Namibia Vote Extends into Saturday in Places after Logistic Trouble
Some voting stations will remain open until Saturday, the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) said, as delays in Wednesday’s election angered the opposition even as vote counting continued. Rivals accused SWAPO of trying to limit voting for the opposition. The ECN said it had decided to keep 36 polling stations open on Friday and Saturday in response to the criticism. All had been due to close by 21:00 on Wednesday. It admitted to a range of problems, including a shortage of ballot papers in a higher than expected turnout and the overheating of tablets used to verify voters. In some cases, torches used to show up invisible ink had run out of batteries and mobile voting teams had left areas with voters still in the queues, it said. The main opposition Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) led calls for a halt in the process. In the presidential vote, IPC leader, former dentist and lawyer Panduleni Itula, is perhaps the strongest challenger to SWAPO’s vice-president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who could become the first woman to lead the country. Analysts have said Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, could be forced into a second round if she does not win more than half of votes. The long queues were “a signal that people really want a change”, said Ndumba Kamwanyah, lecturer in the Department of Human Sciences at the University of Namibia. News24/AFP
Sudan’s ‘Invisible Crisis’—Where More Children are Fleeing War than Anywhere Else
Mahmoud is a cheeky teenager who beams the biggest of smiles even though he lost his front teeth in the rough and tumble of kids’ play. He is a Sudanese orphan abandoned twice, and displaced twice in his country’s grievous war – one of nearly five million Sudanese children who have lost almost everything as they are pushed from one place to the next in what is now the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Nowhere else on Earth are so many children on the run, so many people living with such acute hunger. Famine has already been declared in one area—many others subsist on the brink of starvation not knowing where their next meal will come from. … In Sudan’s merciless war, all warring parties have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war. So too sexual violence, which the UN describes as “an epidemic” in Sudan. BBC
‘Colombian mercenaries fighting in Sudan with alleged UAE links’
At least 300 Colombian ex-soldiers are reportedly fighting in Sudan, according to an investigative report by Colombian news site, La Silla Vacía, published on Tuesday. The report alleges that the soldiers were drawn into the ongoing conflict through a cross-border operation involving four countries, chiefly spearheaded by the United Arab Emirates. According to the original report, the operation involved Colombian ex-soldiers being recruited under false pretences by the Colombian company, International Services Agency A4SI (Academy for Security Instruction), with promises of securing oil infrastructure in the UAE. Instead, they were transported to Libya via Dubai or Abu Dhabi, where they were handed over to representatives of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Libya served as a staging ground, with mercenaries housed in Benghazi before being covertly transported across the border into Sudan. Dabanga
Burkina Summons Newspaper Head over Mali Reporting
Burkina Faso’s communications watchdog has summoned the head of a popular newspaper and a journalist over an article on Mali. The hearing is scheduled on Tursday (Nov. 28). The High Council for communication or CSC argues the Observateur Paalga, a leading local newspaper, published an article allegedly “breaching the law, ethics and journalistic professional conduct”. The board of the body notably includes jurists and journalists. The piece whose title roughly translates as “Malian Armed forces: loads of generals” commented on the promotion of high-ranking members of the junta ruling the neighbouring country. … Earlier this week, Mali’s ruling junta cut the signal of the popular news broadcaster Joliba TV News after a prominent politician criticized the military rulers of Burkina Faso. Journalists in the Sahel region are facing increased security risks, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) alerted in September. AfricaNews
Why Russia’s Africa Propaganda Warrior was Sent Home
[Maxim Shugalei] has played a significant role in the expansion of Russia’s influence in parts of Africa, working closely with the Wagner Group of Russian mercenaries. However, this would-be iron man recently suffered a set-back when he was arrested in the central African nation of Chad. … Shugalei tends to describe himself as a “sociologist” but in reality, say analysts, he is a spin doctor and an agent of Russian influence known for his work on the African continent. He has been under EU sanctions since 2023 for overseeing disinformation campaigns to promote the Wagner Group in several African countries, and is also the subject of Ukrainian sanctions. … In 2018, a BBC investigation found that he was one of several Russian operatives who were caught offering suitcases full of cash to presidential candidates in Madagascar. … Last year, US intelligence services said they had discovered that Wagner allegedly orchestrated a plot to assassinate Déby but failed to carry it out. BBC
