04 August 2022
Lake Chad area/Sexual Violence: With economic conditions worsening because of insecurity/terrorism, girls and women are “compelled to engage in transactional sex in exchange for money, food, shelter, protection and marriage”. This and dependence on aid makes them vulnerable “to sexual violation by security force personnel and aid workers who may exploit their positions of relative power”. And the authorities do nothing against such violence – except deny it.
https://theconversation.com/unequal-power-relations-driven-by-poverty-fuel-sexual-violence-in-lake-chad-region-185918
Sierra Leone: Doctors have gone on an indefinite strike to demand higher pay plus benefits. The government says it has met the doctors’ demands – but it seems that it has not met all demands and that the concerned do not trust the promised benefits.
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/sierra-leone-doctors-strike-over-pay-fuel-allowances-2022-08-01/
South Sudan: The country’s transition was meant to end in February 2023. It has been extended by 2 years. Salva Kiir, Riek Machar and other South Sudanese leaders today Thursday in Juba signed a “roadmap” that pushes back elections to December 2024. The unified army, a key element of the 2018 peace deal, has yet to be formed – a task now to be addressed starting this very month.
BBC Africa Live 04 August 2022. 15:52
03 August 2022
Congo-Kinshasa/UN: According to the Congolese government, the withdrawal of UN troops could happen earlier than planned. The recent killing of civilians by UN soldiers at the Uganda border has brought things to a head. The spokesman of the UN peacekeeping force has furthermore been asked to leave the country a.s.a.p. – allegedly, he had made “indelicate and inopportune statements”.
BBC Africa Live 03 August 2022. 9:04
BBC Africa Live 03 August 2022. 12:51
Rwanda: There are only Rwandans in Rwanda, no Tutsis or Hutus. This policy of ethnic non-recognition was adopted in 2003. Yet commemoration allows or promotes exceptions to this policy. Genocide commemoration does not only happen on one day – kwibuka/to remember means one hundred days of official commemoration each year. This goes hand in hand with the Rwandan genocide having been officially rebaptised “the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi” in 2014. The article’s author has done research into the question and tells the various effects of this re-ethnization. Stoking historical social and ethnic divisions may serve adherence to the ruling party – only guarantor of peace and stability. But is it good for the country?
https://theconversation.com/how-rwandas-annual-genocide-commemoration-fans-the-flame-of-ethnicity-186244
Nigeria: There has recently been heightened consciousness of violence against Christians in the country. But there has also been persecution against non-Christians, Muslims, adherents of traditional religions, atheists, and there have been interdenominational aggressions, for example of Sunni against Shia Muslims. Without really going anywhere, the article at the end reminds us of Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s choice – the 2023 presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressive Congress – of a co-Muslim as his running mate and that this is likely to make religion an election issue.
https://theconversation.com/persecution-of-christians-in-nigeria-is-more-complicated-than-it-seems-186853