Africa Media Review for August 29, 2024

WFP Launches Probe into Its Sudan Operations as Famine Spreads
The U.N. World Food Program is investigating two of its top officials in Sudan over allegations including fraud and concealing information from donors about its ability to deliver food aid to civilians amid the nation’s dire hunger crisis, according to 11 people with knowledge of the probe. The investigation by the WFP’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) comes as the U.N.’s food-aid arm is struggling to feed millions of people in war-plagued Sudan, now suffering one of the world’s most severe food shortages in years. As part of the probe, investigators are looking at whether WFP staff sought to hide the alleged role of Sudan’s army in obstructing aid amid a brutal 16-month war with a rival paramilitary for control of the country, according to five of the sources who spoke to Reuters…More than half a dozen humanitarians and diplomats told Reuters they are worried that mismanagement at the heart of the WFP’s Sudan office could have contributed to the failure so far to deliver enough aid during the war. Reuters

World’s Police in Technological Arms Race with Nigerian Mafia
Police units around the world have joined forces in a series of covert operations targeting one of West Africa’s most feared criminal networks – Black Axe. Operation Jackal III saw officers in body armour carry out raids in 21 countries between April and July 2024. The mission, co-ordinated by global policing agency Interpol, led to the arrest of 300 people with links to Black Axe and other affiliated groups. Interpol called the operation a “major blow” to the Nigerian crime network, but warned that its international reach and technological sophistication mean it remains a global threat…According to a 2022 report by Interpol, “Black Axe and similar groups are responsible for the majority of the world’s cyber-enabled financial fraud as well as many other serious crimes”…The organisation is a secretive criminal network with trafficking, prostitution and killing operations around the world. Cyber-crime, targeting individuals and businesses, is the organisation’s largest source of revenue. BBC

Beyond the Facade: Unveiling the Violence in Nigeria’s ‘Peaceful’ Presidential Elections
While the Nigerian government’s Independent National Electoral Commission claimed voting [in the 2023 election] was not marred by intimidation, a 10-month-long Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism (CCIJ) examination with 20 journalists found widespread incidents of brutality around the country. Government documents, international observers and dozens of interviews conducted by CCIJ throughout the country reveal a pattern of violence that crippled voter turnout and raises troubling concerns about future elections. Upwards of more than 100 people reportedly died in election-related violence, according to reports by independent observers. Yet the government’s election commission discounted these deaths and numerous injuries. CCIJ reviewed thousands of polling units results on IREV and found more than 2,000 polling stations across the country that reported their ballots could not be added to official tallies because of irregularities. The leading reason, affecting about half the polling stations: violence. The result is that more than 1.1 million registered voters’ ballots could not be counted in the election, according to government records. Premium Times

Nigeria Receives 10,000 Doses of Mpox Vaccines from US
Nigeria has received 10,000 doses of the mpox vaccine from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the first batch of the vaccine to reach the country which has confirmed 40 cases with no fatalities so far…The Nigerian government has decided to prioritize five states to receive the vaccines including Bayelsa, Edo, Cross-River and Lagos, according to USAID’s statement. NHPCDA has not yet said when the vaccines would be distributed or who would be prioritised for treatment. Reuters

Africa’s Mpox Outbreaks Result from Neglect and World’s Inability to Stop Epidemics, Experts Say
The growing mpox outbreaks in Africa that triggered the World Health Organization’s emergency declaration are largely the result of decades of neglect and the global community’s inability to stop sporadic epidemics among a population with little immunity against the smallpox-related disease, leading African scientists said Tuesday. According to Dr. Dimie Ogoina, who chaired WHO’s mpox emergency committee, negligence has led to a new, more transmissible version of the virus emerging in countries with few resources to stop outbreaks…And while most people over 50 were likely vaccinated against smallpox — which may provide some protection against mpox — that is not the case for Africa’s mostly young population, who Ogoina said were mostly susceptible. AP

Tanzania’s Faustine Ndugulile Elected WHO Africa Regional Director
Dr Faustine Ndugulile of Tanzania was elected as the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Regional Director for Africa on Tuesday at the ongoing session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Brazzaville, Congo…A former deputy minister of Health in Tanzania, Dr Ndugulile will succeed Dr Matshidiso Rebecca Moeti of Botswana, whose two five-year terms end at the session. Dr Ndugulile, a medical doctor specialising in microbiology, has extensive experience in public health. In his campaigns for the position, he said his priorities include transforming African health systems to achieve universal health coverage, improving maternal and child health and strengthening health security, innovation and research…Dr Ndugulile emphasised the need to improve the service index for universal health coverage, which remains below 50 percent in many African countries. The EastAfrican

