Sudan-Baby Steps

 

Baby Steps

SUDAN

Sudan’s army chief Abdel-Fattah Burhan this week lifted a state of emergency that was imposed after last year’s military coup, a move aimed at quelling the months-long mass protests that have gripped the country, the Middle East Eye reported.

Burhan’s decision follows recommendations by senior military officials to end the state of emergency and release all individuals detained under the emergency law. It also comes shortly after two protesters were killed during a pro-democracy demonstration in the capital, Khartoum, over the weekend.

The United Nations envoy for Sudan, Volker Perthes, criticized the killings and urged military leaders to lift the state of emergency.

Sudan has been plagued by unrest after the military launched a coup in October, putting an end to the African country’s efforts to transition to democracy following the ouster of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in 2019 amid a popular uprising, the Associated Press noted.

Sudan had been ruled by a fragile sovereign council made up of civilian and military leaders but that ended after the October takeover. Since then, thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand a return to civilian government. The military has responded by launching a bloody crackdown that has killed nearly 100 people and wounded more than 4,300.

Despite calls for the return of civilian rule, Burhan and his officials said they will only hand over power to an elected administration. Elections are scheduled to take place in July 2023.

Meanwhile, the UN, the African Union, and an eight-nation East African regional organization have been leading coordinated efforts to bridge the divide.

Terrorism In Africa

 

The Old Malignancy

WEST AFRICA

Sixty alleged terrorists on motorcycles attacked a military checkpoint in Kpinkankandi on the Togo side of the border with Burkina Faso recently, killing eight soldiers and wounding 13. The troops were there to stop al Qaeda, Islamic State and other terrorists entering their country from Mali, Niger and elsewhere.

As Al Jazeera explained, the incident was the latest in a concerning rising prevalence of terror attacks in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the last three years, more than 5,300 terrorist events have claimed the lives of 16,000 people in West Africa, according to Ghanaian Defense Ministry numbers. United Nations officials in Niger, for example, are pleading with the international community for more resources to fight the terrorists there.

Some analysts weren’t surprised to see terrorists identify Togo as a possible destination for exporting their brands of hate. In the Conversation, Folahanmi Aina, a doctoral candidate in Leadership Studies at King’s College London, said that “violent extremism could thrive” in impoverished, politically unstable Togo.”

Looking at an individual country might not do justice to the issue, analysts say. Calling Sub-Saharan Africa a new “locus of terrorism,” Foreign Policy magazine noted how militant organizations give a sense of belonging and greater meaning to alienated, disenfranchised youth who have little hope of economic gain under the current global economic system. That’s one reason why Nigeria has been fighting the Islamic State-affiliated Boko Haram and other militant groups for years.

Unfortunately, terrorism helps keep people in poverty and alienation, according to an African Union report that ReliefWeb shared. In addition to shattering lives and halting economic activity, it undermines investor confidence and the civil society that is necessary to move forward.

The problem is not isolated to Western Africa, either. In the east, Al Shabab is wreaking havoc in Somalia, Kenya and elsewhere. As the New York-based think tank, the Soufan Center, wrote, the US is sending troops to the region with the express mission of eliminating Al Shabab’s leadership. The Wagner Group, Russian private military contractors, are also now operating throughout Sub-Saharan Africa in defense of governments seeking to hold the terrorists at bay.

The chaos in Somalia the terrorists create helps pirates prey on shipping lanes off the Horn of Africa. Similar piracy is now occurring in West Africa in the Gulf of Guinea, reported the Washington Post, adding that the war in Ukraine has diverted worldwide attention from these terror networks.

Disorder spreads unless checked.

11 Babies Die In Hospital Fire In Senegal

 

The Littlest Ones

SENEGAL

A hospital fire in western Senegal killed 11 newborn babies this week, a tragedy that has prompted outrage over the country’s poor medical facilities, NBC News reported Thursday.

The fire took place in the neonatology department of the Mame Abdou Aziz Sy Dabakh Hospital in the western town of Tivaouane. Authorities said the incident appeared to have been caused by an electrical short circuit. Health authorities have launched an investigation into the matter.

Meanwhile, Amnesty International and other politicians are calling for a full review of Senegal’s public health system, saying that such accidents have become commonplace, according to the Washington Post.

