In El Fasher You Face Only Death’: Sudan City Empties as Paramilitaries Close In
Aid workers estimate that hundreds of thousands of people have [left El Father in recent months] taking a road that follows a V-shape around the Zamzam refugee camp then runs west to Tawila and beyond. The road is dotted with checkpoints consisting of pieces of wood placed on car tyres and manned by men carrying AK-47s who demand money to let vehicles pass. There is a shorter route directly west out of El Fasher, along smaller roads, that some others have taken, but it is even more dangerous. Bandits and armed groups roam the area, targeting civilian convoys…In the town of Shakra the lorries are met by fighters of the Sudan Liberation Army, the rebel group that – for now at least – remains neutral and controls an area centered on the Marrah mountain range. Every Monday and Friday SLA convoys escort the refugees further west to Tawila. But danger lurks even under the protection of the SLA, as the roads are also used by the RSF and aligned militias. The Guardian
West Darfur Becomes New Battleground in Sudan Conflict
Fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has spread to West Darfur, an RSF-controlled state bordering Chad, marking a new front in the 17-month conflict. Clashes erupted on Monday in the town of Kalbus, with the army-aligned Joint Force claiming to have repelled an RSF attack…The Joint Force aims to retake control of West Darfur from the RSF, which seized the state early in the conflict. The RSF has been accused of widespread atrocities in West Darfur state, including ethnic cleansing against the Masalit community. The violence has forced over 800,000 people to flee into neighbouring Chad. Sudan Tribune
Kenyan MPs Begin Process to Impeach Deputy President
Members of parliament in Kenya have started the process of removing the country’s deputy president from office. Those who back the effort accuse Rigathi Gachagua of having a role in June’s anti-government demonstrations – which turned deadly – as well as an involvement in corruption, undermining government and promoting ethnically divisive politics. The deputy president has dismissed the allegations. This is the culmination of a major fallout between Gachagua and President William Ruto. On Tuesday, the speaker of the National Assembly allowed the impeachment proceedings to begin after a motion to start things off was backed by 291 MPs, way over the threshold of the 117 MPs required. The impeachment itself is expected to sail through both houses of parliament easily, after the main opposition joined forces with the president’s party following the recent protests. But there is no date yet for when that will actually take place. Multiple efforts to stop the impeachment attempt through the courts failed. BBC
Two Men Close to Benin’s President Jailed after Alleged Coup Plot
Olivier Boko — a businessman and longtime friend of President Patrice Talon — and Oswald Homeky — a former sports minister — were charged with “conspiracy against state security, corruption of public funds and money laundering,” [their lawyer, Ayodele Ahounou, said Tuesday.] Both men were arrested after being accused of bribing the commander in charge of the president’s security to carry out a coup. Homeky was caught while allegedly handing over six bags of money to the head of the Republican Guard, according to Elonm Mario Metonou, the special prosecutor at Benin’s court for financial crimes and terrorism. Boko, often seen as Talon’s “right-hand man,” is accused of being the mastermind behind the coup attempt and was arrested separately in Benin’s capital Cotonou. He had recently expressed interest in being a candidate in the country’s 2026 presidential election…Benin has been among the most stable democracies in Africa, but President Patrice Talon is accused of using the justice system to attack his political opponents after taking office in 2016 and changing electoral rules to enable him to consolidate power in 2021. AP
Ghana: ‘We’Ve Nothing to Hide’, Election Chief Tells Opposition NDC
Ghana’s electoral management body allowed the media to cover its meeting with political parties, for the first time since 1992, in a bid to engender transparency and trust. As Ghana heads toward its general elections in December, tensions are still high between the Electoral Commission (EC) and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), with the latter casting doubt on the integrity of the provisional voters register (PVR). Despite the opposition’s concerns, EC chairperson Jean Mensa has assured the public that the commission is committed to transparency, noting that “there is nothing to hide”…In an unprecedented move, the EC live-telecasted its Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Tuesday, showcasing the commission’s efforts to address the concerns of political parties. The primary focus of the meeting was the disputed provisional voters register, with both ruling and opposition parties presenting their views…In response to the NDC’s concerns, Mensa announced that the EC would re-exhibit the provisional voters register and provide an online platform for voters to check their details and report any discrepancies. The Africa Report
What Are the Key Issues in Mozambique Elections?
