Africa Media Review for August 26, 2024

Armed Men Kill Dozens in Burkina Faso
[Several dozen people, including civilians, were killed in Burkina Faso by armed men in the village of Barsalogho in north-central Burkina Faso on Saturday]…No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. According to [a] local resident, the victims were mainly “young civilians, who came out in large numbers to help the soldiers dig trenches around the town, to protect themselves from possible attacks by armed terrorist groups”…According to a hospital source in Kaya, more than 100 injured people were taken to the city’s largest medical center. Le Monde with AFP

Mali Drone Strikes Kill at Least 21 in Northern Town, Rebels Say
At least 21 people, including 11 children, were killed by drone strikes on Sunday on the town of Tinzaouaten in north Mali, near where the army suffered a heavy blow last month, Tuareg rebels said…The strikes targeted a pharmacy and gatherings of people, causing a provisional death toll of 21 civilians, including 11 children and the pharmacy manager. Dozens more were injured and there was severe material damage. The CSP-DPA blamed Mali’s army and Wagner mercenaries, and said neighbouring Burkina Faso operated the drone. Reuters

DR Congo Army and M23 Rebels Clash near Densely Populated Eastern Towns
Renewed fighting between Democratic Republic of Congo’s army and M23 rebels broke out on Sunday around a densely populated town in eastern North Kivu province, where the rebels are waging an insurgency, the army and M23 said. The M23 captured the town of Kirumba, the economic hub of Congo’s Lubero territory, at the end of June. It also seized the neighbouring town of Kanyabayonga around the same time…Military efforts to push the rebels back have intensified over the past year as regionally brokered ceasefires keep failing. The latest was agreed at the end of July to start on Aug. 4. The fighting has driven more than 1.7 million people from their homes in North Kivu, taking the total number of Congolese displaced by multiple conflicts to a record 7.2 million, according to U.N. estimates. Like many towns in the area, Kirumba and Kanyabayonga host thousands of displaced people. Reuters

Why Mpox Vaccines Aren’t Flowing to Africans in Desperate Need
Three years after the last worldwide mpox outbreak, the W.H.O. still has neither officially approved the vaccines — although the United States and Europe have — nor has it issued an emergency use license that would speed access. One of these two approvals is necessary for UNICEF and Gavi, the organization that helps facilitate immunizations in developing nations, to buy and distribute mpox vaccines in low-income countries like Congo. While high-income nations rely on their own drug regulators, such as the Food and Drug Administration in the United States, many low- and middle-income countries depend on the W.H.O. to judge what vaccines and treatments are safe and effective, a process called prequalification. But the organization is painfully risk-averse, concerned with a need to protect its trustworthiness and ill-prepared to act swiftly in emergencies, said Blair Hanewall, a global health consultant who managed the W.H.O. approvals portfolio as a deputy director of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, a key funder, for more than a decade…This week, under pressure from member states, the W.H.O. signaled to Gavi to start a purchase negotiation with Bavarian Nordic even though vaccine approval is still pending. The New York Times

Sudan’s De Facto Ruler Won’t Join Peace Talks, Vows to ‘fight for 100 Years’
Sudan’s de facto ruler, army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, said Saturday his government would not join peace talks with rival paramilitaries in Switzerland, vowing instead to “fight for 100 years”…The United States opened talks in Switzerland on August 14 aimed at easing the human suffering and achieving a lasting cease-fire. While an RSF delegation showed up, the Sudanese armed forces were unhappy with the format and did not attend, though they were in telephone contact with the mediators. The talks were co-hosted by Saudi Arabia and Switzerland, with the African Union, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the United Nations completing the so-called Aligned for Advancing Lifesaving and Peace in Sudan Group (ALPS). They wrapped up Friday without a cease-fire but with progress on securing aid access on two key routes into the country, which is gripped by one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. AFP

Sudan Journalists Union Says Armed Group Kidnaps Reporter, Demands Ransom
An armed group has kidnapped a journalist in an area of Sudan’s capital controlled by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and is demanding a ransom for his release, the Sudanese Journalists’ Syndicate said on Sunday. The union said Alaa El-Din Abu Harba was taken from his home in east Khartoum on Friday. It said the kidnappers initially demanded a ransom of 1 million Sudanese pounds ($365) and after receiving it were now demanding a further billion pounds…The journalists’ union has recorded 438 violations against journalists since the conflict began, including four killings. Earlier this month, another journalist in east Khartoum, Abdel Rahman Hanin, had his home raided by an armed group who looted valuables and cash, the syndicate said. Sudan Tribune

