Africa Media Review for August 19, 2024

Sudan to Send Delegation to Cairo for Talks with Saudi and U.S. Officials
Sudan will send a government delegation to Cairo for talks with U.S. and Saudi officials on implementing a deal aimed at ending the conflict in Sudan, a government source told Sudan Tribune on Sunday. The Sudanese Sovereign Council confirmed in a statement on Sunday that it would be sending a delegation to Cairo following contact with the U.S. government and the Egyptian government. The delegation will be led by the Minister of Minerals, Mohamed Bashir Abu Namo, and will include Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Salwa Adam Bania, as well as military negotiators. The talks in Cairo are expected to take place on Tuesday. Sudan Tribune

Cholera Outbreak in Sudan Has Killed at Least 22 People, Health Minister Says
Sudan has been stricken by a cholera outbreak that has killed nearly two dozen people and sickened hundreds more in recent weeks, health authorities said Sunday. The African nation has been roiled by a 16-month conflict and devastating floods. Health Minister Haitham Mohamed Ibrahim said in a statement that at least 22 people have died from the disease, and that at least 354 confirmed cases of cholera have been detected across the county…The conflict has turned the capital, Khartoum and other urban areas into battlefields, wrecking civilian infrastructure and an already battered health care system. Without the basics, many hospitals and medical facilities have closed their doors. AP

Congo’s Humanitarian Crisis Helped Mpox Spiral Again into a Global Health Emergency
The humanitarian crisis in eastern Congo has almost every possible complication when it comes to stopping an mpox outbreak, said Dr. Chris Beyrer, director of Duke University’s Global Health Institute. That includes war, illicit mining industries that attract sex workers, transient populations near border regions, and entrenched poverty. He also said the global community missed multiple warning signs…The new and possibly more infectious strain of mpox was first detected this year in a mining town in eastern Congo, about 450 kilometers (280 miles) south of Goma. It’s unclear how much the new strain is to blame, but Congo is now enduring its worst outbreak yet and at least 13 African countries have recorded cases, four of them for the first time. The outbreaks in those four countries — Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda — have been linked to Congo’s, and Doctors Without Borders said Friday that Congo’s surge “threatens a major spread of the disease” to other countries. AP

Uganda Returns Congolese Police Officers Who Fled Violence
Uganda handed over the almost 100 Congolese police officers who had fled across the border to Kanungu district in southwestern Uganda to escape fighting between M23 rebels and Congo’s military, a Ugandan military spokesperson said Friday. The statement said the police officers’ national identities had been confirmed, and that they had been allowed to enter Uganda as an act of humanity and in line with international law. The officers were handed over along with their weapons, ammunition and other arms, the statement by Major Kiconco Tabaro, a Ugandan military spokesperson, said. Tabaro said that refugees continued to flow over the Ugandan border to escape the ongoing violence in eastern Congo. Reuters

Malians Suffer Economic Hardship after Four Years of Military Rule
Four years after the military ousted Mali’s then-president and came to power, many residents say economic troubles are worsening and constant power cuts are hurting businesses…The current military rulers in Mali, who seized power in a second coup in 2021, have reneged on a promise to hold elections in February, postponing the vote indefinitely for technical reasons…The World Bank says economic growth in Mali is expected to slow to 3.1% this year from 3.5% last year, with extreme poverty levels rising. About 90% of Mali’s population lives in poverty. Reuters

Burkina Faso Conscripts Magistrates for Acting against Junta, Unions Say
At least six Burkina Faso magistrates have been conscripted to serve in the military this month for taking action against pro-junta activists and other individuals, three unions of magistrates said in a joint statement. The West African country’s ruling military junta, which seized power in a 2022 coup, is accused of suppressing dissent by kidnapping and conscripting critics, and urging citizens to report suspicious neighbours in the name of national security…Among those targeted are a prosecutor who had instructed police to investigate claims by local residents of forced disappearances, and a judge handling the case of a pro-junta figure who had caused a landslide that killed some 60 people, the statement added. Reuters