Mozambicans will vote in presidential and legislative elections on Oct. 9 that are almost certain to extend the ruling Frelimo party’s half century in power, as it battles a long-running Islamist insurgency in one of Africa’s largest gas fields…[Islamist] militants launched an insurgency in the northern gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado in 2017, killing thousands of civilians, destroying livelihoods and internally displacing hundreds of thousands, aid agencies say. The insurgency has disrupted multi-billion-dollar energy projects…Before the wave of insurgent attacks, gas projects worth over $50 billion were earmarked for development. The projects were aimed at turning the country into a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) producer…Mozambique is still reeling from a $1.5 billion-plus “tuna bond” scandal in which money lent to state-run firms for fishing fleets, funded in part by Credit Suisse, went missing…Mozambique is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, vulnerable to extreme climate shocks like droughts, cyclones and floods…Shortly after independence, a 16-year civil war between Frelimo and former guerilla movement Renamo – now the country’s main opposition – killed around 1 million people before a truce in 1992 ended the worst of the bloodshed. However, violence has flared up periodically, around elections. Reuters
Ivory Coast President Ouattara’s Party Pushes Him to Run Again
Ivory Coast’s ruling party has expressed its support for President Alassane Ouattara seeking a fourth term in 2025, making it more likely that the 82-year-old will run again. Ouattara, who was re-elected for a contested third term in 2020, has said he would like to step down, but also suggested he would need old rivals to commit to withdrawing from politics too. On Monday, top officials of Ouattara’s party, the Rally of Houphouëtists for Democracy and Peace (RHDP), passed a motion expressing their desire to do everything possible to ensure that the RHDP, under Ouattara’s leadership, was “the undisputed winner of the next presidential election in 2025″…Ouattara, who has governed since 2011, said in 2020 that he would not run again. But his preferred successor, prime minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly, died several months later…Ouattara did stand once more after his candidacy was cleared by the Constitutional Court, but his opponents nevertheless boycotted the election. He has argued that a new constitution approved in 2016 reset his two-term limit in 2020, although opposition parties disagree. Reuters
Dozens Dead, 61 Missing as Two Boats Sink off Djibouti
At least 45 people have died and many others are missing after two migrant boats capsized off the coast of Djibouti, officials say. The boats left Yemen with 310 people on board before sinking in the Red Sea off the east African nation on Tuesday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said. “To date, 61 individuals are still missing and the search operations are continuing relentlessly,” the Djibouti’s coastguard said. It is the latest boat disaster to hit the route, described as one of the busiest and most dangerous in the world, used by refugees and migrants from Africa. A “large-scale search” began early on Monday, supported by the IOM – with 115 survivors now rescued, Djibouti’s coastguard said…The boats sank just 150m (492ft) from a beach near Djibouti’s north-west Khor Angar region, the coastguard added. BBC
The Dangers of Migration in the Gulf of Aden
Known as tahriib, they are clandestine travellers seeking to escape conflict, poverty and the effects of climate change. Over the past decade, their journeys across the Gulf of Aden have become increasingly chaotic, a microcosm of the forces driving worldwide flows of human traffic. Between the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, this stretch of water separates the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. No other place on earth has witnessed more cycles of conflict, forcing so many people into successive rotations in such a small space. Today, contraflows of migrants and refugees move through a labyrinth of ever-more-dangerous routes, exchanging insecurities, jumping between continents, from one battlefield to another. They criss-cross Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, a human shuffle in which the odds are never favourable. A generation of young men and women has been seduced by a growing network of middlemen, promising jobs and a better future elsewhere. Promises that have, in turn, fuelled a new model of people trafficking, drawing the tahriib into a world in which there is often complete disregard for life. Financial Times
Sex Workers Find Themselves at the Center of Congo’s Mpox Outbreak
