How Sudan’s Devastating Civil War Became a Global Battleground
[L]ike so many wars in Africa…events in Sudan have passed under the radar of the world’s attention…Even so, huge amounts are at stake: Sudan’s Red Sea location is close to the Suez Canal, a major conduit of world trade, already threatened by Houthi attacks. Countries including Russia and Middle Eastern powers are accused of pouring in money and arms…Recent reports by Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch found that weapons produced by countries as varied as China, Iran, Turkey, Russia and the UAE were proliferating, amid growing calls for expanding an arms embargo. The SAF is being funded partly by gold exports, officials in Port Sudan confirm, as well as what is left of the army’s once-vast business conglomerate, all underpinned by supplies of Russian oil; since the beginning of the conflict, Russia has delivered eight cargoes of oil products, mostly diesel, into Sudan, according to LSEG data. By contrast, UN experts believe that the RSF is being supported by Hemeti’s own gold business and the United Arab Emirates. A UN panel has presented what they describe as “credible” evidence saying that Abu Dhabi has been supplying arms. Financial Times
Wagner Lost Veteran Fighters in Mali Ambush, in Setback to Russia’s Africa Campaign
Among the dozens of Wagner mercenaries presumed dead after a lethal battle with Tuareg rebels during a desert sandstorm in Mali in July were Russian war veterans who survived tours in Ukraine, Libya and Syria, according to interviews with relatives and a review of social media data. The loss of such experienced fighters exposes dangers faced by Russian mercenary forces working for military juntas, which are struggling to contain separatists and powerful offshoots of Islamic State and Al Qaeda across the arid Sahel region in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger…Some [mercenaries] were former Russian soldiers, at least one of whom had retired after a full-length army career. Grisly footage of dead fighters has now circulated online, and some of relatives told Reuters the bodies of their husbands and sons had been abandoned in the desert…Russian mercenary activity soared in Mali after Africa Corps was formed, according to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), a U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group. Based on media reports and social media documenting, the data shows violent events linked to Russian mercenaries rose 81% and reported civilian fatalities rose 65% over the past year, compared to the year before Prigozhin’s death. Reuters
Opposition Candidates File Court Appeal Questioning Algerian Presidential Election Outcome
The two opposition candidates who ran in Algeria’s presidential race legally challenged on Tuesday the provisional result while harshly rebuking election officials and disputing the vote count. Islamist Abdellali Hassani Cherif and socialist Youcef Aouchiche filed appeals with Algeria’s Constitutional Court, taking the first step required to challenge the results of the election, which incumbent President Abdelmadjid Tebboune won with a 94.7% share of the vote. Algerian law provides the court 10 days from the announcement of provisional election results to rule on the appeals. A verdict could require the election authority to recalculate each candidate’s totals without calling into question Tebboune’s victory, for which he has already begun receiving congratulatory messages from Algeria’s foreign allies. A day before lodging their appeals, both candidates took aim at Mohamed Charfi, the President of Algeria’s National Independent Electoral Authority (ANIE) for how the results of Saturday’s election were reported…The two challengers have taken issue with discrepancies between the number of votes used to tally the results and the turnout figures that election officials published a day earlier. Late Sunday, Tebboune joined them in denouncing ANIE, aligning himself with popular anger that his challengers had drummed up against it. AP
Arrested Nigerian Workers’ Union Leader Freed
The Nigerian secret police released labor union leader Joe Ajaero on Tuesday after hours of interrogation over alleged terrorism financing. Ajaero’s arrest Monday sparked criticism about what critics see as a government crackdown on dissent. Ajaero, was released by the Department of State Services, or DSS, after he was arrested at the Abuja airport while on his way to the United Kingdom to attend a labor conference. He said Tuesday that DSS kept his passport. He said the police questioned him for hours about alleged terrorism financing involving British national Andrew Wynne and last month’s anti-government protests in Nigeria. Ajaero is a prominent critic of the Nigerian government and has led many demonstrations to denounce reforms introduced by President Bola Tinubu last year…Ajaero’s arrest came days after he criticized a decision by Nigerian officials to increase the gasoline price by 39 percent…Ajaero was also arrested in November by police in southeastern Imo state, moments before he was to lead a rally. VOA
Dam Overflow Sparks New Crisis in Insurgency-hit Nigerian City
Flood water from an overflowing dam has destroyed thousands of homes in Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno state in northeast Nigeria, and emergency officials fear the situation could get worse. Several aerial videos and photos shared by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) with AFP showed rows of houses submerged in murky water. An epicenter of more than a decade-long insurgency, Maiduguri serves as the hub for the responses to the humanitarian crisis in the northeast region. The United Nations refugee agency in Nigeria on its X account said it was the city’s worst flooding in 30 years. Thousands of homes have been submerged by the rapid rise of water after the rupture of the Alau Dam on the Ngadda River, 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of Maiduguri…Floods have killed at least 229 people and displaced around 380,000 more in parts of the country, according to NEMA, but mainly in the northern region. Some 110,000 hectares (280,000 acres) of farmland have also been affected, NEMA figures showed. Damage to farmland will worsen Nigeria’s high rates of food insecurity, Save the Children warned last week. AFP
Tigray Leader Reports Talks with Archrival Eritrea