Last year, a similar fire killed four newborns at a hospital in the northern town of Linguère. Maternity care has also come under intense public scrutiny recently following the death of a woman in labor who was denied a Caesarian section.

Senegalese doctors have lamented the faulty equipment and shaky upkeep that exists in many facilities, noting that such tragedies lead to a loss of trust in the public health system when that trust determines how a country handles outbreaks or pandemics.

Russian Atrocities In The Central African Republic

 

A Faustian Bargain

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC

Soldiers with links to Russia recently beat, tortured and executed civilians in the Central African Republic. The soldiers included mercenaries employed by the Wagner Group, a Russian private military security contractor, said Human Rights Watch. The United Nations is now investigating the incident. As many as 15 people were believed to have been killed.

Ironically, the Wagner Group “came to prominence” in 2014 when Russian-backed separatists launched a war in the Donbas region of Eastern Ukraine, reported CNN. They have also been deployed in Syria and in Ukraine.

The Central African Republic’s president, Faustin Archange Touadera, is notoriously close with the Wagner Group, whom he invited into the country in 2018 to help put down rebels and kept them around after violence marred his reelection in 2020. As the Africa Report showed, Touadera has been unapologetic for enlisting their help to maintain “peace and order.”

Russia, incidentally, has blocked UN efforts to probe the atrocities that the Wagner Group and the Central African Republic’s government might have committed in the country, added PassBlue, an outlet that covers the UN.

Rich in resources like gold and diamonds, the Central African Republic has been politically unstable since it achieved independence from France more than 60 years ago, wrote the BBC.

While he deploys foreign mercenaries, Touadera has been importing other ideas, too. Recently, he adopted bitcoin as an official currency, for example. His representative called it “a decisive step toward opening up new opportunities for our country,” Reuters reported.

Critics at the New Scientist magazine warned that the cryptocurrency experiment would likely be a failure, noting that in the only other country in the world that has adopted bitcoin as an official currency, El Salvador, the results have been poor. El Salvador’s bitcoin investments have lost value. The Central American country is expected to default on its debt within the year.

A through-line might link El Salvador and the Central African Republic. El Salvador adopted bitcoin because its leaders were desperate for cash, argued Slate magazine. Its bonds are rated as junk. Other credit sources have been drying up due to corruption. It had few other options but to embrace a new untested financing tool. Now, the Central African Republic, one of the poorest nations in the world, as PYMNTS noted, appears to be following the same strategy.

Touadera has offloaded two traditional sovereign powers, security and money, to remain in charge. It is likely to work, at least for a while.

An Ominous Warning On Putin From A South African Perspective.

 