Zimbabwe Court Frees Opposition Leader, Followers after Suspending their Sentences
A Zimbabwe court late Wednesday sentenced the interim leader of the country’s main opposition party to two years in jail – then suspended his sentence and the sentences of 34 of his supporters. Magistrate Collet Ncube sentenced Citizens Coalition for Change leader Jameson Timba and supporter Jaison Kautsa to two years imprisonment, while the other 33 opposition party members got lesser sentences for participating in an unlawful gathering on June 16. All were set to be released from prison. They were among the first of about 160 opposition figures and activists to be rounded up before a July summit of the 16-nation Southern African Development Community in Harare. … “It is indeed a very sad day, because what we have are people who are expressing their political rights, and they get criminalized,” [human rights lawyer and an opposition legislator Daniel] Molokele said. “I pray and hope that they will appeal, against the sentence, against the conviction. As things stand, we have criminalized the political space, we have criminalized the democratic space, there is no freedom in Zimbabwe.” VOA
Prioritize Unification of Forces, Peace Monitors Tell South Sudan Leaders
The peace monitoring body (RJMEC) has urged both national and state authorities to prioritize the unification and deployment of forces as stipulated in the 2018 peace agreement that ended the five-year civil war in South Sudan. Speaking at the 8th Governors’ Forum in Juba on Wednesday, RJMEC Interim Chairperson, Gen. Charles Tai Gituai expressed concerns that the unification process had not progressed as expected. He said the unification of the forces is part of the implementation of the security arrangements. … “What is now required is the establishment of the CTRH and CRA mechanisms and their operationalization. There has been no progress in setting up the Hybrid Court for South Sudan (HCSS). The RJMEC urges the RTGoNU to engage the African Union to meet and discuss the modalities for establishing the Hybrid Court for South Sudan,” he told the forum. Sudan Tribune
Amnesty International Says Nigerian Police Killed 24 in Crackdown on August Protests
Human rights group Amnesty International on Thursday said its investigation into Nigerian authorities’ crackdown on anti-government protests in August showed state officials killed at least 24 protesters and detained more than 1,200 others. Amnesty’s findings come amid growing concerns of a shrinking civic space in Nigeria. A 34-page document report released by Amnesty International Thursday was based on eyewitness testimony and interviews with medical workers and families and friends of the victims. Amnesty said Nigerian police used excessive force on demonstrators who had gathered to protest the soaring cost of living. … The August protests, which organizers called “Ten Days of Rage,” were in response to the soaring cost of living many believed was caused in part by President Bola Tinubu’s reforms, including the removal of fuel subsidies. … Amnesty’s report comes amid growing concern by human rights groups that Nigerian authorities are trying to stifle political dissent. VOA
Mozambique Forces Face UN Scrutiny after Military Vehicle Strikes Protester
Mozambican security forces have been accused of using excessive force to suppress anti-government protests following disputed October elections. At least two people have died, with the UN calling for an investigation into an incident where a military vehicle struck a woman during protests in the capital Maputo. Police reportedly opened fire and killed two protesters this week as hundreds of people gathered in the northern city of Nampula. The country has been gripped by weeks of protests since electoral authorities declared Daniel Chapo of the ruling Frelimo party winner of the 9 October presidential election. Frelimo has governed Mozambique since 1975. UN Resident Coordinator Catherine Sozi on Thursday urged Mozambican authorities to investigate the mowing down of a woman by a military vehicle on Wednesday. … [T]he Centre for Democracy and Human Rights, a local civil society organisation, stated last week that it was aware of 65 people killed by police. RFI
Chad to End Security Cooperation with France
Chad said on Thursday that it was ending its defense cooperation pact with former colonial power France in a decision that could see French soldiers withdraw from the Central African country. “The government of the Republic of Chad informs national and international opinion of its decision to end the accord in the field of defense signed with the French Republic,” Chad’s Foreign Minister Abderaman Koulamallah said in a statement on his ministry’s official Facebook page. However, “This is not a break with France like Niger or elsewhere,” Koulamallah told AFP. The former colony said that the country wanted to fully assert its sovereignty after 64 years of independence from France. It added that the move to end the military cooperation accord would enable Chad—an important Western ally in the fight against Islamic militants in the region—to redefine its strategic partnerships. Around 1,000 French troops are stationed in Chad. DW
Is Russia Poisoning Namibia’s Water in its Hunt for Uranium?