Nigerians Condemn Journalist Soyinka’s Arrest by SSS, Worry over Attacks on Press Freedom
[SSS operatives arrested journalist Adejuwon Soyinka at the airport in Lagos upon his arrival from the UK on Sunday]…After being picked up at the airport, Mr Soyinka was driven to the SSS headquarters annexe in Ikoyi, Lagos, and released after about six hours of detention. SSS operatives seized his passport to release him on bail…Nigerian journalists and activists have continuously decried the deteriorating state of press freedom in Nigeria, especially in the last one year under President Bola Tinubu. More than 100 attacks on journalists have been verified in Nigeria this year, according to the Press Attack Tracker. The attacks on the press and journalists are primarily by state actors, with the police accounting for almost 50 per cent of all harassment faced by journalists in the first half of the year. The military and the SSS are also prominent culprits, arbitrarily arresting and detaining journalists unlawfully. Premium Times

I Miss Home’: 13-year-old Nigerian Girls Trapped as Sex Workers in Ivory Coast
Trafficking is a major crisis in Nigeria, with between 750,000 and 1 million people forced into begging, prostitution, domestic servitude, armed conflict and labour exploitation. Some of those are being trafficked out of the country… [T]housands of Nigerian female sex workers [are] scattered across towns and cities in Ivory Coast, according to Nigerian officials who spoke to the Guardian. The girls and women are mostly trafficked by agents who are taking advantage of record unemployment in Nigeria and operate under the guise of offering better paid work…Due to its stable economy and prostitution being legal, although soliciting sex is not, Ivory Coast has become an attractive destination for sex work…[M]ost of the sex workers trafficked from Nigeria live deep in the Ivorian jungle, far from the eyes of the law…The Guardian spoke to at least two dozen girls and women in the forest, some as young as 15. Some of them said they had been starved for refusing to work or beaten up by angry patrons…Nigerian officials who have managed to repatriate girls trapped as sex workers say they have seen girls as young as 13 in the interior…Ivory Coast has a law criminalising trafficking, but it is barely enforced. The Guardian

Tunisian President Shuffles Cabinet Ahead of Presidential Vote in October
Tunisian President Kais Saied announced on Sunday a broad cabinet reshuffle of 19 ministers that included those for defence, foreign affairs and the economy, ahead of a presidential election on Oct. 6. The presidency said in a statement that Khaled Shili would be the new defence minister and Mohamed Ali Nafti the foreign affairs minister. Saied earlier this month sacked Prime Minister Ahmed Hachani, replacing him with Kamel Maddouri, the social affairs minister. The ministers of finance, justice, and the interior kept their positions. The cabinet shuffle comes amid financial crisis and widespread discontent over recurring water and electricity outages in many parts of the country and a shortage of some goods and medicines, in a move likely aimed at injecting new blood and attracting voters…Tunisian opposition parties and human rights groups have accused the authorities of using “arbitrary restrictions” and intimidation to exclude contenders from the electoral race and pave the way for the re-election of Saied. Reuters

Dozens of Migrants Swim into Spain’s Ceuta Enclave from Morocco
Dozens of migrants took advantage of a thick mist to swim to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from neighbouring Morocco on Sunday and early on Monday, local police said. Spain’s two enclaves on Morocco’s Mediterranean coast, Ceuta and Melilla, share the only land borders of the European Union with Africa. The enclaves sporadically experience waves of attempted crossings by migrants trying to reach Europe. Many of the migrants arriving in the past 24 hours were intercepted off or on the beach of Tarajal on the southern limit of the Ceuta enclave, next to the border with Morocco, a spokesperson for the Guardia Civil in Ceuta told Reuters. People crossing the border are invariably detained by the police and sent back to Morocco unless they are under age or asylum seekers, the spokesman added. Reuters

South Sudan, CAR Commit to Strengthen Border Security
South Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR) have pledged to strengthen border security between the two countries. Of particular focus, authorities say, is the urgent need to improved roads and trade to strengthen bilateral relations and promote peace and stability in a region grappling with illicit activities that undermine law and order. The arrangement, if implemented, presents a landmark effort in the annals of history of the two countries in the region. It is the largest initiative South Sudan will have ever undertaken since independence and the largest by the CAR in the recent past. Sudan Tribune

Senegal’s Olympic Female Wrestler Trains Girls
[Isabelle] Sambou is a two-time Olympian and nine-time African wrestling champion. Sambou represented Senegal at the Olympic Games in London and Rio de Janeiro. Back home now, she coaches the women in her village, hoping to help train the next Olympic athlete…Senegalese wrestle for entertainment and to celebrate special occasions. The professional version of the sport draws thousands to stadiums and can be a catapult to international stardom. But in most of the country, wrestling remains off-limits for women. Except for here in Casamance region, home to the Jola ethnic group, where women traditionally wrestle alongside men…The local variation of wrestling is called laamb in Wolof, one of the national languages. It has been part of village life for centuries. Africanews