declined to say what role Sonko might play in any future government and has insisted he will be his own man. “Why do we want to focus on just one person in a government when I have a coalition that includes more than 120 people?” he said, brushing off concerns held by some voters that if he won, the country would end up with two men who believe they are president. “In a presidential election, only one person is elected in the end, and it’s he who is the president of the republic,” Faye said.
TOGO
Togo adopts a new constitution
Togolese lawmakers adopted a new constitution on Monday, March 25, moving the country from a presidential to a parliamentary system and giving parliament the power to elect the president of the small West African country. The president will be chosen “without debate” by lawmakers “for a single six-year term,” and not by the public, according to the new text. The vote comes less than a month before the next legislative elections in Togo, but it is not yet known when the change – which was approved with 89 votes in favor, one against and one abstention – will come into force. Currently, the president can serve a maximum of two five-year terms. The change to the constitution, proposed by a group of lawmakers mostly from the Union for the Republic (UNIR) ruling party, was adopted almost unanimously. The country’s opposition, which boycotted the last legislative elections in 2018 and denounced “irregularities” in the electoral census, is poorly represented in the national assembly. You can share an article by clicking on the share icons at the top right of it. The new constitution also introduces the position of “president of the council of ministers” with “full authority and power to manage the affairs of the government and to be held accountable accordingly”. The president of the council of ministers is “the leader of the party or the leader of the majority coalition of parties following the legislative elections. The position will be held for a six-year term”, according to the text. “The head of state is practically divested of his powers in favor of the president of the council of ministers, who becomes the person who represents the Togolese Republic abroad, and who effectively leads the country in its day-to-day management,” said Tchitchao Tchalim, chairman of the national assembly’s committee on constitutional laws, legislation and general administration.
Southern Africa
MOZAMBIQUE
SADC force to quit Mozambique over lack of money
Troops from southern Africa’s regional bloc who were deployed to tackle an Islamist insurgency in Mozambique are to leave the country due to financial contraints. The Southern African Development Community (Sadc) has been considering its budget limitations, Mozambique’s foreign minister said. Verónica Macamo added that the bloc believes the Mozambique is relatively stable compared to eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which has been wracked by armed groups for decades. Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi said Sadc plans to withdraw its forces “by July”. However, Mr Nyusi said, this did not mean the nation’s fight against jihadist groups would stop. “Countries have also offered to work with us bilaterally, if justified,” he wrote in a Facebook post. An armed insurgency has beset northern Mozambique for six years, with the Islamic State group saying it was behind some of the violence. Support came first from Rwanda, who sent more than 2,000 military personnel to Mozambique, and then from the Sadc.
SOUTH AFRICA
Election court rejects ANC bid to de-register Zuma’s MK party
South Africa’s governing African National Congress (ANC) has failed in a legal bid to stop a newly formed party, backed by ex-President Jacob Zuma, from running in May’s general election. The uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party takes its name from the now-disbanded armed wing of the ANC. It is thought that Mr Zuma’s backing of the MK could affect the ANC’s support. The electoral court rejected the ANC’s argument that the party had not met the official registration criteria.Supporters of MK, dressed in green, danced in celebration outside the court after the ruling was read out.The ANC has also instigated separate legal proceedings against the MK party, accusing it of copyright infringement. Mr Zuma appears to be drawing some support away from the party that has governed the country since 1994, especially in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal. He did not found the MK party, but threw his weight behind it in December and has since been suspended from the ANC.
South Africa’s main opposition party not ruling out deal with ANC
South Africa’s second most popular party the Democratic Alliance (DA) would not rule out a deal with the ruling African National Congress should the ANC fail to get the majority it needs to retain power in May elections, its leader said on Monday. Pollsters expect the ANC to lose its legislative majority on May 29 for the first time since Nelson Mandela took power at the end of apartheid 30 years ago, with voters unhappy with poor service delivery, joblessness, crime and power cuts. If that happens, President Cyril Ramaphosa or a successor for the top job would be unable to stay on without a coalition, since South Africa’s parliament elects the president. “It would depend which ANC you’re dealing with and what their programme of action is,” DA leader John Steenhuisen said, declining to disclose whether any talks had already taken place. “I’m not ruling out anything, depending on what the election results are.” The ANC’s Deputy Party Secretary Nomvula Mokonyane said earlier this month that the party was not considering a coalition government with other parties, and that she did not think a power-sharing deal would work. The DA has banded together with smaller parties to try to capture the more than 50% of the vote needed to take power. They include the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party, long a bitter rival of the ANC, as well as Freedom Front Plus, which appeals to rural white South Africans who feel politically marginalised since the fall of apartheid, and Action SA, which has built a platform on a tough anti-immigration stance and appeals to working- and middle-class voters.
