Africa Media Review for August 22, 2024

Aid Trucks Trickle into Darfur as Army Pauses Delivery Ban
A fraction of available aid has passed through the Adre border crossing from Chad into Sudan’s hunger-ravaged Darfur region this week following a move by the Sudanese army to temporarily lift a ban on deliveries. The army’s rivals in the country’s devastating 16-month-old war control most of Darfur and the Adre crossing, the quickest way into the region. The army had ordered aid agencies to stop use of the corridor in February, saying it was used to transport arms, but last week rescinded that order temporarily for three months. After 15 trucks had moved through the crossing, out of a total of 131 at the border, the Sudanese government “instructed no more movements until procedures received yesterday are agreed,” Justin Brady, head for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Sudan, said on X late on Wednesday…A document by the army-aligned Humanitarian Aid Commission showed that the procedures set by the government included the presence of Sudanese authorities and soldiers at Chadian warehouses and the border for inspections. Reuters

El Sisi Reiterates Egypt’s Push for Sudan Peace
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El Sisi reaffirmed Egypt’s commitment to ending the conflict in Sudan, emphasising the need for international cooperation to resolve the ongoing political and humanitarian crises. In a meeting yesterday with UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed in Egypt’s New Alamein city, President El Sisi stressed the importance of ending hostilities, safeguarding Sudan’s sovereignty, and protecting its people and state institutions. The discussions, which included Egyptian Foreign Minister Dr Badr Abdelatty, also addressed the broader regional situation and the pursuit of stability…President El Sisi also met with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday, accompanied by US Special Envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello. Reports state that they focused on collaborative efforts to end the conflict in Sudan. Blinken expressed appreciation for Egypt’s role in the ongoing negotiations in Switzerland aimed at finding a peaceful resolution to the Sudanese crisis. Dabanga

Congo: Cease-fire Violations Deepen Humanitarian Crisis
In March 2022, tensions flared as M23 rebels, after a decade of relative calm, launched attacks on Congolese army positions near the Uganda-Rwanda border. Since then, they have seized large swathes of territory in an effort to gain a share of North Kivu’s major deposits of copper, gold and diamonds. An uptick in violence forced local residents to flee, seeking safety from the escalating conflict. Recent clashes have sparked renewed worries about the durability of a cease-fire that began on August 4, aimed at stopping the conflict in the region and providing aid to millions in need. Previous cease-fires between the government and rebels have also been breached…Local volunteers on the ground say they are worried about the continued fighting and its devastating impact on internally displaced people. Bahati Masudi, a civil society official, highlighted that displaced persons have not received any aid since the truce was declared.”On the contrary, people continue to die, some from hunger, others killed by rebel bullets, the rebels are still violating humanitarian rights in full view of everyone, under the silence of the international community,” Masudi told DW. DW

The Rangers Turning the DRC’S ‘Triangle of Death’ Back into a Thriving Wildlife Reserve
Upemba, which lies in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), once teemed with wildlife. At its height, tens of thousands of elephants were thought to roam the park, which was Africa’s largest when Belgian colonial administrators created it in 1939…However, it was in this wilderness that Bakata Katanga rebels took refuge in 1998. The presence of the militia, which seeks independence for Congo’s mineral-rich Katanga region, turned large sections of the park – as well as territory outside it – into a no-go zone that locals used to call “the triangle of death”. It also led to a poaching spree…Despite trying circumstances and limited resources, however, Upemba has managed to pull itself back from the brink…Current numbers, although preliminary, are encouraging. The size of the elephant herd is up to about 210, a figure that appears to be increasing every year; the park is due to collar them this month so they can be tracked. Zebras, too, have bounced back from near-extinction, to an estimated 200 animals…Upemba’s progress has been gradual, but it could mark a rare conservation success story for the DRC. The Guardian

Nigeria Deploys Armed Rangers to Protect Farmers
Violent attacks, land levies and kidnappings have forced many farmers to abandon their lands, driving up food inflation. In response, the government declared a state of emergency on food security in 2023 and recently deployed 10,000 agro rangers across 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory. Their mission is to safeguard farmland and mediate conflicts, especially in areas hit by farmer-herder clashes…[F]armer and agricultural economist Retson Tedheke warns that addressing the root causes of insecurity in farming communities requires sustained effort. “Nigerian farmers should be getting loans at between 5% and 7%,” he said, “because we are producing food. … Food security is a major component of political development, governmental development and leadership development.” VOA

How West Africa’s Online Fraudsters Moved into Sextortion
[In the late 90s and early 2000s, as internet connectivity began penetrating west Africa, came the “Nigerian prince” letters], a famous scamming technique employed by online fraudsters…preying on unsuspecting targets across the web. The emails typically involved someone pretending to be Nigerian royalty and asking for money, a claim so outlandish that victims presumed it couldn’t be a lie…As telcos reduced data subscription prices and security personnel began hunting letter-writers, more scammers invested in home-based connections and pivoted to newer techniques – targeting elderly foreigners, cryptocurrency scams, business compromise emails, catfish romance scams and online Ponzi schemes – to boost success rates. And then the fast-growing scam of sextortion: the art of blackmailing people for money for sexual footage in the possession of perpetrators. The rise in global fintechs and, consequently, multiple payment options has also widened their target reach to more people. In parts of Ghana and Nigeria, apartments turned incubator campuses called “hustle kingdoms” (HK) or academies are springing up: there, groups of young people, some as young as 13, stay and learn fraud basics…According to US law enforcement agencies, there are many perpetrators of sextortion in west Africa, especially in Nigeria and Ivory Coast. At the end of July, the tech company Meta announced the closure of 63,000 Nigerian-based Facebook accounts used for these scams, which targeted adult men primarily. The surge in sextortion crimes led to the FBI director, Christopher Wray, flying to Abuja in June to meet Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, and discuss, among other things, partnering to combat cybercrime. That same month, Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission signed a deal in conjunction with the FBI to launch a cybercrime research lab. The Guardian