ADRIAAN BASSON, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF

An ominous warning to SA from Putin's enemy No. 1 Over the weekend, I had the privilege of listening to Bill Browder, the American businessman-turned-activist who became Russian President Vladimir Putin's number one enemy after exposing his corrupt regime. Browder, who recently published Freezing Order after the success of Red Notice in 2015, was a major investor in Russia after the fall of communism through his Hermitage Capital Management. He invested over $4.5 million in the Russian economy before he was suddenly declared a threat to the Russian state for asking hard questions about corruption and governance. Browder enlisted the services of top Russian attorney Sergei Magnitsky after his offices were raided by 25 Russian securocrats. Magnitsky made a huge breakthrough: he uncovered that the documents seized during the raid on Hermitage were fraudulently used to reregister Browder's companies in the names of new directors and shareholders. The fraudulent documents were used to apply for a $230 million tax refund and Magnitsky blew the whistle - at a very high cost. The Russian authorities arrested him and tortured him to death. "I have no reason to doubt that the order came from Putin," Browder told his South African audience on Saturday as he spoke at the Franschhoek Literary Festival during a session moderated by Tony Leon. Unfortunately, Browder was not physically in Franschhoek out of fear for being arrested by Putin's allies in the rest of the world. Yes, the businessman who took on Putin's murderous regime believes travelling to his house in Cape Town could place his life at risk. Life's mission  After Magnitsky's murder by the Russian state, Browder made it his life's mission to expose corrupt, brutal and murderous regimes and lobbied US lawmakers to seize the dollar assets and visas of those responsible for Magnitsky's death. He succeeded and the Magnitsky Act was the result of his lobbying. Similar acts were signed into law in many other democracies and in 2019, the Guptas and their partner Salim Essa were blacklisted by the US in accordance with the Act. Bill Browder is a friend of South Africa. He supported the anti-apartheid campaign as a young American student, organised protests in support of the ANC and compares Magnitsky's fate to that suffered by Steve Bantu Biko in 1977 after being tortured by the apartheid state. Browder is outraged about South Africa's position on Russia's invasion of Ukraine. "This is not something I will easily forget," he said, telling Leon he is unlikely to return to South Africa soon, despite owning a house here. Initially, he thought the ANC's close links to Russia were through former president Jacob Zuma, who made no secret of his adoration for Putin and tried to push through the R1 trillion nuclear deal with Rosatom at all costs. Putin's friends  But after the country's defence of Russia at the United Nations, where South Africa refused to condemn Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine and the resultant human rights abuses, Browder is in no doubt that the entire government, including President Cyril Ramaphosa, are Putin's friends. He was shocked when I told him about the ANC's link to a manganese mine in the Northern Cape partly owned by a Putin ally and oligarch Viktor Vekselberg and that this may explain the ANC's stance on the Russian war. In short: United Manganese of Kalahari (UMK) is 49% owned by a Vekselberg-entity registered in Cyprus called New African Manganese Investments (NAMI). The other 51% of the lucrative mine, which paid a R2.4 billion dividend in 2020, is a South African consortium called Majestic Silver Trading 40 (MST). In turn, MST is partly owned by the ANC's Chancellor House. Between UMK, MST and Chancellor House they have donated R22.5 million to the ANC in the past year. This is according to official party funding donations data released by the IEC. Vekselberg has been sanctioned by the US and had his luxury yacht seized after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He has been declared a "Special Designated National" by the US and global assets in which he owns 50% or more will also be frozen by the US. It is no coincidence his company owns 49% of South Africa's fourth-largest manganese mine that coincidentally has become the governing ANC's largest funder. Browder has "no doubt" that this scheme is a primary driver of South Africa's immoral support of Russia in a time of war. He has seen what Putin is capable of doing. He has warned us. We ignore his ominous words at our own peril.

South Africa-When The Show Does Not Go On

 

When the Show Doesn’t Go On

SOUTH AFRICA

Environmentalists on the Wild Coast, a region of South Africa, are demonstrating and litigating against a proposed seismic survey that would help Shell’s oil offshore explorations. The activists said the survey will include loud sound waves that will hurt marine life, including legendary migrations of dolphins, sardines, sea turtles and whales, as well as the livelihoods of coastal communities.

As News24 reported, the activists convinced a court to issue an injunction to temporarily block the seismic survey. Now, arguing that Shell didn’t receive the proper approvals, they are asking the courts to invalidate the company’s plan entirely. While Shell received permission from traditional community leaders, they didn’t really consult the people whom their project would impact.

“The court rightly argued that relying on indigenous leaders to decide on behalf of their ‘subjects’ was reminiscent of tactical colonial and apartheid-era distortions of custom when ‘One Chief, One Vote’ logic was used to politically disempower indigenous communities and personally benefit their leaders,” wrote Helen Acton, a researcher at Good Governance Africa, via allAfrica.

In court, Shell argued that fears of environmental damage were overblown and that the project would bring economic development to the Wild Coast, one of the poorest regions of South Africa. But activists said they didn’t want the economic development, especially if it came in the form of more polluting, carbon-based fuel production.

“This ocean is our life so it is nothing less than that which Shell would destroy,” said Zingisa Ludude, a 62-year-old who harvests mussels for a living and has protested against the project, in an interview with the Washington Post. “Everything we need comes from the ocean.”

Writing in the New York Times, author Kate Aronoff noted how the global economy has created the conditions for battles where the public, oil companies and governments must engage in a complicated dance in order to keep the lights on while curbing carbon emissions.

Rising costs, the risks of shortages and other fears are the context for these battles. People around the world are worried about the future of energy, especially in their backyards. Renewable energy isn’t immune, either. The Los Angeles Times recently noted how wind energy was reshaping the American West while causing worries over habitats and other issues.

Still, the rising price of oil and natural gas has made the exploration for those resources more urgent. Guyana in South America is working hard to construct a regulatory apparatus to deal with the massive oil exploration efforts now underway there, Reuters wrote. Angolan officials want to increase production to gain foreign revenues for their impoverished country that is still recovering from a bloody civil war. Cyprus and Israel want to come to an agreement on gas fields so the money can start flowing.