Sex workers are among those hardest-hit by the mpox outbreak in Kamituga, where some 40,000 of them are estimated to reside — many single mothers driven by poverty to this mineral-rich commercial hub where gold miners comprise the majority of the clientele. Doctors estimate 80% of cases here have been contracted sexually, though the virus also spreads through other kinds of skin-to-skin contact…Health officials in Kamituga are advocating for the government to shutter nightclubs and mines and compensate sex workers for lost business. Not everyone agrees. Local officials say they don’t have resources to do more than care for those who are sick, and insist it’s sex workers’ responsibility to protect themselves. AP
Aid Group Says Congo Had 25,000 Victims of Sexual Violence Last Year
Doctors Without Borders treated more than 25,000 victims of sexual violence in the Congo last year, by far the highest level it has seen there and most of it in the east where armed groups vie for power, the aid group said Monday. The vast majority of victims — averaging more than two per hour — were treated in displacement camps near Goma. the capital of Congo’s eastern province of North Kivu, the group said.“According to the testimonies of our patients, two-thirds of them were assaulted at gunpoint,” Christopher Mambula, the group’s program manager in Congo, said in the report…“While the massive presence of armed men in and around displacement sites explains this explosion of sexual violence, the inadequacy of the humanitarian response and the inhumane living conditions in these sites fuel the phenomenon,” Doctors Without Borders said in its report. AP
Zimbabwe Shops Impose Limits amid Panic-buying after Huge Official ZiG Devaluation
Some shops across Zimbabwe have imposed “one item per person” rules for products such as milk to fend off panic-buying triggered by a new loss of faith in the country’s latest currency. Last week, formal retailers warned the government they would go out of business if they were forced to continue selling at the artificially high official rate for Zimbabwe Gold (ZiG) currency. Now retailers such as Pick n Pay, and OK Supermarket have warned they may have to close shops after the shock official devaluation of ZiG. The latest approach to the currency supposedly backed by physical gold – which hit an all-time high price last week – has further confused consumers, and the broader market…While formal shops are required to accept ZiG, tuck shops and informal vendors simply refuse. As a result, runners now intermediate between some in those two groups, with the informal traders effectively acting as outlets for their bigger peers. Some retailers switch off their point-of-sale machines to avoid the electronic-only ZiG. The upheaval has left many people a lot poorer, on paper. News24
Nigeria Claims It Should Get a UN Security Council Permanent Seat
A major theme of the recent United Nations General Assembly opening session was reforming the Security Council and including a permanent seat for Africa…PassBlue spoke with Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar, 57, about the country’s diplomacy…PassBlue: What is Nigeria’s position regarding the possibility of gaining a permanent seat in the Security Council? Should there be one seat for Africa? Two? Should it be a rotating permanent seat? Or should Nigeria be a permanent member? Tuggar: Nigeria has been consistent. Of course, if we’re going to have two, the more the merrier…But this whole concept of rotation does not make sense, because it’s something that already exists. The remaining 10 members, as you know, they’re nonpermanent, so they come and they go. That rotation is already in place. Why must Africa be treated differently? What even brings about the whole idea of having a continental organization to represent Africa? Africa is not a country. Africa is a continent with 55 countries. So, we must get beyond that. The way that the African Union was given a seat in the G20 doesn’t mean you have to take the same approach with the Security Council. At least with the G20, the European Union is a member. If the world wants to change everything, and then you’re going to have the Organization of American States and the EU and then the AU and all being members, along with others and partners, that’s different. But I don’t think it’s pragmatic. I think it’s cumbersome. I don’t think it makes sense, and I think sometimes these are things that come up to prevent countries like Nigeria from taking their rightful place. Nigeria is the most populous country on the continent. It is the largest economy, and if we’re talking about democracy and representation and deliberation, democratic deliberation, then Nigeria is one of the countries that should get a permanent seat. PassBlue