Africa Media Review for October 8, 2024

Reimagining African Agency in Africa-China Relations—Lessons from FOCAC 2024
As attention shifts to implementing resolutions of the Ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), questions are being asked about whether African countries have the agency to shape the relationship going forward. Many African observers remain concerned that FOCAC remains deeply asymmetric, with the Chinese side exercising more control and therefore dictating the agenda…The FOCAC Beijing Action Plan (2025-2027) incorporates the African Union’s (AU) Agenda 2063 (Africa’s development master plan), the African Development Bank’s Program for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA), and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) into FOCAC. However, it is firmly anchored on Chinese national security concepts like the Global Security Initiative (GSI) that promotes distinct Chinese security norms and practices that advance China’s larger effort to shape the global order to accommodate its rise. Going along with such concepts could inadvertently draw African countries into China’s geostrategic sphere, which in turn could undermine Africa’s strategic posture regarding geostrategic rivalries. Africa Center for Strategic Studies

Tunisia’s Kais Saied Wins Landslide Reelection, Entrenching His Power in Arab Spring’s Birthplace
President Kais Saied won a landslide victory in Tunisia’s election Monday, keeping his grip on power after a first term in which opponents were imprisoned and the country’s institutions overhauled to give him more authority. The North African country’s Independent High Authority for Elections said Saied received 90.7% of the vote, a day after exit polls showed him with an insurmountable lead in the country known as the birthplace of the Arab Spring more than a decade ago…Yet Saied’s win was marred by low voter turnout. Election officials reported 28.8% of voters participated on Oct. 6 — a significantly smaller showing than in the first round of the country’s two other post-Arab Spring elections and an indication of apathy plaguing the country’s 9.7 million eligible voters. Saied’s most prominent challengers — imprisoned since last year — were prevented from running, and lesser-known candidates were jailed or kept off the ballot. Opposition parties boycotted the contest, calling it a sham amid Tunisia’s deteriorating political climate and authoritarian drift. AP

Ethiopia President Replaced after Falling Out with PM
Ethiopia’s parliament has approved the appointment of a new president to replace the country’s first female head of state, Sahle-Work Zewde. Taye Astike Selassie, foreign minister since February, has taken up the largely ceremonial role. In Ethiopia, political power lies with the prime minister – currently Abiy Ahmed. Sahle-Work had reportedly fallen out with Abiy in recent years. The prime minister’s backing of her initial appointment in 2018 was hailed as a breakthrough for gender equality in Ethiopian politics…During her presidency, she made several calls for peace across the country, though she was criticised for not talking more about the gender-based violence during the two-year civil war in Tigray. But it is believed she was concerned about the current conflicts in Oromia and Amhara regions…President Taye, 68, an experienced diplomat having served at the UN and in Egypt, is considered close to Abiy. He was sworn in in front of MPs on Monday. The replacement of Sahle-Work means that Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hassan is currently Africa’s only female head of state. BBC

Kenya’s Deputy President Vows to Fight Impeachment ‘to the End
Kenya’s Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua vowed to fight impeachment proceedings to the end, ahead of a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday where he stands accused of enriching himself, stirring ethnic hatred and undermining the government…Ruto sacked most of his cabinet and brought in members of the main opposition following nationwide protests against unpopular tax hikes in June and July where more than 50 people were killed. The high court has declined Gachagua’s request to halt the impeachment proceedings, which was initiated by Ruto’s coalition allies a week ago. Gachagua, who has refused to resign, was expected to defend himself in parliament later on Tuesday…If the national assembly votes by more than two-thirds to impeach, the senate will be asked to uphold the motion by the same margin. Gachagua outraged many in Ruto’s coalition for likening the government to a company and suggesting that those who voted for the coalition had first claim on public sector jobs and development projects. Reuters

Mozambique Election Likely to Extend Ruling Frelimo’s Half-century Rule
Mozambicans will vote on Wednesday in an election that is almost certain to see the ruling party Frelimo maintain its half-century grip on power, despite a stiff challenge from a charismatic newcomer. President Filipe Nyusi is stepping down after two terms and the party’s candidate, Daniel Chapo, is expected to replace him. Frelimo has ruled Mozambique since independence from Portugal in 1975. It first allowed elections in 1994, and has since been consistently accused by opponents and election observers of rigging them – an accusation it denies. This time, independent candidate Venancio Mondlane has captured the support of disenchanted youth and poses the biggest threat to Frelimo in years, political analysts say. He also poses a challenge to the official opposition party, Renamo, which was formerly a guerrilla movement waging a decades-long bush war against the government. Whoever wins will inherit an Islamist insurgency in the north that has halted multi-billion dollar gas projects and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. Reuters

Burkina Faso’s Junta Suspends VOA over Insurgency Comments
Burkina Faso’s junta has suspended U.S.-funded broadcaster Voice of America for three months over comments about a jihadist insurgency in West Africa’s Sahel region, and temporarily banned local news outlets from using any international media reports, authorities said late on Monday. Military leaders who seized power in a September 2022 coup – the second that year – have become increasingly intolerant of criticism amid worsening insecurity despite promises to quash an Islamist insurgency. The superior council for communication (CSC) accused Voice of America (VOA) of demoralising troops in Burkina Faso and neighbouring Mali in a discussion on Sept. 19 that was also broadcast by a private local radio station…Burkina Faso in April suspended the radio broadcasts of VOA, BBC Africa and other international media outlets for two weeks over their coverage of a Human Rights Watch report accusing the army of extrajudicial killings, which it denies. Reuters

