29 July 2022
Ghana: Sarah Adwoa Safo, the country’s gender minister and MP, had been absent from work for more than a year. She has now been relieved of her ministerial duties by the president. The parliament’s speaker is yet to rule on her absence. She said the reason for her absence was that she “was attending to her sick son in the US”.
BBC Africa Live 29 July 2022. 15:01
HIV Prevention drug: So far, there were two HIV prevention options, the oral PrEP and the dapivirine vaginal ring. But stigma associated with these kept many people at a higher risk of getting HIV from using them. Now PrEP, a drug to be injected once a month, has been approved by WHO. It prevents the virus from replicating inside the body and is “79% effective in reducing one’s risk of acquiring the virus”.
BBC Africa Live 29 July 2022. 12:15
Central African Republic: The ICC (International Criminal Court) has issued an arrest warrant against the leader of FPRC rebel group Nourredine Adam “for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the country's civil strife in 2013”. Two anti-Balaka militia leaders – Patrice-Edouard Ngaissona and Alfred Yekatom – are already on trial at the ICC, accused of the same crimes as Nourredine Adam.
BBC Africa Live 29 July 2022. 9:02
Congo-Kinshasa/UN: Protests against the UN presence in the country are still on-going and worsening. In Beni, a UN base has been petrol-bombed and two other bases were also targeted yesterday Thursday. Since Monday, 19 people or more – 3 UN peacekeepers amongst them – have been killed in the clashes.
BBC Africa Live 29 July 2022. 6:34
Congo-Kinshasa: Monusco, the UN force in the country’s east, was first deployed in 1999. Since 2010, its mandate includes the protection of civilians. As of November 2021, it had above 16,000 personnel in the eastern region, “from Ituri to South Kivu”. The recent protests accuse it of failing to stop decades of fighting. But it “shouldn’t be held responsible for what the Congolese state should be doing” – though doing so may be politically opportune, “(t)he Congolese elite hav(ing) formed a network of predators who have preyed on their constituencies since independence in 1960” and “the national army comprises military officers and generals whose prime concern is to serve their own interests”. The UN intervention has not been capable of remedying this.
https://theconversation.com/the-un-is-under-attack-in-eastern-congo-but-drc-elites-are-also-to-blame-for-the-violence-187861
Ethiopia/Somalia: A second al-Shabaab attack on the Ethiopian town of Aato close to the Somali border has made casualties both among al-Shabaab and the Ethiopian side, the latter constituted of both federal and regional troops.
BBC Africa Live 29 July 2022. 17:31
Women entrepreneurs & climate change: According to the article’s author’s research, women’s businesses tend to be more dependent than men’s on natural resources. Agriculture (especially if on marginal and degraded lands), livestock, fishing, trading and processing are sensitive to climate. Also, women have less access to finance, to markets and technologies and are therefore less able to have the means to adapt to climate change. On top of the workplace, the women also have to face climate change at home, as the main reproducers in the household.
https://theconversation.com/women-entrepreneurs-in-africa-face-more-climate-risks-than-their-male-peers-186839
Zimbabwe: Prices have risen more than 250% year-on-year, no wonder that “many (…) are struggling to cope”.
BBC Africa Live 29 July 2022. 19:21
28 July 2022
Kenya: Rigathi Gachagua, running mate of presidential hopeful and hitherto Vice President Ruto, has lost a lawsuit brought against him by the “Assets Recovery Agency - a state body mandated to confiscate proceeds of crime”. The judge found that he had received 1.7m USD from government agencies without supplying anything in exchange. Rigathi Gachagua, claiming that he is innocent, has instructed his lawyers to file an appeal.
BBC Africa Live 28 July 2022. 12:43
Kenya: According to Interior Minister Fred Matiang'I, the present shortage at banks in 100 and 200-shilling notes comes from candidates bribing voters with such notes for upcoming elections.
BBC Africa Live 28 July 2022. 11:21
Morocco: According to Human Rights Watch, Rabat “is imprisoning journalists after flawed trials on non-political charges in order to silence them”, the three most prominent examples being Taoufik Bouachrine, Soulaimane Raissouni and Omar Radi.
BBC Africa Live 28 July 2022. 7:49
Aids: According to the UNAids report released on the occasion of the Global UNAids conference in Montreal 1 person per minute dies of Aids-related illnesses world-wide. And 1 adolescent girl/young woman is infected every 2 minutes globally. Girls and women represent 49% of newly infected people globally – but 63% in Africa. Worldwide, 38.4 million people live with HIV – Southern and Easter Africa have the heaviest burdens.
BBC Africa Live 28 July 2022. 5:42
“He or she who refuses to take advice will be found with a bump on the forehead”
BBC Africa Live 28 July 2022. 4:33. Proverb of the day. A Shona proverb from Zimbabwe sent by MJ Maher in Surrey, the UK.
Algeria/Niger/Nigeria: The three countries have signed an MoU concerning the construction of a pipeline that could supply 30bn m3 of gas from Nigeria to Europe. The cost of the pipeline is estimated at 13bn USD.
BBC Africa Live 28 July 2022. 17:05
Migrants/Poland: Felipe Gonzalez, the UN’s special rapporteur for migrants’ rights, has required Poland to stop discriminating against people from Africa or Western Asia when dealing with immigrants. The discrimination had become blatantly obvious with the recent Ukrainian refugees – amongst whom people with black skin were treated totally differently from those with white skin.
BBC Africa Live 28 July 2022. 16:41