There appears to be plenty for everyone who wants it.

But for those who don’t, like some on the Wild Coast, there are new victories. Years ago, it would have been unquestionable that the survey – and later the drilling – would go on. Now in a more climate-conscious world, that’s no longer a sure thing.

Water Is Becoming A Precious Commodity!

 The water we drink, bathe with, cook with, and clean with is becoming a precious commodity. We have a local website here in the Pacifica area that shares news in the community. It is called Next Door Sharp Park. There were numerous warnings from local residents about water bills that had gone up substantially. (Elena and I got lucky and saw no uptick in our bill.) This is caused by rainfall that did not meet expectations. We are in a drought and must conserve water. One of my swim friends gave me some more shocking news about the new regime of water rationing. If a ratepayer uses excessive amounts of water, he or she will get a much higher water bill. There will also be a penalty that will show up on the person's property tax bill.

    If you live in Santiago now, you are experiencing a drought. If you live in my beloved Cape Town, you survived a very bad drought some years ago where reservoirs dried up almost completely. Local residents and companies showed incredible ingenuity and initiative. Small and cost-effective desalinization plants were brought online. Even with spotty electricity delivery from Eskom, these plants saved the day for many residents.

Israel is the world leader in desalinization systems that turn seawater into drinking water.

     There is one huge problem with turning seawater into drinking water. Massive amounts of electricity are required. This makes water from the sea much more expensive. The Rolls Royce Jet Engine Company and Microsoft founder Bill Gates have come to the rescue.

    Rolls Royce started to build ultra-small nuclear reactors for spacecraft doing deep space missions. As you can imagine such reactors are exposed to wild temperature extremes and bombardment with all sorts of unpleasant radiation. They must be tough and dependable. They must be 100% safe. Imagine the uproar if a spacecraft crashed to earth and released dangerous nuclear materials.

     Bill Gates has developed similar nuclear reactors. These could be used to provide more cost-effective electric power for desalination plants.

    I sat in on a Zoom meeting with Bill Gates where he talked in-depth about his reactors. I suspect that they would be approved by some very hard-nosed environmentalists.

Oil Rich Angola Is Fighting Hunger!

 

No Free Lunch

ANGOLA

Angolans traditionally offer meals of cornmeal or cassava porridge and beans with palm oil in honor of a recently departed loved one. Now hunger and high unemployment have led desperate Angolans to hang around cemeteries and then follow the families of the deceased back to the venues where the mourners are given this free fare.

These reception crashers are known as “death hunters.”

“Every month, two or three times I go there to wait for a funeral so that I can feed myself,” João Baptista Kifuta, 23, a death hunter, said in an interview with Africanews.

Hunger due to extreme droughts, locust infestation and skyrocketing food prices have compelled thousands of Angolans to walk miles through rugged terrain in search of better opportunities in neighboring Namibia, the Guardian reported in a stunning photo essay. People in the photos were eating grass to stave off hunger pains, the photographer wrote. They were among 1.3 million in the region who faced starvation, according to ReliefWeb.

The war in Ukraine is now expected to make things much worse if that is even possible. As the war has dragged on, wheat production in Eastern Europe has stalled and prices have increased, the UN-sponsored magazine Africa Renewal noted. That spells disaster for poor countries that are dependent on wheat imports, especially after the troubles and economic contraction of the coronavirus pandemic.

Incredibly, President João Lourenço has denied that hunger is a major problem. Observers believe he is nervous about upcoming elections in August, African Arguments said. Father Jacinto Pio Wacussanga, a Catholic priest who has been organizing local farmers to make their crops more resilient to climate change-induced droughts, reflected that view when he told the Catholic News Service that he thought Lourenço was putting his head in the sand by ignoring the real suffering of the people.

Lourenço has pledged to make Angola more business-friendly, the Africa Report recounted. He made the same pledge in 2017 but now says he needs more time to implement his reforms. He has succeeded in boosting natural gas exports as prices have risen due to the Ukraine war, for example, Bloomberg added.

The president has also ramped up the security state. The Angolan government, for example, still controls the country’s media, Reporters Without Borders wrote. Independent and critical reporting is very hard to come by. Police have cracked down on protesters peacefully calling for free and fair elections, Human Rights Watch noted.

The death hunters, meanwhile, ply their trade.