Russian company Rosatom is trying to drill for uranium in Namibia. Farmers say a vital aquifer that nourishes Southern Africa is at risk. Impo Gift Kapamba Musasa holds a hose pipe in one hand and gestures to a garden of cabbages, onions and turnips with the other. He is a teacher in the crumbling village of Leonardville in rural Namibia, where water is becoming scarce. The vegetables, grown for children at the primary school where he teaches, are watered from one of the largest aquifers on earth. … Leonardville is a village of cattle farmers subsisting off meagre government handouts and homegrown vegetables, but it also sits on top of vast deposits of uranium – the fuel for nuclear reactors. … A Rosatom subsidiary, known as Headspring Investments, in 2011 proposed to use a controversial drilling method to extract the uranium, known as “in situ” mining, which involves injecting a solution that includes sulphuric acid down into the aquifer. While Australian miners frequently use the drilling method, it has never been attempted in Africa, and is not usually done around aquifers, mining experts said. Al Jazeera
The Violent Underworld of Stilfontein’s Zama Zamas
Late on Sunday night, 14 zama zamas surfaced from deep underground at a disused mine in Stilfontein, where a major operation against illegal mining is ongoing. Police were guarding the shaft’s entrance and arrested them. One of the zama zamas gave his age as 14. The miners were all Mozambican. Their clothes were torn and muddy. Some of them had bare feet. They had been climbing for several days up the giant steel girders that held a transport elevator in place when the mine was still operational. … A reporter for Newzroom Afrika interviewed some of the men before they were taken into custody. They said that they had been hired as casual labourers, unaware this would lead them into some of the world’s deepest and most dangerous mines. … Other men were similarly recruited in the townships of Diepsloot and Alexandra. The recruiters were said to be Basotho men. Instead of stopping in Joburg, the minibus headed out of the city. “We started asking questions but they threatened us with guns,” the man from Middelburg said. They arrived in Stilfontein and were ordered to go underground. … Analysts have estimated that illegal mining accounts for around a tenth of South Africa’s annual gold production, although some mining executives privately believe the true figure is even higher. GroundUp
France’s Macron Hosts Nigeria’s Tinubu for Talks in Paris
Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu arrived in France on Thursday for a two-day state visit, with both sides looking to deepen their economic and diplomatic ties. It is the first official state visit to Paris by a Nigerian leader in over two decades. French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed his counterpart with a warm greeting in Nigerian Pidgin English, stressing the cultural connection between the two leaders. “Na big honor for France,” he wrote on social media “to welcome you for dis state visit.” … Nigeria was France’s top trading partner in sub-Saharan Africa in 2023, with bilateral commerce worth over $5 billion (€4.73 billion), according to the French customs authority. Trade is currently largely driven by Nigeria’s exports of crude oil and other raw materials. … Nigeria was looking to build ties in “agriculture, security, education, health, youth engagement, innovation and energy transition,” Tinubu’s office said in a statement. He and Macron will also address “shared values concerning finance, solid minerals, trade and investment, and communication,” it added. DW
France’s Macron Acknowledges 1944 Killings of West African Troops by French was a Massacre
In a letter addressed to the Senegalese authorities, French President Emmanuel Macron for the first time recognized the killing of West African soldiers by the French Army in 1944 as a massacre. Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye made the announcement in an interiew aired Thursday (Nov. 28) on French state television. Macron’s move comes on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the World War II killings in Thiaroye — a fishing village on the outskirts of the Senegalese capital”. The West Africans were members of the unit called Tirailleurs Senegalais, a corps of colonial infantry in the French colonial Army. Between 35 and 400 West African soldiers who fought for the French Army in the Battle of France in 1940 were killed on Dec. 1, 1944 by French soldiers after what was described as a mutiny over unpaid wages. AfricaNews/AP
Liberia’s Notorious Rebel-turned-senator Johnson Dies
Prince Yormie Johnson, Liberian warlord-turned-politician, who became infamous for the 1990 footage of him sipping beer while the-then president was tortured nearby, has died at the age of 72. As one of the key figures in the two civil wars between 1989 and 2003, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission said he should be prosecuted for war crimes, though he was never brought to trial. But as a senator since 2005, he was highly influential in Liberian politics, backing the last three successful presidential candidates. While some have celebrated his political role, others viewed him as a symbol of the country’s struggles with accountability. “We see his death as a blow to many victims who were awaiting to see the senator to face justice given his role in the civil war,” human rights activist and campaigner for a special war crimes court Adama Dempster told the BBC. An estimated 250,000 people died in the conflicts and many survivors from sexual assault and other attacks were left permanently scarred. BBC