FOCAC 2024: Elevating African Interests Beyond the Africa-China Summit
The Ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), to be held in Beijing from September 4 to 6, takes place at a critical juncture. African economies are still distressed from the instability caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and anger is growing over the economic consequences of unsustainable debt, some of which is manifested in popular protests…While FOCAC has emerged as a unique forum, it is still by-and-large shaped by a donor-recipient dynamic, where African countries mostly take a back seat while China initiates much of the agenda. Part of this has to do with weaknesses in strategic planning on the African side. While China regularly releases comprehensive Africa strategy documents—such as the white papers of 2006, 2015, and 2021—African countries have little coherent strategy for China…African countries must become more strategic, include nongovernmental voices, be mindful of the pitfalls of unrestrained and unaccountable borrowing, and, by establishing more transparency of FOCAC agreements, ensure that African representatives place national interests ahead of personal ones. Africa Center for Strategic Studies
International Facilitators Press RSF to Open Humanitarian Access in Sudan
International peace facilitators and observers met with representatives of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Switzerland on Sunday to address the urgent humanitarian needs of the Sudanese people and ensure the protection of civilians amidst the ongoing conflict…A key focus of the discussions was the urgent need to open a humanitarian corridor along the road from Gedaref, through Wad Medani and Sennar. This corridor would significantly expand access to aid for up to 12 million Sudanese across multiple states. The RSF was urged to open areas under its control, specifically the Sennar junction, to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian supplies…Sudan’s decision to open the Adré crossing from Chad to the humanitarian agencies was also received positively. The RSF was urged to ensure safe and unhindered access for humanitarian cargo and workers once movements begin through this corridor. Both parties were reminded of their obligation under international humanitarian law to protect civilian infrastructure, including bridges and roads vital for humanitarian access. Sudan Tribune
UN Warns that South Sudan Faces ‘Existential Crisis’ Ahead of Uncertain Polls
South Sudan is preparing to stage its first election as an independent country. What should have been a unifying coming-of-age moment for the embryonic state is fast becoming a source of mounting anxiety. The vote was conceived as the finale to a peace agreement signed five years ago to pull the nation from a civil war that left at least 400,000 dead. All the signs, however, suggest the country’s preparation for such a complex, logistical undertaking are nowhere near sufficient. Senior UN officials warn that any election interpreted as unfair, corrupt or simply incompetent risks pushing one of the world’s poorest states back into nationwide conflict…Last week [Nicholas Haysom, the head of the UN mission in South Sudan,] told the UN security council that the country had not prepared sufficiently for elections in December…But Haysom says the South Sudanese are desperate for the democratic process to begin. “All the polls or surveys have shown that the South Sudanese want elections, even though they suspect it may come with some violence,” he says. The Guardian
Strong Turnout for SADC Summit in Harare
Despite local controversy such as the jailing of opposition activists and pressure to move it from Harare, Zimbabwe, the 44th Southern African Development Community (SADC) ordinary summit was of the best-attended – by heads of state and government – in the past nine years. Only three heads of state didn’t attend, namely Zambia’s Hakainde Hichilema, Comoros’ Azali Assoumani and Prithvirajsing Roopun of Mauritius…The Harare summit ran under the theme: Promoting Innovation to unlock opportunities for sustained economic growth and development towards an Industrialised SADC…Zimbabwe’s Emmerson Mnangagwa is the new SADC chairman of the annual and rotational post. Mnangagwa will, this time next year, hand over the chairmanship to Madagascar’s Andry Rajoelina. Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan took over leadership of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation from Hichilema. Malawi is the troika’s new member while Zambia stays because it’s the outgoing chair. News24
Zimbabwe’s Ruling ZANU-PF Party Says Police Will now Release Activists
Human rights organizations reacted angrily Tuesday after Zimbabwe’s ruling party acknowledged that more than 100 activists were detained to keep them from protesting during a Southern Africa Development Community summit held over the past weekend. Authorities said they will start to release those who were detained now that the meeting is over…Mary Lawlor, a U.N. special rapporteur on human rights, called for the immediate release of the activists, alleging that some had been tortured during their detainment by Zimbabwean authorities. State prosecutors and the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission said they are investigating the allegations. VOA
African Health Officials Call for Solidarity Not Travel Bans over Mpox Outbreak
African health officials have appealed to the international community not to impose travel bans on countries dealing with an outbreak of mpox, but instead to support the continent in rolling out testing and vaccinations. There have been about 1,400 new cases and 24 deaths linked to a new variant of mpox over the past week, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. “Don’t punish Africa,” said Africa CDC’s head Jean Kaseya at a media briefing on Tuesday. “We hear from here and there that you want to apply travel bans … we need solidarity, we need you to provide appropriate support, this vaccine is expensive…He said there had been promising collaboration between countries and health organisations, but that he would not be satisfied with progress in tackling the outbreak until community-level testing networks had been established to ensure no cases were missed. Richer nations could help in expanding testing and procuring vaccinations, he added. The Guardian
UN Migration Agency Appeals for $18.5 Mln in Assistance for Mpox Outbreak
The United Nation’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) appealed on Wednesday for $18.5 million in assistance to provide health care services to people impacted by the mpox outbreak in East and Southern Africa, according to a statement. “The spread of mpox across East, Horn, and Southern Africa is a grave concern, especially for the vulnerable migrant, highly mobile populations and displaced communities often overlooked in such crises,” said IOM Director General Amy Pope. “We must act swiftly to protect those at the highest risk and to mitigate the impact of this outbreak on the region,” Pope said in the statement. Reuters
Libyans Who Received Military Training in SA Deported to Benghazi as Civil War Looms
