Africa Media Review for October 23, 2024

Climate Change Worsened Rains in Flood-hit African Regions, Scientists Say
Devastating rains that triggered deadly floods in Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Sudan in recent months were worsened by human-caused climate change, a team of international scientists said on Wednesday. Global warming made the seasonal downpours this year about 5-20% more intense across the Niger and Lake Chad basins, said World Weather Attribution (WWA), a group of scientists studying the link between climate change and extreme weather…This year’s floods killed around 1,500 people and displaced over 1 million more in West and Central Africa, according to the U.N. aid agency OCHA. The rainfall also overwhelmed dams in Nigeria and Sudan. Reuters

BRICS Is Key to Putin’s Fight against the U.S. Not All Members Agree
[As BRICS] struggles to resolve its identity crisis amid Russia’s vehement anti-Western agenda, the group retains its appeal for Global South nations seeking more global leverage. But if China, Russia and Iran increasingly push an aggressive anti-Western approach, it would risk alienating nations that do not want to have to choose between the West and its adversaries, analysts say. After the expansion, China, Russia and Iran emerged as “an anti-Western camp,” said Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, chief executive of the South African Institute of International Affairs. “That is not the case for most of the other countries.”…But while Russia and China want to make the bloc the leading edge of their anti-U.S. effort, other members such as India and Brazil want to fine-tune the existing global order to benefit the Global South, not overturn it, and they insist the group is not against the West…South Africa sees the group mainly as offering economic opportunities, not challenging NATO or the E.U., according to professor Zwelethu Jolobe, head of the department of political studies at the University of Cape Town. Washington Post

South Africa Sees Russia as a Valued Ally, Ramaphosa Tells Putin
South Africa sees Russia as a valued ally, President Cyril Ramaphosa said at a bilateral meeting with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, on the eve of the BRICS summit of emerging economies that will take place in the Russian city of Kazan. “We continue to see Russia as a valued ally, as a valued friend who supported us right from the beginning, from the days of our struggle against apartheid,” Ramaphosa said, according to a clip of the two leaders’ meeting shared on social media by South Africa’s government news agency. Reuters

Sudan’s RSF Attacks East Gezira Villages following Defection
Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces have attacked villages in the east of Sudan’s El Gezira state, killing at least 25 people, following the defection of high-ranking RSF officer Abuagla Keikal who is from the area, activists said. As soldiers from other RSF divisions ransacked the farming state beginning in December, Keikal’s local forces had held incursions into east Gezira at bay, sparing civilians the worst of the violence while imposing control on the area…But following his defection on Sunday, large numbers of RSF soldiers streamed into the region, in what activists described as revenge, reporting displacement, looting and killings. Reuters

Drone Attack in Northern Mali Kills at Least 8, Tuareg Rebels Say
At least eight people including children were killed and 20 injured in a drone strike at a fair in Mali’s northern Timbuktu region, Tuareg rebels said on Tuesday. The rebel coalition known as the Permanent Strategic Framework for the Defence of the People of Azawad (CSP-DPA) said in a statement on Monday that a Turkish drone had carried out several strikes on a local market and civilian dwellings. The CSP-DPA blamed Mali’s army and its allies for the attack. Reuters

Over 230 Migrants Rescued from Boat off Spain’s Canary Islands
Over 230 migrants were rescued from one flimsy boat on Sunday in seas off Spain’s Canary Islands, coastguards said. Fourteen women and three children were found in the same boat which contained a total of 231 people, rescuers said. It is the largest number of people to be rescued from the same boat off the island of Gran Canaria this year, Spanish coastguards told Reuters. Spanish coastguards towed the wooden boat when they found the migrants close to Gran Canaria’s main port. Some 32,878 migrants have taken the perilous route in boats from West Africa to the Canary Islands between January and Oct. 15, according to government figures, a rise of 39.7% from the same period last year. Reuters

Ghana’s Parliament Suspended after Chaotic Scenes
Last week, it was discovered that four MPs had switched allegiance and would run for different parties in the 7 December general election. Speaker Alban Bagbin then declared that their seats were vacant, arguing that the constitution does not allow MPs to defect. In a finely balanced parliament, that decision – which is being challenged in court – means that the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) has become the majority party. Last Friday, President Nana Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) went to the Supreme Court to ask if the speaker had correctly interpreted the constitution. The judges asked the Speaker to suspend his declaration until they made a decision…Tuesday was the first parliamentary sitting since the Supreme Court’s directive to the Speaker – and MPs from both the NPP and NDC tried to occupy the seats reserved for the majority party. Eventually, the NPP leader in parliament, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, instructed his MPs to walk out in order to avoid any conflict…The Speaker said that without the NPP legislators present there were not enough MPs to make decisions, which is when he suspended proceedings indefinitely. BBC

Taiwan Rejects South African Demand to Move Its Representative Office from Capital
Taiwan has rejected South Africa’s demand that it move its representative office in the country from the capital, Pretoria, to the commercial center of Johannesburg, in the latest attempt by the self-governing island republic to push back against Chinese moves to diplomatically isolate it. Taiwan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Jeff Liu said at a news conference on Tuesday that the demand to move or shut the office violated a 1997 agreement between the sides on the location of their mutual representative offices following the severing of formal diplomatic relations. South Africa maintains a liaison office in Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, and the sides have a strong commercial relationship. The offices function as de-facto embassies and consulates since the two sides lack formal diplomatic ties. They were broken when South Africa cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan to establish relations with China. AP

Guinea-Bissau Media Face Crackdown Ahead of November Election
The high-stakes election season brings with it logistical and ethical challenges for reporters. Media organizations are preparing coverage proposals to present to international partners, particularly the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). These proposals often include requests for per diems to pay for transportation, food, lodging and communication for journalists. This practice has long been common in Guinea-Bissau, where media outlets lack the financial resources to independently cover elections. As a result, many will either accept or turn to political candidates or parties for travel support, creating a relationship that compromises journalistic independence…Freedom House also documented efforts to intimidate media outlets…Reporters have also faced aggression from security forces. VOA

In Ethiopia, UN Chief Advocates for Permanent Security Council Seats for Africa
Speaking in the Ethiopian capital on Monday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres…called for the reform of global institutions that remain outdated, especially highlighting the absence of a permanent African seat on the UN Security Council. “Let’s hope it will be corrected soon,” he shared in his statement, especially as there is now a consensus between all Member States that installing “two African members as permanent members of the Security Council” is essential for reform. UN News

Millions of Teenagers in Africa Have Undiagnosed Asthma – Study
Millions of teenagers in Africa are suffering from asthma with no formal diagnosis as the continent undergoes rapid urbanisation, researchers have found. The study, published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, involved 27,000 pupils from urban areas in Malawi, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Ghana and Nigeria. It found more than 3,000 reported asthma symptoms, but only about 600 had a formal diagnosis…“If our data are generalisable, there are millions of adolescents with undiagnosed asthma symptoms in sub-Saharan Africa,” said Dr Gioia Mosler of Queen Mary University of London, the study’s research manager. The Guardian