Africa Media Review for September 6, 2024

‘Impartial Force’ Must Be Deployed to Sudan: UN Experts
Flagrant rights violations by Sudan’s warring parties require the deployment of an “independent and impartial force” to protect millions of civilians driven from their homes, UN experts said Friday. An independent fact-finding mission uncovered “harrowing” violations by both sides since April last year “which may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” they said…”Given the failure of the warring parties to spare civilians, it is imperative that an independent and impartial force with a mandate to safeguard civilians be deployed without delay,” [Mohamed Chande Othman, chair of the fact-finding mission,] said. AFP

Algeria Election to Take Place amid ‘Steady Erosion of Human Rights
Algeria goes to the polls on Saturday in a presidential election being held in the context of what rights groups have called “a steady erosion of human rights” under the president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who is expected to win a second five-year term. As many as 24 million people are eligible to vote in the north African country in a process moved forward by three months. The change in the election schedule is expected to favour the president as his opponents, Youssef Aouchiche of the Socialist Forces Front (FFS) and Abdellah Hassan Cherif of the Movement of Society for Peace (MSP), have had less time to campaign. More than two dozen other candidates that signified their intention to run were disqualified or forced to resign. Tebboune announced in March that the election – traditionally held in December – was being rescheduled to “coincide with the end of the summer vacations and the start of the new school year” in the hope of increasing turnout…Tebboune is poised to win a second term in a country that has never had a peaceful transition of power. The predictability of the outcome is also in part because the president has deepened political patronage and established a strong rapport with the military. The Guardian

Congo Receives Long-awaited Mpox Vaccine Doses
Democratic Republic of Congo received its first batch of mpox vaccines on Thursday, which health authorities hope will help curb an outbreak that has prompted the U.N. to declare a global public health emergency. Congo is the epicentre of the outbreak, which has spread to neighbouring countries and elsewhere, but a lack of vaccines in Africa has hampered efforts to stop the spread of the sometimes deadly disease…This first delivery amounts to 99,000 doses and a further delivery on Saturday will take the total to 200,000 doses, said Laurent Muschel, the head of the EU Health Emergency Preparedness and Response Authority (HERA)…The arrival of the vaccine in Congo should start to address a huge inequity that has left African countries with no access to the two shots used in a 2022 global mpox outbreak, while they were widely available in Europe and the United States. Reuters

Uganda Opposition Leader Bobi Wine Released from Hospital
Ugandan opposition leader Bobi Wine has been discharged from the hospital after being hit by a tear-gas canister in the leg during a confrontation with police. The mayor of Kampala, Uganda’s capital, told the French news agency AFP on Wednesday that Wine underwent surgery to remove fragments of the canister…Opponents and human rights activists have accused President Yoweri Museveni’s government of stifling the opposition, an accusation that Museveni denies. Wine challenged Museveni, who has ruled Uganda for nearly 40 years, in the 2021 election and has been put under house arrest numerous times and had his party rallies dispersed with force…Uganda Radio Network reported that the NUP spokesperson Joel Ssenyonyi requested Wine be discharged from the hospital because he claimed “operatives in civilian clothes” had been trying to access his room since last night. “They even demanded his medical forms from the hospital. Fortunately, the hospital declined,” Ssenyonyi said. Al Jazeera and News Agencies

Ethiopia Releases Opposition Politicians from Prison
The Ethiopian government has freed seven Oromo Liberation Front, or OLF, members who have been in prison for more than four years. A spokesperson for OLF Lemi Gemechu told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service that the seven were released on Thursday from the different prisons where they had been held…Some of the released detainees are members of the executive committee while others are central committee and executive members of the OLF…Meanwhile, the family of Taye Dendea, the detained former Ethiopian state minister of peace, has expressed their disappointment with the Supreme Court’s decision to deny him bail…The former state minister was arrested in December last year after he posted comments criticizing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. Police accused him of collaborating with groups aiming to destabilize Ethiopia. VOA

Tunisian Presidential Candidate Zammel Still Detained, Campaign Team Says
Tunisian presidential candidate Ayachi Zammel was still in detention on Friday despite being released for a few hours a day earlier, his campaign team said. Zammel is one of three candidates approved by Tunisia’s electoral commission to run in a presidential election on Oct. 6 which opposition critics say is rigged in favour of President Kais Saied…He is accused of falsifying voter forms for next month’s election. Each candidate must submit forms from 10,000 supporters to qualify to stand. He denies the allegation…Zammel has said he faces restrictions and intimidation because he is a serious competitor to Saied. He has pledged to rebuild democracy, guarantee freedoms and fix Tunisia’s collapsing economy. Saied was democratically elected in 2019, but then tightened his grip on power and began ruling by decree in 2021 in a move the opposition has described as a coup. Reuters