Massacre in Burkina Faso Left 600 Dead, Double Previous Estimates, According to French Security Assessment
Up to 600 people were shot dead in a matter of hours by [Islamist] militants in an August attack on a town in Burkina Faso, according to a French government security assessment that nearly doubles the death toll cited in earlier reports. The new figure would make the assault, in which civilians were shot dead as they dug trenches to defend the remote town of Barsalogho, one of the deadliest single attacks in Africa in recent decades. Militants from Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM)…opened fire methodically as they swept into the outskirts of Barsalogho on motorcycles and shot down villagers, who lay helpless in the freshly upturned dirt of the trench, according to several videos of the August 24 attack posted by pro-JNIM accounts on social media…Barsalogho is proof that Burkina Faso is teetering on the edge because the terrorists have such a hold on the country. Six hundred people have died, and that’s terrible, but what’s worse is that it’s as if it never happened, because the killers continue to roam free with no fear of retribution,” according to the assessment. CNN

Sudan Boycotts Peace Forum over RSF Presence
Sudanese Sovereign Council deputy chairman Malik Agar boycotted a peace forum in South Africa on Saturday, protesting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) ‘s participation. Agar, who was scheduled to present a paper on the situation in Sudan, left the African Peace and Security Forum in Johannesburg after a delegation from the RSF arrived, his office said in a statement…Brigadier General Omer Hamdan led the RSF delegation, which included al-Quni Hamdan Dagalo, brother of RSF commander Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo. The forum, held by the Thabo Mbeki Foundation, addressed the current state of peace and security in Africa and the role of regional and international organizations in promoting stability. Sudan Tribune

Sudan’s Warring Sides Target Local Aid Volunteers Fighting Famine
Local volunteers who have helped to feed Sudan’s most destitute during 17 months of war say attacks against them by the opposing sides are making it difficult to provide life-saving aid amid the world’s biggest hunger crisis. Many volunteers have fled under threat of arrest or violence, and communal kitchens they set up in a country where hundreds are estimated to be dying of starvation and hunger-related diseases each day have stopped serving meals for weeks at a time…Many communal kitchens are operated by a loose network of community groups known as emergency response rooms, which have tried to sustain basic services, such as water and power, and distribute food and medical supplies. Both the army and RSF distrust these groups, in part because they include people who were members of grassroots “resistance committees” that led pro-democracy protests during the uprising that toppled former autocrat Omar al-Bashir in 2019…In the worst-hit areas, local volunteers said they were now being targeted weekly or every few days by marauding troops, compared to roughly once a month earlier in the year. Some have started hiding food supplies at different locations to avoid being cleaned out by a single raid. Reuters

Ghana’s Wildcat Gold Mining Booms, Poisoning People and Nature
The unlicensed gold mining industry, known in Ghana as “galamsey”, has grown at a breakneck pace this year as global gold prices have risen by almost 30%, enticing new entrants. Small-scale mines produced 1.2 million ounces of gold in the first seven months of this year, more than in the whole of 2023, according to data from Ghana’s mining sector regulator…Some 70-80% of the small mines are unlicensed…Dozens of miners have been killed in collapsing pits in recent years, according to news reports and human rights groups, while hospitals and health centres report high numbers of early deaths from pulmonary diseases of miners and residents of towns and villages near mines. These are caused by inhaling dust that contains heavy metals such as lead, as well as poisonous fumes from the mercury and nitric acid the miners use to leach gold out of sediment. The chemicals are then dumped on the ground or in rivers. Ghana’s water authority says mercury and heavy metals from mining have contaminated about 65% of water sources…Protesters have taken to the streets in Accra in recent weeks to criticise President Nana Akufo-Addo’s government over what they saw as its failure to tackle these problems. Reuters

Cameroon Says Homeless Flood Victims Escaped to Chad as Fresh Floods Ravage Camps
Officials in Cameroon say fresh flooding has forced at least 70,000 people out of temporary camps that were set up for flood victims along the country’s northern border with Chad and Nigeria. Some of the displaced flood victims have now moved to neighboring Chad, where at least two million people have been rendered homeless by this year’s ceaseless floods according to Chad’s government…The Cameroon government reports that about 70,000 flood victims have either crossed into Chad or are seeking refuge in border villages. The government says scores of people have died in the floods but gives no further details. The report comes when Chad’s government says it is pleading for international support after floods caused by severe rainfall since July of this year have killed at least 500 people and displaced about 2 million civilians…It is not the first time Cameroonians have sought refuge in Chad. In 2021, Cameroon reported that at least a hundred thousand civilians fled its northern border to Chad after conflicts over water between cattle ranchers and fishermen killed 40 people and wounded 70. VOA

Algeria’s Tebboune Refuses France Visit in Snub to Former Colonial Ruler
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has once more postponed a visit to France and accused its former colonial ruler of “genocide”, in a sign of ever-worsening relations between Algiers and Paris…Tebboune’s visit has been postponed several times and the most recent date was scheduled for late September or early October. But given increasingly tense relations between the two countries, Algiers views an official visit to France as a potentially humiliating experience…[R]elations nose-dived in July after Macron sent a letter to King Mohammed VI of Morocco voicing support for the Kingdom’s autonomy plan in the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Algeria withdrew its ambassador to Paris in protest over what was seen as a shift in France’s policy away from Algeria…Tebboune reiterated long-standing Algerian demands that France recognise the massacres committed during French colonialism, accusing France of committing “genocide”…While the commission of Algerian and French historians, who met in Alger in May this year for the fifth time, had intitially made progress, their joint work has since stalled. RFI