The leader of Tigray People’s Liberation Front Debretsion Gebremichael has reported previously undisclosed talks between his region and the leaders of Eritrea. Speaking at a press conference in the regional capital Mekelle, Ethiopia, on Tuesday, Debretsion said the first round of talks took place about six months ago in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He told reporters that Getachew Reda, the president of the Tigray Interim Regional Administration, represented the TPLF at the talks in Dubai. Without indicating venue and date, Debretsion also said there have been subsequent meetings with the Eritrean leaders after the initial meeting in Dubai…He said the talks, which were aimed at creating peace between the two sides, had a positive result. “The abduction of citizens, looting and other activities by the Eritrean forces has improved and eased as a result,” he said.He said the TPLF party’s intention is to “make peace with all our neighbors, including the Fano forces and the Eritrean government.” VOA
New President of UN General Assembly Calls for Unity to Tackle Borderless Issues
Cameroon’s former prime minister took over the presidency of the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, issuing “a clarion call” to the world’s divided nations to come together and take action to address global challenges from climate change and poverty to conflicts and armed violence. Philemon Yang told the 193-member world body there are doubts that nations can join forces to tackle these and other pressing issues. But he said: “We must demonstrate that international cooperation remains the most effective tool at our disposal for addressing the profound and borderless issues we confront.” Yang, a former diplomat who was prime minister of his West African nation from 2009 to 2019, said the cornerstone of his one-year presidency “will be built on the principles of unity in diversity.” He said peace and security will continue to be “of paramount importance” during his presidency. AP
Guinea-Bissau Police Seize over 2 Tons of Cocaine on Plane from Venezuela
Police in Guinea-Bissau have seized 2.63 tons of cocaine found on an airplane that arrived from Venezuela in the West African country’s capital, the judicial police said. Agents confiscated 78 bales of drugs that were smuggled in on a Gulfstream IV aircraft during a raid on Saturday afternoon at Bissau’s Osvaldo Vieira International Airport, the police said in a statement. The aircraft’s entire crew of five, including the pilot, was arrested. They included two Mexican nationals as well as citizens of Colombia, Ecuador and Brazil…Drug smugglers often use West African countries as a transit point to ship cocaine from South America to Europe. The seizure at the weekend is one of the biggest recorded in recent years. Reuters
UN Libya Mission to Resume Talks between Factions over Bank Governor
The U.N. mission in Libya will resume facilitating talks between factions in Tripoli on Wednesday to try to resolve the central bank crisis that has slashed oil output and threatened to end four years of relative stability. Libya’s two legislative bodies, the House of Representatives based in Benghazi in eastern Libya, and the High Council of State in Tripoli in the west, agreed this month to jointly appoint a central bank governor, potentially defusing a battle for control of the country’s oil revenue. Libya’s central bank is the sole legal repository for oil revenue, and it pays state salaries across the country.
The consultations between the two bodies were supposed to have concluded on Monday over an agreement to choose a nominee for governor and a board of directions within 30 days, having already been extended last week by five days…The Presidential Council, based in Tripoli, had only rarely intervened directly in Libyan politics before its head Mohammed al-Menfi moved in August to replace veteran central bank Governor Sadiq al-Kabir which led eastern factions to order a halt of oil flows across Libyan oilfields in protest. Reuters
Captain of Migrant Boat Tragedy in Senegal Turns Himself in as Death Toll Rises to 26
The captain of a migrant boat that capsized off Senegal over the weekend was arrested, local authorities said Tuesday, as the death toll rose to 26. Cheikh Sall, the owner and captain of the boat, turned himself in Monday, Amadou Diop, the district’s prefect, told The Associated Press. The death toll of the capsizing rose to 26, Senegal’s navy said on the social media platform X on Tuesday. The artisanal fishing boat left the town of Mbour, nearly 80 kilometers (50 miles) south of the capital Dakar heading to Europe on Sunday afternoon before capsizing a few miles (kilometers) off the coast. In recent years, the number of migrants leaving West Africa through Senegal has surged with many fleeing conflict, poverty and the lack of job opportunities. Most head to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago off the coast of West Africa, which is used as a stepping stone to continental Europe…Last month, the Senegalese army said it had arrested 453 migrants and “members of smuggling networks” as part of a 12-day operation patrolling the coastline. More than half of those arrested were Senegalese nationals, the army said. AP
First Doses of Mpox Vaccine from the United States Arrive in Congo
Authorities in Congo said that 50,000 doses of mpox vaccine from the United States arrived in the country on Tuesday, a week after the first batch arrived from the European Union. Adults in Equateur, South Kivu and Sankuru, the three most affected provinces, will be vaccinated first, starting on Oct. 2, Cris Kacita Osako, coordinator of Congo’s Monkeypox Response Committee, told The Associated Press. Last week, the first batch of mpox vaccines arrived in the capital of Congo, the center of the outbreak. The 100,000 doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine, manufactured by the Danish company Bavarian Nordic, were donated by the EU through HERA, the bloc’s agency for health emergencies. Another 100,000 were delivered over the weekend. The 50,000 doses from the U.S. will be of the same JYNNEOS vaccine. AP
African Nations Boost Gold Reserves amid Economic Uncertainty
Central banks in Africa are turning to gold to protect themselves from economic and geopolitical instability and to diversify their financial portfolios. In September 2023, the price of gold per ounce was $1,900. A year later, it is selling for $2,500. According to the World Gold Council, an international trade association for the gold industry, demand for the metal is expected to increase in the next 10 months despite the soaring prices…It helps that African gold production has grown by 60% since 2010, according to the World Gold Council, higher than a global increase of 26%…Ghana and Uganda have been buying gold from artisanal miners to bolster their shrinking foreign currency reserves. Ghana, Africa’s largest gold producer, plans to buy oil from other countries and pay them in gold to ease pressure on local currency and lower high fuel prices. VOA