Libya’s Oil Blockade Widens as Factions Vie to Control Central Bank
Libya’s oil blockade widened on Wednesday with eastern leaders demanding western authorities back down over the replacement of the central bank governor, a key position in a state where control over oil revenue is the biggest prize for all factions…Eastern factions have vowed to keep Libya’s oil output shuttered until the internationally recognised Presidency Council and Government of National Unity in Tripoli, in the west, return veteran central bank governor Sadiq al-Kabir to his post. Presidency Council chief Mohammed al-Menfi said he was dismissing Kabir earlier this month, a move rejected by the eastern-based House of Representatives parliament and eastern commander Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army. Armed factions mobilised in the northwest last week in response to the crisis, underscoring the risk of fighting. Reuters

Tunisia Court Allows Prominent Candidate Znaidi to Run in Presidential Race
The Tunisian Administrative Court upheld on Thursday an appeal by prominent candidate Mondher Znaidi, thereby allowing him to return to the presidential race expected on Oct. 6, a judicial official told Reuters, in the second such ruling this week. The decision will restore momentum to the election race and could toughen the contest for current President Kais Saied, who is seeking a second term. The Administrative Court also returned Abdellatif Mekki to the race on Tuesday after the electoral commission had rejected his candidacy filing…Znaidi, a former minister who worked with late President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, ousted by mass protests in 2011, lives in Paris and says “he wants to rebuild Tunisia, unite all Tunisians and end years of division that Saied sowed”. Reuters

Facing Barriers in West, China to Push Green Products at Africa Summit
As the West clamps down on imports of green technology products from China, the world’s biggest manufacturer is looking for new markets, and that is a topic analysts say will dominate the agenda next month at a Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, or FOCAC, in Beijing. The high-level meeting, held every three years, will be the first since the world emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic and China suffered its own economic slowdown…While many African countries — some of which are facing energy crises — will welcome help with their transition to renewables, Paul Nantulya, a research associate for the Africa Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, explained that China also “benefits greatly.” “If you look at green growth for instance, the technology which is marketed to African countries, which African countries have to buy, either through loan finance or directly through commercial entities, that’s one way in which China benefits,” he told VOA. VOA

Africa’s Debt Crisis Has ‘Catastrophic Implications’ for the World
Outsize debt has been a familiar problem in the developing world, but the current crisis is considered the worst yet because of the amounts owed as well as the huge increase in the number and type of foreign creditors. And in Africa, a continent pulsating with potential and peril, debt overshadows nearly everything that happens. It leaves less money for investments that could create jobs for what is the youngest, fastest-growing population on the planet; less money to manage potential pandemics like Covid or mpox; less money to feed, house and educate people; less money to combat the devastating effects of climate change, which threaten to make swaths of land uninhabitable and force people to migrate. If nothing is done to help countries manage the financial crunch, “a wave of destabilizing debt defaults will end up severely undermining progress on the green transition, with catastrophic implications for the entire world,” warned a new report from the Finance for Development Lab at the Paris School for Economics and Columbia University’s Initiative for Policy Dialogue. The New York Times

Spain’s Leader Visits Gambia as Part of a West Africa Tour to Tackle Irregular Migration
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez visited Gambia on Wednesday as part of a trip through three West African nations aimed at boosting cooperation in controlling irregular migration from the region to Spain’s Canary Islands. Sánchez met with Gambia’s President Adama Barrow and said afterward that the two countries had agreed to work together on security, as well as on opportunities for legal, temporary migration, but he gave no details…It was the first time a Spanish prime minister has visited the small country of 2.7 million inhabitants. Sánchez began his tour Tuesday in Mauritania, where he said Spain would renew cooperation between the two nations’ security forces to combat people smuggling. He planned to meet with leaders in Senegal on Thursday. AP

Cameroon to share cocoa location data to meet EU environment rules
Cameroon’s cocoa and coffee association on Wednesday signed agreements with six cocoa exporters to roll out a platform that will provide plantations’ location data to comply with an impending EU regulation on deforestation-free products. The European Union is Cameroon’s biggest market where it shipped about 80% of total cocoa bean exports, amounting to 185,613 metric tons in the 2023/2024 farming season, according to data from the country’s National Cocoa and Coffee Board. Under the new EU rule, which takes effect by the end of this year, the chocolate-making ingredient and other products won’t be accepted on the EU market if they were produced on deforested or degraded land after Dec. 31 2020, a date that corresponds with existing international commitments. Reuters

Here’s All You Need to Know about Africa at the Paralympics
[Eritrea is one of three National Paralympic Committees to make their Paralympic debut in Paris.] Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Morocco and Nigeria are among the 35 National Paralympic Committees with a record number of female athletes for these Games. Team Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria and Rwanda are some of the 27 NPC with more female athletes than male athletes. At Tokyo 2020 African athletes won a total of 63 medals, including 21 gold. Four years earlier, at Rio 2016, the total was 97 (36 gold). Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa were the most prolific teams in terms of medals at Tokyo 2020. Each left Japan with four gold medals. Africanews