Prosecutors allege Speaker took $135,000 and a wig in bribes
Prosecutors said Monday they intend to charge the parliamentary speaker with corruption, alleging that she took $135,000 and a wig in bribes over a three-year period while she was defense minister. Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula hasn’t been arrested or charged. The prosecutors spoke at a court hearing over her claims that authorities hadn’t properly informed her of allegations or followed correct procedure in their investigation. Judge Sulet Potterill said that she would deliver a ruling on April 2 on Mapisa-Nqakula’s application for a temporary block on police arresting her. Mapisa-Nqakula is also asking for access to documents outlining the evidence prosecutors have against her.Prosecutors have rejected her request and say she is asking for special treatment. In court papers submitted for the hearing, prosecutors say that Mapisa-Nqakula, 67, received 11 payments totaling $135,000 between December 2016 and July 2019. She sought another bribe of $105,000 but that wasn’t paid, prosecutors said. On one occasion in February 2019, Mapisa-Nqakula received more than $15,000 and a wig at a meeting at the country’s main international airport, the papers say.
ZAMBIA
Zambia strikes debt restructuring deal with creditors
Zambia has agreed to a revised deal to restructure more than $3.5bn (£2.7bn) of its international bonds with private investors. Under the agreement, creditors will forego $840m in claims and Zambia will continue with an ongoing $2.5bn IMF cash flow relief programme. The deal follows months of tensions between China and other creditors over the proposed terms of the agreement. Zambia had borrowed billions of dollars after the Covid pandemic to cushion the economy. President Hakainde Hichilema has hailed the deal as “a historic milestone”. It’s an important step in the country’s effort to restructure its debt after defaulting in 2020. Monday’s development follows a series of delays that had made Zambia a symbol of the failure of a G20 initiative for faster solutions to debt crises in poorer countries.
North Africa
LIBYA
Oil minister suspended for legal violations
Libya’s oil and gas minister in the Government of National Unity has been temporarily suspended from work, a state institution said on Monday, citing a legal investigation. The Administrative Control Agency (ACA) said on its verified Facebook page that its head Abdullah Qadirbuh issued the suspension decision against the oil and gas minister in Tripoli for the investigation “regarding the facts of case No.178, which revealed the presence of legal violations”. The ACA mentioned the title of the minister and referred to him in a short statement with only the three initials of his full name. The agency, which is mandated to oversee government performance, has powers including to challenge appointments to public positions and to enhance public accountability.
Central Africa
CHAD
Seven soldiers in Chad killed & blamed on Boko Haram
An explosive device detonated and killed seven soldiers in Chad during a patrol in the country’s west near Lake Chad, the government says. The interim president, Mahamat Deby Itno, announced the deaths Monday on social media. Chadian authorities said they suspected Boko Haram extremists from Nigeria were behind the attack, renewing concerns about an escalation of violence near the border. Boko Haram launched an insurgency more than a decade ago against Western education and seeks to establish Islamic law in Nigeria’s northeast. The insurgency has spread to West African neighbors including Cameroon, Niger and Chad. More than 36,000 people have been killed, mainly in Nigeria, according to the United Nations.
Violence has returned to the Lake Chad area after a period of peace following a successful operation launched in 2020 by the Chadian army to destroy the extremist group’s bases there. Schools, mosques and churches have reopened and humanitarian organizations have returned. But there are concerns that a Boko Haram resurgence in Chad could affect the presidential election in May.
Main opposition figures barred as leaders cleared for election
Authorities in Chad have cleared 10 candidates for this year’s long-awaited presidential election, barring two fierce opponents of the military government from standing. Chad’s Constitutional Council announced on Sunday that outspoken opposition figures Nassour Ibrahim Neguy Koursami and Rakhis Ahmat Saleh would be barred. It said their applications had been rejected because they included “irregularities”. The council said that the nominations of interim President Mahamat Idriss Deby and the country’s recently-appointed Prime Minister Succes Masrahad been accepted. The central African nation is scheduled to hold the first round of a presidential election on May 6 and the second round on June 22, with provisional results on July 7. The elections are part of a transition back to democracy from rule by Chad’s military government, which is one of several currently in power in West and Central Africa. There have been eight coups in the region since 2020, sparking concerns of a democratic backslide. It is the first time in Chad’s history that a president and a prime minister will face each other in a presidential poll. Deby initially promised an 18-month transition to elections after he seized power in 2021, when his long-ruling father was killed in clashes with rebels. But his government later adopted resolutions that postponed elections until 2024 and allowed him to run for president, triggering protests that were violently quelled by security forces. The barring of the opposition candidates comes less than a month after General Deby’s main rival Yaya Dillo Djerou was shot dead in an army assault on his PSF party headquarters.