The 95 Libyan nationals who were arrested at a suspected military training camp at White River, Mpumalanga, have been deported to Benghazi in eastern Libya. They returned to a country where another major military clash is looming between the United Nations-backed Government of National Unity based in Tripoli to the west and the rival [authorities] based in Benghazi and Tobruk in the east of the country. It is widely believed in Libya that Khalifa Haftar, the military commander of the eastern forces, sent the 95 men to receive military training from a private company called Milites Dei in White River. The fact that they were deported to Benghazi reinforces this theory…The Libyans were originally charged with falsifying their visa applications to come to South Africa. Later it was reported that they had been arrested for various other crimes, including rape and robbery. But all charges were dropped when they appeared before the White River Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, 15 August. The court ruled they could be deported back to Libya…”In the absence of renewed political talks leading to a unified government and elections, you see where this is heading: greater political, financial and security instability, entrenched political and territorial divisions, and greater domestic and regional instability,” [Stephanie Koury, deputy special representative for political affairs for Libya in the United Nations Support Mission in Libya, told the UN Security Council on Tuesday]. Daily Maverick
Somalia Press Lobbies Raise Concern over Proposed Information Bill
Press freedom lobbies are expressing concern over Somalia’s proposed new information law, which they say will hamper their work…The National Union of Journalists (Nusoj), along with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the African Freedom of Information Centre (Afic) and the Federation of African Journalists (FAJ), warned in a statement that the bill threatens to undermine the country’s democratic foundations. They argue that it contains proposals that will restrict access to information and hamper the work of journalists in investigating and holding government officials to account, a duty they say is protected by Somalia’s constitution and international human rights standards…The warning about the lack of world-standard legislation comes as Somalia remains one of the most dangerous places in the world to work as a journalist and for media houses to operate. For more than three decades, dozens of journalists and reporters have been killed in the course of their work, media houses have been looted or closed, and many have had to flee Somalia for their safety. The East African
Beware Fake Information during Elections, Experts Warn
A rise in the spread of disinformation and misinformation on social media platforms such as X, Facebook and WhatsApp during South Africa’s 2024 national election could have undermined trust in legislative, political and government institutions, experts have warned. The false narratives included one undermining the integrity of the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC), Keegan Leech, a researcher at the nonprofit Africa Check told a forum on Tuesday…Leech said Africa Check, working with several other organisations, had published 69 reports of false information during the election period, a rise in fake reports compared with the 2019 vote. Typical examples included false quotes attributed to politicians, false claims about attendance at a rally and non-existent party endorsements…“But by far the most coordinated and major narrative that we saw was posts undermining the credibility of the IEC and these came on especially hard as voting started and during the actual voting and then after the election, as votes were being counted. There were all of these claims about how the IEC was biased,” Leech said. Mail & Guardian
‘Justice Is Served’: Relief at Ex-Kony Commander’s Conviction in Uganda
[Last week, Thomas Kwoyelo was convicted of 44 charges of murder, kidnap and other war crimes, in the first trial of a Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) commander in a Ugandan court. He will be sentenced next month…Kwoyelo, who was the third most senior leader after Kony, was field commander of the LRA, which, according to the United Nations, has killed more than 100,000 people and abducted 60,000 children for sexual slavery and to become child soldiers. Kwoyelo himself was 12 when he was kidnapped walking to school and, like many here, was a victim of the bloody insurgency which he went on to play a role in as an adult. His defence team had argued in court that he was a victim, too. His lawyer, Charles Dalton Opwonya, said the government had “failed to protect” the former rebel…Most of Kwoyelo’s crimes were committed between 1996 and 2005 during a rebellion against President Yoweri Museveni that displaced an estimated 1.6 million people from their homes in a reign of terror that spread from Uganda to what is now South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic. The Guardian
West African Juntas Write to UN over Ukraine’s Alleged Rebel Support
The juntas of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have written to the United Nations Security Council to denounce Ukraine’s alleged support of rebel groups in West Africa’s Sahel region, a copy of their letter showed. Mali cut diplomatic ties with Ukraine at the start of the month over comments by a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency about fighting in Mali’s north that killed Malian soldiers and Russian Wagner mercenaries in late July. The military government of Niger followed suit days later in solidarity with its neighbour…Mali and Niger accused Ukraine of supporting “international terrorism”. Ukraine has repeatedly called the allegations groundless and untrue. A Tuareg rebel alliance has also said it did not receive any Ukrainian support. Reuters
Key Issues on Ethiopia’s Road to Debt Restructuring
Pressed by acute foreign currency shortages and sluggish government revenues amid a civil war in the northern region of Tigray, the government said in early 2021 it would restructure its debt under the G20 Common Framework initiative…Ethiopia’s process was drawn out by the Tigray conflict which ended in late 2022 and slow progress in meeting International Monetary Fund requirements to abandon its currency peg, ditch capital controls and introduce an interest rate-based monetary policy framework…To achieve comparability of treatment, a Common Framework tenet that requires commercial creditors to be treated in a similar way to official counterparts, Ethiopian officials have indicated they will seek a 20% write down on the principal of its $1 billion bond. That has angered bondholders who said last week it does not reflect Ethiopia’s economic fundamentals, and added that the government was not following a “good faith” approach to debt restructuring…The dispute revolves around whether Ethiopia has a liquidity problem – a short-term issue – or whether it faces a longer-term solvency crisis…The IMF says the government will have to take further action, perhaps by tightening monetary policy, to curb inflationary pressures. Reuters