20 Nigerian Students Abducted by Gunmen in an Ambush in the North
At least 20 Nigerian university students were abducted by gunmen who ambushed their vehicles in the country’s north central region, police said Friday. The students were traveling to the south for a conference of medical students when they were ambushed in Benue state on Thursday evening, according to Benue police spokesperson Catherine Anene. The attack happened along Benue’s Otukpo road, a notorious hotspot for kidnappings. Such kidnappings have become common in parts of northern Nigeria, where dozens of armed groups take advantage of limited security presence to carry out attacks in villages and along major roads. Most victims are released only after the payment of ransoms that sometimes run into the thousands of dollars. The attacks have also forced many to abandon road trips. AP

Libya’s Central Bank Suspends Operations after Kidnapping of Official
Libya’s Tripoli-based central bank said on Sunday it would shut down all operations and not resume work until a senior bank official kidnapped earlier in the day was released. The central bank is the only internationally recognised depository for Libyan oil revenues…The bank said an unknown party was behind the abduction on Sunday of Musaab Muslam, head of its information technology department…Richard Norland, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, said last week that attempts to replace the bank’s senior management by force could result in the North African country losing access to international financial markets. Reuters

Algeria to Supply Lebanon with Fuel for Power Stations
Algeria will immediately begin supplying Lebanon with fuel for its power plants, Algerian state radio said in a statement on Sunday, after Lebanon’s electricity company said the day before its supplies were exhausted. Lebanon has not had round-the-clock power since the 1990s and cash transfers to Lebanon’s state electricity company, Electricité du Liban (EDL) to cover chronic losses have contributed tens of billions of dollars to the country’s huge public debt. EDL on Saturday announced a complete nationwide power outage, including at critical facilities such as the airport. It said then power supply would resume gradually once new fuel supplies were secured, either through a swap agreement with Iraq or other sources. Reuters

Malawi’s Main Opposition Endorses Ex-president Mutharika to Run in 2025
Malawi’s main opposition party, the Democratic Progress Party endorsed on Sunday former President Peter Mutharika to be its candidate in next year’s presidential election.
Mutharika, 84, who was president from 2014 to 2020, said in his acceptance speech he and his party would fix the economy, whose growth has been anaemic and plagued by foreign currency shortages that led to lack of fuel and medicines. He will face President Lazarus Chakwera of the Malawi Congress Party, who will be seeking a second term at the election scheduled for Sept. 16, 2025…Mutharika said he would form an opposition alliance including the United Transformation Movement, the party founded by the late Vice President Saulos Chilima who died in a plane crash in June. The UTM party helped Chakwera defeat Mutharika in 2020, but after the vice president’s death it announced its intention to pull out of the ruling alliance. Reuters

Nearly 68 Million Suffering from Drought in Southern Africa, Says Regional Bloc
About 68 million people in Southern Africa are suffering the effects of an El Nino-induced drought which has wiped out crops across the region, the regional bloc SADC said on Saturday.
The drought, which started in early 2024, has hit crop and livestock production, causing food shortages and damaging the wider economies. Heads of state from the 16-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) were meeting in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare to discuss regional issues including food security. Some 68 million people, or 17% of the region’s population, are in need of aid, said Elias Magosi, SADC executive secretary…It is Southern Africa’s worst drought in years, owing to a combination of naturally occurring El Nino – when an abnormal warming of the waters in the eastern Pacific changes world weather patterns – and higher average temperatures produced by greenhouse gas emissions. Reuters

Why Kenya Is Turning Teachers into Its Next Big Export
Kenya has a plan to increase a key new export: teachers. It wants to send teachers to wealthier countries such as the United States and Gulf nations, as part of an aggressive strategy to cut unemployment and boost remittances. Late last month, Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi unveiled the first cohort of nearly 70 teachers destined for schools in the US. The Department for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs said the teachers got jobs through a partnership between the labor ministry and two private companies…The policy will likely drive student-teacher ratios in East Africa’s largest economy even higher — its current recommended ratio is one teacher to 40 students, but some poorer schools have a single teacher for 70 students. Semafor

Mauritanian Women Take Lead in Preventing Extremism
[VIDEO] The women known as Mourchidates have long been key figures in Mauritanian society, as religious teachers and family counselors. For the past three years, they’ve also been engaged in dialogue with jihadis and those vulnerable to extremist ideology within their communities. DW