AFRICA – GENERAL NEWS
BRICS development bank aims to make $5 bln in loans in 2024
The New Development Bank (NDB), set up by the BRICS group of emerging economies, aims to make about $5 billion in loans this year, its vice president, Zhou Qiangwu, said on Tuesday. “During the epidemic, our business has been somewhat affected, and now everything is going back on track,” Zhou said on the sidelines of the annual Boao Forum. Zhou did not elaborate on how the bank may have been off track, but said China and India have received slightly more investment from the bank than other members. Headquartered in Shanghai, the NDB was set up in 2015 by Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, collectively known as the BRICS countries.
Britain agrees $100 mln trade finance to boost Africa food security
Development lender British International Investment (BII) said on Monday it had agreed a $100 million finance facility with the Eastern and Southern African Trade and Development Bank (TDB) to boost trade finance, farming and food security in the region. The finance will help fund trade, including importing and exporting goods, on a continent where many debt burdened African economies face currency depreciation and rising debt and inflation compounded by issues such as climate change. Providing more capital to help bolster trade finance in the region is important as many international lenders have pulled back from offering it, leading to a finance gap of up to $120 billion a year, African Development Bank research shows By providing the financing to TDB, local companies will be able to buy essential materials such as fertilisers and machinery, helping boost output and cross-border trade, food security, job creation and economic resilience, the lender said. BII, which has investments in over 1,470 businesses in emerging economies across 65 countries and total assets of 8.1 billion pounds, said that between 2022 and 2026 at least 30% of its total new commitments by value will be in climate finance.
A decade of increasing migrant deaths shows that fleeing is more lethal than ever
More than a decade ago, the death of 600 migrants and refugees in two Mediterranean shipwrecks near Italian shores shocked the world and prompted the U.N. migration agency to start recording the number of people who died or went missing as they fled conflict, persecution or poverty to other countries.
Governments around the world have repeatedly pledged to save migrants’ lives and fight smugglers while tightening borders. Yet 10 years on, a report by the International Organization for Migration’s Missing Migrants Project published Tuesday shows the world is no safer for people on the move. On the contrary, migrant deaths have soared. Since tracking began in 2014, more than 63,000 have died or are missing and presumed dead, according to the Missing Migrants Project, with 2023 the deadliest yearyet. The report says the deaths are “likely only a fraction of the actual number of lives lost worldwide” because of the difficulty in obtaining and verifying information. For example, on the Atlantic route from Africa’s west coast to Spain’s Canary Islands, entire boats have reportedly vanished in what are known as “invisible shipwrecks.” Similarly, countless deaths in the Sahara desert are believed to go unreported. Even when deaths are recorded, more than two-thirds of the victims remain unidentified. That can be due to lack of information and resources, or simply because identifying dead migrants is not considered a priority. Experts have called the growing number of unidentified migrant (deaths) around the world a crisis comparable to mass casualties seen in wartime. Behind each nameless death is a family facing “the psychological, social, economic and legal impacts of unresolved disappearances,” a painful phenomenon known as “ambiguous loss,” the report says.
UN-RELATED NEWS
Unicef: Climate Change leaves ‘dire situation’ for 45 Million African children
The United Nations children’s fund says there is a “dire situation” in several eastern and southern African countries, where at least 45 million children are dealing with severe food insecurity made worse by climate change. In a statement, Eva Kadilli, the UNICEF director for eastern and southern Africa, said millions of people are living through multiple and often overlapping crises intensified by the 2023-24 El Nino weather phenomenon, one of the strongest on record. Wongani Grace Taulo, UNICEF regional education adviser for eastern and southern Africa, said UNICEF is attempting to help children and their families learn ways of coping with climate change through the schools. While that may help southern Africa in the long term, many Zimbabweans are concerned with their situation here and now.
UN chief calls for slavery reparations
Antonio Guterres called on Monday for reparations over the transatlantic trafficking of enslaved people as a way to tackle its legacy in today’s society, including systemic racism. From the 15th to the 19th century, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported by European ships and merchants and sold into slavery. Those who survived the brutal voyage ended up toiling on plantations in the Americas, mostly in Brazil and the Caribbean, while others profited from their labor. In a statement to mark the U.N. International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery, Guterres said the past “laid the foundations for a violent discrimination system based on white supremacy. We call for reparatory justice frameworks to help overcome generations of exclusion and discrimination,” Guterres said. In September, a U.N. report suggested countries should consider financial reparations to compensate for slavery. The idea of paying reparations or making other amends for slavery has a long history, and the movement has been gaining momentum worldwide.
AFRICA – ANALYSIS, EDITORIAL/OPINION
Macky Sall’s reputation is dented, but the former president did a lot at home and abroad
Political Turmoil in Senegal
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Gaza’s humanitarian aid massacre through the lens of Sharpeville
The African Union and its Peacemaking Paralysis
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Local Mediation Leading the Way in Darfur
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Beyond the ballot: AI, voter rights and the future of elections in Africa
The complete history of Brava (ca. 1000-1900): a Swahili enclave in southern Somalia
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