Cameroon Opposition, Civil Society Blame Low Voter Registration on President Biya
Cameroon is preparing for presidential elections next year to end an ongoing seven-year mandate. The date for the presidential polls will be decided by longtime leader Paul Biya…Cameroon rights groups say citizens are afraid to register because voters who protested what they claim was the stolen victory of the opposition Cameroon Renaissance Movement, or MRC, leader Maurice Kamto in 2018 were jailed for rebellion and attempted insurrection…The opposition and civil society say they have sent caravans to towns and villages all over Cameroon to encourage citizens to register and qualify to vote before registration ends in 10 days. VOA

Botswana Begins Mpox Screening at Entry Points
Health officials in Botswana have started screening travelers for mpox at the country’s entry points. Neighboring South Africa has recorded three deaths as a result of the dangerous strain of mpox, and Botswana is anxious to keep out the rapidly spreading disease…South Africa shares a 1,900-kilometer border with Botswana and as of Aug. 5 had recorded three mpox deaths. In Africa, the disease has claimed the lives of more than 500 people since the beginning of the year. Botswana Public Health Institute Acting Director Dr. Thebeyame Matsheka says travelers will be required to fill out self-assessment forms at border checkpoints. VOA

Malawi Receives an Insurance Payout of $11.2 Million for El Nino-linked Drought Disaster
The Malawian government has received an insurance payout of $11.2 million for a crippling El Nino-linked drought that led the southern African nation to declare a state of disaster earlier this year. The payout was given to Malawi this month, the African Development Bank said Monday. Malawi had a drought insurance policy through the bank and the African Risk Capacity Group, an agency of the African Union. The funds will support food assistance to around 235,000 households in some of Malawi’s hardest-hit regions and also help with direct relief payments to more than 100,000 households, the African Development Bank said. Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera said the payout was “a lifeline for our vulnerable populations.”Malawi, which is already one of the world’s poorest countries, has had its food supply ruined by the drought, which has been attributed to the El Nino natural weather phenomenon that lasted a year before ending in June. The country declared a state of emergency in March and said there was a food crisis in 23 of its 28 districts. AP

Somalia’s Bomb Disposal Experts Face down Fear to save Lives
Wearing a bulky protective suit and helmet, Mohamed Ahmed inches towards the truck where explosives wired to a mobile phone have been planted in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. Fortunately for Ahmed, a police officer, this is a training exercise and the device is a dummy. Bombings using this technique, or suicide attacks with vehicles, are a common occurrence in Somalia, where insurgents linked to al Qaeda have been fighting the government since 2007…”We fear and feel like we are risking our lives,” said Ahmed, a member of the police’s Explosive Ordnance Unit. “But we work carefully together and consider that we’re saving the lives of our citizens.”…After three decades of civil war in Somalia, Ahmed’s unit also has to deal with the estimated one million mines and other unexploded ordnance that have killed or injured more than 1,700 people across the country, according to the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS). Reuters

Uganda Says It’s Exploring for Oil in Two New Regions
Uganda is exploring for oil in two new regions where potential discoveries of crude could increase the East African country’s proven reserves of 6.5 billion barrels, its energy minister said on Wednesday. Commercial quantities of crude oil were discovered in the Albertine Graben basin in Uganda’s west near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo nearly two decades ago, but production is not projected to start until next year. Government geologists are exploring two new regions located in Uganda’s north and northeast, Energy Minister Ruth Nankabirwa told a press conference in the capital Kampala…Uganda has five basins where hydrocarbon potential is suspected, with only one, the Albertine, successfully explored so far, the energy ministry says…Commercial production has been delayed by various factors including disagreements with oil firms over field development strategy and taxation, and a lack of infrastructure and funding to develop it. Reuters

Niger Resumes Oil Exports via Benin after Suspension
Landlocked Niger has resumed crude oil exports via Benin after a dispute between the countries halted the flow of oil through a new Chinese-funded pipeline to the West African coast, according to a pipeline company agent and ship tracking data on Wednesday. The dispute was over Niger’s refusal to lift a ban on imported goods from Benin, leading its coastal neighbour to block exports through the PetroChina-backed pipeline in May. In June, Niger shut off the flow of oil through the pipeline…Niger’s disputed ban on Benin related to political disagreements within the West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS that led it to impose sanctions on Niger last year…While ECOWAS later lifted sanctions on Niger, Niamey did not reciprocate to allow imports from Benin. It was not immediately clear on Wednesday how the dispute had been resolved to allow Niger’s oil exports to resume. Reuters

Who Benefits from Lesotho’ ‘White Gold’?
Completed in 1996, [the Katse dam] forms part of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which was the result of a deal signed between the governments of Lesotho and apartheid South Africa a decade earlier…Water is funnelled out of the dam, entering a series of tunnels, that eventually takes it into the Vaal river system in South Africa. It is Africa’s biggest water transfer scheme…However, despite being water rich, Lesotho remains economically poor. And nowhere is that more apparent than in Ha Ramokoatsi village. Despite being around just 1km from the dam, its 200 residents still have to rely on a small natural spring, tucked away inside a small cave on the hillside, for their supply of water…Village officials say that despite a series of promises from politicians – dating back to 2020 – that running water would be installed, they have heard nothing. BBC