07 February 2022
Uganda: After a 7 p.m. to 5 a.m ban of close to two years because of Covid, boda bodas (motorcycle taxis) – the most common means of transport in the country – are allowed to operate at night again.
BBC Africa Live 07 February 2022. 8:11
Burkina Faso: The article follows mainstream and social media before, during and after the recent coup in Ouagadougou to show how important they were.
https://theconversation.com/burkina-faso-the-key-role-played-by-the-media-in-the-latest-coup-175757
eSwatini: Of the country’s 1.2 million inhabitants, 58.9% live below the nationally defined poverty line. 71% of children were – in 2016 – classified as vulnerable i.e., orphaned, living in a child-headed household or coming from a poor family background. Although the country in 2005 committed to providing free education for vulnerable children, 51% of them still do not make it into secondary school. The author’s PhD looked into vulnerable children’s experiencing of school, which, she found, are “framed by and based on poverty and vulnerability. They’re also constrained by the complex dynamics of the two”. Gender, of course, plays a determining role in these children’s experiencing of school.
https://theconversation.com/eswatini-how-social-pressures-and-poverty-affect-the-ability-of-children-to-navigate-school-174718
Tunisia: One day after the president’s “illegal” dissolving of the Supreme Judicial Council, police have locked the doors of judges’ offices and have stopped them from entering the building. This seems well to be a further step in the president’s consolidation of power – though he claims it is “to rid the country of corruption and reset the 2011 revolution”.
BBC Africa Live 07 February 2022. 10:19
Kenya: A fire has destroyed 600 ha of the Aberdares National Park (north of Nairobi, in central Kenya). The fire started on Saturday for reasons not yet known and is now almost entirely under control.
BBC Africa Live 07 February 2022. 15:26
Guinea-Bissau: In the country’s capital, unknown gunmen have for an unknown reason attacked Capital Radio, a private radio station and affiliate of Voice of America. The radio’s transmitter, mixing console and computers were destroyed. Capital Radio had already been targeted by an attack in July 2020.
BBC Africa Live 07 February 2022. 13:59
Zambia: Pilato, one of the country’s most popular musicians and also a civil rights activist, is taking up the issue of the open pit-mine that is to be opened in the Lower Zambezi National Park. To sensitize people, he has yesterday (Sunday) released a song called “Zambezi”.
BBC Africa Live 07 February 2022. 16:45
Nigeria: University lecturers are preparing an indefinite strike. The last one had lasted 9 months in 2020 and had meant the loss of nearly a whole academic session for the students. Lecturers accuse the government of not coming true on the agreements reached end 2020. The final decision whether to strike or not is to be taken next week.
BBC Africa Live 07 February 2022. 17:23
06 February 2022
African Union: According to the commissioner for political affairs, peace and security at a press briefing, African heads of state unanimously condemn coups. But for the first time, 4 countries had to be suspended within a year because of coups. “But there are questions over whether these suspensions have had any impact on the military men that have seized power in Mali, Guinea, Sudan and Burkina Faso.” The commissioner defended the AU against accusations that it had done too little about the ongoing war in Ethiopia: instead, “the AU had been engaged from day one and was working hard to mediate a ceasefire.”
BBC Africa Latest Updates 06 February 2022. 14:21