Tunisia’s Law Professors Warn Presidential Election Legitimacy at Risk
Tunisian legal scholars warned on Thursday that the legitimacy of next month’s presidential election will be damaged if the electoral commission does not respect court decisions last week to reinstate three disqualified candidates…Last week, the administrative court, the highest judicial body that adjudicates over electoral disputes, reinstated three prominent candidates, Mondher Znaidi, Abdellatif Mekki and Imed Daimi, in the Oct. 6 vote after the commission had rejected their candidacy. But this week the election commission rejected the court ruling. It approved only the candidacies of Saied and two others, Zouhair Magzhaoui and Ayachi Zammel, for the election…The statement, by about 90 law professors and academics widely seen as neutral in Tunisia’s complex political landscape, called on the commission “to abide by the Court’s decision to ensure the credibility of the electoral process and protect the rule of law”. Reuters

Climate Change Costs Africa up to 5% of GDP, UN Climate Head Says
The impact of global warming is costing African nations up to 5% of their economic output, the United Nations climate chief said on Thursday, calling for more investments to help adapt to climate change. The 54-nation continent, which has borne the brunt of climate change despite releasing far less polluting emissions than the industrialised world, receives just 1% of annual global climate finance. “The climate crisis is an economic sinkhole, sucking the momentum out of economic growth,” Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), told a meeting of African ministers of environment in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. African governments and their climate negotiators are considering various strategies at the pre-COP29, or Conference of the Parties, preparatory meeting in the West African country. Reuters

Drought Forces Kenya’s Maasai and Other Cattle Herders to Consider Fish and Camels
The blood, milk and meat of cattle have long been staple foods for Maasai pastoralists in Kenya, perhaps the country’s most recognizable community. But climate change is forcing the Maasai to contemplate a very different dish: fish. A recent yearslong drought in Kenya killed millions of livestock…Fish were long viewed as part of the snake family due to their shape, and thus inedible. Their smell had been unpleasant and odd to the Maasai, who call semi-arid areas home…In Kajiado county near Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, the local government is supporting fish farming projects for pastoralists — and encouraging them to eat fish, too…The Kajiado government’s initiative started in 2014 and currently works with 600 pastoralists to help diversify their incomes and provide a buffer against the effects of climate change. There was initial reluctance, but the number of participants has grown from about 250 before the drought began in 2022. AP

Climate Change Wiping Out Africa’s Traditional Vegetables
A wide range of African vegetable varieties are threatened with extinction, while others have already disappeared as climate change, urbanisation and poor eating habits take their toll. Speaking at the Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF) in Kigali this week, experts said many indigenous African vegetable species are already extinct and others will soon disappear if nothing is done…In the last 100 years, up to 75 percent of the global diversity of African vegetables has been lost, [Dr Sognigbe N’Danikou, a scientist and expert on the conservation and use of traditional vegetables at the World Vegetable Centre] argued…At the AFS Forum, the World Vegetable Centre launched the Vegetable Biodiversity Rescue Plan, which will act as a roadmap to address the threats stalking the vegetable species in order to reverse their disappearance…So far, achievements made through the pilot phase include two newly constructed and three upgraded African genebanks, in addition to training some 174 African genebank staff. The EastAfrican

A City at Risk of Collapsing: The Cost of the Search for Gold in Zimbabwe
Kwekwe, in Zimbabwe’s Midlands province, is a key site for minerals and mining…Exploration in the surrounding area, as well as the emergence of new mines, shows the existence of tonnes of gold. As a result, in the past three decades, thousands of small-scale miners searching for their fortunes have made their way to the city, digging pits on the surface and tunnelling underground…Illegal miners – many of whom travel from place to place in search of gold – often burrow on the outskirts of official mine territory, or in the now disused underground tunnels that were mined previously. According to residents and environmental activists in Kwekwe, illegal miners do not abide by responsible mining practices, often targeting the support pillars within these underground tunnels…Kwekwe residents have been calling for illegal miners to be actively blocked from using disused underground shafts. Despite the recent cave-ins and warnings from authorities, though, these miners have resisted and continue their operations…Locally, ‘mabosses’ are politically linked individuals who illegally run some mining pits yet have unchecked power. They do not go underground themselves, but are paid a cut by miners who are desperate for areas in which to search for gold. Al Jazeera

Nigerian Brothers Jailed in US for Sextortion Scam Targeting Teenagers
Two brothers from Nigeria who targeted a 17-year-old in a sextortion scam have been sentenced to 17 years and six months in jail in the US. The Ogoshi brothers, from Lagos, lured Jordan DeMay into sending them explicit images by pretending to be a girl his age – then blackmailed him. He killed himself less than six hours after they started talking on Instagram.
It is the first successful prosecution of Nigerians for sextortion in the US, where it is a rapidly growing cyber-crime, often linked to Nigeria…The brothers pleaded guilty in April to conspiring to sexually exploit teenage boys in Michigan and across the US. Thirty-eight other US victims were also identified as being targeted by the men. 13 of them were minors…In January, US cyber-company Network Contagion Research Institute (NCRI) highlighted a web of Nigerian TikTok, YouTube and Scribd accounts sharing tips and scripts for sextortion. Many of the discussions and videos are in Nigerian Pidgin dialect. BBC